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2011/11/09

EPICEDIUM - Anthropogenic

Album number 5 in their 15 years history was recorded with a new vocalist and a youngster behind the drum kit. There's a little more variety speedwise and a couple more melodic leads on this than on any of their older releases, but this output is still an ass-kicking piece of hyperblast death metal.

Like Cannibal Corpse? Don't mind triggered drums? Dig singers who just grunt vowels instead of whole words? You better give these guys from Frankfurt, Germany a chance.

You can order "Anthropogenic" here

[7.5/10]

2011/11/08

JUCIFER - Nadir

NADIR was originally released 1994 as a tape that Sludge Nomads JUCIFER recorded on a 4 tracker in a termite infested bedroom with broken windows. Scott Hull remastered these five raw diamonds for a digital re-release on Grindcore Karaoke, (where you can of course download it for free.)

Raw distorted doom sounds with a hypnotic voice that do not sound outdated, but just really intense and highly addictive. Or, as JUCIFER describe their work on Twitter, "two person sonic destruction since 1993. 80 speakers + 6,500 watts can't be wrong."  Hell yeah!

[9.0/10]




2011/10/14

CLOUD RAT - Fever Dreams

All you need for some awesome tunes is screams, guitars and drums. You beg to differ? Michigan trio CLOUD RAT will prove you wrong! Their latest output will kick your butt with 18 dirty hardcore tracks always on the edge to blasting grindcore that'll get you addicted immediately.

Download Fever Dreams for free, you will not regret it. And don't forget their S/T LP which is freakin' awesome, too!

[9.0/10]


2011/10/09

BRUTAL TRUTH - End Time

Rabid gorilla vocals, drugged hornet guitars, pissed grizzlybear bass and raging bison drums sum up to one frantic tour de force for both ear and brain!

No matter if slow and dark or fast and chaotic- the old vets in Brutal Truth show the young how the word grindcore is spelled back and forth.

Definitely one of the (if not THE) best pieces of noise released this year!!!!

[9.5/10]

2011/06/21

MORBID ANGEL - Illud Divinum Insanus

When in April the first previews for IDI hit the internet rumoring „industrialized beats“ and „harsh techno sounds“ the death metal community was shocked. People started bashing MORBID ANGEL and hating the „I“-Album before they heard even a single new track- except „Nevermore“ that is, this song has been in MA's live set list for some time.

When the album was finally released the death metal community was shocked: Thousands of reviews, blogs, videos with people calling Trey Azagthoth a traitor of the Metal and David Vincent a techno whimp with eyeliner swamped the net. Everybody just felt let down by one of the (former?) greatest bands in the world. Oh yeah, us death metal fans can be more than closed-minded when it comes to new influences in our favorite kind of music.

Now, a few weeks gone you can find more and more people admitting they actually like „Illud Divinum Insanus“. Some of the reviewers are even calling this album the next musical step in death metal. After listening to IDI quite often in the last weeks I decided that for me IDI is not a great MA album, not even a good one. And to be honest it's not the musical experiments that bother me so much- okay, I was shocked when I heard „Too Extreme“ or „Profundis“ for the first time, but I got used to those. But there is too much average on this one: The lame heardthisonebefore intro „Omni Potens“, standard mid tempo death metal songs like „10 More Dead“ or „Beauty Meets Beast“, plus the two most boring songs MA have ever released: „Desthructos vs The Earth“ and „Radikult“ - please NEVER play those bastards live. A couple of good songs like the furious „Existo Vulgore“ or the catchy „I Am Morbid“ are just not enough for a band like MORBID ANGEL.

Is "Illud" really Morbid Angel's "St. Anger"? Or "Cold Lake"? History is to decide about that. As much as I tried to like „Illud Divinum Insanus“ I hope the "J"-album will be back to the roots and back to the quality of their immortal first four albums. Or maybe I should just try a little harder?

2011/04/12

More than just blurry pixels

Have you ever tried to take some decent pictures with your cellphone? On a metal concert? In the middle of a huge moshpit? That's what I do sometimes. It's not too easy to concentrate on that little screen being jostled around. But by pure accident some of these snapshots are more than just blurry pixels. These are the ones you can see on my flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spiralshadow/

There is a first album I added just today ("We don't care what you say"), the picture were taken in March'11 at an OVERKILL gig here in Frankfurt. Maybe you can enjoy some of those.


I have some more somewhere on my harddrive, I'll add them as soon as I find them.

2011/04/09

Introduction

Jeez, it's freakin hard to find a catchy name for a blog that isn't already taken. Nothing I could think of was available anymore.
Anyway, the other day I was listening to one of my favourite records of the last year: "Spiral Shadow" by KYLESA. (If you haven't heard that one yet do it now, it's awesome) and that was it- a very cool name that was available. First steps done, now let's get blogging.