2024 Anniversary Series 036: Trouble – Psalm 9

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

While doom metal may have been birthed by Black Sabbath well over a decade before Trouble’s debut record came out in March of 1984, this release alongside the self titled Saint Vitus debut we talked about in January really marked the true birth of the genre as a separate force that was here to stay. ‘Psalm 9’, as it was renamed after Trouble released another self titled record in 1990 (‘Psalm 9’ was originally self titled) is a benchmark of doom metal’s emergence into the world, a work of unparalleled brilliance and foundational influence. It is also full of bangers, so let’s see why 40 years on people still revere it.

You can pull any track from this record, and feel its riffs, its vocals, its whole vibe just echo around most doom metal records you’ve heard in the past 40 years. Take ‘Assassin’ for example, I mean how many riffs have been mined from that classic gallop by the likes of Grand Magus or High on Fire? Candlemass built a career on songs just like ‘Victim of the Insane’, while the earth shaking riffs of Cathedral took more than a little from ‘Endtime’. The lyrics and themes mostly coming from the Bible is also now a stalwart of doom records, the overarching themes of Christian theology has pervaded much of doom metal in either positive or negative ways, and you have a real germination of that right here. The title track ripples with the kind of instant-classic feeling topped off by Eric Wagner’s iconic voice, while the cover of Cream classic ‘Tales of Brave Ulysses’ seems like one of those perfect synergy moments where influence and execution come together in harmony. Wagner’s voice may be one of Trouble’s most potent weapons, but without the rest of the guys it would feel homeless.

There’s no doubt that Trouble took a huge amount from Sabbath, that earth shaking boogie in ‘Revelation (Life or Death)’ is an obvious one, but they managed to take that heavy bluesy doom stride and give it their own identity. This didn’t sound just like Sabbath, nor did it sound exactly like Saint Vitus either. What we now know as ‘sounds like Trouble’ was a powerful, low end groove laden monster that stood tall thanks to killer riffs, apocalyptic theological themes and that charismatic gruff croon of Eric Wagner. In 2024, it is still a great doom record, in 1984 it was a revolution. A classic it remains to this day.

https://www.facebook.com/TroubleMetal

Review: Defect Designer – Chitin

Review by Sandre the Giant

The new record from originally Russian, now Norwegian death metallers Defect Designer comes to us courtesy of Transcending Obscurity, so of course my interest was peaked immediately. The band have been known for being a little unpredictable in their approach to genre boundaries, so ‘Chitin’ is a record I’ve been looking forward to for a while. It is out now.

Opener ‘Uglification Spell’ has a hint of grindy madness about it, a chunky yet serrated guitar tone rolling through nasty growls and jagged rhythms. ‘To Ziggurat’ has all kinds of dissonant bends and pulls, and this kind of oddball weirdness mixed with a guttural heaviness is exactly what you can expect from a Defect Designer record. They can be bludgeoning you senseless one minute (‘Certainty After the Kafkaesque Twist’), and the next be twanging and rending cosmic horror melodies from ugly dimensions the next (‘We Will Need Your Chitin’). The melding and reforging of seemingly disparate elements into a cohesive and yet writhing mess is what makes this band really stand out. Each song stands on its own as a unique piece, and yet ‘Chitin’ as an album feels very much together. I mean, you’re very unlikely hear anything like the anthemic gallop of ‘Shine Shine’ on any other death metal record this year, and it features the talents of Björn Strid too, which might give you a clue as to its particularly unique charm. It needs to be heard.

TO have found another gem, and at this point their hit rate is almost 100%. ‘Chitin’ is a fearsome, fire breathing death metal record that has so many interesting twists and turns that you cannot help but remain mesmerised all the way through. Ferocious, experimental and incredibly interesting, ‘Chitin’ has all the best elements of grinding death metal and elastic, fervent grindcore rolled into one. If you haven’t discovered Defect Designer yet, now is the time.

https://www.facebook.com/defectdesigner1/

https://defect-designer.bandcamp.com/

https://transcendingobscurity.bandcamp.com/

Live Review: Emperor/Winterfylleth (22/03/24)

This was a night I had waited for for a long time. I’d say almost twenty years to be honest, since the first time I heard ‘In the Nightisde Eclipse’ and finally GOT black metal. You know those genres where you just can’t quite click with it, then all of a sudden a song hits you and everything opens up like a spring bloom? ‘Into the Infinity of Thoughts’ did that to me when I was 19, and Emperor have been my favourite black metal band since. They haven’t played in Scotland since 1993, and I had never seen them live in any of their other appearances over the years becuase it was always London and that just wasn’t feasible. It was a wet, cold night outside the famous Barrowland ballroom in the queue, but inside there was about to be the flames of true Norwegian black metal.

