Highlights of the album are without the shadow of a doubt Rebel Souls and Coronation. Resurrection of Azarath is thus an excellent means to revive glorious moments of the DAMNATION era, as well as grasp the very rare tracks of Promo 1998. Ogverall, I found the compilation CD rather attractive and musically worthwhile, were DAMNATION not one of the milestones of the Polish scene. Now it is off to a new album!

Nihility is the second opus created by this four-member act. I believe all the expectation around the album is more than justifiable. They benefited greatly from the fact that they attend a music school, and as a proof, you have flawless, technical Death Metal at your availability, from the guitars to the drums.

Some obvious comparisons to Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel must be established, but it is not at all some sort of copy or plagiarism. It is only a proof that their sources of inspiration are very good. Decapitated also have their very own sense of mature morbidness and there does not lack the hypnotic riffing, allied to a very heavy production.

In a total playing time of 35:07 minutes, their 8 tracks are a sample of genuinely well played technical, inventive and progressive Brutal Death Metal. Favourite tracks are Mother War, Nihility (Anti-Human Manifesto) and Spheres of Madness. In Nihility you can actually feel Armageddon is coming nearer, in pieces, accompanied by gradual threats of annihilation. In Spheres O Madness (a slower-tempo song) you just go berzerk with the intro. The other tracks are Perfect Dehumanisation (The Answer), Eternity Too Short, Names, Babylon’s Pride and Symmetry Of Zero.

The more I listen to the album, the more addicting it becomes. All in all, it is a very refreshing release as it comes to well-played Death Metal. The fact that the musicians attend music schools does not prevent the true feeling from being there as, alas!, so often happens with (virtuoso) musicians.

Amongst so many Death Metal bands that arose after Vader, Decapitated seem to be THE honourable successors to Poland’s (maybe even Europe’s) Death Metal throne. You should be on your knees, begging for an opportunity to see them live. Well I have and am certainly awaiting future concerts!

Official Site Decapitatedband.net | Myspace Decapitated

Note from the Editor: The band had a van accident while touring in russia and Witold “Vitek” Kieltyka the drummer of the band, and one of the best kick ass drummers i have ever listen has died, if you want to help his and other bandmates families you can do so by going here, thank you… you will be missed… now freakin enjoy his awesome work on Spheres of Madness

Decapitated – Spheres Of Madness

Infernal Rise starts pretty good with “Infernal Throne”, its kinda a slow burn blast beat kind of track, pretty good and straightforward, “Infinite Hold” comes next and starts with a guttural blast/slow rifts, then it gets into a more speed up but always with a play with the speed, slowing and speeding, always with prologued drummed blasting or small bursts of blasting, actually the drumming is what shines, its always changing the pattern, pretty nice track, it finishes much like it started, “The Bigger Complex” starts with a sound clip then goes into death blasting, it kinda works like the previous track with a bit more guitar work, but it still feels like its an all drumming thing… “Entrails” starts with the death blasting thing, stops and then picks up again almost all the way through… humm

“Faust” at least starts pretty differently with a more groove metal kind of thing, but damn if the drumming isn’t kinda carrying everyone on their backs, loads of variations of blasting, feels a bit like don caballero but with worse mix between the guitarists and the drummer, it even has those more breakneck kind of breakdowns, “The Nightmare” is a bonus track and it kinda shows, its a bit more straight death metal, but still a pretty solid track, again drums shine like hell, “Promising Demise” is the last track and also a bonus one, and again a bit different from the rest of the album, slower and maybe not even death, more like metalcore even with a cleaner chorus, not so bad, its good as a final track.

