Barbaric In Nature

Band: Cattle Decapitation

Album: Monolith of Inhumanity (2012)

Genre: Progressive Death Metal/Grindcore

So, if you haven't noticed, it's been a pretty fucking good year for metal, thus far.  It seems like pretty much every band is finding a way to completely transcend their previews works (Meshuggah, High on Fire, Spawn of Possession, etc.).  Cattle Decapitation is in the same boat.  Monolith of Inhumanity, being their fifth effort to date, is a full display of what this band is really made of.  

Cattle Decap. seems like one of those bands that you either love or hate.  With their anti-meat "agenda," (f you will) some people shy away from the band.  Regardless of what the band preaches, the number one thing I've heard people bitch about is the song writing.  I'd agree with these people if we were still talking about To Serve Man, the bands first full-length release.  The fact of the matter is, Cattle Decap. has come a long way since then, and their musical structure is impeccable on this album.  The album has it's own solid, slamming pace, while still allowing every song to have it's own particular sound and pace of its own.  

As far as the music itself is concerned, it sounds fucking brutal.  The band takes a more solid death metal sound, leaving a lot of their previous grind elements behind.  That's not to say the album doesn't grind as well as slam (that's right, there are actual slams).  It's just that as a whole, the album sounds far more death metal then grindcore.  Returning to the slams, I was rather impressed.  Not being a huge Cattle Decap. fan, I'm not sure that slamming has always been their thing, but the slams on this album add a heightened sense of brutality to the album.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, the technicality displayed on this album is the most extreme I've ever heard the band get.  The songs "A Living Breathing Piece of Defecating Meat," and "Gristle Licker" come to mind.

The sound of the album is crystal-clear.  The production makes the technicality of the album shine through perfectly, and it adds a new sense of brutality to it's slamming slower tempos.  The guttural vocals sound even deeper and more evil, yet, I had a somewhat hard time hearing the bass at times.  It's definitely audible throughout the album, just not as much as I would have hoped for.

True fans of Cattle Decapitation need to get their hands on this album.  And, to all of the nay-sayers of the band, I'd recommend you give this album a listen. The band is not what they once were, and they have built themselves into titans of the genre with this release.  Get off the internet and go get your hands on this album, you damned dirty apes!

Score: 8.5/10

Lets Get Stoned and Bang Our Heads

Band: Dopethrone

Album Dark Foil (2011)

Genre: Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal

Hailing from Montreal, Quebec (CA), and taking their name from arguably one of the heaviest and influential doom/sludge releases of all time, Dopethrone aims to raise the bar of expectation from said genre with their sophomore release, entitled Dark Foil - And they succeed!

Brazenly heavy, and unapologetically evil sounding, almost everything about this album kicks major ass.  I guess I'll just start with the basics.  Dark Foil is a rather simple album that works to salvage something atmospherically higher (huh, huh).  Right from the very beginning of the album, when the film sample plays and the distorted groove of the first song kicks in, a chill will creep up your spine, moving up your neck, possessing you to bang you head in compliance with Satan.  Basically, this album sounds fucking evil!  As much as I dig the greats such as Eyehategod, Sourvein, Grief, etc., and their misanthropic spin they engrain in the sloppy grooves of sludge, I can't help but blow a big fan-boy load in my pants, in regards to the overall "smoke weed, and worship Satan" sound that these guys create on this album.  Various psychedelic solos like the one that can be found in the albums longest, and easily most groovy song "Zombi Powder," add a taste of ambiguity as they pull you through the song, which basically sounds like some trance-inducing mind-spell.

As far as the music goes, the band held very true to the genre of sludge and stoner metal alike.  Crushingly slow and groovy riffs pave the way for the album while slowing down at points to display the more psychedelic aspect via guitar solo.  The vocals are where the album gets a lot of it's evil sound and are rather reminiscent of black metal vocals.  The slowed-down, drawn-out pacing of the album allows for some very epic, lasting screams.  My ears were very pleased.  The bass guitar isn't as heavily and fuzzily distorted as I would have hoped for, but that's just me being picky.  At least I can say I hear the bass at all, which isn't always the case.

