| CANNIBAL CORPSE - GORE OBSESSED! (11 song CD) METAL BLADE RECORDS I'm sure most of you out there reading this already know of this great band who are one of the starters of the whole Death Metal style. This is the bands eigth album to date in their 11 plus years of existence. These guys are extremely brutal & extremely sick! This is where Death Metal was spawned! This album is by far the best album CANNIBAL CORPSE has released. "GORE OBSESSED" takes us all the way back to their classic 'EATEN BACK TO LIFE" album. There is no way you can give these guys enough credit for what they've done in this style of music! Buy this album & everyone of their releases & you'll hear why they have influenced just about every band in the Death Metal scene today!!! CARNIVEAN - IN TODES BANDEN (9 song CD) CARNIVEAN is yet another great Death Metal band to emerge from my home state of Pennsylvania. These guys play old school Death Metal with some new school influences. There are some elements of Thrash Metal present in some of the riffs & rhythms. The vocals are done in a mid to low ranged brutal Death growl. They do get a little higher at times, but not much. I liked how the music switched back & forth with slow to fast rhythms a lot. If your a fan of old Death Metal acts like CANNIBAL CORPSE, SUFFOCATION, DISINCARNATE, DEICIDE & ENTOMBED, then your gonna love these guys! - P.O. BOX 138 / SALFORD, PA. 18957 / www.CARNIVEAN.com DEADFOOD / IRRITATE - SPLIT (? song 7" Record) VOMITCORE RECORDS Here we have some fucked up Noise from DEADFOOD. Kinda reminds me of, well nothing I've ever heard! Spaced out Jazz/Grind with a real cartoonish feel. Drop some acid & give it a spin. IRRITATE plays riffy catchy Death/Grind. Very groovy stuff. Keeping it sick & extreme, D.I.Y. forever!!! - P.O. BOX 6488 / BURBANK, CA. 91510-6488 / www.DEADFOOD.com // P.O. BOX 37 / 55801 IMATRA / FINLAND / audioterror@iobox.fi / http://go.to/hrr (Keegan of Skull Fucking Metal Distro) DECEMBER - THE LAMENT CONFIGURATION (10 song CD) EARACHE RECORDS DECEMBER is the first American band to sign with EARACHE in the new mellenium. These guys play heavy fast paced Death Metal laced with tons of Grind/Crust music. The rhythm section has a solid Death Metal sound while the guitars toss in lots of Grindcore & Crust elements. Some times I can hear some Thrash riffs popping out here & there. The vocals are a mixture of lower Death growls & higher Grindcore screams. The vocals pierce right through your skull & lodge in your brain. They are very powerful & harsh. I like how the song structures are set up with different styles & tempo changes, it gives the band a lot of variety & originality! The closest band to come to mind would be LAMB OF GOD!!! DEPRESSION / HAEMORRHAGE - SPLIT (22 song CD) CUDGEL AGENCY This sick split release is brought to us by DEPRESSION out of Germany & HAEMORRHAGE out of Spain! The first 11 songs are from the sick & extremely heavy Death Metal band DEPRESSION. these guys are super fast & play an old school styled Death Metal with touches of new school Grindcore & Black Metal. The low deep Death Metal sounds is where the old school comes into play. The noisier guitars & in the vocals is where I hear the Grindcore coming into play. The vocals also cover all three of these styles. There are low gutteral Death growls, mid to high Black Metal growls & higher pitched Grindcore screams. The last 11 songs come from HAEMORRHAGE. These guys play some ultra fast & raw Grindcore, but get a little bit noisy in the guitars at times. The vocals are done in a mid ranged harsh Grindcore growl style! This is a great split with two well matched & great bands! - WESTRICHER STR. 62 / 44388 DORTMUND / GERMANY / DEPRESSION@gmx.li // APDO 27106 / 28044 MADRID / SPAIN / haemorgue@hotmail.com / come.to/HAEMORRHAGE DIO - KILLING THE DRAGON (10 song CD) SPITFIRE RECORDS / KAYOS PRODUCTIONS What am I supposed to say about DIO? The band is a legend in the Metal scene & Ronnie