Diskreet… humm, well this didn’t WOWed me, and it does feel like its a work in progress, i really cant tell if they are really good, i do like some of the tracks, but it seems like a one trick band, well we will see how they fare with time, i did particularly liked the drumming and hell with this drumming maybe its just a matter of tweaking this and that and they have them selfs a kick ass band, so why not check it out (at least the mp3) hehehe

Official Site Myspace Diskreet (Myspace? hum?) Siegeofamida.net (Label Page)

Diskreet – Faust

Bleed your Mind is the long-awaited follow-up and is the end result of a thorough metamorphosis in the band, starting with the name. the songs are not nearly as industrial as one might at first expect – there are samples and passages that do confirm the band’s reputation for cybernetics, but the music itself has firm roots on classic Death Metal. They are also technically demanding, more often than not. Some of the riffs are highly inspired by CANNIBAL CORPSE (check out MOduS Op3r4nd1 or 30 Seconds Intercourse), but the range of influences is rather broad.

On a different note… from the very first live shows, the audience has responded positively, but the modern shows are particularly striking, for the visual support is intense and treads on cybernetic paths. I is an interactive union between sound and image to further illustrate the band’s concept.

The D’EVIL LEECH PROJECT is currently brought to you by Alfredo Cassis (throat, previously in local DM ac SANNEDRIN), Diogo Coelho (bass guitar), Nuno Carola (guitar) and Paulo Marçalo (guitar).

Official Sites Devileechproject.com | Ragingplanet.web.pt

Decade Infernus is a best of double CD-set comprising the band’s first ten years, which started in 1988. Back then, Mr Crowley joined forces with Peter Gilmore, a classical composer and Magister of the Church of Satan. In the early years Anton Szandor Lavey invited Vincent Crowley to join the COS, which he did, regardless of the apparent contradiction between surname and religious/ ritualistic organization.

Decade Infernus features the band’s strongest songs – taken from a vast discography. Some of these are classics, others are perhaps not very representative of ACHERON’s real power. On the whole, the double CD set is perhaps better listened to separately, for the mighty anthems of doom may sound a little too monotonic at the 10th track or so. But other than that, this is a pretty good compilation of the band’s work – ideal for those that do not own the albums and might want to get to know the band. The songs are mostly mid-.tempo, there is some variation (some keyboards too). The best of is a good choice for newcomers, and a sound purchase for those who want to understand the cult, but I would not necessarily hold this as a compulsory album.

Sites Acheron666.com | Black-lotus-recs.com

Starts of with “My Halo”, and its pretty much the growling/shouting kind of stuff, with some electronics accents and a clearish vocal chorus, kinda the formula is always there, its not that bad, but nothing remarkable, “Bedtime Prayers” is kinda a bit of the same, a bit more catchier… i guess, “Once Bitten Twice Shy” … hummm maybe its me but again pretty much the same, i guess the riffs and timing seem pretty similar, not much definition in the sound, “Need” is… well again a bit better, but it seems like its always getting the catchier stuff and repeating it to infinity.

“Revelation Now!” is … pretty weak track, skip skip, “21st Century Holocaust”… well again a bit of a mess, skip skip, “Aaron’s Sons” is again nothing to call home about, “In Here” … blahhhh, “Heart” finishes the album, and its the “quieter” track, every album seems to have one… the chick pleaser hehehe

I know i know, this kind of music tend to compare with the “big boys” and as such maybe a bit unfair, but if i played in the gender i would try and mix things up and give it an edge, well it kinda doesn’t matter the gender, you should always try and make it your own, also the album seems to die half way trough it or i maybe i just got bored, so i guess i can say that Blinded Colony are good enough but this one is only for real fans of this kind of music… I’ll probably move to more interesting stuff.

Official Site Blindedcolony.com

Blinded Colony – Once Bitten Twice Shy

The album starts off with “Surface” and its a pretty nice heavy beats and weird guitar riffing, its kind of a mixture of by the number death metal with some weird twists, i like it, then “Society’s Disposable Son” is also a pretty good track, it has flare i give it that, with some nice sounding breakdowns and guitar licks, its not earth shattering stuff but its smooth and as such pretty nice, then we have “The System’s Failure” and again a pretty wacky track, with a pretty headbanging hardcore moment at about 1:30 ehhehe, again its a mix of by the numbers death metal and some other stuff… again one for the books.