The production of the album is damn-near flawless.  Everything sounds very crisp and clean on the recording.  Some people can't get into this as much.  They prefer the sloppy, "recorded in a basement" quality.  I can't stress enough how much the production helps amplify the overall tone of the album.  You can hear every groove, feel every distorted strum, and become engrossed completely in the album.  The overall atmosphere thrives and lives through the production on this album.  It sounds like Satan himself wrote it, and shit it out unto Earth.

If you are a fan of doom, sludge or stoner metal of any kind (Especially Electric Wizard, Weedeater, Bongzilla, etc.) I highly (huh, huh) recommend you finding this album. I'm not one to usually say this, but I do dare say that Dark Foil may be up there with the album the band got it's name from, and other great releases of the genre.  Don't let this album slip past you.  If so, I will find you, and eat you.

Score: 9/10

The Shitty Things We Do In Life...

Band: Municipal Waste

Album: The Fatal Feast

Genre: Thrash Metal/Crossover

Do any of you remember that utterly hushing silence that came just after your first full listen to Municipal Waste's 2009 effort Massive Aggressive?   If so, do any of you remember telling yourself some line of bullshit like, "Maybe next time," or something along those lines?  Well, if you do, let's just say you and I were sorely mistaken...because Municipal Waste, has officially let us down again.

This being their fifth studio album to date, I was interested to see how the band would bounce back from their previous effort, mentioned above.  I think it's safe to say that the true fans of Municipal Waste miss the no-holds barred, in your face sound that they harnessed on 2005's Hazardous Mutation.  It's the definitive MW sound...and it's now long gone.  The band seems to have lost any touch for the genre that they once had the ability to hone in on.  I mean, yeah, there are some really catchy riffs on the album  (Examples can be found in tracks like "Jesus Freaks," "You're Cut Off," and "Authority Complex."), but for the most part, this album is just pure dribble.

More than anything, I found myself cringing at the lack of enthusiasm behind the vocals of Tony Foresta.  His vocals are so clunky and childish at some points, I had to wonder to myself if this style was some sort of sick joke that all the band was laughing at upon their first listen of the finished product.  Aside from the vocals, all of the songs sound rushed, musically under-utilized, and above all, gawky.  There seems to be a lack of fluidity that gives the album a choppy overall sound.  

Now, don't get me wrong, this album isn't great, but that isn't to say it doesn't have it's noteworthy, mentionable aspects.  For one, Ryan Waste's solos on the album sound very clean and inspired.  It's definitely interesting to hear when they pop up.  Though they aren't long or drawn-out opus' of guitar mastery by any means, but they add a little sophistication to the album, for sure.  Also, the production for the album sounds pristine.  While I don't like the music very much at all, I will give a good word to the tones on the guitars, as well as the overall mix of the album.

The thing I found most disappointing about this album is knowing that this is the bands fifth release in nine years of putting out full-length material, and it seems like all of their musical aesthetic and writing abilities disappeared.  All that Municipal Waste is doing on this album is riding off of their name that they built up many years ago.  Close to any and all of the material recorded on The Fatal Feast sounds completely rehashed and boring.  I have no doubt that the band could put out some good music.  They sound like they still have the capability as far as performing goes.  They just need to get their nose back in the books and start writing some music that everyone hasn't already heard.

As far as an overall verdict for this one goes - Don't go out of your way to hear this album, like I did.  You'll find yourself very disappointed.  That being said, I wouldn't necessarily say don't listen to it either.  All one can really say about this album is that it's bound to fall into obscurity relatively quickly.  If you're new to Municipal Waste, I'd say listen to Hazardous Mutation.  If you've been listening to the band for a while...I'd also recommend you listen to Hazardous Mutation.  I know I'm going to in the hopes of getting this awful sound out of my ears.

Score: 4/10

A Trip Through Time...Through the Eyes of Baby Jesus' Brother...Who Died To Allow Jesus to Live...And Now Possesses the Ability to Time Travel...

Band: High on Fire

Album: De Vermis Mysteriis

Genre: Stoner/Doom Metal

Well boys and girls, Matt Pike has done it again.  He has dished up another heaping helping of metal for our hungry little ear drums, while still managing to take High on Fire in a new, fresh direction.  Unlike their last full-length, Snakes for the Divine, the band goes for a slower, groovier approach.  You can hear the difference in the albums just by listening to the intros of each opening song on said albums.  But, enough with all of this bullshit.  Let's get to talking about the album.