First up were support act Winterfylleth however, who I have seen before but not on such a big stage. Their epic atmospheric black metal works well in a large space, cascading from the speakers as tales of ancient hills and the pagan history of our isles flowed from their instruments. I’ll never get used to a black metal band that look like they could also be office workers and also crack the occasional, but Winterfylleth’s music was glorious tonight, setting the scene for what was to come. We even got a couple of new songs, played live for the first time, a taste of their new record due in the autumn.

What was to come was probably one of the best gigs of my life, and definitely the best black metal gig I had ever seen. I mentioned to a friend earlier in the day that if I got to hear ‘Into the Infinity of Thoughts’ live then my life would be complete, and it was the opener. Icy cold perfection, and it just kicked Emperor’s performance into the highest gear. The band were astoundingly tight, every track was classic after classic, and before I even forget, it was an entire performance of ‘Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk’ to top it all off. The album wasn’t played in order, appearing in between other such essentials like ‘Curse You All Men’ and ‘In the Wordless Chamber’.

Outside the opener, my own personal highlights were a staggering version of ‘Thus Spake the Night Spirit’ and a roaring ‘Inno a Satana’, but nothing was anything less that perfect. ‘Ensorcelled by Khaos’ had us all entranced with black metal magic, and while Ihsahn and Samoth were the focus, Secthdamon’s bass and Trym’s drumming were on point. We even had Jørgen Munkeby from Shining providing keyboard work as well, making sure every part of the show was authentic and true. Samoth’s guitar burned icy blasts of iconic riffing, while Ihsahn’s charismatic and unique vocal talents lent everything a mix of savagery and ethereal power. Like I said at the top, Emperor’s show on this night is forcing its way into my top 3 shows of all time, and I hope it isn’t another 30 years before they make it back to Scottish shores. Unbelievably good.

2024 Anniversary Series 035: Necrophagist – Epitaph

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

The final record from Germany’s Necrophagist was, whether accidentally or not, fittingly titled ‘Epitaph’ as so it has remained for over 2 decades at this point. A record whose stature has grown slowly over the years to allow it to be regarded as a true classic of the genre, a tentpole release in a time of resurgence and rebirth, but also a record that spent much of its first decade of existence cast in the ever deepening shadows of rumours about its non existent follow up. Therefore we at the Killchain are about to cast more light upon it, and wax lyrical about one of death metal’s most talked about records.

The follow up to ‘Epitaph’, which has and probably will never come, has almost become more important than ‘Epitaph’ itself. Necrophagist’s debut ‘Onset of Putrefaction’ was a fantastic if slightly underappreciated piece of brutal and technical death metal, and ‘Epitaph’ is where mainman Muhammed Suiçmez took the songwriting and composition to a whole new level. There’s a reason that twenty years on, people still discuss this record in hushed tones. Tracks like ‘Stabwound’, the baroque influenced ‘Only Ash Remains’ and the bass heavy assault of ‘Symbiotic in Theory’ not only still resonate years later with their quality, but you can feel their influences threading through much of progressive and technical death metal bands now. ‘Epitaph’ arrived during the rebirth of death metal in the early 2000s, and Necrophagist feel like the progenitors of Hour of Penance and Fleshgod Apocalypse, technical and brutal bands who still have a sense of the composition rather than just the ‘how many notes a second can you get’. Much of modern tech death is missing that subtlety, and I think they could all do with putting ‘Epitaph’ on and learning something.

