SACRIFICIUM - Cold Black Piece Of Flesh

SACRIFICIUM

Cold Black Piece Of Flesh

Whirlwind Records

2002

Aw, yeah. The first full-length release of Germany's own Sacrificium is, without a doubt, one of the most enjoyable listens I've had recently. See, this is some good quality old-school style death metal, reminiscent of Obituary, Carcass and GROMS; a nice pummeling from the opening riffs to the end. Fantastic riffs and growling yet understandable vocals served up with the merciless blast of the drums. There's a bit of melody thrown in at times, but it serves to keep everything from becoming a sludgy mess, as good death metal knows to. Yeah, in this day and age, when it's getting harder and harder to find good quality death metal, finding something like this is always a pleasure. I was a fan already due to their second release, Escaping The Stupor, so trying to track down Cold Black Piece Of Flesh became a must. I'm glad I found it. Fans of heavy and brutal death metal must find this. Recommended. Now, excuse me while I go back to cranking this sucker...

BIOGENESIS - The Mark Bleeds Through

BIOGENESIS

The Mark Bleeds Through

Rowe Productions

2001

Biogenesis is a band from Dayton, Ohio here in the States that, for what I could gather from my investigations on the Internet, is still active. They only released this one album of theirs - The Mark Bleeds Through - which was released on Rowe Productions, and thus-far there hasn't been much word on any more material being released in the near future.*

The music on The Mark Bleeds Through, I would describe as kind of a mid-paced thrash sound, almost a groove metal, post-thrash thing. Very plodding, doomy and heavy. There are some monster riffs going on here, which does get my head nodding along. The thing that sets the band apart, is the vocalist's ability to go from a deep baritone symphonic style, almost reminiscent of Saviour Machine's Eric Clayton, or even Virgin Black's style, to a thrash scream and growling when needed. This is definitely not cookie-cutter metal here.

Probably the biggest letdown while listening to this disc is the notable lack of guitar solos. Most of the music consists of heavy, downtuned riffing, with breaks that just scream for a good shredding solo. Apparently, again from my investigations on the interwebs (Google is awesome), the producer decided, for some reason, to cut out the solos in a misguided attempt to make the band sound more like Disturbed. That sucks. Why do producers do that? This would have really been a massive release had they just not tinkered with it to get a "sound-alike" band. But, regardless, The Mark Bleeds Through is a decent listen, pretty heavy and dark. It does suffer from that missing element to really push the music over the edge into awesomeness. Regardless, worth a look at.

[*NOTE: After typing this up, I came across information that, yes, they did happen to break up, with one of the members going on to join Jacob's Dream, with the material for what would have been their second release available online to check out; I was thrown by the Metal Archives site, which had their status listed as "active", which teaches me that I shouldn't always take the normally reliable site as gospel truth, there - Uncle NecRo]

GRAVE FORSAKEN - Fight To The Death

GRAVE FORSAKEN

Fight To The Death

Soundmass

2010

Fight To The Death is Australian metal group Grave Forsaken's fourth full-length studio album, and coincidentally the first and only album of theirs I have. Picked it up recently, actually. Why wait so long, you ask? Mostly due to money issues (i. e. - the lack of therein), but also not really being all that impressed with the couple of cuts from previous albums that were featured on compilations in the past few years. But, since Fight To The Death seems to be the only Grave Forsaken album on eMusic, and it was only $5 for the entire album download, I went ahead and purchased the sucker.

Then I promptly got my face ripped off when I listened to it.

Wow, what have I been missing? This is a fantastic slab of thrash metal, heavy on the METAL. Chock full of monster riffs, heavy rhythms and a buzzsaw attack that will gut you and hang you out to dry. For the most part, Fight To The Death is a thrash metal extravaganza, bringing to mind comparisons with such previous luminaries as Sacrament, really early Living Sacrifice and Mortification - heavy without falling into the whole "speed for speed sake" rut, with vocals that are more of the classic throaty bark, and a very clear lyrical stance in their Christianity. I say, "for the most part", because the song "Call Me A Dreamer" is more of a, how do I put it...not a ballad, per se, but definitely not one that fits in too well with the rest of the material on here. Only a minor distraction, though, as the rest of the album more than makes up for that hiccup.

Fine. I now shall seek out the rest of this band's catalog. If only eMusic can make the rest of them available. Or something. In the meantime, if you love yourself some really tasty thrash, pick up a copy of Fight To The Death. And then crank that sucker.