I think one of the most intriguing things about this album still remains the heavy, and bold concept that Pike wrote the album around.  In an article online with Revolver, they quote Pike saying the following about the concept behind De Vermis Mysteriis:

'“In the story, Jesus Christ has a twin [named Liao], and his twin died so that Jesus Christ could live,” Pike says. “But his twin instantly becomes a time traveler. Now, you can only go forward through time, but he comes across a scroll that was taken from ancient Stygia—and this is where I go into Robert E. Howard. Stygia was a land of black magic and witchcraft. The Vanirs, a race of warlords came and killed all the Stygians and burned all the scrolls, but some of the scrolls were smuggled out.” Continuing the tale, Pike gets even more esoteric and story gets more bizarre: “In ancient China, Liao found a scroll that’s about how to make black lotus into a serum, which allows you to travel back through time and look at the past through your ancestor’s eyes. Now, Liao puts his name on the serum and he goes on a quest to find why his brother is this religious icon in the future that’s caused all this destruction and massive war.”'

As far-fetched and bizarre as this concept truly is on the album, it leaves a lot to think about.  Also, it's just plain metal as fuck.  But now that we have got all of the philosophical, inner-thinking's of this album, lets move on to the music itself!

As far as the album and individual songs on said album go, the material is definitely slower, less progressive, and more on the sludgy side.  You could tell the band had something to prove on Snakes for the Divine.  What that is, I'm not here to say.  All I'm saying is that on De Vermis Mysteriis, the band is pretty much saying "We are High on Fire.  Fuck you.  We make sludgy jams."  Each song has it's own slower pacing, and while the guitars still have their fuzzy, "High on Fire" sound, the album seems to hold a heightened sense of heaviness.

What I appreciate the most about this album is that, to some degree, I feel that it will bring some middle ground to each end of the spectrum within the fan-basis of this band.  A lot of people dig HOF.  I do.  But there are a legion of Sleep (Pike's other stoner/doom band from the 1990s) fans out there who can't get over how different the two bands sound.  Thus, they don't approve of  High on Fire.  Though it's elitism at it's best, I feel like De Vermis Mysteriis does a good job of presenting a High on Fire that even die-hard Sleep fans can get behind. It just has that heavy, drowned, groovy doom sound that they have been slowly losing over their past few full-lengths.  It seems like the guys have taken some time to get close with their instruments.  All of the music on the album is flawless.  This is some truly inspired, original doom that these boys are serving up for you.  You best enjoy it.

The sound on the album is great.  The production sounds very clean, yet the distortion on the guitars mixed with Pike's gruff vocal stylings give this album a grungy, down and dirty sound like any good doom release should, while also breaking clean for a crystal clear projection of any solo that may come your way on this album.  If you ask me, it makes sense.  These guys have been doing this shit for a while.  They just want us to know that they know what they are doing.

Simply put, this is High on Fire at their very best to date.  If you are a fan of the stoner/doom genre, I'd highly encourage you to go pick this up.  If you haven't picked up a High on Fire album in a while, then prepare yourself - It's going to be awesome.  Come to think about it, this album is going to be pure awesomeness for just about anyone who tunes in.  So, what are yu waiting for?  Get this shit now, now, NOW!

Score: 9/10

Another Brick In A Pretty Solid Wall

Band: Hour of Penance

Album: Sedition

Genre: Technical Brutal Death Metal

I'll be upfront right off - I haven't listened to all that much of Hour of Penance's work.  That being said, I know when I hear technicality, along with brutality.  Hour of Penance happens to hold both of those things near and dear to their hearts.  On Sedition, the band takes a full-force approach to some in-your-face, speedy technical death metal.  Is it any good?  Does the band settle for speed over structure?  I guess you'll just have to keep reading.

Sedition being the bands fifth full-length studio album, is a very rich album, with much to gain from listening.  The band exhibits musical discipline both in their writing and performing. I can honestly say there isn't one bad song on this album.  One of my problems, especially with technical death metal, is that bands have a tendency to write fast and technical for a three or four minute track.  That'd make sense, holding true to the nature of the genre, but what most bands fail to recognize (or do recognize and choose to ignore) is that the song still has to go somewhere regardless of how fast the song is.  Sedition holds some of the most well-paced technical brutal death songs I have heard in a long time.  