Now I’m going to talk about “The Stench Of Misery”, its not one of the best of the album… so why talk about it anyway?, cause its still kick ass death metal, but it seems like a remix of the music before… the album has that feel to it, if i listen to them in different times i would say both are kick ass, but one after the other, seems… odd, then “Untitled” ohh this one is old school heheeh with the buildup its basic but hey i like some interludes, and a sure fire way to build to “Modern Age Slavery” that again seems like a remixed version, it all sounds very familiar, don’t get me wrong i like it… but maybe not so much as i should.

Then we get “The Invisible Hand” and again a solid track, really liked the groove blast at 2:15, “Better off Dead” is a bit of the same, “Long Forgotten” is again a bit of the same … well until about half way in, seems like it changed into a different song, nice one, “Sleepless” finished the album kinda like it started groovyyyy.

The album plays pretty much as one big track, well in the sense that from start to finish the tracks are pretty similar, its kinda good and bad at the same time, although i do like variation (and there is some), its kinda blasting all over the place from start to finish and i don’t mean just the drums… it feels like every music starts pretty much the same and then half way or in the end they mix it up a bit for freshness, don’t get me wrong i liked Beneath The Massacre, but probably this one is mostly for death fans and not so much music fan.

Official Site Beneaththemassacre.com

Beneath The Massacre – Societys Disposable Son
Beneath The Massacre – The Systems Failure

Pretty good, from the get go with “Showdown” you know were they stand, like i said above a technical trash/death combo, although in a very groovy blasting kind of way, quite the “we are in a hurry to finish this song” kind of thing, in a good way, this is a powerhouse of a track, heaviness and aggression is the name of the game, good for them, and better for me, “Lacrimal Gland” starts off again with another groovy death metalish riffage, this has some kicks ass guitar work, very good, title track “Decrowning” doesn’t fall to short of expectations, straightforward kick and easy, solid death track.

“Tiebreaker” stars off and goes almost all the way through with some incredible guitar work, very impressive with some Meshuggah like pre-D.E.I. thing, just simpler and with more pace (maybe my favorite track, i like them short and sweet), “Drug of Choice” is thrash, almost straight up, “Denial 101″ is again a strong track, plays like a hardcore track, with some crazy guitar solos, “Control Cancer” is some fucked up track, with some delayed riff, it’s good but it feels a bit cut and paste kind of thing, good track nevertheless, shows a lot of skill, hell if they can make even this not so good track sound this good, then they must be doing something right, “Raptus” is another short and sweet blasting all the way through into a another funky guitar solo, nice, “Warp” is a short instrumental, nothing much, maybe it’s suppose to be the intro the final track “Bleeder”, that brings more of that Meshuggah kind of pre-D.E.I. riffing, ugly and heavy, just the way i like it (wasn’t it short and sweet?).

Did i say melodic, i meant to say freakin awesome, yeah the sweetness of the guitars bring it into the melodic section, it’s not straight death, but this is no Killswitch Engage/In Flames kind of thing, this is straight death/trash, great guitar work, solid all round album, i enjoyed the hell out of this one, go check it out.

Official Site Amoralweb

Amoral – Showdown
Amoral – Decrowning

It all starts off with “The Illusionist” and starts off very well, kind of slowish, building up to a Nile-like guttural vocals, damn if it’s not hard, and damn if the clean vocals aren’t crisp like hell, to the highest end of melody, it’s quite compelling, great chorus and some electronic and simple solo to the mix, great first track, then comes up “Slaves to the Subliminal” and again you get that voice, damn they play fine death but that voice is fucking powerful, especially because you get that sweet melodic contrast, and it’s a big contrast, fantastic catchy chorus, and again some guitar solos, it seems their formula is to go back and forth between the high ends (guttural/clean) all the way through, that just emphasis’s the sense that they are on high ends, he must suffer like hell singing this stuff, since he switches like 6 times per track-

“Mind Machine” is slower paced track, even not to the standard of the last 2, it’s still quite catchy, “Pitch Black Progress” is just the death metal part, freaking breaking all the way through, a “fuck melody” kind of track the chorus just raises the heaviness, “Calculate the Apocalypse” sounds like old school Fear Factory, with it’s hookiness, the melodic chorus comes from nowhere and you get a sorta 8bit solo from the guitars, nice work, and nice track, “Dreaming 24/7″ plays and works like a standard melodic death metal track, but shit you not, the played down music just boosts the vocals even more, “Abstracted” is loads of fun, the vocalist somewhat changes his guttural voice to a speedier version, i guess for a speedier track, it doesn’t hit the spot but its fun nevertheless, ohhh and maybe it has the best guitar solo on the album.

