Coffinborn are from Hungary and play Death Metal. This is their début EP.
This is Old-School Death Metal through and through. The band rip, tear and shred through these 4 tracks with morbid fervour.
This is rotten, stinking Death Metal that’s clawed its way out of the depths of the foetid crypt in search of brains and fresh body parts.
Cavernous vocals fill the air and one can almost imagine some ravenous, giant maw being opened ready to suck in all light and matter.
The dirty, filthy sound they have fits the music perfectly and the tracks pummel and bash with pleasing brutality.
Some good riffs and melodies stick out and there’s a good chug and groove in parts.
Mixing elements of the Old-School from bands such as Autopsy, Dismember, Incantation and Death; Coffinborn’s Classic Death Metal is played well and with good songs.
There are only 4 tracks on this EP but at just under 21 minutes in length it’s a good hit of Death Metal for Old-School fans. This is a very enjoyable release that promises good things for the future of this band.
Their début album could be one to watch. Check them out.
Those Who Bring The Torture are from Sweden and this is their fourth album of Death Metal.
This is the latest album featuring Rogga Johansson, who we’ve met before in Megascavenger. This should already tell you a little something about the quality levels on this release.
According to the promo text, Those Who Bring The Torture play their Death Metal in a style that will suit fans of Grave, Hypocrisy and Malevolent Creation; it’s hard to argue with this description.
This is Swedish Death Metal at its core but with a few additional elements that prevent it sounding generic. Imagine Hypocrisy if they created a Swedish Death Metal album but with their own, older sound.
The songs are heavy and strong, and like its Swedish Death Metal heritage it’s strong on melodies. These melodies are memorable and provide a focus point for the songs to move around. There are some great riffs here and each track demonstrates a band who are capable of combining Death Metal brutality with sterling melody and songwriting.
Vocally the deep growls are bowel loosening and very satisfying. Higher screams are added to this when necessary and it’s a faultless performance all round.
This timeless and classic approach to Death Metal pays real dividends and Piling Up is an easy album to like. The songs carry themselves with an air of familiarity but just enough to evoke a smile and not enough to roll the eyes like you’ve heard it all before.
Those Who Bring The Torture have got their killing style down to a fine, bloody art. Anyone who’s into Old-School/Classic/Swedish Death Metal will have no cause to complain when they hear this.
Time to raise the flag for proper Death Metal once more. Let the slaughter commence.
Confrontation are from the Netherlands. This is their début EP and they play Death Metal.
This is Old-School Death Metal with a malignant Doom influence. Think Swedish Death Metal meets Incantation. The recording has a bit of that Swedish tone, an evil vibe and a very tasty drum sound.
The songs are lumbering, heavy behemoths of dark destructive energy and deep, inhuman growling.
There are only three tracks on this release but each song is relatively long with the whole EP clocking in at just under 20 minutes.
What I like about this band is that they take the Swedish/Old-School sound and really ramp up the Doom side of the equation. The end of the first track, for example, is a great combination of feedback drenched slow riffing, harrowing noise and deep growls.
The band know how slowness works and how to make the most of it; atmosphere, feeling – these are important to the band. The start of the second track reinforces this as we get an eerie guitar melody over a pitch-black Doom riff and slow, crawling drums. When the vocals kick in it sounds as if Bolt Thrower have slowed down more than normal and decided to take the evil route to Death Metal.
Highly enjoyable – a hidden gem of the Metal underground.
This is an impressive EP that should be listened to by fans of both Doom and Death Metal. Be sure to check them out.
Slaughterday are a German Death Metal band and this is their latest EP.
After thoroughly enjoying their début album Nightmare Vortex I was looking forward to listening to this.
This EP is 4 tracks long and features 19 minutes of music; 3 originals and a cover of an Acheron song.
Slaughterday play Death Metal that’s brutal, heavy and has a firm Old-School influence to it.
The band are on fine form here with the music sounding as crushing as ever. The vocals also sound particularly savage when the guttural deep growls are twinned with the higher screams. Pulse-raising stuff.
When they slow the pace Slaughterday manage to foster a real air of menace with their crawling, oppressively heavy delivery.