One of the things that makes the songs, and in turn, the album flow so well is the structure of each and every song.  While the band doesn't sell themselves short, playing all of the "widdly-diddly's" that other tech-death bands, such as Necrophagist, they aim more for a wall of sound.  Every song sounds like it's own solid "block" if you will.  The drums are the overall foundation of each "block," as they are constantly blasting throughout the whole album, yet still maintain to keep the beats fresh and technical.  The guitars are blisteringly fast and share similar qualities to the drums in that they are continually speeding through at a fast rate - Yet it sounds so fucking good.  The implementation of two guitars allows the band to have that aggressive "wall of sound" sound, while still being able to expand and build the song up more with various solos and strange passages with the other said guitar.  I can't say much about the bass guitar though, as I had a pretty hard time hearing it.  There are moments of audibility for the instrument, but as a whole, it got drowned out in the mix, which is pretty disappointing considering how much each of the other members display their skill on this album.  I'd love to hear what the bassist is fully capable of.  Some tracks to keep your ears open for would include "Enlightened Submission," "Fall of the Servants," and "Deprave to Redeem."

One thing that was somewhat of a significant let-down on Sedition is the fact that there were no slams on the album at all.  I take that back.  Maybe one or two.  Now, I'm not saying that if there aren't slams, I don't like it.  But as far as the genre goes, it's technical brutal death metal.  While the album is a power-house of brutality, I'd heard hype about these guys being technical and slammy.  It was definitely a little disappointment, though the album stands on it's own enough to be unbridled by the lack of any apparent slams.

With the exception of not being able to hear the bass that well, I'd say the overall production of this album is stellar.  Where the band is playing faster, more blunt-force, aggressive music, having the mix and production be too muddled would have been the downfall of this album.  Thankfully, the sound is crystal clear.  All the rhythms on the guitars are distinguishable.  The drums have a great sound to them.  The vocals are mixed in well with the rest of the instruments.

Overall, this is one damn good album.  Great structure, sound, and musicianship make this album stand in the foreground of technical death metal.  It's not the best, and it's certainly not the worst, but if you pick this album up, I can guarantee it'll be playing over in your CD/MP3 player a few times over.  If you're newer to the band like I am, I'd recommend you to check the album out.  If you're a fan, then I can imagine you will be deeply pleased by the release.

Score: 7.5/10

Can Heavy-Weights of Death Metal Keep It Going?

Band: Cannibal Corpse

Album: Torture

Genre: Death Metal

If you inhabit planet Earth, whether you're a fan or not, you've probably heard of Cannibal Corpse.  With a career now spanning around 24 years, and their 12th full-length out now, one would have to ask themselves if Cannibal Corpse still has it or not.  The answer is going to vary drastically depending on who you ask.  Some would say that they just keep getting better and better, producing a newly heightened sense of brutality and gore with every album.  That's where I come in.  I'm here to say fuck all that shit.  Lets jump into the pro's and con's of Torture.

Lets be honest with ourselves right off the back, here.  It's been a while since Cannibal Corpse has peaked.  That's not to say that they haven't released some noteworthy material since that time, but Cannibal Corpse was at their best when it was Barnes behind the mic (The mere thought of crediting Chris Barnes with something positive still makes me feel like a bad person).  With the loss of Chris and the addition of George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher upon the release of their fifth studio album, Vile, the band took a turn for the more structured song/album writing approach.  And, when I say "structured," I mean that pretty much every song on every album has started to sound the same, thus turning the album into nothing more than a minimal advance upon the band. 

Does Torture follow said structure?  You betcha'! But, that's not to say all was lost on this album.  It still has that Cannibal Corpse sound (which is good), and though the album has it's fair share of bland and boring songs ("Demented Aggression," "Encased in Concrete"), there were a few that proved worthy of a listen.  The overall guitar-work in "Intestinal Crank" is pant-shittingly awesome.  It's such a groovy song all the way through, and it avoids one of the biggest downfalls of this album - Trying to be too fast!  Torture more than other releases in recent time shows the band trying to take a more fast and aggressive approach to death metal.  The song-writting and overall product suffers.  This isn't to say Cannibal Corpse hasn't ever made good fast music. But it is to say that at this point in the band's career, it's growing old.

