Anniversary Series 108: Dark Tranquillity – Skydancer

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

One of the classic Gothenburg melodeath pioneers, Dark Tranquillity’s debut ‘Skydancer’ is an interesting little time capsule of the scene’s beginnings. It features Anders Friden on vocals, who would move to In Flames in 1995, leaving guitarist and backing vocalist Mikael Stanne to step up and take over. Ironically, Stanne had been vocalist on In Flames’ ‘Lunar Strain’ so this was effectively a swap. That would be beneficial to all, as In Flames AND Dark Tranquillity would go on to take the mantle from At the Gates and become the future of melodic death metal as well as its forefathers.

‘Skydancer’ itself has a lot of the rudimentary melodic guitar work that was starting to emerge in the wake of the Swedish Big Four’s success. I say rudimentary not in terms of talent but more as an emergent idea or concept. ‘De fyra stora’ had always had a subtle melody lurking beneath their classic chainsaw guitars, but it was bands like this who took that in a new and more overt direction. Opener ‘Nightfall by the Shore of Time’ is a great example, still rampant and savage but undeniably meldoic and full of galloping guitar licks. The Swedish interprestation of melodeath always felt like if you crossed classic NWOBHM records with their countrymen. Think Angel Wtich crossed with Dismember or Maiden with Entombed. We’ve seen already in our anniversary series this year that At the Gates were really codifying what melodeath was to become, and ‘Skydancer’ was another important piece. The surprising appearance of clean and female vocals in the incredible ‘A Bolt of Blazing Gold’ and the mournful ‘Through Ebony Archways’ was so unlike anything else in death metal at the time, and while parts of other tracks resemble, strangely, the blasting black metal that was lurking in the shadows ready to kill death metal off, you can literally see all of the bands that will come out of this movement spiralling and splintering off from tracks like ‘My Faeryland Forgotten’.

I remember I first saw Dark Tranquillity live over 15 years ago, and I was blown away then by their combination of melody and savagery. ‘Skydancer’ is a work of art, a benchmark in a genre that slowly became bloated and overdone. But in 1993, DT, In Flames and At the Gates were busy creating an evolution and revolution across the death metal genre. And they’re still going to this day, which is very heartening. It’s time to start giving DT their due much louder and much longer.

https://www.facebook.com/dtofficial

Anniversary Series 107: Atheist – Elements

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

The final record of Atheist’s initial run, and one that was left for 17 years before the follow up, ‘Elements’ celebrates its 30th anniversary today, and stands alongside many others in 1993 as a flagbearer for a death metal scene that was starting to shake under the encroaching black metal shadow. But it was defiantly dropping brilliant albums left and right in an effort to stem the corpse painted tide, and Atheist took it upon themselves to give us their most progressive record yet.

That Atheist sound is instantly recognisable, as is the early 90s death metal production values and general atmosphere. But ‘Elements’ is about as weird as Atheist would get in their originaly run. When you have the jagged, spiralling melodies of ‘Green’, the mesmerising time signature changes of ‘Displacement’, or the oddly melodic yet chaotic funk of ‘Samba Briza’, you feel like Atheist are beginning to reach their apex of progressive death metal. 1993 is a year that is a pinnacle for progressive death, with Pestilence, Atheist, Death, Cynic and Sadist all releasing records that would define a huge amount of the proceeding 30 years of the genre. But it is probably ‘Elements’ that managed to play both sides of the prog/death coin most effectively. Their work was always startling, endlessly creative and unexpected. A great proponent of Tony Choy and his bass front and centre death metal, the magnificent guitar work of Emmi and Burkey spiralling around those brilliant Kelly Shaefer vocals and an octopian drumming performance from Josh Greenbaum leaves most other prog death metal records in the dust. If you want to know how good they were as a band, witness how ‘Minerals’ is somehow one of the grooviest death metal songs you’ve ever heard, and yet still has enough prog elements going on to match anything else on the record. Out-progging Chuck Schuldiner was within their grasp at points, but that salsa interlude gives that idea a little dampening for me.