The songs are well-written, memorable and played proficiently. Some nice solos make an appearance too. The riffs are nicely done and there are some choice cuts amongst these tracks.
One thing I like about Slaughterday is their ability to combine a good vocal rhythm with a perfectly matched mid-paced riff. In themselves each of these things is a desirable result, but combined together the effect is greater than the whole. They did this to great effect on their début album and judging by the tracks on Ravenous this is something that they are getting even better at doing.
A very strong EP that builds on the hard work done with their début album and promises good things for their next.
This is the fourth album from US band Pretty Little Flower who play Grindcore.
This is savage Grind mixed with a bit of Old-School Death Metal and Punk/Thrash influences to some of the riffs.
The vocals are deliciously deep and guttural. A real pleasure to listen to. Total cookie monster vocals but they’re deeply satisfying growls that hit the spot nonetheless. There are also occasional high rasps but these are of the average variety.
There’s plenty of blasting and band seem quite content with keeping things fast, nasty and angry. Fine with me.
The nature of the riffs and the deep growls remind me of certain aspects of early Brutal Truth, which is probably why I found myself warming to this album so quickly.
The songs, as one would expect, are short and to the point, with most hovering about the 1:30-2:00 mark. This means they have enough time to build up a good head of steam before the relentless blasting and Grinding comes to an end.
The sound is fine and the drums in particular have a pleasing analogue sound to them.
This is for fans of simple, stripped-back-to-the-bone Grindcore that takes no prisoners and doesn’t even vaguely understand the concept of mercy.
Funeral Whore are from the Netherlands and Obscure Infinity are from Germany. Both bands play Old-School Death Metal.
Funeral Whore start proceedings with two tracks. Traces of Death begins with a menacing riff and an intimidating growl. At this point I know it’s going to be good.
Ultra-low vocals preside over the top of a slow and evil riff before the band become a bit more mid-paced and heavier guitars start playing. The song merges elements of Bolt Thrower and Incantation to create an enjoyable track.
The second track East Area Rapist has a killer Old-School riff that shows the band has an ear for a good tune. Stylistically we’re in the same territory as the first song although this one has a bit more melody and chugs along happily as the drums roll and the vocals make deep, dark noises.
After these we have Obscure Infinity with the song Maniac Destroyer. In contrast to Funeral Whore’s side, Obscure Infinity have a stronger production and more of an immense feel.
Maniac Destroyer has blastbeats and is a more upbeat proposition overall. A touch of the Swedish Death Metal feel is on the track, (sans That Sound), and the deep vocals punctuate the thick guitars like giant exclamation marks.
Obscure Infinity are like a shot of adrenaline and their track has all of the requisite components of a winner. The main riff is excellent and gives me the same thrilling feeling as when I was first getting into this type of music oh so long ago. One of my favourite parts of the song is the solo section with the rhythm guitars just laying down some excellent backing riffs.
A fine taster for a fine couple of underground bands. For the length this is damn near essential I’d say.
Monumentomb have recently released their début EP Ritual Exhumation. This is a glorious Old-School Death Metal release that manages to seriously impress, especially for such a new band. I decided to get a bit more info on this rough gem…
Tell us about Monumentomb and where you came from?
We’re based in Kent in the south east of England. We formed less than a year ago, to start from the beginning: I was drinking at a metal pub in my local town of Maidstone. The Beherit shirt I was wearing prompted conversation very quickly when Alex noticed it, and we’ve been good mates since. Then after a long time later, years in fact we met again and decided to form a band with our strong agreement in musical tastes. At the same place a little later, I met Gaius while drinking at a mutual friends birthday, we got totally hammered and stayed in touch. Since Alex left the band earlier this month to concentrate on Infected Dead, Gaius has now moved over to guitar duties. I met Lee at a local gig that Alex was playing with his band Infected Dead. He heard that Lee was a decent and freed-up drummer and introduced us that night, we’ve been doing Monumentomb ever since.
What are your influences?
