2024 Anniversary Series 079: Vader – Tibi et Igni

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

Vader are the death metal equivalent of comfort food at this point in their illustrious career; a band whose music has become so reliably good and a sound that is so consistent that you don’t normally even need to ask if the new Vader record is good, because you already know what it sounds like and of course it is. But that should never be a cause for alarm, because stagnation is not the Vader way. It is simply the life’s work of one of death metal’s purest visions. We are using the 10th anniversary of ‘Tibi Et Igni’ as an example of just what we mean. We’re starting to reach the point where I can refer to myself in these pieces too, as I ranked ‘Tibi Et Igni’ in my favourite death metal releases of 2014. Time is indeed a flat circle sometimes…

Emerging from behind the Iron Curtain as a death metal band could not have been easy, but it was their ‘Morbid Reich’ demo that got them picked up by Earache way back in 1990, and a star was born. This was the tenth record from these Polish legends, a legacy which has only grown in stature over the following decade, but had been wrought in fire and iron by such previous iconic records like ‘Litany’, their brutalising debut ‘The Ultimate Incantation’ from 1992 or their widely considered masterpiece ‘De Profundis’. Vader were a band whose bruising, rolling shockwaves of death metal took a lot from Bolt Thrower and Asphyx, but also a waspish fury from Florida as well. ‘Light Reaper’ could have been torn from any of their previous works, while the grandiose flourishes that appear throughout ‘Tibi et Igni’ give you a taste of the more regal side of the band. Sure, their sound is a powerful engine of death metal, but that doesn’t mean their vision isn’t of something bigger. Just listen to that closer, ‘The End’, as just one example of the ever increasing level of killer melodic leads that are permeating Vader’s signature sound.

A slow burn success story, built on years of relentless touring and songwriting, you can pick almost any record from Vader’s catalogue to prove that point. ‘Tibi Et Igni’ is one of many. There’s something a little poetic about the fact that the brilliant artwork for this record was done by Joe Petagno, best known for working on Motorhead records. Vader are kindred spirits of Lemmy and the road crew, a band who have found their sound and while deviating up to a point, have perfected it completely. We are Vader, and we play death metal? Pretty much.

https://www.facebook.com/vader

Review: Drunk Thrasher – Raining Vomit

Review by Sandre the Giant

Of course I was going to review this. Of course. Drunk Thrasher is one of the best band names I’ve come across this year, and while that is good, the EP name is even better. ‘Raining Vomit’ was originally released in 2022, but Godz Ov War Productions have rereleased this on CD this year, so it is time for a revisit.

Opener ‘Thrashrust’ is pure raw Sodom and Kreator worship; galloping guitars roar and rasp at ludicrous speeds, while that atmosphere is pure old school Bathory darkness and nastiness. The title track has got a slower pace to it, but if anything that filthy guitar tone is even better, blasting through bilious vocals to encourage the most bestial of headbanging. ‘Masturbating on the Tomb’ is pure Celtic Frost with even a classic Warrior ‘UGH’ grunt as well. You can see where Drunk Thrasher are taking their cues from, everything 80s and everything that verges between thrash and early black metal. You’ve got some very early Slayer-esque licks in there too, especially on the rapid fire, razor sharp ‘The Poisoning’ but we’re focusing on bestial European classics mostly.

When you’re brought to an enthusiastic, chaotic end on ‘Drunk Thrashers Attack’, in which you can see them in your mind tearing up a pit, spilling drinks and screaming “SLAYER” at the top of their voices, it has been a hell of a ride. When you have the lethal combination of proto-thrash, proto-black metal and a shitload of reverence for both genres, you’re going to get a release like ‘Raining Vomit’. It leaves me very much in anticipation for a full length, because Drunk Thrasher rule.

https://drunkthrasher.bandcamp.com/

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/raining-vomit

Review: Throat – Blood Exaltation

Review by Sandre the Giant

Polish black metal has been a scene that has forever thrown up new and incredible bands like they were grass seeds. Except the grass is blackened and poisoned, much in the way the sound of Throat’s new EP ‘Blood Exaltation’. It is out now through Primitive Reaction, with digital and cassette versions handled by Godz Ov War Productions, and promises to take you on a journey through a more unusual and miasmic style.