As far as sound goes on this album, I thought that the guys did some good things coming out of Evisceration Plague, an album I didn't really care for in the least.  The guitar tones more than anything bothered me the most on that album.  I mean, yeah, they sounded heavy, but there was an overall thin an crisp quality to their tones.  It didn't fit the band as well as it should have.  O'Brien and Barrett seem to have beefed up their tones for this album, giving it a much heavier and more traditional death metal sound.

Overall, I'd say that this album is nothing more than another installment in Cannibal Corpse's career.  At this point, they are just doing what they do.  Like it or not, Cannibal Corpse isn't changing.  If you're a die-hard fan, then I'm sure you'll find enjoyment out of the CD.  But, for a new-comer to death metal, I'd highly recommend checking out some of the bands earlier releases.

Score: 6.5/10

Brutality + Technicality - Filler

Artist: 7 H. TargetAlbum: "Fast-Slow Demolition"Genre: Technical Brutal Death Metal
Ahh, nothing like some technical Russian slams to start the day off right.  That's correct, folks!  Today we are talking about 7 H. Target's first full-length opus, "Fast-Slow Demolition."  The album is a combination of their first six-track EP entitled "Japan Body Hammer"(re-recorded of course), along with what appear to be six newly composed/recorded tracks.  Lets dive right in and see what makes "Fast-Slow Demolition" so slam-fucking-tastic!
Granted I haven't delved too far into the sub-genre of "slam" or "slamming brutal death metal," but I'd like to think I have a generalized enough understanding to write this album a justified review.  While listening to the genre, some of the more die-hard fans go for the non-sensical, full-force, non-stop slamming that such bands like Abominable Putridity utilized their first full-length album.  Others prefer to have more "substance," if you will, to their music - Some musicianship that surpasses that extent of brutal chugging.  7 H. Target seems to have crafted a peaceful in between to appeal to almost any fan of either technical playing or slow slamming music.  
As one may guess by the title of the album, and, well, the paragraph I wrote just before this one, the album contains both is fast and slow segments - Both of which are sure to blow your mind.  First lets talk about the fast attributes of the album.  The albums and instruments blast with such intensity and technicality, it's almost scary to think of how these guys came up with this music.  The music is brazenly original and proves that while these guys may have some simplistic aspects to their music, they are more than capable of busting out the big guns to impress.  The riffs written for the guitar are confusingly tight and oddly timed, while the drums hold a speedy, organized rhythm behind everything else that is happening on the album.  The bass has its own unique place on this album as well.  Though not audible at all times, the vocalist/bassist implements skill and an instrumental understanding to his contribution on the album.  
Now that we have got the fast part of the album out of the way, how about the slow? What can be said about the slams on this album?  Not much.  Other than they are heavy as all shit, and will continually please your ear-drums.  The slams hold much rhythm and groove which give the album such a heavy feel, you are unsure if you'll be able to make it through the 38:28 running time of the album without soiling yourself.
Though I'm having trouble finding lyrics to go along with the album, I have to say that the theme of the album is pretty kick-ass.  The album seems to hold some Techno-Sexual overtones with songs like "Drill Penis," "Metal + Flesh," and, well, "Technosex."  The science-fiction over-tones of both the written and recorded music reminded me vaguely of Gigan.  The band draws influence off of other media outlets as well, naming one of their songs "KSC2 - 303" after the character in the Japanese film "Versus."  These elements give the album a true brutal death feel, as they use a good amount of film samples from movies I'm assuming are in high regard (at least on a cult status) around their region.
While the music is all fine and dandy, you may be wondering about the production value of the album.  It's certainly no Opeth album where you can hear just about every strum of a string, and it's certainly not a muddled piece of brutal death metal shit.  The production is just low quality enough to give the album a true brutal death metal sound, and just clean and professional enough to hear the technicality in the music.  To put it simply, you're going to dig the production of the album if you are interested in the genre at all.  
All this being said, I wouldn't recommend this to someone who is just getting into slam, but I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to expand their extreme musical horizons.  The album holds a lot of diversity and originality that you won't find in many other places - Especially in the genre of slam/BDM.  Get your hands on this as soon as possible!
Score: 8/10