‘Elements’ is not my favourite Atheist record (that would go to ‘Unquestionable Presence’) but it is an undeniably important and influential masterpiece. It was so good the band disbanded not long in 1994 and didn’t record anything else until 2010! Well, that’s my take on it, I’m sure the reality was different but if that was the case, they wouldn’t have been wrong. ‘Elements’ is repeatedly confounding, maddening and brilliant in every step it takes away from the norm. It remains a major essential in a year of essentials.

https://www.facebook.com/AtheistBand/

Anniversary Series 106: Gorguts – Colored Sands

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

I was fortunate enough to include two Gorguts releases in our anniversary series this year, the first being way back in January on only the 4th edition of the series, the seminal and inescapable ‘The Erosion of Sanity’. We have come almost full circle now with ‘Colored Sands’, the band’s last full length and first for 12 years. It celebrates its tenth anniversary today, and was a return that had been much heralded before its release. It is also a release date that Gorguts shares with two other classic death metal records, so this is a busy day indeed.

I think my first reaction to hearing ‘Colored Sands’ was astonishment. I knew only of Gorguts as a legend by the time I first heard them, as a band long dormant and moreover as a classic influence on bands that had now surpassed them. But by the end of ‘Le Toit Du Monde’, that was a statement made in vain. If anything, the modern revisions to Gorguts’ sound made them even more chaotic, more impressive and much, much more of an essential part of my future listening. The whole album ripples in and out of realities, pioneering that atonal sound that you hear in so many death metal records these days. Alongside some of Meshuggah’s more esoteric later works, I think you’d struggle to argue that ‘Colored Sands’ towers over much of the modern death metal scene with regards to tone and song structure. It appeared at a time when death metal was starting to find some new voices; a warning that not all of the old guard were gone and this one certainly not irrelevant.

When you have the old school death metal ethos clashing directly with progressive, almost mathcore-like song structures, the results could vary. If it was anyone else. Luc Lemay and the crew took almost every extreme musical concept you could conceive and mixed them together into something unbearably brutal. The low crunching, almost Godfleshian industrial nightmare vibe of ‘Forgotten Arrows’, the guitar strings pulled at random throughout the schizophrenic ‘Enemies of Compassion’,  the fragile, soundtrack tones of ‘The Battle of Chamdo’ before the descent into the void; ‘Colored Sands’ is a record that weaves gold from disparate strings, each song compelling you to listen repeatedly to unpick each mind bending twist after another. The final two tracks are one of my all time favourite double headers, from the shuddering power of ‘Absconders’ into the chaotic dirge of ‘Reduced to Silence’, a fittingly brutal, crumbling epitaph.

‘Colored Sands’ is a record that still stands out a decade on for its technical wizardry, the density of its sound and pummelling heaviness, and its range of atonal weirdness. Gorguts have always been a band that played death metal to their own tune, and the fact that so many (SO MANY) bands have taken it upon themselves to try and recreate the magic of ‘Colored Sands’ over the last ten years tells you that, despite the classic nature of their earlier stuff, Gorguts never goes out of style.

https://www.facebook.com/GorgutsOfficial

Review: Millenium – The Sign of Evil

Review by Sandre the Giant

There has been a lot of things for classic heavy metal fans to be happy about in the last few years, and one of them should be the resurrection of Newcastle’s Millenium, returning back in 2015 after an almost 30 year hiatus. Their newest record, ‘The Sign of Evil’, is out now through No Remorse Records and is looking to add them to the pantheon of great British metal legends. They’ve already got the classic 80s debut, let’s see if they can adapt to modern expectations.