James Dio is responsable for that legend! He is a great singer & song writer & with this album we have one more piece of evidence to that. DIO plays some very powerful & epic styled Heavy Metal music that sounds more fresh & original than ever. There are classic Metal sounds mixed with some Thrash elements & pure Heavy Metal influences. Ronnie's vocals are done in a clean melodic Metal style that ranges from high to low , done in an almost operatic epic way. There is no telling when this legend will come to an end, cause with each new release just adds to the legacy! This band deserves all the credit they get for helping to build the Metal scene to what it is today! - www.RONNIEJAMESDIO.COM DISARRAY - IN THE FACE OF THE ENEMY (11 song CD) ECLIPSE RECORDS Here it is! The newest release from my buds in DISARRAY & put out by my bud Chris from ECLIPSE RECORDS. I've followed these guys since their beginning days & I'm glad to see them getting some of the recognition they deserve. These guys play some southern influenced Death metal music, with old school elements tossed in. They have a good solid Death groove within their sound that I love a lot! There is lots of bass dominating their sound which I also dig a lot! The vocals are done in a Metal/Hardcore crossover style! Just think of PANTERA if they were a Hardcore Death Metal band! The album was recorded at SLAVE PIT, home of GWAR & produced by Dave Brockie (Oderous). These guys are a great band & I hope lots of people buy this album cause they deserve it!!! - P.O. BOX 975 / DICKSON, TN. 37056-0975 / www.DISARRAYonline.com |
| MUSIC REVIEWS (March 2003) page #2 |
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| "ALBUM OF THE MONTH" DISSOCIATION - BLUTRAUSCH (14 song CD) Wow! This is an amazing Black metal band out of Germany. These guys are great! They play symphonic Black Metal music with lots of aggression, brutality & beauty all rolled into one. I love when a band is able to balance out their music like these guys have & pull it off. DISSOCIATION make it sound very easy! The music is well grounded in the Black Metal genre, but they add in some Thrash Metal influences with in the guitars as well as some Death Metal in the drums. There is lots of majestic & atmospheric parts through out their music.The vocals are done in a mid ranged Black Metal styled Death growl. I love when a band can merge Death & beauty as well as these guys do. This is one talented & amazing band! I highly recommend this to everyone! - ELBUFERSTRASSE 86 / 21395 TESPE/AVENDORF / GERMANY / info@DISSOCIATION.de / www.DISSOCIATION.de |
| EPHEL DUATH - REPHORMULA (13 song CD) EARACHE RECORDS This is a two man project based out of Italy! These guys play Black Metal music, but in no way your typical Black Metal. They fuse complex rhythms, technical guitar & synth work with epic classical scores & heart soaring melodies. Their style has a some what mystical & operatic sound to it as well. The music is very technical, tight & complexed structured. They go from slow beautiful classical sounds blasting into fast paced Death/Black Metal mayhem. The vocals are done in a higher pitched haunting scream & lower melodic clean Goth type vocals. They have definately cleared a path for themselves in the Black Metal feild!!! FIVE POINTE O - UNTITLED (11 song CD) ROADRUNNER RECORDS This is a six piece Metal act out of Chicago, Il. & one of ROADRUNNER RECORDS newest signings. these guys play a mixed style of Metal music. I can hear lots of influences of Hardcore, Death Metal, Nu-Metal & heavy Metal all inter mixed with in. Sometimes their songs will lean more towards one style of music over the other! They have a good Hardcore, Nu-Metal groove that sometimes goes into a brutal Death Metal style & other times goes into a slower more melodic Metal sound. the vocals also blend the above styles together as well. They remind me of PRIMER 55 combined with FEAR FACTORY & older KORN material! - www.FIVEPOINTEO.com |