Opener ‘Chuć’ is exactly that, a murky and uncomfortable atmosphere swamps the music and renders it thick, dark and morbid. A little like if Venom was trying to play in a tar pit, the cloying atmosphere drags the riffs and blastbeats into darkness, while a vomitous, gurgling vocal spews bile and fury. This is not your sleek, regal and high blasphemy Polish black metal, this is raw and clawing and ugly. The quieter portions are just as unsettling, with dissonant notes hanging in the abyss and crawling chaos at each corner. The eerieness of the whole thing is much more like the early Greek scene, or bands like Mortuary Drape as well; each track seems to steep itself in ancient and unknown evils to create these atmospheres. ‘Klątwa’ is purely haunting, primal, old school black metal with a visceral punch to it. The addition of the band’s previous ‘New Flesh Nectar’ demo here as the final two tracks presents the entire career of Throat thus far, but also allows you to see how this sound as formed. ‘New Flesh Nectar I’ is just as thick but more of a classic black wave buzz to it, clattering drums in the deep and hopeless screams and growls, while ‘New Flesh Nectar II’ twists and contorts uncomfortable noise and atmospherics around a single abyssal twang, before descending into hellish primitivity.

‘Blood Exaltation’ is a release that should put the whole black metal scene on notice that, once again, the Polish black metal scene seems ready to birth something paradigm shifting into the world. Throat’s work is scary, emotionally draining and a multilayered abyssal sermon of ugliness and fear. This could be the start of something really, really important.

https://www.facebook.com/primitivereaction666/

https://www.facebook.com/godzovwar

https://www.primitivereaction.com/

https://throatoftheantichrist.bandcamp.com/

2024 Anniversary Series 011: Behemoth – The Satanist

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

A stalwart of the Polish extreme music scene for decades, one of modern black/death metal’s most influential bands and in their more recent years at this point, death metal particularly, Behemoth are a band almost every metal fan will know. Their extreme, Satan fuelled sound has won them many fans, as has Nergal’s outspoken views and Bible ripping antics, and they were big enough to support Slipknot on a world tour not that long ago. Ten years ago they released an album that really marked a seismic shift in the band’s future, and that was ‘The Satanist’.

‘The Satanist’ marked their return to black metal in sound, even if their ethos and style had never really left it too far behind. Behemoth’s death metal sound was always laced with a more esoteric black metal framework, even if the musical elements themselves were not. Opener ‘Blow Your Trumpets, Gabriel’ is everything that Behemoth’s detour into death metal had built as a foundation for their black metal return. That grandiose heaviness, their majestic eastern melodies fetish, their regal poise and almost sermon like delivery. It is a triumphant return to their roots, but with the full power of Satan behind them. It’s like they took a detour to sell their souls to the brutality, and were rewarded with the blackened throne of all black metal evil. The ferocious ‘Messe Noire’, the unholy ‘Amen’, the devastating ‘Ben Sahar’; Behemoth didn’t lose any of their weight when transitioning back to a more overtly black metal sound, but what they did do was redefine a new generation’s worth of ‘black/death’ bands. That used to be reserved for Sarcofago/Sodom/Archgoat tribute style bands, but now we had a monstrous, big league act pulling out some of the genre’s richest, multilayered and most fearsome music again. I mean, we’ve all been at Behemoth shows since this record came out and bellowed ‘FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, AND THE GLORY, FOREVER’ along with instant classic ‘Ora Pro Nubis Lucifer’.

