Anniversary Series 009: Primitive Man – Scorn

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

If you’ve never had the pleasure (terror?) of Primitive Man, it may seem almost an odd choice for an Anniversary Series piece. Most of these works are legendary bands or legendary albums, that have some important spot in the history or evolution of metal in its myriad forms. But ‘Scorn’? ‘Scorn’ is here because I fucking LOVE Primitive Man and the earth shaking, devastating sludge horrors that they unleash with every release, and ‘Scorn’ was my first introduction to them. It is a significant album as it is their debut, and despite their slew of splits, EPs and the like, they have only released two other full lengths since. It was also one of my first real forays into blackened/industrial sludge, having slowly worked my way around the genres since I got into the darker side.

The band are labeled up on The Metal Archives as Sludge/Doom/Noise, but the caustic nature of their guitar tone, their vocals and their general attitude has always screamed black metal influences to me too. Maybe it is more noise in places, but as the title track crawls into being, laced with howling feedback, unbearable teeth grinding riffs and guttural roars, there’s a definitive statement on the first two genre parts. The huge low end groove with thick distorted layers above it is pure Godflesh worship, while the nasty nihilistic sludge feeling tears at the vocals. The sickening sway of ‘Rags’ and the creepy industrial horrors of ‘I Can’t Forgot’ give you a little of Axis of Perdition in there too. ‘Antietam’ gives us the first taste of Primitive Man at full speed; a flailing, grinding, bass heavy barrage of filthy riffs and caustic roars that start to crumble down into a miasmic thunder.

The band have leaned in a lot more into the dark ambient/industrial noise influence in more recent releases, notably the hauntingly bleak ‘Steel Casket’ EP, and when it rears its head on ‘Scorn’ it can be truly unsettling. I don’t know what is happening at the start of ‘Black Smoke’, but it is real creepy and never goes away, until it fades into the crusty rampage of ‘Stretched Thin’. Primitive Man never stuck just to an EyeHateGod/Crowbar/Buzzov.en approach, instead their abrasive mix of industrial, death and sludge becomes more and more appealing and relevant every day. Check out ‘Loathe’ or ‘Caustic’ for much more of the same if you love this as much as I did.

https://www.facebook.com/primitivemandoom

Review: Inhuman Depravity – The Experimendead

Review by Sandre the Giant

Turkish brutal death metallers Inhuman Depravity released their second full length record, ‘The Experimendead’, just last year but I haven’t got around to listening to it until now. The band had left 7 years since their debut and got a new singer as well, so I’m interested to see how this has benefitted the band. ‘The Experimendead’ is out now through Gruesome Records.

The band don’t fuck around from the get go, laying track after track of bulldozing, guttural death metal that isn’t really quite as brutal death as I thought, more like an old school death sound where vocalist Lucy Ferra lives just so comfortably. Her voice is flexible and dynamic, without losing any of the brutal factor. The music reminds me a lot of prime Suffocation, the old school masterclass of ‘Whole Body Radiation’ shows that you don’t need to descend to the ugliest, pig squealing music to give us brutality. More bands should take this lesson from InHuman Depravity; the classic brutal death metal bands weren’t merely interested in the chug chug chug, ‘skrrrreeee skrrreeee skrrrrreeeeee’ but the creation of something technically impressive as well. Their debut, ‘Nocturnal Carnage by the Unholy Desecrator’ was more of that style of brutal death, whereas this record is a more mature and straightforward approach instead.

It’s hard to pull a specific track out as a standout, as they are all really solid, enjoyable slabs of old school death. I do enjoyed the early 90s deaththrash gallop of ‘Death 22’, or the frenzied crunch of ‘Beyond Rhythm Zero’, but to be honest you’ll probably enjoy everything here if you like death metal. Which luckily for Inhuman Depravity, I do. A lot. A really solid and fun record for smashing shit up with.

https://www.facebook.com/Inhumandepravity

https://gruesomerecords.wordpress.com/

https://gruesomerecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-experimendead-2022

Review: Sermon – Till Birth Do Us Part

Review by Sandre the Giant

Turkish gothic death/doom band Sermon gave me a chance to hear three of the tracks from their upcoming debut full length, ‘Till Birth Do Us Part’ last summer, which I reviewed here and I’m glad to see that all made it onto the final release, ‘Till Birth Do Us Part’ is due out in February physically through Bitume Productions and digitally through Earache Records.

