Gnostic – Evoking the Demon
1997 watched the birth of many things evil in San Antonio, USA. One of them was performed by Obliterater and Necroghoul, being later completed by Lord Vistigium and Inferno. The attack upon humankind would be self-labelled ‘brutal fucking war metal’, a pompous way of saying raw Black Metal.
The gathering of murderous souls released ’98 demo Bloodwars of Heretic Supremacy, quickly followed by ’99 Necrobliteration promo. Then, after a carousel of adventures with labels, GNOSTIC agreed to have French Ordealis Records release two albums, the first of which is Evoking the Demon.
I like raw BM, it is no secret – and no virtue, for that matter. But there is ‘raw BM’ and there is ‘raw BM’. GNOSTIC do not really seem to fit into any of the ’positive’ aspects of raw BM – their loyalty to raw includes having recorded Evoking the Demon live on a four-track-recorder, which means chaos and arbitrary aggressiveness. The sound sucks, and the music is in general is not very appealing, starting with the opening scream to Sodomising the ‘Pediphile’ Priest. Then, there is the music itself, so full of BM commonplaces. By the end of the first listening session, there is an immediate conclusion: “I have heard it all before… better played, more authentic, and more evil.’ There are the occasional nice moments (BM always has them), but they are mere fata morgana of an otherwise potentially interesting opus. Of course, I have heard much worse recordings, but one would expect something different when there is a label behind the release. I thought seven years would be enough to grant the band a certain…personality, a trademark image, but no. the cover is mildly interesting, not wholly different from zillions of other BM CDs, but interesting enough.
One never knows whom Evoking the Demon might please, though – and for those who enjoy Evoking the Demon, there is a special bonus: the original CD (not the promotional) features one complete video shooting of a concert GNOSTIC played in 2002, with wholly different tracks. I cannot quite comment on this extra data track, as my CD did not have it.
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Crystalmoors – The Unconquered Land
The Unconquered Land has a beautiful folk beginning, bards alike. CRYSTALMOORS play Pagan Metal as invoked by Uruksoth (vocals), Erun-Dagoth (guitar), Faramir (guitar and flute), Throrus (bass), Gharador (drums and percussion) and Gothmog (keyboards).
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Deforge – Freedom Release
ANONIMA DISASTRI were summoned in November 1997, and released ’99 demo Mankind Disaster and ’00 Silent Terror Inside. By the year 2002, ANONIMA DISASTRI took up the name DEFORGE. The first step after the new name was hitting the Temple of Sound Studios for the recording of Freedom Release.
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Labyrinthe – The Depths of Hell
So here we have Labyrinthe, hailing from the USofA formed by Mark de Gruchy on Vocals, Jason Mills on Drums, James Bumgarner on Guitar, Jason Keating on Guitar and Tyler Hall on Bass, from the first listen this is pretty much deathcore, but with a higher inclination to the death side of things, so here it is “The Depths of Hell”.
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By Night – Sympathy for Tomorrow
So By Night has a new album, seems they also had some though luck with their old label Lifeforce Records, that’s kinda to be expected, the problem with labels is that they tend to be more concerned with their own bottom-line then the bands they represent, like the success of the band is not relevant to the success of the label.
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Disease Illusion – Backworld
So Disease Illusion hail from Italy and play a sort of Dark Tranquility/In Flames melodeath, not a bad thing per say, but a pretty popular and filled genre, seems this is a re-invention of sorts, since the band was previously called “The Reapers” playing some Thrash Metal and now they are playing Melodic Death, interesting.
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Fear Factory – The Industrialist
Its like beating a dead horse, there is such as thing as quitting while you are ahead, Fear Factory is one of my all time favorite bands and as such im kinda a bit biased towards then, but ever since “Digimortal” (a in my opinion half-hassed album), Fear Factory is pretty much dead to me, still they keep churning these things away, and so now we are presented with “The Industrialist”!
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Lux Ferre – Antichristian War Propaganda
Born in the Pits of Portugal (although Hell could have been a good guess) in 2001 by the hands of Baal Sabbath (guitars, bass) and Devasth (vocals, programming), the intention was understandably to unleash the fiercest, most violent and destructive Black Metal manifestation ever.
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