As that grand sermon ‘O Father! O Satan! O Sun!’ comes to its cataclysmic, abyssal hymn closing, we were all in awe of Behemoth’s triumphant return to the black, There had been so many bands trying to fill that space while their Satanic death metal phase was leaving bodies in its wake, but this is where Behemoth belong. Their dedication to the dark, to Lucifer and all of his works is so thorough, so intense and so real that black metal was always going to be their true home. Who knew they could turn that into the obsidian palace of evil that ‘The Satanist’ managed? Not I, but we’ve all been minions in that court begging for our scraps. A truly transcendent record, even 10 years on.

https://www.facebook.com/behemoth

2024 Anniversary Series 008: Decapitated – The Negation

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

It is hard to put forward in 2024 just how important Polish death metal titans Decapitated weree when they burst onto the scene with their iconic 2000 debut, ‘Winds of Creation’. Death metal had been in a rut for a number of years; with the rise then fall of black metal and the mainstream acceptance of nu-metal, the genre had struggled to regain its superiority despite a number of great hidden gems in those years. When the disgustingly young band (teenagers) dropped an instant classic, the world took notice. Maybe a new generation were coming to save us. Well, in 2004 we saw the release of the band’s third full length, ‘The Negation’, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this month.

‘The Negation’ might be the most overlooked of the band’s pre-accident era, with ‘Winds of Creation’ and ‘Nihility’ often taking a lot of plaudits and my own personal favourite Decapitated album being the follow up to this, ‘Organic Hallucinosis’. But as an example of Decapitated’s work, ‘The Negation’ is a record that bears all their hallmarks and deserves much more attention. You’ve got technical death masterpieces like ‘Sensual Sickness’, or the writhing ‘Long Desired Dementia’, and you cannot escape the youthful exuberance in the jagged pummelling of ‘Lying and Weak’. Decapitated’s sound has moved slowly away from this wildly technical flavour into a little more death groove in later years, but their first four albums were tour de forces of technical wizardry. They could dance from chugging brutality into tectonic scales and stop start riffs with barely a moment’s notice, while the charismatic growls of Covan have always been a highlight for me. The truest test of Decapitated’s talent was to craft genuinely memorable songs out of their tech death, real earworms without being traditionally catchy, my favourite example of this on ‘The Negation’ is the swaggering title track with its insatiable groove.

Much has been made of the tragic accident in 2007 that robbed us of drumming powerhouse Vitek, and left then vocalist Covan in a coma and paralysis, and where the band could have gone without such a cruel twist of fate. I don’t like to dwell on such thoughts as we have four masterful records that that trio (including sole remaining member Vogg) created that will live forever. ‘The Negation’ is the quieter sibling of the four; perhaps less popular or less beloved but an unbelievably potent and powerful technical death metal record that forms a core part of Decapitated’s influence across today’s death metal scene. Everywhere you look, you can find bands that draw their whole style from the kind of riffs found within this album and Decapitated’s others. Sure, it might not have a ‘Spheres of Madness’ or ‘Day 69’, but ‘The Negation’ is more than worth your time, and cannot be left out as part of this revolutionary band’s legacy.

https://www.facebook.com/decapitated

Review: AcidSitter – Make Acid Great Again

Review by Sandre the Giant

Originally published here: https://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/acidsitter-make-acid-great-again/

The strange world of psych-rock is not one I have spent too much time in, and it has been a failing I’ve strived to improve upon this year. But I also recently finished reading Julian Cope’s excellent JapRockSampler book, and when I saw AcidSitter were a Polish/Japanese group that seemed to be right in that wheelhouse, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to jump in feet first. ‘Make Acid Great Again’ (what a title by the way) is out now through Interstellar Smoke Records.

The hovering, wailing opening note of the eponymous track hums into a rumbling bass groove and a bluesy swagger, infectious vocal hooks and a guitar tone that really reminds me of Them Crooked Vultures. Trippy passages weave soulful guitar over wandering basslines, and vocalist Rafal Klimzak has an excellent, slightly raspy croon. It adds an edge to the synthy vibes of ‘It’s Fine’, or the uneasy grooves of ‘Sweat Dreams’; it isn’t quite a punkish feel but it definitely goes harder than a lot of this kind of dreamier psych stuff I’ve come across before. There is still more than enough of that trippy, swirling psychedelica drifting throughout the album though, maintaining a chilled out atmosphere that is thick and enveloping when it is deployed in ‘The Healing Journey’, which has more than a touch of Boris about it, especially during that shimmering solo.