Opening with the Swallow the Sun-meets-Type O gothic doom of ‘Posthumous’ is a great call, as I think that was my favourite track before. The classic My Dying Bride-isms shine through in the first half, while nods to ‘Bloody Kisses’ covers the second half of the song with an almost romantic gloom. ‘Sliver/Splinter’ is a sleek, lumbering beast of a track; it reminds me a lot of Moonspell though with its regal gothic leanings and this is an ongoing theme throughout. There are plenty of massive riffs, but it seems more about creating this rich atmosphere to set the songs in, rather than just earth shaking yet plain riffs. That atmosphere is instantly enhanced by the weeping violins of ‘Flawless Entropy’, a track that definitely has an unusual dynamic to it. ‘Requitement’ has that soulful melancholic melody accompanying a thick, swaggering riff, while the cold organ notes of ‘Cerulean’ really ramp up that gothic atmosphere too back into that Moonspell territory I mentioned earlier.

As the elegant yet morose trudge of ‘The Jupiterian Effect’ brings us to a delicately woven end, Sermon’s music is a rich tapestry of gloomy, deathly riffs and vocals smothered in this rich, almost decadent atmosphere. Like a velvet shroud over a decaying body, ‘Till Birth Do Us Part’ is at once miserable and beautiful, bleak and yet magnificent. The rest of this record lived up to the hype I got for the first three, and I’m very happy about that.

https://www.facebook.com/sermonTR

https://www.facebook.com/bitumeprods

https://bitumeprods.bandcamp.com/

https://earache.lnk.to/TillBirthDoUsPart

Review: Bastard Grave – Vortex of Disgust

Review by Sandre the Giant

The third record from Swedish death metal bruisers Bastard Grave (what a name) is ‘Vortex of Disgust’, which is going to be released in March through Pulverised Records. Bastard Grave aren’t just another chainsawing Swedeath band either, bringing a denser and swampier sound to an old school death metal approach. Changing expectations early is always a good thing.

‘Sunder the Earth’ isn’t quite immediate HM-2 pedal worship stuff, but you can tell the spirit of their forebearers runs deep in Bastard Grave. The undeniable memorability of Swedish classics is here, hidden melody lurking beneath brutal riffs and almost a d-beat approach in places. What Bastard Grave do with those classic Swedeath riffs though is run them through a swampy Scandinavian marsh to give you something really murky and volatile. The tones are sickeningly heavy in ‘Consumed and Forgotten’ which is one of death metal’s most interesting songs for 2023 so far while the rabid monster ‘Eternal Decomposition’ is one that you’ll struggle to remove from your mind. Each track reminds you in different ways how diverse a sound can be created under a certain genre tag or geographical stereotype. The more measured sections of ‘Necrotic Ecstasy’ are a real eye opener, confirming suspicions that this isn’t just a tribute act to a time long past.

Imagine Dismember meets Autopsy and you’re just about there with Bastard Grave. Their festering, rotten take on old school death metal is pretty vicious, and while sometimes you may feel like ‘Vortex of Disgust’ is about to become a bit by the numbers, you’re hit with a killer riff or a tonal shift that you weren’t ready for, and it is great again. Keeping one of the most classic scenes alive, one diseased riff at a time.

https://www.facebook.com/BastardGrave

https://bastardgrave.bandcamp.com/

http://www.pulverised.net/

Review: Sarcoptes – Prayers to Oblivion

Review by Sandre the Giant

American black metallers Sarcoptes have been around since 2008 but this is only their second full length, after 2016’s ‘Songs and Dances of Death’ and I first came upon the band on 2020’s ‘Plague Hymns’, which was a well received and fiery EP. ‘Prayers to Oblivion’ is out in February through Transcending Obscurity.

What Sarcoptes do very well, and it becomes immediately apparent, is long black metal songs that do not feel repetitive nor overdone. That is a skill when your opening track is 14 minutes long. An interconnected series of songs about historical tragedies, opener ‘The Trench’ is unsurprisingly led in my the sounds of bombs, gunfire and an unsettlingly quickening heartbeat. This is no atmopsheric black metal band where its one riff pattern that spirals off into oblivion. The precise, razorblade sharp guitar work is incredible, bringing to mind the likes of Emperor or Dissection and that looming grandeur behind it? It feels orchestral but not overblown, synth and keyboard enhancing the fury and dynamism of the guitar riffs instead of drowning them. ‘Spanish Flu’ smashes in next with a prime dose of occultish blackened thrash; breakneck riffing and screams all backed up by a haunting keyboard refrain.