‘Epitaph’ seems to have been the final work of Necrophagist forever, and whether by design or not seems to have been an utterly defining work for their existence. An album that even to this day should be respected and loved much more for its musical achievements than just its legacy as a stepping stone to a ‘greater’ sequel. We spent too much time cracking jokes about how long do we have to wait for another Necrophagist record, when we should’ve just been heaping praise upon this glorious achievement of sublime technical death metal, full of tracks that remain iconic even to this day. Our hubris in demanding ‘what’s next?’ leaves us open to missing what is right in front of us.

https://www.facebook.com/Necrophagist

Review: Peter Wolff & Jens Borgaard – Destroyer

Review by Sandre the Giant

Originally published here: https://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/peter-wolff-jens-borgaard-destroyer/

The 3rd solo record from Downfall of Gaia’s Peter Wolff, ‘Destroyer’ sees him collaborate with Dutch folk singer Jens Borgaard as well as visual artist Kai Lietzke who had worked with Wolff on his previous album ‘Breath’. Now, I am not familiar with Wolff’s previous work, but I do know Downfall of Gaia, so I am very interested in how this release will sound. The idea for the record came from the concept of a man who causes a fatal car crash, and his thoughts/feelings about how it was caused and how, despite his efforts to disassociate himself from blame for it, everything he now knows will be destroyed. A heavy concept but one ripe with opportunities for atmospheric storytelling.

Opener ‘Dwell’ gives you a thrumming, slightly uncomfortable beat with scratchy melodies creeping under the charismatic voice of Borgaard; the whole piece gives you a real foreboding and that is a vibe that continues to rear its head frequently throughout ‘Destroyer’. You would never expect an album built around such concepts to be an easy listen, but somehow each track becomes more and more haunting. The swelling crawl of ‘End’, the graceful piano of ‘Serene’, the sleek drone of ‘Transmit’, each track is part of a complete experience and could not have the same effect if listened to separately from each other. Where ‘Destroyer’ really starts to become visceral is ‘Rain’, where harsh industrial samples crash and splinter behind the apocalyptic poetry of the lyrics. It is a real intensity shift from before, which makes the tranquil follow up ‘Observe’ feel even more like a respite. You feel aware of every inch of the story being woven, be it through the evocative vocals of Borgaard or through the atmospheric interplay of Wolff’s soundscapes.

From the almost cyberpunk soundscapes of ‘You’ to the darkness of ‘Extole’, ‘Destroyer’ is more of a work of experimental art than a mere listening experience. If you want to gain the full pleasure from this, I recommend the full audio/visual experience, but if you only have time for the musical side, then this is more than worth your time. Evocative, mesmerising and a truly driven, focused dark ambient piece in a genre that can sometimes lack that.

https://www.facebook.com/PeterWolffMusic

https://www.facebook.com/borgaardmusic

https://myproudmountain.bandcamp.com/album/destroyer

Live Review: Cryptopsy/Atheist/Almost Dead/72 Legions (21/03/24)

This was about to be a big 48 hours in the world of the Killchain’s live music experience. 6 bands, 2 gigs, 5 of which I had never seen before. It has been somewhat of a target of mine to try and see as many bands I’ve never seen live before I miss the opportunity, and my first night was an absolute doozy. Some of death metal’s most important artists, one having never played in Scotland before ever? I’m in, trudging on a damp night to SLAY in Glasgow, full of the cough, ready to bang my fucking head.

But first, the supports. I had utterly missed the fact that 72 Legions were up first, just arriving at the venue when they were starting their set. I was aware of their first EP which I thought was OK, and hadn’t really checked out their newest release. Well, colour me idiotic because I was really unaware of how much game 72 Legions had. Their music is tight, brutal and utterly punishing live, and it really left me feeling daft that I hadn’t given them as much of a chance as I should have on record. That has been rectified since.

https://www.facebook.com/72Legions

Californian bruisers Almost Dead were up next, and while their Encyclopedia Metallum entry might list them as ‘Thrash/Groove’, their live performance gave me a lot more Black Dahlia Murder meets Agnostic Front. They had plenty of massive dumb breakdowns that lit up the pit, huge hardcore vibes racing through frontman Tony Rolandelli’s delivery, and he was so enthused he fell off the stage and broke his mic at one point. He also performed one song from in the pit, which made Almost Dead a big fan favourite on the night. If you like ‘proper’ deathcore like The Acacia Strain, then Almost Dead do some hard shit that you’ll probably love. Their live shows are brilliant.

