I’ve been avoiding writing about Aosoth’s III for some time now. Why would I avoid writing about such an excellent album, you might ask? Well, to be perfectly blunt I was intimidated by it. Intimidated by the idea of attempting to translate its greatness into mere words. This is no bullshit hyperbole; I honestly believe that III is one of the most enthralling black metal albums of the last ten years; utterly devastating in its frightful, hypnotic magnificence.
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Category Archives: Reviews
Nyogthaeblisz – Apocryphal Progenitors of Mankind’s Tribulation (SSP, 2012 [reissue])
There’s raw black metal… and then there’s Nyogthaeblisz. The trio of Texas black metallers recently garnered quite a bit of press for being kicked off the bill of this year’s Chaos in Tejas fest, due to their affiliation with the Satanic Skinhead Propaganda label (who’s owner described the band as “anti-jew”), appearances on compilations with highly inflammatory titles such as Declaration of Anti-Semitic Terror and a penchant for dressing up like the black metal version of the KKK. I cannot speak for their ridiculous fashion sense, and I most certainly don’t condone their abhorrent ideology (it seems pretty goddamn absurd that a band that’s supposedly of Hispanic descent would harbor such noxious beliefs), but I can speak for Nyogthaeblisz’s music, which is some the gnarliest black shit I’ve ever heard.
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Occultation – Three & Seven (Profound Lore, 2012)
I don’t get the “female fronted occult rock” trend that has come out of the metal underground in the past few years. To these ears, there’s nothing even remotely evil, let alone “occult” about ripping off Jefferson Airplane, Fleetwood Mac and Heart. Okay, this is the part where someone brings up Coven and I roll my eyes. I’m not saying the music is particularly bad, it just isn’t my thing, and it definitely isn’t Satanic. I mean, isn’t it really just revisiting the hippie-dippy horseshit that early heavy metal set out to stomp to bits at the end of the ’60′s, only with a quasi-diabolic lyrical bent?
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Panopticon – Social Disservices (Flenser, 2011)
Most black metal is pure fantasy. The end of the world, kingdoms of snow and ice, fever dreams involving murder, suicide, Satanisim and extreme sexual behavior are the genre’s tried and true conceptual fodder. But not so for Louisville, Kentucky’s Panopticon, who uses black metal as a means to tackle some frighteningly real social issues on his third album, Social Disservices.
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Cannibal Corpse – Torture (Metal Blade, 2012)
I recently saw Cannibal Corpse live for the very first time after having listened to them since high school; like most metalheads my age, I discovered the band around the time of The Bleeding and their infamous cameo in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and was blown away by their ability to mix over-the-top lyrical and visual gore with utterly eviscerating riffage. Finally seeing them live took me back to that time, those first sticky fumblings with death metal, loving it and being repulsed by it at the same time and loving that bizarre mixed feeling, wondering what people would think if I told them I was heavily into a band that had songs called “Fucked with a Knife” and “Stripped, Raped and Strangled.” But seeing them live wasn’t all misty-eyed headbanging nostalgia, it re-affirmed that Cannibal Corpse are still a force to be reckoned with; titans of death metal who have made a career out of pumping out some of the most quality-consistent, full-on brutal music the genre has to offer.
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For Those About to Rot: Exhumed @ People’s Court 04/16/12
The last time Exhumed played in Des Moines, it was the middle of July. If you’ve never been to Iowa in mid-Summer, imagine being trapped in a giant pair of sweatpants and forced to walk through someone’s sweaty, overheated crotch; now you’ve got a pretty good idea of what humidity in the Midwest is like. It’s the kind of heat that causes old people and animals to spontaneously drop dead. Now, imagine a tiny venue with no air conditioning smack dab in the middle of that nasty-ass environment. These were the conditions Exhumed were forced to weather their first time playing our little one-horse town, so it’s something of a small miracle that they actually agreed to come back. Granted, they’re in the midst of a high-profile tour with death metal kingpins Cannibal Corpse (for more on them, wait for my upcoming review of their new album, Torture), but still, I can’t imagine that initial encounter made a very good impression.
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Obolus – Lament (Flenser, 2012)
California’s Flenser Records has become one of the go-to labels for infinitely interesting black metal and doom releases over the past few years, and Lament, the debut EP from the mysterious black metal entity known as Obolus is no exception. Information on the band is virtually non-existent; their Metal Archives page yields no answers and the Flenser is keeping things decidedly on the down-low when it comes to details. I prefer my black metal with a dose of mystique and it’s fun to speculate about Obolus’ origins; is this the the work of one twisted individual or a like-minded group of musicians? Who are they and where do they come from? Ultimately, it doesn’t matter as long as the music’s good, and lament is certainly one of the better black metal releases I’ve come across so far in 2012.
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Napalm Death – Utilitarian (Century Media, 2012)
Napalm Death are an institution. In three decades of existence, they have remained at the forefront of extreme music, constantly evolving and refining their sound while at the same time staying true to the band’s roots in early grindcore and punk. Despite the fact that there are no original members left in the lineup, they have never faltered in quality or watered down their singular vision in order to get ahead; their integrity and dedication has become something of a gold standard by which all other grindcore bands are judged. Utilitarian is Napalm Death’s fourteenth album, and it finds the band sounding as potent and relevant as ever.
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Midnight – Satanic Royalty (Hells Headbangers, 2011)
The death of rock ‘n’ roll has been greatly exaggerated. In the mainstream sure, rock ‘n’ roll is as cold and lifeless as Kurt Cobain’s corpse (yeah, yeah, I know he was cremated, whatthefuckever), repeatedly shot in the face by the malformed and talentless post-grunge spawn of crumbling major labels. But in the underground, it’s a different story. Rock music is alive and well in seemingly endless permutations, from stoner to goth to death n’ roll, as raw and dangerous as ever.
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Revenge – Scum.Collapse.Eradication (Nuclear War Now!, 2012)
It’s been four long years since we last heard from Canadian filth purveyors Revenge, but I can assure you that the aptly titled Scum.Collapse.Eradication was more than worth the wait. No other band on the planet is capable of harnessing hatred and scorn into a chaotic yet controlled whirlwind of pure electric death the way the duo of drummer/vocalist J. Read and guitarist/bassist Chris Ross (aka Vermin) do on Revenge’s fourth full length. Even though the band’s basic approach on Scum.Collapse.Eradication differs in only the most subtle of ways from that of previous outings, the fact remains that Revenge are so goddamn good at what they do that their return to the frontlines of the war metal battleground is always a welcome one.
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