The shift between energetic short thrasher and epic black metal odyssey is surprisingly difficult to notice at times, because Sarcoptes play at a blinding speed most of the time anyway, and that their music never feels long. I was amazed that I’d been listening to ‘Dead Silence’ for nine minutes at one point, such is the variety, the nuance and the sheer furious rage of it all. But when the band decide to slow it down towards the end, all of a sudden this rage morphs into an expanse of beautiful sound. ‘Tet’ pours more gasoline onto the fire and roars into life like a blazing comet of black thrash greatness before ‘Massacre at My Lai’ proves to be the pinnacle of Sarcoptes’ ability to give us a rampant fourteen minute song that never gets boring or rote. It’s the kind of music that 1983 Metallica could’ve written if somehow Sodom and Kreator had inspired them.

This is going to sound a bit like a weird comparison, but this record sounds really like early 2000s Dimmu, but if you stripped away all the peripherals and just kept the black metal bits. Or ‘Anthems’-era Emperor with less prog. The songwriting is insidiously memorable, the tones of guitar and bass are excellent and the drumming performance is massive. Add just the right amount of keyboard dashes when required and you’ve got the kind of vast, powerful black metal I’ve been waiting for. ‘Prayers to Oblivion’ is classic black metal done with modern production values and it sounds incredible.

https://www.facebook.com/SarcoptesOfficial/

https://sarcoptes.bandcamp.com/

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Anniversary Series 008: Stratovarius – Elements Pt. I

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

There isn’t a lot of bands on my Anniversary Series plans that have multiple entries, let alone two in the same year but Stratovarius aren’t a band you could call lazy with their release schedule. ‘Elements Pt. I’ and ‘Elements Pt. II’ were both released in 2003, and we will get to the second one much much later in the year, but it is interesting that the band released them as two separate records rather than a double album.

There is dichotomy between the two releases but I’ve decided to mainly concentrate on the first record here and leave more direct comparisons until part two. ‘Eagleheart’ is everything a Stratovarius opener should be; a galloping anthem for us all to sing along with. ‘Elements I’ came out at the start of a prime year for power metal, possibly one of the best for the genre ever, and yet it already had competition in Kamelot and Dragonforce. But Stratovarius were on album nine here, and their grasp on the genre and its little nuances was almost perfect by now. Grandiose but not overbearing, Stratovarius were masters of the craft. The brooding ‘Soul of a Vagabond’, the classic speed metal thrust of ‘Find Your Own Voice’ creates a steady base for the big epics to follow.

One of my favourite, and one of the best, voices in the whole of metal has been Timo Kotipelto. From the moment I first heard him on 2005’s ‘Polaris’, subsequently diving back into their back catalogue, I was enthralled by the power and majesty of his voice and he gets the full range of vocals on ‘Elements I’. He guides the stories, creates the drama and gives gravitas to the amazing guitarwork of Timo Tolkki. In fact, ‘Fantasia’ alone gives you everything that Stratovarius do better than almost anyone else at the time, a sweeping power metal epic only bettered by the even more overwrought drama of ‘Elements’ itself. The balance of the album is great too, separating out the two big centrepieces with the power balladry of ‘Learning to Fly’, the soaring ‘Papillon’ and the technical showcase of ‘Stratofortress’ with its dervish-like guitar and keyboard duel.

‘Elements Pt.I’ would have been enough to put Stratovarius on the radar for end of the year lists, let alone two releases. It has got almost everything you would need in power metal in the early 2000s. The pedigree of the band was starting to become almost legendary at this point, and their ‘Keeper of the Seven Keys’-esque masterpiece was only half done.

https://www.facebook.com/stratovarius

Anniversary Series 007: Dragonforce – Valley of the Damned

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

Fucking Dragonforce is it? Best known for their ludicrous, video game breaking ‘Through the Fire and Flames’, and a penchant for more notes than sense, it is hard to believe that they started off as an honest to Thor classic power/ultraspeed metal band back in the late 90s/early 2000s. Their first release under the Dragonforce name (they had previously been known briefly as DragonHeart), ‘Valley of the Damned’ came out January 27th, 2003, and we’re marking twenty years of EXTREME POWER METAL!!