‘Last Few Days’ is my favourite track here though; a driving bass line, a squalling solo, a charismatic and chameleonic vocal performance. It’s all leading to the psyche freakout of closer ‘Staywatch’, a jam that starts off fairly inoffensive and ambient, a whistling stoner wind, but builds into a swaggering, Zeppelin-esque banger that hits all the right notes for the psyche fan and the stoner rock fan at the same time. ‘Make Acid Great Again’ is an invigorating trip, loaded with plenty of the type of dreamy, spacey vibes you’d expect from something called this, but never leaving the solid rock core smothered in effects or . I’m not sure if ‘down to earth’ is the turn of phrase I’m looking for, but it feels very apt for AcidSitter’s new record. Just a new Earth, where everything is a little fuzzy.

https://www.facebook.com/AcidSitter

https://acidsitter.bandcamp.com/album/make-acid-great-again-full-album-2023

https://interstellarsmokerecords.bigcartel.com/

Review: Abominated – Traumatic Putrefaction

Review by Sandre the Giant

Polish death metallers Abominated’s debut album, ‘Traumatic Putrefaction’ is out now through Godz Ov War Productions and the band look to join a litany of Polish death metal legends like Vader, Azarath or Decapitated in keeping their homeland’s legacy of great death metal bands going.

Opener ‘Forbidden Pleasures of Self-Immolation (Opus Magnum .44)’ teases you with a little gothic keyboard work before a ferociously old school death metal riffs kicks into gear. Abominated’s sound comes firmly from a more Asphyx/Bolt Thrower place, with dashes of Swedeath in the galloping ‘Vile Mutated Mass’, but there are times where the pace and ferocity of Abominated’s work surpasses even those routine comparisons. A track like ‘Sacrificial Defilement’ pulses with a raw energy, a deathly thickness of intent and a writhing collection of riffs that any band worth their salt would be mining. The powerful, grinding riffs in the opening of ‘Senseless Barbaric Insemination’ give way to a clattering, bulldozing powerhouse of a track, really settling the question as to what Abominated can offer the modern death metal scene.

Sometimes too many new death metal bands are trying too hard to stand out, to be different adn ‘new’ and come off confused and disjointed. Other times, new death metal bands take the old school route and it sounds lazy and derivative. Abominated are neither of these; combining an old school sound with an enthusiastic and obvious love for the genre, and with an understanding of how to put together great, interesting songs that never lose steam. ‘Traumatic Putrefaction’ gets it all right, and that is a gory blessing for us all.

https://www.facebook.com/abominateddeath

https://abominateddeath.bandcamp.com/album/traumatic-putrefaction

http://godzovwar.com/

Review: Hell’s Coronation – Transgression of a Necromantical Darkness

Review by Sandre the Giant

Polish black/doom metallers Hell’s Coronation have been fairly productive over the past 6 to 7 years, but ‘Transgression of a Necromantical Darkness’ is only their second full length record. It is out now through the venerable Godz Ov War Productions, who seem to be dedicated to helping the most interesting and exciting bands get coverage outside of their native Poland.

Opener ‘Spirituality of Burned Black’ has a sinister trudge to it, a creepy and malevolent crawling track that has a lot of raw black metal atmosphere. It is a stylistic choice that remains throughout the record; a sinister black metal framework slowed down to a morbid trudge through doom laden lands. ‘For Vengeance the Malevolent Fog Rises’ is drowning in murky atmospherics, a grim black metal riffs snaking through this funereal dirge with evil intent. ‘Primordial Wrath of Old Death’ is crawling with nasty, evil intentions, rippling with the kind o ffilth encrusted guitar work that makes this sounds so damn good. ‘From His Blood’ is a little more forceful, and that blackened side of Hell’s Coronation seems to make more of an appearance as we go deeper into the record. Finishing off with the visceral, snarling ‘Kości boga’, you get the sense that the band wanted to reaffirm their blackened roots while still building this doomy, monolithic work. Closer proper ‘The Dead Flame of the Cold Wintermoon’ is more of an outro but it maintains that atmospheric pressure to the end.