The primary influence is old-school death metal, I listen to a lot of 80’s metal ranging from Yngwie Malmsteen to Cacophony, Razor, Racer X, Infernal Majesty, Sacrifice etc. Bands specifically that we take a lot of influence from are Bolt Thrower, Autopsy, Grave, Dismember, Morbid Angel, Carcass, early Entombed/Obituary/Death to name a few. Our influences always have a bearing on our development as players. Lee is ever aiming to reach the same ability level as George Kollias and Gaius listens to a lot of technical metal too, which constantly fuels improvement individually, as well as overall as a band.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Vinnie Moore, Tony MacApline and Paul Gilbert Racer X era. Also been listening to ‘The Cleansing’ by Nominon which I highly recommend, it has a great atmosphere and production. Morbid and filthy sounding release and has to be one of their best to date. And have been re-visiting Beneath the Remains, simply, it’s an album that never leaves my CD rotation.
How did you decide on the style of Death Metal that you wanted to play – what appeals about the Death Metal sound?
I’ve always had a leaning toward the Old-School sounding bands for as long as I can remember. The feeling and readiness of the style always screamed out to me and stood out over the extremely clean sounding releases, the style always deserves preservation in my opinion. We’re not aiming to be an overly technical band, as the fundamental idea at inception was to maintain the essential feeling and simplicity of most of the old-school death metal bands. The paramount appeal to me is the sheer aggression, the riffs, imagery and relative versatility of the genre.
Non-standard for Death Metal but judged perfectly – tell us about the clean vocals in Perpetual Execution Torment
They were performed by a good mate of mine – Chris Simmons who plays in a well-known band from our area called Wretched Soul, and exceeded the intentions of that section for the track. It was an idea that formed while watching the film Reanimator, not a direct attempt to sound like a revived corpse, but to bring a bit of humanity into the lyrical content of being reanimated as slave for the sole purpose to kill, to live and die constantly in complete agony forever.
Do you have any goals for Ritual Exhumation?
At the moment, it’s a case of getting the name around and networking as much as possible. We currently have ongoing dealings with a label to release it on CD and other formats, but that’s yet to be confirmed officially. Hopefully soon!
How did the recording process go?
The EP was recorded in 5 days, so bearing that in mind it was a very focussed effort, and fortunately with a very minimal amount of set-backs. As with most sessions the drums were recorded first within 2 10 hour days, then the guitars, bass and vocals were tracked. I was overseeing and present every day of the recording process , myself and the Engineer (Graham Waller) were totally wiped-out after that one week of little sleep and relentless concentration. We took a few moments to kick-back and chill with some music, food and some funny youtube stuff. The whole thing was a learning curve, and am very pleased with the results that were achieved within the time constraints.
Is there anything on the release you’re not satisfied with?
I think anyone who says they wouldn’t change anything in hindsight is kidding themselves, to be honest. You are your own worst critic, thus naturally there will be tiny changes you would make personally, for example a particular note on a solo, or a vocal or drum pattern you think could have been performed better. Unnoticeable to anyone else who listens to it but only picked-out by yourself really. So in essence, there are one or two things I would change but fortunately we can live with them!
Do you want to discuss any of the lyrics on the album and any themes/hidden meanings/etc. that might be there?
Yeah, sure. The lyrics are very straightforward, no hidden or subliminal meanings behind them as such. They’re simply inspired by morbid horror stories/movies and matching the visual themes for us. The themes are essentially all based around necromancy and death rituals/rites with an apocalyptic goal, with narratives and side-stories in between. A lot of inspiration comes from the Necronomicon by Lovecraft and related grimoires in terms of direct literary inspiration. I’m an avid fan of 80′s horror and splatter films and comics, it’s usually easy enough to write lyrics to these themes but it’s tough to attempt a new angle when a lot of the subject matter has been broached upon before. So just sticking to familiar territory lyrically just fits and suits the sound we’re trying to achieve.
What’s your songwriting process?
Majority of the writing in the early days started as just me and Alex bouncing ideas off each other and listening to a ton of music. The writing process sped-up dramatically when Lee joined, which then transpired into just the two of us meeting-up every weekend and continually getting a better sense of how the structures should form. The latter part of the writing process is still the same to this day, and we are currently writing new material too.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
In the near future, the direction intends to remain on the same plateau as the EP in terms of style, atmosphere and riffs. Still taking huge influence from classic releases and present releases too.