https://www.facebook.com/BayAreaHardcoreMetal

A dimly lit stage was the only flaw in an incredible performance next from iconic progressive death metallers Atheist, whose set was mostly drawn from their utterly perfect 1991 record ‘Unquestionable Presence’ but also contained plenty of other such classics too. We got a staggering version of ‘Piece of Time’, a tribute to the late great Roger Patterson’s incredible basswork, as well as all timers like ‘Enthralled in Essence’ and so much more. “Do you want it to get weird?” frontman Kelly Schaefer asked, and we all of course agreed. It is why we love Atheist, a sound like no other and fully happy to descend into funky, jazzy samba when required, and back to proggy old school death. This was going to be a hard act to follow.

https://www.facebook.com/AtheistBand

So Cryptopsy did what only Cryptopsy could do to compete with it; they fucking set themselves on destruction mode and absolutely wrecked the place with their uber technical and uber brutal sound. Pulling classics from all across their career, including from ‘None So Vile’, their debut demo from 1993 and plenty from their 30th-anniversary-celebrating-debut ‘Blasphemy Made Flesh’ (expect an anniversary piece on that this year). Flo Mounier was superlative on drums, and the rest of the band were just as good. I fell off the Cryptopsy bandwagon a bit back when they released ‘The Unspoken King’, but tonight they proved that their incredible discography is a match for anyone in the genre. An utterly devastating finale to a night rife with death metal magic. What a gig!

https://www.facebook.com/cryptopsyofficial

2024 Anniversary Series 034: Dismember – Where Ironcrosses Grow

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

We talked about the mighty Dismember on last’s year’s Anniversary Series, but until we get that long awaited new album I’m going to keep talking about them. This month marks the 20th anniversary of their ‘Where Ironcrosses Grow’ record, a release that provided yet more impetus for the return to prominence of death metal that the early 2000s was starting to ferment. Who better than an innovator, a primal force in Swedish death metal, to add another layer to the renaissance?

The thing about ‘Where Ironcrosses Grow’ is that, while it could never be ‘Like an Everflowing Stream’, it might be Dismember’s best record in my opinion. It has everything you’ve ever loved about Swedish death metal, from guitar tone to innately hooky anthems of death and destruction. The melodic guitar work on the likes of ‘As I Pull the Trigger’ and the infectious ‘Where Angels Fear to Tread’ are absolutely top level Scandinavian gold. It is a fiercely traditional record from a band who didn’t attempt to change their sound to follow trends later in the 90s, and it comes wrapped in one of the legendary Dan Seagrave’s most iconic works (one of three he did for the band). What this record really had on its side was timing. The release of a new record by one of the genre’s most influential bands, coming right as the genre was dragging itself back onto its feet and becoming important again was such a perfect moment of cohesion. In that previous month or so, we’d seen new and great material from Decapitated, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse and we were about to get what became the final release of Necrophagist too. The rest of 2004 would continue the pattern that 2003 began, and here were the kings of old school Swedeath dropping a classic. The synergy of death metal’s return was real.

While ‘Where Ironcrosses Grow’ may not be the most renowned record in the canon of Dismember’s discography, it is the one I find myself returning to a lot. My first Dismember record was the follow up to this, 2006’s ‘The God That Never Was’, but I immediately took to the sound and worked backwards, so of course this was my first stop. It remains a constant choice for me when asked ‘what are the more underrated records in death metal history’, and it can hold its own easily against most anything that the band ever put out. Dismember are a band that never need to release a new record, for what they have given us already is close to perfection, but I wouldn’t say no if they did and it sounded like this

https://www.facebook.com/dismemberswedenofficial

2024 Anniversary Series 033: Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

With hindsight, Nine Inch Nails were always destined to be huge. An ecletic and electric mix of anthemic industrial beats, driving rock and a charismatic auteur frontman and mastermind who could conjure his personal demons into musical gold. But in 1994, we couldn’t quite see beyond their infectious dark synth pop/rock debut ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ and its banging lead single, ‘Head Like a Hole’. I’m not sure anyone was quite ready for ‘The Downward Spiral’, a concept album about a man who begins a self destructive ‘downward spiral’ after killing God, and written and recorded in the house where the Manson family committed their murders. Adding to this, Trent Reznor had begun to suffer depression and drug addiction issues, as well as a sense of alienation and this took the concept to a more self allegorical direction.

