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Written by Philip
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Sunday, 23 August 2009 08:02 |
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Pulverised Records
2009 has been a relatively good year for metal, I'd say. Tribulation's debut album The Horror is another example of this. They play a blend of old school thrash and death metal, and deliver it fast and direct. The fact that they hail from Sweden could come as a surprise, as they don't play the traditional style of Swedish death, rather opting for this more volatile concoction. Guitar solos are prominent, and headbanging-inducing thrash-infused death metal fellates your eardrums in a dark and bloody dungeon paradise.
Stylistically and dynamically, there's not a ton going on. It's nothing complicated or intricate. It's merely heavy as hell, fast as fuck, and violent as shit. The album barely runs over half an hour, but that's all the time you need. Were it to run much longer, you may be liable to be compensated for damages from Pulverised Records due to whiplash-related injuries as a result of headbanging too long. This album is a riff spectacle, a dazzle display of what makes men men, and what makes metal so fucking destructive. There's no lollygagging or time wasting. Almost every second is utilized to achieve maximum delivery of pulverisation. The production is muddy enough to give The Horror the feel of 90's death metal, neglecting anything too modern sounding. Yet, the guitars are thick and chunky like a good soup of human meats. Vocals are standard death/thrash, ugly and harsh. The title of the album must surely come from the brief intros and interludes scattered through the album of eerie keyboards, which add little to the whole package, but make for nice mood-setting bonuses. |
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 August 2009 05:20 |
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Read the full review [Tribulation - The Horror]
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Flesh - Worship the Soul of Disgust |
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Written by Philip
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Tuesday, 11 August 2009 18:32 |
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Pulverized Records Flesh is the one man band of Peter Karlsson, who perhaps you know from Maze of Torment or Deceiver, or even Thrown. Worship the Soul of Disgust is Flesh's first release on Pulverized Records. I'm gonna cut to the chase right now - what you get here is old school Swedish death metal. Nothing more, nothing less. This is a throwback to early 90's death metal, even finding influence in Morbid Angel. Nothing about this album screams originality or new ideas, nor does anything set it apart from plenty of Swedish death metal records. This works both for and against Flesh. While originality is nowhere to be seen (heard), that is not what this band exists to create. Flesh is a tribute to the legends that put Sweden on the map for extreme metal. You'll hear your fair share of Entombed and Dismember, here. For what he wishes to accomplish, Pete can proudly say he succeeds. Every riff and vocal line sounds lifted from some 10-20 year old Swedish death metal album, which is not to say that he has not written some truly great riffs. Those would be the highlight of the album, easily. Produced in Abyss Studios, which is the home of sometimes overproduced Swedish metal, this recording doesn't sound too terribly polished, but not quite rough enough to give it the edge that is essential to death metal of this style.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 23 August 2009 08:13 |
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Read the full review [Flesh - Worship the Soul of Disgust]
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Razor of Occam - Homage to Martyrs |
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Written by Philip
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Friday, 24 July 2009 09:15 |
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Metal Blade Records Australia has been kind to metal fans, bestowing upon metalheads around the world the splendor that is Bestial Warlust, Destroyer 666, Sadistik Exekution, Gospel of the Horns, The Berzerker, Destruktor, and, of course, Razor of Occam, to name a few. Now residing in London, England, Razor of Occam is a fist in the face of: God, religion, superstition, mysticism, irrational thought, and most importantly, weak music. Homage to Martyrs is their debut album that sacrifices nothing in the name of full speed black thrashing cacophony. Featuring Ian Shrapnel of Destroyer 666 on lead guitars, and Matt Razor on vocals and rhythm guitars, speakers playing this album will spew out razor sharp thrash riffing paired up with equally razor sharp lyrics and rasping harsh vocals. Homage to Martyrs is literally unrelenting in its intensity, as a wall of sound engulfs the listener. Razor of Occam pillage through track after track of black thrashing chaos tied together with precision musicianship and the aggressive obsession of destruction. |
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 July 2009 21:11 |
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Read the full review [Razor of Occam - Homage to Martyrs]
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Judas Priest - A Touch Of Evil: Live |
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Written by Liu
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Thursday, 30 July 2009 16:16 |
Epic
British heavy metal gods Judas Priest are in a rather odd place now. They've been coasting by mostly on the strength of their back catalog since most of their output for over 2 decades now has been anything but spectacular. Despite this, they still put on an entertaining live show (I witnessed this firsthand almost 4 years ago), so a new live album might still deliver the goods.
A Touch Of Evil: Live has an interesting idea behind it. Instead of an album filled with songs that are available on their other live albums, they've selected songs that haven't appeared on any live albums yet. A novel idea, though put into dubious practice. Some of the songs are undeniable classics, among them Beyond The Realms Of Death, Painkiller, Riding On The Wind and Dissident Aggressor. Then there are the questionable choices. There are two songs from the rather safe comeback album, Angel Of Retribution and two from the abysmal disaster known as Nostradamus. I haven't even played that album since writing my review of it last year and these two live versions sure don't make me wanna give that album another chance.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 30 July 2009 16:46 |
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Read the full review [Judas Priest - A Touch Of Evil: Live]
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Written by Philip
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Thursday, 23 July 2009 22:24 |
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Candlelight Records In a just and fair world one would
not be forced to wait eight whole years for legendary bands to release
substantial new material. This, my friends, is not a just and fair
world. 2001's Tara was, and still remains, a masterpiece
monument of metal. It showed us Absu reaching a level that only the
greats ever reach, consistently reminding us of their greatness and
amazing accomplishment through out the duration of the album. This is
not to imply that Absu had not achieved greatness before this release,
because they very clearly had. But Tara felt like the realization of all possibilities within the band up to that point. After the tidal wave of awesome that was Tara finally
subsided and gave people room to breath again and recover from whiplash
and broken necks, we awaited the next masterpiece. And we waited some
more. And then some obscure and hard to find mini releases were let
out, as well as a best-of compilation as a sort of teaser, to remind us
that Absu still existed and withheld its powers from our sight. But a
new full length album of all new Absu material was not appearing on the
horizon for quite a while.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 23 July 2009 23:07 |
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Read the full review [Absu - Absu]
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