Whne you combine the raw atmospheric savagery of black metal and the ponderous yet intoxicating heaviness and speed of doom, you get something just as good as ‘Transgression of a Necromantical Darkness’. An album that really has almost perfected the atmosphere for which this kind of music thrives; dark but not pitch, suffocating but not fatal, structured but not boring. Hell’s Coronation have given us something brilliant here, and it should be cause for great celebration.

https://www.facebook.com/hellscoronation

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/transgression-of-a-necromantical-darkness

Review: Profeci – Ubóstwo

Review by Sandre the Giant

The work of Poznan’s Profeci has been intense and to the point in their short career thus far, but these Polish black metallers haven’t been afraid to mix it up a little too. Their new record, ‘Ubóstwo’, is out now through Godz Ov War, and that label has provided much in their country’s recent histoy of black metal quality.

Opener ‘Stare stworzenia’ feels very straightforward to start, but there is a deft sense of nuance within the song; the timing changes at brief moments, the melodies lurk within a traditional framework but there is a definite sense of maturity and purpose here. ‘Jaskinie’ is a little more measured, there are points where slower sections ache with hopelessness and the cascading blastbeats propel everything else. You’d almost argue at times that ‘Ubóstwo’ is a post black metal record, or an atmospheric one, or even a depressive one. The key to all of those potential tags is the BLACK METAL part. Those little bits may influence here and there but at the core this is black metal. ‘Jedność wielości’ is my favourite piece here, a slightly dissonant work of sleek obsidian, full of those moments where ferocity meets fragility. There are gorgeous melodious guitar leads through ‘Bez niej byłbym niczym’, while the furious ‘Głód’ maintains that dark aura without compromising their core style.

Delicacy isn’t a term you’d often use to describe black metal, but there are times during ‘Ubóstwo’ when that is definitely appropriate. Profeci give their black metal a sense of fragility in places, where just the slightest of pressures will crack it open like black glass shattering. At others, it is as solid and unyielding as iron. This makes ‘Ubóstwo’ an intriguing listen, and a worthy addition to their back catalogue as well as their homeland’s black metal legacy.

https://www.facebook.com/profeci.band/

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/ub-stwo

https://godzovwar.com/shop/en/

Review: Wilczyca – Magija

Review by Sandre the Giant

It almost seems redundant to discuss the history/state of Polish black metal in the review of a Polish black metal band again, as we’ve done it many times before, but the Killchain has dealt with Wilczyca before on their ‘DrakoNequissime’ record, which we reviewed back here. The band are remarkably proficient, with ‘Magija’ being their 4th record since 2020 and being attached to the venerable Godz Ov War Productions will obviously help their cause.

The torturous leads of opening track ‘Ingressum’ are somehow insidiously melodic without ever sacrificing a single moment of black metal purity. Wilczyca’s work is an atmosphere building monster, haunting grimness slinks behind rasping vocals and cold guitar lines. That doesn’t mean the likes of ‘Przyzywam’ are lacking in savagery at all, but that cold bleakness and measured grimness allows the more severe moments space to flourish and hit harder. ‘Święty Ogień’ is a mournful, dungeon synth interlude that collides directly with the blackened intensity on either side, while ‘Wij się z bólu Córo Syjonu’ is an intense, fire breathing slab of pure Polish blasphemy. If you need any more evidence of the band’s ability to really create a proper black metal, black magic ritual style atmosphere, just listen to the morose darkness of closer ‘Igne Natura Renovatur Integra’. It is just excellent.

Wilczyca try nothing too extravagant but also do not remain one dimensional and ‘trve’ either; their brand of black metal doesn’t really take a huge amount from their countrymen and allows them to stand a bit apart from them. Poland has a rich history of bands who challenge the black metal status quo as well as the bands who maintain it, and I think Wilczyca stride that balance very carefully. ‘Magija’ isn’t an album that hits you on first listen, you’ll need a few to really unpick the subtleties of tracks like the brilliant ‘Tetragrammatron’ to find the black magic beneath.

https://www.facebook.com/wilczyca.kult

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/magija

https://godzovwar.com/