As a musical endeavour, ‘The Downward Spiral’ may be up there as one of the 90s most defining sounds, as well as one of the decade’s most influential and important records. It brought industrial music into a mainstream consciousness in a way I don’t think it really ever had been before, what with rock club floor filler single ‘Closer’ providing all of the sinister sexiness that the genre had ever produced. That particular song is one of those tracks that everyone knows, even if they don’t necessarily even know the name of it or the artist, just that choral refrain has an almost genetic hook at this point amongst rock fans. ‘Closer’ however isn’t even close to being the best song on the record, not when you have the pounding visceral ‘March of the Pigs’, the slithering evil of ‘Reptile’, the serpentine hammer beats of ‘Heresy’ and of course, the echoing pain of ‘Hurt’. Probably much better known to modern fans in its Johnny Cash version, I will always prefer the naked vulnerability of the original. As the close of the concept, it truly is the bottom of the spiral and aches with a haunting hopelessness that much of the album has coated in throbbing industrial beats, now laid bare to the cold dead air.

But for me, it is the lesser talked about songs on ‘The Downward Spiral’ that are my favourite. The creepy ‘Piggy’ is a moment in Reznor’s career where he learned the lesson that quieter can be just as effective as abrasive. The discordant bending weirdness of ‘Eraser’, the oddly grandiose flourishes of the slinking ‘Ruiner’, the dark ambience of ‘A Warm Place’ that would see much expansion on 1999’s ‘The Fragile’; these are all formative moments in a record that seems to have a new moment of genius with each step. The scalding ‘Mr Self Destruct’ is a virulent opener, while my favourite of them all, ‘The Becoming’, is where the truly machine-like nature of NIN’s work starts to take over. It is haunting, martial and jarring; an ode to despair and crushing industrial samples embed themselves in an insistent beat. ‘The me that you know he used to have feelings, but the blood has stopped pumping and he is left to decay. The me that you know is now made up of wires…’ is one of my favourite Reznor lines, and no one has ever captured a sense of helplessness or nihilism in a song since. Plus, it has an acoustic break that gives an air of grace and hope, before you’re smashed back into the machine again. The musical equivalent of the Terminator crawling through the press at the end of the first film, damaged, mechanical, terrifying.

For me, ‘The Downward Spiral’ stands up there with ‘The Land of Rape and Honey’ and ‘Streetcleaner’ as the third piece of industrial music’s most influential triumvirate. What Nine Inch Nails brought to the fore here was a direction focused as much on soundscapes and ambience as it was on driving industrial rock. It opened a whole new world of fans to a genre that by design seemed to be oppressive and self contained. You can see the thousands of splinters of influence that this record spun into the modern metal and rock scene, but nothing will ever be this nihilistic and catchy ever again. It is by far my favourite NIN record, and one that completely reshaped my musical tastes forever.

https://www.facebook.com/ninofficial

2024 Anniversary Series 032: Nailbomb – Point Blank

Scribed by Geary of War

The musical pantheon is littered with members of successful bands branching out into side projects or supergroups. Some land with great success and make a mark while others fail to match the expectation or potential. As to which bands may fits into each category I will leave to the reader but today we are talking about Nailbomb. The short lived brainchild band of Max Cavalera and Alex Newport of Fudge Tunnel. Nailbomb had a ‘blink and you miss it’ period of being an active band beginning in 1993 and ending in 1995. The quality of the writing found in their only studio album, ‘Point Blank’, is the reason we still talk about it today.