The thing is, the debut record is absolutely standard power metal, but played generally faster. What I have always loved about ‘Valley of the Damned’ though, other than my favourite DF song (how fucking good is ‘Black Winter Night’?), is that the straightforward nature of it compared with what was to come. ‘Sonic Firestorm’ was probably the perfect balance of crazy speed and guitar fireworks beside truly great songs, but ‘Valley of the Damned’ has it in spades too. The title track is a relentless gallop, with original vocalist ZP Theart in full power. You get a mix of early Helloween or Gamma Ray, balanced with a hefty dose of Rhapsody-esque grander but never heading in one direction or the other fully. In fact, they might be closer to a power-thrash act here with the speed, but with a hugely melodic side

In fact, everything that you’d grow to love (or hate) about Dragonforce is right here from the start. The overblown choruses, the galloping speedy riffs, the killer soloing and the heart pounding enthusiasm.The obligatory power ballad is here too, ‘Starfire’, and I’ll tell you something horrible to admit, but it is really good. Real lighters up shit, the way power metal ballads should be. The stirring thrust of ‘Revelations’, the histrionic guitar heroics of ‘Disciples of Babylon’ and the chest beating anthem of ‘Heart of a Dragon’ to close, all trademarks of what was to become the Dragonforce sound; singalong choruses sweeter than syrup, riffs so melodic your fist would come off if it went any higher and an obsession with speed that has never stopped.

It seems a little daft to think it now, but this was so fresh in 2003. European power metal was really starting to feel a little stale by this point, despite great records being released it just started to feel a little directionless. Dragonforce gave the whole genre a good kick in the arse, and I think this led to their popularity just a year later on ‘Sonic Firestorm’. Even today, when they have slowed down a touch, there’s no one that really sounds like Dragonforce. When you look at the genre peers at the time, they were either doing grandiose concepts (‘A Night at the Opera’, ‘Symphony of Enchanted Lands II’), more melodic heavy metal thunder (‘Crimson Thunder’, ‘Epica’) or maintaining the status quo with killer records of their own (‘Winterheart’s Guild’, ‘Burning Earth’). No one was trying to do anything like Dragonforce and love them or hate them, you’ve got to respect that.

https://www.facebook.com/dragonforce

Review: Grave Alter – Grave Alter

Review by Sandre the Giant

If there’s one thing that the Killchain will never complain about in this world, it is a proliferation of knuckle dragging, caveman death metal bands who give you the desired old school death metal demo scene vibe we all need. Enter Grave Alter, a one man outfit from Texas whose self titled EP is coming to deliver this exact style to you on the 14th of February 2023

The eponymous track is a massive, thick riffed beast. The guitar tone is positively diseased, submerged in poisonous distortion while guttural vocals fight for air amongst the old school death. This whole flavour soaks through every moment of these three tracks, even the subtle organ notes of ‘Sentenced to Rot’s intro piece before the obliterating, clubbing blows come to your cranium. This is a particularly relentless song, bulldozing through ancient mossy graveyards like a shambling zombie beast, with some really nice trembling guitar melody lines in amongst the chugging brutality and that last minute of carnage is absolutely awesome.

‘Stench of the Indoctrinated’ finishes strongly as well, an impenetrable wall of death fading into a tolling bell and Grave Alter don’t just fall into the same traps that many OSDM bands do these days. The riffs aren’t boring rehashes of Obituary or Autopsy classics, they have their own identity and feel (a totally unbreakable wall of sound effect I really like), as well as providing a really authentic feeling of decay and primal ugliness. This could be a band to watch very closely.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089220098392

https://gravealter.bandcamp.com/album/grave-alter

Review: Estrangement – Disfigurementality

Review by Sandre the Giant

The work of one Australian multi-instrumentalist, JS, Estrangement’s debut record ‘Disfigurementality’ has been almost ten years in the making, and promises much as death/doom goes. Drawing deep, gothic inspirations from their peers, Estrangement aren’t here to be your genre hugging doom band, this looks to be something very different. ‘Disfigurementality’ is out now through Aesthetic Death.

The haunting droning darkness of ‘Destitution Stench’, unsettling stringed instruments and vocal incantations lead us to ‘Detritivore’, a cacophonous death/doom titan that is replete with maddening moments of ferocity and yet orchestral grandeur as well. Mournful violin and flutes play havoc across a brutalising death metal approach before it morphs into something darker and more regal. Estrangement owe a vast debt to My Dying Bride; the melancholic gothic doom violins and piano pay homage in an obvious way but the album as a whole is certainly of that olden, orchestral death/doom that you’d find on ‘Turn Loose the Swans’. The vocal diversity of JS is astounding as well as his instrumental talents; his screams and growls are great but when that rich, Aaron Stainthorpe-esque clean vocal hits on ‘Womb of Worlds’, man it is spine tingling.