Opener ‘There is a Devil’ is classic NWOBHM: duelling guitars, melodic choruses and a charismatic vocal performance from frontman and only current original member, Mark Duffy. A mighty collection of battle anthems, from the thrust of ‘Hell is My Home’ to the Brocas Helm-esque epic ‘Thy Kingdom Come’. Everything about ‘The Sign of Evil’ just screams ‘gritty NWOBHM veterans still kicking ass 40 years on’, and you’d struggle to find many bands of the era that can still rock as hard as this without losing something of the magic. ‘Fall from Grace’ is another great example, galloping twin guitar melodies and gravelly yet rousing vocals  meet with a killer solo and a fist pumping energy. I was literally just espousing the values of a great heavy metal sound with the most recent Dyspläcer record, but Millenium are right up there with them.  The only real difference is that Millenium have got decades of experience behind them

It’s hard to tell just what my favourite moment of ‘The Sign of Evil’, but the energetic and enigmatic ‘Nightmares’ is a good place to start. So much of ‘The Sign of Evil’ is like this; classic heavy metal with enough of a modern slant to give even jaded metallers something to hang onto. Just listen to that chorus in closer ‘March of the Damned’ and tell me you’re not just inspired by the power of metal. Millenium have come back strong in the past few years, but ‘The Sign of Evil’ is their best album yet.

https://www.facebook.com/Millenniumheavymetal/

http://www.noremorse.gr/

Review: Dyspläcer – Temple Heights

Review by Sandre the Giant

The debut record, ‘Temple Heights’, from Rochester New York’s heavy metal heroes Dyspläcer gives away a fair amount of its influences in its cover art. I’m guessing martial arts, Japanese culture, the 80s and bears? It is out now through Bandcamp self released and is looking to be the Killchain’s 2023 frontrunner for heavy metal killer album.

After a suitably stirring, Asian infused intro, the clean tones of ‘Lightning Fury Fist’ takes us on a galloping heavy metal journey. What you’ll immediately notice is that the songs are all pretty long, the shortest still being over four and a half minutes. This runs the risk of everything feeling a little long, but Dyspläcer never falls foul of that. Their songwriting skills, hooks and riffs keeps you rooting for more, and crucially they all have a real 80s metal feeling, not just a faux attempt at ‘retro’. The whole record is full of these kind of emotive, heavy metal blinders from the incredibly anthemic title track to the rocking thunder of ‘Bloodsport’. You’re almost always a mere second or two away from wishing you could be listening to the live versions, because it feels like a crowd pleaser. ‘Forgotten Victories’ gives me pure Angel Witch vibes, while ‘Halls of Justice’ is prime Hammerfall worship in its finest form. Dyspläcer have taken to that epic heavy metal feel that Maiden were doing in the mid 80s and given it a new sheen.

Every year, I try and find the one heavy metal record that really does it for me. Really ticks those old school, classic metal desires that bubble up in me every so often. 2021 was Ültra Raptör, 2022 was Darkthrone, and 2023 is going to be Dyspläcer. ‘Temple Heights’ is a record that, despite its run time, never slows down or falls short of simply sublime It’s definitely one of the records I’ve revisited most this year. You’d have to be a miserable corpse painted prick to not have those horns in the air and your head banging. Thoroughly recommended.

https://www.facebook.com/Dysplacer123

https://dysplacermetal.bandcamp.com/album/temple-heights

Review: Orobas – Upholding the Asuric Traditions

Review by Sandre the Giant

I reviewed the debut EP by Bangladeshi blackened death metallers Orobas, ‘Arise in Impurity’, way back here in 2016 and was impressed with their sound even if it could’ve done with a beefed up production. Well, another EP later, the band are back with a new single, ‘Upholding the Asuric Traditions’, also featuring a Mayhem cover too. It is out now through Slaughterhouse Records.

In the years since ‘Arise in Impurity’, Orobas have definitely beefed up their sound. A thicker, more rounded approach, with a bit of Bolt Thrower power and then an added expansiveness in the riffing and writing has given ‘Upholding the Asuric Traditions’ a really impressive sound. Their cover of ‘Deathcrush’ is relatively faithful to the Mayhem original, but in their own sound it becomes a bruising blast fest that certainly provides more body if losing a little of the raw magic of the original. The thing with covers is you can be really faithful to the original, or you can try and create something a little more unique. You’re never going to get that ‘Deathcrush’ magic just perfect, so why not give it your all as your own band. Orobas took the right option.