“The Caleidoscopic God” is another twist, instead of going for the death metal, they go to a mixture of speed/thrash metal and it fucking rocks or should i say metals, about half way through you get into the “what the fuck” part, when they start adding hardcore, heavy metal, guitar solos… great track, even though you could make 2 tracks from it, “Retaliator” sounds a bit like hardcorish/punk mixed with death, with shouted vocals, but again the chorus is catchy like hell, “Oscillation Point” is the opposite of “Pitch Black Progress”, with a slower pace and mostly clean vocals, really nice, and again a over the top melodic chorus, with a sweet guitar solo, again an excellent track, “The Path of Least Resistance” again back to the groovy death metal, it probably has the catchiest chorus, “Carved in Stone” is probably the weakest track, it just doesn’t engage me, “Deviate From The Form” is the last track, sounds like a mixture of power metal and death metal with quite a extensive use of electronics, again not that great, but not to the point of disappointment, and that’s it, the album is done.

After listening a couple of times to the album i think i will never look back to melodic death metal the same way, i think Scar Symmetry take the genre to another level, by i guess, taking it literally, the name of the game is Melodic Death Metal, so i would expect to listen to melody and to listen to death metal, not unlike other bands on the genre that play a washed up repeated to exhaustion, here you have melodic death metal like it’s meant to be played (like if Nile decided to start playing melodic death metal), the added brushes with other genres to spice things up is just an added bonus, so if your into melodic death metal you have to listen to Scar Symmetry latest, you don’t know what you’ve been missing.

Official Site Scarsymmetry

Scar Symmetry – The Illusionist

Well it all starts off with “R.I.P.”, and goddamn if it’s not a fantastic track, it starts with a Gothic like female serenade, then you are hit by that death metal/harsh vocals/clean vocals groove combo, followed by a violin guitar passage to another death metal section that just pours down to a piano female clean vocals, that builds to a metal spree/clean female vocals, and then back on the death harsh vocals than back onto the violin passage, then …. and we are just half way through the first song, suffice to say you get a … what the fuck moment 3 quarters way through, with a guitar solo/piano building up to a Gothic “we are all going to die” kind of thing, brilliant.

Am i going to review all the other tracks just like that, well no, but i can tell you that “Queen” is the single…i think, it’s kinda nice, but it’s more for commercial play, “The Claustrophobic Journey” is really a groovy track and the first with really good pace (they do have a tendency to stop and start playing something else, then stop again and play another thing, like in the first track), “Sound of Tranquility Peace?” is a good track as well, “The Seeker” is a beautiful track, death metal almost all the way through interchanging with calmer moments for the female vocals, and half way through, it has what i could describe as some kids toy like a sponge ball sound playing, and then some … i don’t know what that sound is, calming down near the end to build up to some funky death on the end, again great.

“Pray” is the death/gothic track, really nicely put and actually the most approachable on the track, again a beautiful heavy track uhhh “I’m Not Dead” is is a a pure mind bender, freaky and spooky, and heavy as shit, with a lot of bass work and it finishes perfectly, finally the last track “The Moment She Died”, and damn me if it’s not the perfect finishing track, heavy and unexpected, groovy as shit, finishes about 2 thirds in with a lot of strange sounds.

Ram-zet is one of the reasons i really enjoyed Unexpect, it has the same vibe, of experimentation, i can assure everyone, this is one hell of an album, sure it’s not perfect, but production is great, there is stuff for everyone (death/gothic/whatever) to enjoy, its a load of fun to listen, much more approachable than Unexpected, and i do love the clean female vocals, the violin work and the guitar work, hell everything was top notch, i know they have another album out (for like a year), but i still don’t have it, and i do really like this album, I’ll check the other one when i can get my hands on it, but for now, go and check this one out, please… pretty please.