CLEMENCY - Divine Legions At War

CLEMENCY

Divine Legions At War

Extreme Records

2004

The second release from Brazilian death metal outfit Clemency is...decent. The music strives hard for that fast and brutal style that is reminiscent of such classic bands of the genre such as Dark Angel and Obituary. Strives very earnestly, in fact. It's got that lightning fast blast beat drumming going on, some heavy rhythms and speedy riffs, along with the guttural vocals firmly bringing up the heavy and brutal qualities I oh, so enjoy from death metal. The thing that seems to be keeping Divine Legions At War from being a truly great death metal release is that the music itself seems to be a bit sloppy. I know, I know, a lot of you not familiar with death metal might balk at that, claiming that all of it sounds like a sloppy mess. Well, I'm not talking to you mallcore posers right now, so let's let the adults talk amongst themselves, okay?

See, the afore mentioned drumming does suffer a bit from not being completely tight and on target from time to time, making things kind of disjointed at times. Also, the guitars and drums themselves seem to be a bit murkier in production, making the vocals seem a bit overladed on top of everything. Mind you, it's not a bad release by any means. It's just that Divine Legions At War could use some tightening up in places, and a little better production to really blow me away. Otherwise, Clemency seems to be a band that can really be a force in the death metal genre. Worth checking out.

VIKING - Man Of Straw

VIKING

Man Of Straw

Metal Blade / Lost & Found

1989 / 2006

Viking was one of those obscure-ish brutal thrash metal bands from the 1980s that were sadly overshadowed by the likes of the Big Four (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax, in case you didn't already know), among other contemporaries. They released a debut album in 1988 on Metal Blade Records, which I don't have, then before they recorded their second album - Man Of Straw - a few of the band members became born again Christians, and a number of the songs were re-written to reflect that newfound faith of theirs.

And, of course, the general knee-jerk reaction would be, "Aw, they became Christers? I'll bet the music sucks now." STFU, n00b. Quit being stupid and listen up. Man Of Straw is one of the heaviest thrash metal albums I've heard from the classic era, and can easily go toe-to-toe with the likes of Dark Angel, Overkill, and Exodus...maybe even the likes of Slayer. I don't say that lightly. This stuff is brutal, fast, furious and doesn't let up.

For a while, Man Of Straw was out of print and highly sought after by metal collectors. In 2006, Lost & Found Records re-released the album, with remastered sound, four bonus tracks and an expanded booklet full of photos and song by song commentary. My advice, check out the L&F edition, as it sounds great. Bottom line: Great thrash, grab this and crank it.

DISCARNATED - Deus Misereatur

DISCARNATED

Deus Misereatur

Independent

1993

Discarnated was one of those obscure metal bands I came to know about a while back due to the first Australian Metal Compilation that Rowe Productions put out back in 1994, the Godspeed compilation. The song that was featured on there was "William Melancholy", which, if I remember correctly, I wasn't all that impressed with at the time. Just kind of a ho-hum, mediocre doomy cut on a compilation that featured more mediocre cuts than good. But, I'm on a rabbit trail, let me get back on track.

Recently, I came across a copy of this, Deus Misereatur, the band's only full-length release before splitting up. Doing a bit of research, the band did have one promo demo before, and the vocalist went on to form one of my favorite Australian imports, Virgin Black, so there's that tie-in. But, what we're concerned about is this here disc, and whether or not it's worth my METAL listening time.

Despite my not-so-fond memories of the cut on the previously mentioned compilation CD, this independently released CD is, I must admit, a nice diamond in the rough type. Far from the sludgy doomy death metal represented with "William Melancholy" (something I theorize may have had more to do with the vocalist transitioning to the style), the METAL contained on Deus Misereatur is some fast and furious thrash metal with heavy death metal leanings. There are some serious guitar shreds, as well as blast beats and speedy rhythms galore. I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this CD, and personally am glad I uncovered the thing. The production is pretty raw, but for an independent release from the early 1990s, that is definitely not a big thing. Kind of enhances things, really.

Bottom line, if you like some rare blistering thrash / death metal, early 90s style, scope this disc out if you can. Well worth it. Kind of a bummer that Discarnated only released this, and didn't stay on the same metal path.

AVENGER OF BLOOD - Complete Annihilation

AVENGER OF BLOOD

Complete Annihilation

JCM

2005

After a couple of demos, and growing from just a one-man project of former Vengeance Rising / Biogenesis drummer Shannon Frye to a full-fledged band, Avenger Of Blood released their first full-length in 2005. And what a sweet disc of classic, full-tilt and heavy thrash metal Complete Annihilation is.

The music on this disc obviously takes its inspiration from the greats of the genre, harking back to bands like Exodus, Kreator, and Sodom with its shredding riffs, heavy and fast drumming and vocals that sound like the vocalist gargled with cement earlier. In other words, pure unadulterated heavy thrash metal, in case you didn't catch on earlier in the review, here. The production is raw and a bit muddy, but as with a lot of metal, this works to the band's favor. Full-on headbanging shall ensue when one pops Complete Annihilation in. A very much welcome addition to my thrash collection.