If this is a sneak peek of what is coming from a (fingers crossed) full length record, then I think we should all be keeping an eye on Orobas. ‘Upholding the Asuric Traditions’ is a great track, full of potential and I hope it can be realised very soon. Bookmark them for the future.

https://www.facebook.com/orobasofficial

https://orobasofficial.bandcamp.com/album/upholding-the-asuric-traditions-cd-single

https://slaughterhouserex.storenvy.com/

Review: Eyes Eternal – Blood Stained Wings

Review by Sandre the Giant

Anohter one man Irish band, following on from our recent Sonus Mortis piece, is Dublin’s Eyes Eternal. Not another doom band, but a more progressive death and blackened metal project. The debut EP, ‘Blood Stained Wings’, is out now through Bandcamp.

Opener ‘From Red to White’ immediately gives you the feel of progressive death metal, with a myriad of riffs spiralling through each other and a nasty blackened edge to the tone as well. Initially I felt like there was a little Ihsahn solo work in it, but it slowly evolves into something a bit more jagged. There’s some clean vocals that sound a little like M Shadows, you’ve got some bulldozing death metal rumble, there’s a lot going on and this is just the first track! The title track has a harsher black metal feel, definitely adding a more orthodox black metal feel through oddly atonal melodic lines and snarling vocals. ‘Event Horizon’ builds up to a bludgeoning, bruising death metal rampage, while last track ‘The Shadow’ feels like Dissection trying something a little more progressive, with a definitive Gothenburg melodeath gallop thrown in there as well.

‘Blood Stained Wings’ is a challenging work, but in the end manages to bring all those disparate elements together into something compelling. I’m not sure I have or even can fully describe what is going on here, but I know I like it. Complexity abounds but there’s enough headbanging moments to help even the most jaded prog metaller get on board. Eyes Eternal feel like an interesting prospect to keep an eye on for the future, if this is anything to go by.

https://www.facebook.com/EyesEternalBand

https://eyeseternal.bandcamp.com/

Review: Slomatics – Strontium Fields

Review by Sandre the Giant

Belfast sludge doom lords Slomatics have been at this grind for almost two decades at this point, and have been an overshadowing presence for much of the rise of the second wave of British doom throughout the past 10-15 years. Their new record ‘Strontium Fields is their seventh full length, their first since the pre pandemic world of 2019, and is out in September through Black Bow Records.

The sludgy, grinding groove of opener ‘Wooden Satellites’ is an instant hook, drowning in psychedelic background vibes. Vocalist/drummer Marty leads with charismatic, apocalyptic sermons, a siren’s call over such righteous groove and riffs. Just immerse yourself in the thunder of ‘I, Neanderthal’ or the science fiction-laced doom stomp of ‘Like a Kind of Minotaur’; give yourself over to the Slomatics way. ‘Time Capture’ is a very trippy track, an almost soothing clean ambience that feels like it may take a darker turn but it never quite happens. A perfect piece of ambient work still retaining a doomy undercurrent. That science fiction feel starts to come more into the fore of later tracks, like the shape shifting fragility of ‘Voidians’ and the rumbling ‘ARCS’. The delicate ‘Zodiac Art Field’ is a perfect interlude between heavy and ethereal, with its crisp clean guitar melody snaking throughout.

It all comes to a head with ‘With Dark Futures’, a closer that brings everything together in a emotionally weighty piece, capturing the hypnotising riffing and expansive grandeur of modern Slomatics. A surprisingly joyful record, full with a spacious and alluring sound, ‘Strontium Fields’ has all the psychedelica and groove you could ever need, but it feels entwined with a sense of hope, and even of happiness. Slomatics may be as famous for their hammer ton riffs as they are for their songwriting skills, but this is a new level. ‘Strontium Fields’ is a record you can just sink into, without fear of disappearing into murky depths.

https://www.facebook.com/Slomatics/

https://slomatics.bandcamp.com/album/strontium-fields

http://www.blackbowrecords.com/

Anniversary Series 105: Vital Remains – Dechristianize

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

Vital Remains are one of those death metal bands that I feel everyone has heard of but not enough people have listened to. Probably mostly because of their association with Deicide vocalist Glen Benton on their two most recent records, 2007’s ‘Icons of Evil’ and this, 2003’s ‘Dechristianize’, which celebrates its 20th annviersary this month. But their legacy goes back to the early 90s and includes such classic records as ‘Into Cold Darkness’ and ‘Let Us Pray’. Longest running member Tony Lazaro has unfortunately run into some tough times with his health, and I’ve included the GoFundMe at the end of the piece to help with his medical bills. Give what you can folks.