Official Site Ram-zet | Video for Queen

Ram-Zet – Queen
Ram-Zet – The Claustrophobic Journey

After a sissy intro we get into the groove of it all with “Too Scared to Live” (actually the featured track as well, so go check it out) and damn if it’s not just a a nice piece of music, smooth going in smooth coming out, by smooth i mean freakin awesome, well it starts off with some death grind, followed by some more straight Metalcore style rockin, then it speeds up again to a hardcore breakdown, then some more slowed down Metalcore to some off the wall guitar solo.. well i think so, i didn’t expect that shit, great stuff, it brings you to guitar solo followed by another hardcore one/two, great track, its a great combination of old school death/hardcore but with a different structure for added freshness, this track sums really well the rest of the album.

I can point out tracks “Less Like Human” or “A Cork Stops the Whining” or “Post Traumatic Death” for the solo work, hell this album is a dream come true for a lover of guitar solos, it has shitloads… i mean really a lot of funky guitar solos, i actually went and checked the guitarists (found out that a couple of the members are actually members of Between the Buried and Me), guitar solos and Hardcore breakdowns, you gotta love them both.

So Glass Casket is closer to 3 feet under? Humm, shit no, i liked this one, it sounds fresh, it has a lot of different stuff thrown into the mix, sure it lags in some places, it still has a lot of Hardcore/Grind and that always makes things a bit tiresome, but in my opinion, removing the first and last track (mostly filers than really something interesting), this is a great album and i can recommend to anyone that likes Death Metal, Metalcore or Hardcore, or in another view someone that really appreciates guitar solos, go get it…

Glass Casket – Too Scared to Live

When I heard that, from the ashes of Gorguts, a new band was being assembled, I became very curious to know if it was Gorguts alike or a complete new band. Well… Surprise surprise! It’s Gorguts alike. «Obscura» alike, to be more precise.

The question is: Is this EP up to the Gorguts high-standards?.

Yes and… No.

In this three song EP we are taken to a place were Gorguts had left us with the «Obscura» album. But the thing is: Gorguts had already grabbed us by the balls in «Obscura» and taken us to «From Wisdom to Hate» – an album close to perfection. With this Negativa EP, it’s like going back instead of going forward. Don’t get me wrong, the songs are pretty good, but after all this years I expected a bit more, an evolution. Damn, I expected much more. Nevertheless, I’m happy Gorguts soul is back and I’m still salivating for a new full-length record.

“Chaos in Motion” opens up the EP. It starts with a string pick-tapping and some dissonant chords. Then the blast beats comes in. Typical «Obscura» playing [Prepare to listen to this EP several times before you can truly enjoyed it. You all know how «Obscura» sounds and how dissonant, complex and chaotic this sound is].

Great verse-to-chorus section. I missed these passages. Gorguts are back! Ermm… Negativa… Negativa are back…

“Taedium Vitae” is a more slow doomish song. Maybe more in the vein of «From Wisdom to Hate» but more dissonant and sick. The middle section is close to… Well… Close to… Close to the opposite of a beautiful melody ^^ Very sick passage. A more speed-up passage follows end then it finishes up with a similar start but with guitar noises in the middle and the end of the section.

All three tracks end up with noisy stuff, it’s kind of boring.

“Rebellion” brings up the fast blasts again. More typical «Obscura» playing. Fast dissonant stuff. Did I mention “chaotic” riffs? Oh, and chaotic riffs. There’s a slow passage also in «From Wisdom to Hate» style. Well, it’s Luc’s style to be more exact.
The track finishes with some more guitar noises. *ironic mode on* Wow how cool, ending all tracks the same boring way *ironic mode off*.

That sums it. Nothing new with this EP. But, for the sake of Gorguts, it deserves a few listens. I’ll be waiting for the full-length album.

Negativa – Chaos in Motion