BLASTERROR - Demo (Live)

BLASTERROR

Demo (Live)

Independent

2001

A six-song live EP self-released by yet another Brazilian death metal band that seems to be populating my collection as of late.  From the looks of things, Blasterror was formed by three former members of Necromanicider and a fourth guy to handle the drums.  Sad thing, though, it looks like the reason Blasterror is no more is because two of the members have now passed on into Glory.  Hope to see you two soon, my METAL brothers. But anyhoo...

The style of death metal that Blasterror play here on Demo (Live) is the kind of thrashy old school death metal that would put a smile on the face of any fan of Morbid Angel, Death, and fellow Brazilians Sepultura’s earlier albums.  Really leaning more towards the thrash end of things, incorporating some intense rhythms and good leads, with growly vocals.  The first five songs on the EP are the ones recorded live, and they do sound rather tight in a live setting, ending things with a decent cover of Iron Maiden’s “Aces High”.  The last song – “Living On Lies” – is the sole studio cut on here, and judging by that one alone, it’s a pity they only released a four-song EP six years after Demo (Live) was released.  The production on the live cuts are a bit rough, but still come off as competently done.  Overall, not a bad release to try and get your hands on.

BERITH - Symphony Of The Suffering

BERITH

Symphony Of The Suffering

Extreme Records

2006

Berith was a death metal group from the Sao Paulo area of Brazil, that was formed out of the demise of the band Devilcrusher, according to the bio page on the Encyclopaedia Metallum site.  They released a four-song demo in 1997, entitled The Symphony Of Suffering; in 2006, they re-recorded the songs on there, along with recording a bunch of new songs, and released the full-length version of Symphony Of The Suffering with a slightly tweaked name on Extreme Records with new artwork, before splitting up a year later.

This full-length version of Symphony Of The Suffering is a pretty decent 9-song offering of heavy thrash-based death metal, much in the vein of early Death recordings, the self-titled Mortification album, and Death Angel.  Rather good old school death metal stuff, full of great hooks and riffs, some very raw production, and furious pacing, backed up with throaty growl vocals.  All the songs, save for the final cut, are pretty intense tracks, keeping the brutality at an even keel, causing me to actually jump around in the booth I was listening to this in, wanting to start moshing into something.  The final track is an instrumental that's half acoustic guitar, then some symphonic sounding stuff to end the disc.  Overall, not too bad, and a pretty decent listen.  Worth checking out sometime.

xDEATHSTARx - The Triumph

xDEATHSTARx

The Triumph

Life Sentence Records / Facedown Records

2004 / 2008

xDeathstarx is, as you may have guessed by the inclusion of the "x" at the beginning and end of the name proper, is a straightedge metalcore band from California that was active between the years of 2002 and 2009, when they finally called it quits.  Not familiar with straightedge hardcore/metalcore?  It's like regular hardcore and/or metalcore, only with themes espousing the straightedge lifestyle - essentially no drug use, no drinking, no promiscuous sex, sometimes veganism...it's basically espousing social rebellion through clean living.  Something like that.  As a band, xDeathstarx wrote music that featured lyrics that had both Christian and straightedge content.  This may be relevant for a lot of spiritcore type fans out there, which is why I mention this.  Otherwise, I don't really care much, regardless of my appreciation of the straightedge concept.

Anyway, The Triumph was the first full-length release from xDEATHSTARx, first released on Life Sentence Records in 2002, and then given a re-release on Facedown Records after they signed to the label.  The version I have is the Facedown re-release, and I have no idea if the production itself differs from the original release, or if they just re-released it with just different artwork or what.  Quite frankly, unless someone clues me in, I probably won't, as I'm not really what you would call a big fan of the metalcore style.  And The Triumph is a good example of your standard metalcore release from the last decade or so.  A heavy and solid hardcore base, with chugga-chugga guitars and a multi-vocalist shout attack throughout.  Your standard album of metalcore for you hardcore boys to do your kung-fu dancing thing to and to fuel your self-righteous indignation.  Sorry, had some rather negative encounters with the straightedge crowd in the past.  But anyway, not a bad album of heavy metalcore, but nothing that will make me a card-carrying uber-fan of the style.

WICKEDS END - Temporal Pain

WICKEDS END

Temporal Pain

Floppy Fish

1993

Wickeds End was something of a power thrash band that formed in California in 1992, released one cassette-only demo album on the Floppy Fish indie label (that was, as I recall, formed by the band's guitarist Glenn Rowlands, who recorded an acoustic alternative solo record on his label as well), and then split up in 1993. 

The music on Temporal Pain is certainly raw and intensely heavy thrash metal, much in the same vein as Exodus and Flotsam & Jetsam, furious and face-shredding extremity that suffers quite a bit from poor production in the recording.  But, what they lack in production they make up for in sheer thrash metal intensity.  This five-song demo of theirs just rips.  I found it rather tough to sit still listening to this, as I was inside a fast food restaurant and I wanted to jump up and ram into things while this fueled my METAL addiction.  It's a pity they didn't make it past this release, as they could have easily been one of the bigger thrash metal bands to come out at the time, with the likes of Sacrament and the very early Living Sacrifice.  Nonetheless, save for a couple of appearances on compilations, Temporal Pain is a rare demo that is worth checking out if you can.

BLACKHOUSE - 5 Minutes After I Die

BLACKHOUSE

5 Minutes After I Die

Dark Vinyl Records

1986

Blackhouse was one of those ultra-underground Christian artists that has taken me quite a while to wrap my head around.  See, they formed in the earlier part of the 1980s as a counterpoint to the underground industrial acts that were offering up rather nihilistic, angry and destructive lyrics, becoming what would arguably be considered the first ever Christian industrial band.  Obviously, when I say "industrial", I refer to what most would consider Orthodox Industrial...or what I first mistook as "noise", making me think the CDs were defective.  Yeah, took me a while to develop a taste for this kind of thing, but after a few years exploring the industrial music scenes, I came to at least an appreciation for the ortho-industrial stylings of Blackhouse.

5 Minutes After I Die was my first actual release that I purchased of the band, and it was on a German import vinyl picture disc re-release if you can believe it, released in 1993.  Originally, 5 Minutes After I Die was released on cassette in 1986, and didn't get another format release until 1989 when it was issued on vinyl in Japan, and then in Germany on Dark Vinyl Records on both CD and vinyl formats in 1993.  The album artwork differs from the different issues, but I'm using the one that was on the 1993 version, as that's the one I purchased; otherwise, you can check out the different ones on Discogs if you're curious.  But, anyway...

5 Minutes After I Die, though technically listed as an EP, is really more of a full-length album despite only having only 7 tracks total.  See, the title track itself, "5 Minutes After I Die", is almost 19 minutes long, and takes up one full side of the vinyl version I have.  Then there's the 12 minute long reprise of the song at the end.  In between are five shorter cuts sandwiched in.  The music style is classic industrial, which as I mentioned before would be mistaken for mere noise for those whose only concept to the industrial style would be Nine Inch Nails and Ministry.  Understandable, as I was in the same boat at the beginning of things myself.  But this is more for fans of the stylings of Mental Destruction, raison d'etre and Orphx, for those with what you would call the truly underground tastes.  Or, as my rivothead friend would say, "Needs more jackhammer".  I do enjoy how the songs flow together, and 5 Minutes After I Day makes from some good background music for when I get into that kind of mood.