‘The Light Unshown’ is a great example of that immediately, moving at a glacial, ice cold pace while little flourishes of acoustic guitar drift slowy in the middle portion, and then back again. The ebb and flow is pretty good, and the weirdness intensifies the further you get through. ‘Fire Voice’ has throat singing, dark ambient sections as well as majestic gothic doom and flamenco guitar in one of the year’s most interesting pieces. ‘Clusters’ is similarly odd, stretching everything to its most horrifying limits in a droning, dark doom ambience that pulls on the strings of your sanity in unpleasant ways. ‘Asleep in the Vineyard’ is inches away from being an incidental piece in the background of a Sergio Leone movie for the first half, while ‘Doppelganger’ sounds like someone turned up latter Cathedral so loud the earth cracked open and swallowed you whole into the psychedelic depths of hell.

‘Disfigurementality’ is an album that swings so obtusely from a vast array of styles and influences that it should be far more disjointed than it is. Far from it though, as a full listening experience it has a nagging ability to return to your mind and worm its way in. A unique record that will forever remand the jazz flute to the more psyche bending corners of my awareness, Estrangement have obviously spent that decade perfecting and distilling madness into this great work. It cannot and should not be missed.

https://www.facebook.com/estrangementdoom/

https://estrangement.bandcamp.com/music

https://www.aestheticdeath.com/

Review: Skáld – Huldufólk

Review by Sandre the Giant

Originally published here: https://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/skald-huldufolk/

With the explosion in popularity of the Vikings TV shows, Wardruna and Norse culture in general, it is amazing how many of these Norse pagan folk acts have appeared in the past decade. I spent a lot of the pandemic listening to this style of music, and immersing myself in the culture of my forefathers, even if it still can feel like an alien world to get to grips with. Skáld, a French Nordic folk group who have been going since 2018, have release their new record, ‘Huldufólk’, out now through Decca/Universal and looks to retell tales of Scandinavian legends in the most authentic way.

The Huldufólk of the title are the ‘hidden people’; creatures like trolls, elves and the like whose tales are told throughout this record. First mentioned in the sagas of Snorri Sturluson in the Prose Edda, their legends make up the mythology of Viking culture that still pervades even to this day. Producer/composer Christophe Voisin-Boisvinet has gathered a large group of contributing musicians to the Skáld collective, each bringing traditional instruments or style to give each of these tracks as authentic a feel as possible. This results in a haunting tribalism, where ritualistic drumming tethers every song to a frozen ground while the rest creates a perfect skaldic atmosphere. The ancient balladry of ‘Då Månen Sken’, the pounding ‘Ljósálfur’, the powerful loneliness of ‘Hinn Mikli Dreki’, each track has its own magic to weave into the rich tapestry of its influences.

‘Ríðum, Ríðum’ is a favourite of mine, a menacing yet anthemic piece that starts off full of subtle threat but evolves into much more majestic and sombre tones. The songs are performed in a variety of Northern languages; Faroese, Icelandic, Old Norse, Swedish, Danish, each giving its subject matter that extra taste of authenticity. That is enhanced by use of lyre, hurdy-gurdy, nyckelharpa and other traditional instruments. You could of course argue that authentic feeling is shattered by the appearance of Rammstein and Cure covers at the end here, but when ‘Du Hast’ changes from martial industrial stomp to shamanistic battle song, and ‘A Forest’ becomes a dark warning about the woods, it is a testament to the group’s approach that they don’t necessarily break the spell.

I suppose it very much depends on your interest in the subject matter here, but ‘Huldufólk’ is a record that is meticulously created and performed in order to create the most legitimate Norse folk experience possible. Skáld do so with emotion, with what feels like an intimate understanding of what these stories mean and how their place in mythology and indeed current day belief systems are intricately tied to the skaldic performance tradition as well. ‘Huldufólk’ just FEELS right you know? It feels authentic in a way that a lot of these Viking groups struggle to. Skáld aren’t quite Wardruna level, but outside of Nytt Land they may be the best attempt I’ve heard so far.

https://www.facebook.com/skaldvikings

https://skald.lnk.to/Huldufolk