What does the future hold for Monumentomb?
At present, we are playing our first festival in August in the UK with Onslaught. After that, we have 2 London dates in September with Krow and October with Gravecrusher. And after that, we’re focussing on getting a full-length released and alongside that, we’re looking to and hoping to get onto a tour in the future as well. We intend to remain as an active live band as much as possible, so, touring is always at the forefront of our minds!
Morbidity are from Bangladesh and play Death Metal. This is their début album.
Wow! The first track Decaying Souls immediately has my attention! Only 2 minutes long; it’s an intro essentially, but a damn good one! Bleakly tuneful bass, horror-filled melodics and a creepy vibe enhanced by an ominous church bell, this is a brilliant start to the album that catches and holds the attention straight from the off.
The second track is named Incarnation of Death and picks up where the first one leaves off, introducing the more brutal side of the band. The eerie, creepy riffs are still there, they’ve just been made heavier. Holy shit this band knows how to write some good riffs.
The vocals are deep and cavernous, sounding like something inhuman that’s pulled itself up from The Pit.
The sound this album has is just amazing. It’s deep, heavy and warm. Although it’s an immensely strong sound it doesn’t come off as over-produced and still reeks of the underground and of things left to rot.
The songs are exactly that; songs. They have character and personality, with each song being memorable. There is no filler.
Revealed from Ashes has an element of Swedish Death Metal to its sound in the sense of the creepy, grave-tinged melodics and the heavily tuneful songwriting. All achieved without resorting to That Chainsaw Sound or straying too far into Sweden’s territory.
This may be Old-School Death Metal but this is one decaying cadaver that smells as fresh as the day it died. I can’t write enough good things about this album without it coming off as some form of hyperbole, but suffice to say I love this release.
Morbidity have created an outstanding slab of pure, uncompromising Death Metal. If other bands had even a pinch of their songwriting skills and sense of dynamics and pacing then the Metal scene would be an even better place than it already is.
Okay, so if there’s just one Death Metal album to get this month this is it.
Haemophagus are from Italy and play Death Metal with lashings of Grind. This is their second album.
The first track is an intro, and rather than the usual pointless nonsense most bands have as an intro, this is a lovely piece of relaxi-prog that doesn’t really prepare you for what comes next, but sounds great regardless.
The primitive thrashings and grindings of Partying at the Grave exposes the band’s true intentions and the brutally simple heaviness of Death Metal is unleashed.
This reminds me of bands like Atrocity and Abscess; Old-School, brutal, evil and fun!
Groove and chug or blast and burn, Haemophagus rip the house down around you and stomp on the fiery devastation. And then throw turds around. Or something. It’s all gloriously, horrifically messy fun regardless.
With a sound that means this could have been recorded decades ago the band plough head-first into the material and make their dirty mark all over the walls.
Don’t be deceived by the apparent simplicity though as the band know their instruments and are more than capable of shredding out a good solo. The bass also has a good presence, adding an eerie dimension to songs like Dismal Apparition.
A strong album that’s a very enjoyable listen. This may be thoroughly Old-School in many ways but it deserves a place in every modern playlist.
Vastum are from the US and play Death Metal; Patricidal Lust is their second album.
How’s that for some album artwork, eh? What’s all that about then? Top work.
Vastum specialise in Old-School Death Metal with a dollop of Doom and Crust thrown in for good measure. Incantation and Autopsy should be your first reference points. Vastum are their own entity of course and they play this style of Classic Death Metal remarkably well.
The songs are harrowing tales of the dark side of humanity and the music is the perfect representation of this.
Each track is well-written and everything on this release sounds powerful and ancient. The singer bellows with fervour and the music rages and dirges in equal amounts.
The solos are well executed and add spice to the Doomy riffing. Leads add colour and overall these songs have a lot of substance to them, with the longer length of the songs allowing the band to cram a lot in.
As the Classic Death Metal style goes this is a strong album full of good songs. Put this on your list of albums to get this month, you won’t regret it.
Coffinborn are from Hungary and play Death Metal. This is their début EP.
Wonderbox Metal 