They are the band truly die hard fans love to bring up when Sepultura or Soulfly are mentioned. Nailbomb’s sound is a blend of thrash, groove and industrial metal. Imagine if Godflesh went “Right lads, let’s be kings of thrash”. As ever the unique and iconic bark of Max is superb. His delivery is punchy and with the shorts bursts you see how it becomes memorable. ‘Wasting Away’ gives you a tastes of the fury and industrial edge, while ‘Vai Toma No Cu’ leans right into that industrial side. This track also really serves to connect the listener to the unforgettable and haunting album cover with a Vietnamese woman held at gunpoint. This photo was taken on Nov 9th 1967 and is real. That is an American soldier pressing a M16 rifle to a woman’s head as she is being questioned. In the spirit of the Anniversary Series we once again encounter a song whose message is as relevant now as it ever was. ’24 Hour Bullshit’ warning of the dangers of the access media and the lies perpetrated on TV, or in today’s terms, the internet too. You can’t hide what ‘Guerrillas’ is about, and I did hear a touch of Ministry in there, more so the latter day work as they got heavier, but political industrial metal? Hard to find higher praise for comparison. ‘Blind and Lost’ adds to the genre as it feels so punk like while ‘Sum of Your Achievements’ is proper doom-like, a marching heavy feel of forever. I positively love the bass tone on ‘Cockroaches’. It feels like it’s being played to come out your speakers and punch you, such is the energy it packs. ‘World of Shit’ was an early favourite when I first encountered this album too many years ago to admit. The groove and swagger here is simply massive. Thick guitar over samples and Max barking away as ever. Continuing the messaging to beware of others you have ‘Exploitation’ and ‘Religious Cancer’ the former short and snappy while the latter goes heavier in the sample and electronic side. ‘Shit Pinata’ is delivered with a brief fury many grind bands would be proud of! Rounding things out is ‘Sick Life’ which has a real sense of grandness about it. Heavy groove metal influence can be felt before it swings to old thrash and back again.

The album itself feels fairly timeless with messaging based on an anger which is relevant now as it was then. War is horrible. Don’t trust all your hear and see. Religion and religious fervour carry real danger. Live recordings aside (one from 1995 and then anything Max chooses to do with Soulfly like in 2017) this is all we will ever get of this superb experiment of genre melding which is a tragedy. The only real complaint I have of this album is the so very annoying (it’s not as cool as any band ever thinks, it always ruins the listening experience) of the last track ‘hidden’ track nonsense. Be it Nailbomb or any other bands in existence who have ever done this, I will never be on board with it. Into the sea with it. That aside, ‘Point Blank’ is a real semi-hidden gem. Lost to all but the die-hards it offers a lot now and shows that you can create an album that’s varied and engaging in a short time with the focus being there. I would strongly suggest you focus on getting this played soon

Review: Sun of Nothing – Maze

Review by Sandre the Giant

Greek blackened sludge monsters Sun of Nothing have been trawling the darkest waters for almost a quarter of a century at this point, and their newest offering ‘Maze’ has been a long time coming (14 years to be exact). But then, this band have never rushed anything and it has always been to our benefit. ‘Maze’ is out now through Venerate Industries.

Opener ‘Liars in Wait’ has everything the aforemention genre salad has to offer; big sleek post metal sections, punctuated with groaning rumbling sludge, and blasts of black metal chaos and atmosphere throughout. The more melancholic half of the opener really helps to add a lot to the overall feel, especially when it turns into the lumbering Isis-like ‘After the Fall’. ‘Ghost’ is powered underneath by a strong, sludgy post doom low end, while blackened screams chase tremolo riffs across it. Everything that Sun of Nothing do is tainted with a venomous edge, their sludgy riffs drip with poisonous, blackened intent while the potent bass and drum combo behind are crushingly heavy. ‘Voidhanger’ is a devastating piece, while closer ‘Buried Endeavors’ is a churning black metal brutaliser, coming as close to full on corpsepainted hordes as they’ve managed here so far.

‘Maze’ is a record of depth and substance, a multilayered odyssey of dark, dense heaviness and sleek blackened edges. Peer beneath the veneer and there is a ugly, dissonant beast inside however, straining and screaming to be released. It is this balance that keeps Sun of Nothing so interesting and their work so much anticipated. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait another decade and a half for the next entry.

https://www.facebook.com/Sun0fNothing

https://sunofnothing.bandcamp.com/album/maze

https://www.venerateindustries.com/