Opening with a suitably apocalyptic and blasphemous intro, you’re thrown in at the deep end of Vital Remains’ most key features; massive songs and massive blasphemy. Regularly topping seven minutes for their tracks, they didn’t play progressive death metal but a fairly technical and brutal style. The main difference is that they were talented enough to make those tracks 8 minutes long rather than four, and that makes them essential in my book! There’s literally hundreds of bands who couldn’t write a great three minute death metal song, and Tony Lazaro is just cranking out seven to eight minute ones like it’s nothing. ‘Dechristianize’ is an HOUR long and yet it flies in, the guttural bellow of Benton providing the perfect accompaniment to just wave after wave of devastating riffs and barrages of blastbeats. There’s plenty of quality soloing, and the whole album has an amazing fluidity to it. For any Deicide fans out there that were severely lacking in quality blasphemy as well, this was the year before ‘Scars of the Crucifix’ finally started to awaken the beast again so it would’ve been a welcome sight to hear Benton’s signature roar over quality death metal for the first time in a number of years.

A band that has kind of faded from the public eye a little, not releasing anything in fifteen years will do that, but a discography littered with great albums, Vital Remains are a must listen if you like old school death metal done right. ‘Dechristianize’ was a breakout effort, perhaps due to the participation of Benton, but the music more than backed up the hype. ‘Icons of Evil’ may be my own personal favourite, but there’s no doubt ‘Dechristianize’ is probably one of the best records of 2003 and it still holds up today easily. Relentlessly heavy and relentlessly evil, this is the good stuff.

https://www.facebook.com/vital.remains.official

https://www.gofundme.com/f/tony-lazaros-medical-support-fund

Review: Marduk – Memento Mori

Review by Sandre the Giant

The blistering, battering, brutal black metal assault of Swedish legends Marduk has been carpet bombing our reality for decades now, and they have rarely let up with their relentless approach to the most monochrome of genres. Their new record ‘Memento Mori’ is out on September 1st through Century Media, and looks to draw attention away from some actions by a now former bandmate and back to the music.

The title track opens the record in sinister form, building from eerie sound effects into an intense black metal barrage. Bilious vocals scour your ears above a veritable saturation bombing of the musical landscape. There’s an interesting tonal shift, slightly off kilter with its approach but nothing takes from the savagery. Through tracks like the scathing ‘Blood of the Funeral’ and the violent sermons of ‘Marching Bones’, Marduk are reaffirming their position as kings of straightforward, straight for the jugular black metal for the strong hearted. Their sound hasn’t evolved a huge amount since ‘Panzer Division Marduk’ in terms of intensity, but I feel their last couple of records do enhance the brutality with subtle atmospheric touches. The haunting intro to ‘Shovel Beats Sceptre’ with its tolling bell really amps up the atmospheric touches, and it continues to enhance throughout the rest of the song. ‘Year of the Maggot’ starts with a creepy dark ambience that lurks beneath when the black metal kicks in proper. It feels like ‘Memento Mori’ has this malevolent spirit watching over it, creating these little feelings of doom, of darkness and of violence that seep through the songs. It comes to a head in the imperious closer ‘As We Are’, a majestic yet feral work.

When you’ve been doing this for as long as Marduk have, you’d think that there’d be the fear of staleness creeping in, or a lack of creativity. But ‘Memento Mori’ feels like the work of a band who are fresh to the scene and are still vitally alive and kicking. There are moments where the blasting threatens to overwhelm you in the best way possible, and at other times the nuanced songwriting takes you a minute to process. But at the end of the day, this is pure Marduk and pure fucking black metal at its most ferocious. Blast it!

https://www.facebook.com/Mardukofficial

https://www.centurymedia.com/