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.
This is the début EP from UK Death Metallers Monumentomb.
After the usual perfunctory intro we’re into the title track and straight into some glorious Old-School Death Metal with a sound to kill for.
What’s so special about it? It just sounds fat, tight and recalls Dismember without overtly ripping off that chainsaw sound.
As you’ve probably gathered there is a Swedish Death Metal influence at play here, but that’s not all Monumentomb get up to. The Swedish greats might be well represented, but UK bands like Bolt Thrower and Carcass get a look in also.
The riffs are strong and the solos shred. The drum sound is especially satisfying and the growls of the singer make me warm in my secret happy place.
The vocals are deep growls that work perfectly. Also, the few seconds of clean vocals in Perpetual Execution Torment are unexpected and brilliant.
You can really feel the weight of Death Metal history while listening to Ritual Exhumation, but Monumentomb bear this responsibility with ease and perform admirably.
Amazingly this band have only been around since 2013; how they’ve managed to cobble together such a strong package so quickly is beyond me, but I’m glad they have.
Looking for some Old-School Death Metal that doesn’t sound stale? Look no further.
Cemetery were a German band who were active between 1986 and 1993.
This reissue is two discs of Death Metal, played with passion and interest. This compilation holds all of their recordings between 1991 and 1993, including their lost album that was recorded but never released.
There is an hour and 40 minutes of music here and all of it is top quality. With more exposure this band could easily have been a leading light in the Death Metal scene.
This is powerful material, played and written very well; it shows up a lot of bands these days who have half the creativity that Cemetery display.
The longer songs show that the band were pushing the boundaries of standard Death Metal at the time. Who knows what they could have released eventually?
What we have here though is ample evidence to show that they knew what they were doing. Occasional effects and acoustics are combined with brutality to make interesting songs that all have that special secret ingredient; these songs satisfy, deeply, in ways that only the best Metal can.
Solid playing, melodics, solos, riffs; all of the necessary elements to make a strong album.
It should be noted that the sound is surprisingly good. Everything sounds balanced, clear and crushing.
This is a lost gem of an album; 20 years buried and now unearthed to give pleasure to all who would listen. Forget whatever latest flash-in-the-pan nonsense you’re thinking of buying this month, invest in Cemetery and listen loud.
This is the second album from Swiss Death Metallers Nihilo.
First off I have to say – what a stunning piece of album artwork!
After a sample-heavy intro, the bass-heavy sound thuds out of the speakers with explosive chugging and heavy riffing. The underground recording allows the band to sound earthy and natural. It’s a case of less polish, more spit.
This has an Old-School feel but the main vibe is one of Classic Death Metal played well and with a love of the genre.
Swedish Death Metal is incorporated into their sound but there’s more than just this stylistic reference point.
The singer has a great voice which sounds utterly feral and seems to have serrated edges. High shrieks add colour and there’s no fault to be found with the vocals.
The songs are well written and there are some good choices in riffs. The drumming in particular is enjoyable – no messing around; he provides a strong backbone to the tracks while adding in some nice fills and rolls to mix things up a bit.
Near the end of the album they get bolder and start to experiment a bit more; the extra instrumentation and orchestration on Shields of Justice is as unexpected as it is masterful; the final track Dum Spiro Spero is a 20 minute Doom-filled behemoth. Maybe areas to further develop in the future?
A solid album.
Favourite Track: Last Man Standing. Mid-paced, chugging and demolishing combined with blasting brutality.
Veterans Horrid are from Italy and play Death Metal, this is their third album.
What we get here is unholy Death Metal powered by the Old-School and capable of conjuring all manner of lost and forgotten riffs.
Horrid are brutal and sinister at the same time. Imagine a band like Incantation messing around with Celtic Frost riffs whilst throwing in the odd lick from Death and Entombed – this is the land that Horrid stalk and they rule here absolutely.
Cavernous, guttural vocals invoke dark blasphemies while the Metal flares up around them. Horrid create feelings of unforgiving blackness and bleak rituals.
Awakening in a crypt, chained and bound; you are roughly manhandled onto a slab of shaped granite, your captors uncaring of your discomfort or the marks they are leaving. Masked acolytes surround you, the glint of a blade…
This is the fourth album from US band Pretty Little Flower who play Grindcore.
Wonderbox Metal 