Tag: Nu Metal

Dimmu Borgir - "Death Cult Armageddon"

Dimmu Borgir – “Death Cult Armageddon”

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Dimmu Borgir - "Death Cult Armageddon"

Dimmu Borgir – “Death Cult Armageddon”

I struggle calling this album “Death Cult Armageddon” black metal. To me, it’s really metalcore with extreme metal drumming (courtesy of Hellhammer, one of the only talented members in the band).

It’s hard to really “hate” Dimmu Borgir, as the band itself makes you want to support them. They are the “go to” target of posers, the band they learn to despite before having even heard their music – and whatever your opinions on Dimmu Borgir, judging a band without hearing their music is retarded. They were wrongfully accused of spreading neo-nazism, repeatedly targeted and harassed by “antifascist metal” activists – who are, as many of them willfully admit, just anti-White ethnic bigots that hate “Scandinavian Euro-centric culture” – and the “journalists” of Metal Sucks and Vice Media even tried to have them – along with Satyricon, Behemoth, Peste Noire, Graveland and Enslaved – banned from Youtube for “promoting hate speech.”

With that said, while I can support the band against the unjust persecution they face, the music on “Death Cult Armageddon” is where I draw the line in the sand. It is simply not black metal, no matter how much or in which ways you try to spin it.

Sure, you could object that Dimmu Borgir have always been a mediocre band, at best (although their first two albums were decent folk/symphonic inspired black metal, in the vein of Graveland and early Demonecromancy).

“Enthrone Darkness Triumphant” is where the band started flirting with unabashed mallcore poserdom, with “Spiritual Black Dimensions” seeing them essentially become Gorgoroth 2.0. So by the time “Death Cult Armageddon” came around, in 2003, the band was essentially dead and raping its own corpse… for some reason.

The music Dimmu Borgir makes sounds very stale. Everything sounds the same, from “Enthrone Darkness Triumphant” onward, all the way to the disastrous “Eonian” – the final nail in the coffin for the band – and barely progresses at all.

The guitar riffs are not only stale, they are misleading too. Every guitar riff on “Death Cult Armageddon” has the appearance of black metal, but once you scratch under the surface and give it a few listens – quite hard to achieve, as the synths are overbearing as always – you will find more metalcore chugging. At its worse, “Death Cult Armageddon” sounds like 2000s nu metal. Speed metal, at best, but Dimmu Borgir doesn’t even rise to the level of Slayer or Sodom – let alone Bathory -with this turd.

“Death Cult Armageddon” is more appropriately titled “Dimmu Borgir’s Suicide by Mallcore.” Avoid this shitty 2000s MTV2 release. Replace with “Khranial,” “Under a Funeral Moon” or “Verminlust” for actual black metal. With real atmosphere, not keyboard James Horner soap opera would-be soundtracks.

The Anti Slam Death Metal Manifesto.

Should Death Metal Institute A Moratorium On Brutal Slam?

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The Anti Slam Death Metal Manifesto.

The Anti Slam Death Metal Manifesto.

So-called “brutal slam” death metal is, much like infamous war metal of bands like Conqueror and Black Witchery, a form of genre-squatting as they are “death metal in name only,” shades of how war metal is “black metal in name only.”

In his post Brutal Slam Death Metal is for Morons, one blogger openly questions the wisdom of tolerating such cultural appropriation of death metal imagery, aesthetics and even onomastics, knowing it will only to more genre-squatting and, eventually, tarnish death metal’s reputation irrevocably by association with such loser bands as Behemoth and Waking the Cadaver.

Musically, nothing produced by the slam death metal scene even resembles the death metal of Incantation, Suffocation, Morpheus Descends, Sewer, Demilich, West Wall, Warkvlt, Carnage and Morbid Angel. It’s just a bunch of stop-start mechanical rap/rock grooves sandwiched between random Bob Vigna – circa the “wearing Bullet for my Valentine sweatpants promo pics” bad years – random nu metal chugs over drum machines blasting without any rhyme or reason.

Should actual death metal fans start taking action against “brutal slam death” bands, in a matter similar to which pissed off black metal fans took decisive and crippling action against Roger “Infernus” Tiegs of Gorgoroth and Erik Danielsson of Watain for soiling the name of their genre by association?

Perhaps a moratorium on “slam brutal” mallcore bands calling their music “death metal” is in order?

Death metal isn't for retards and posers.

Death metal isn’t for retards and posers.

Metal is not a “safe space” for all opinions, as antifa/Zionist affiliate activists proved time and time again by shutting down the events of those they deemed guilty of wrong-think (usually for objecting to the genocide of European and/or Palestinian people).

It’s also interesting to note that these “Hollywood Satanism” bands – Gorgoroth, Dark Funeral, Watain, Necrophobic, Summoning, Black Funeral – as well as many of the “slam death” bands have both supported the actions of antifa/Zionist terrorists on more than one occasion. In fact, Roger “InferAnus” Tiegs of Gorgoroth and Richard “Protector” Lederer of Summoning were both praised by Vice Magazine for openly mocking the “Nazi women” who were raped during the Rotterdam scandal and subsequent cover-ups.

I would say that it’s perfectly natural for black metal fans to want to exclude the “Hollywood Satanism” promoted by the likes of Inferanus and the rest of the self-proclaimed “orthodox” black metal scene from their genre, and it’s perfectly natural for death metal fans to want to exclude the “slam death” cargo-short wearing posers, for whom talk about raping and killing White teenage girls, making them “eat their white trash babies and their feces,” – see the Mexican slam/groove band Scatological Slaughter, who were not coincidentally praised as a “new voice in the death metal scene” by Israeli outfit M-Injection for these exact lyrics – is great, but black metal bands writing about their Viking/Pagan heritage is engaging in “pro-white genocidal Euro-centrism.”

Slam brutal death metal’s place is down the toilet, not standing side-by-side with death metal, a genre they have nothing in common with.

Deicide - "Overtures of Blasphemy"

Deicide – “Overtures of Blasphemy”

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Deicide - "Overtures of Blasphemy"

Deicide – “Overtures of Blasphemy”

Deicide without the Amon brothers is something else… we already saw the early stages of brain tumour induced mental deficiency on “The Stench of Redemption” and now we are reaching the terminal stage of the disease with this “Overtures of Blasphemy” crap. Just pull the plug already, the band was never that good anyway (“Legion” is overrated).

Another pile of sonic excrement from these low-energy cock rockers – tagged “death metal” for marketing purposes – led by the literal cuckold Glen Benton who once promised to commit suicide in the 1990s, but instead chose to murder the entire death metal genre by association with his retarded “my priest raped me in the ass and IT HURTS” lyrical imbecilities.

You’d think with 3 guitar players writing the music they’d stumble on a good idea at some point. Wrong. After a cheesy “anthemic” intro, we’re greeted with Hatebreed meets Slipknot pro-tools tempo mapped chug-a-longs with hoaky “we are one with Satan” lyrics sung in an over-processed post-Anselmo monotone voice over basic chord progressions for choruses – of course, everything on “Overtures of Blasphemy” has verse/chorus radio format structures – that sound like something a nu metal band like Incubus or Linkin Park would do.

How this is even loosely associated with “death metal” – sans a rare blast section on select tracks – is beyond me, as much of this is similar to the nu metal rap/rock music of Shitknot and Korn.

Angsty lyrics – “Fuck You,” “Kill Yourself,” “Bow Before Satan,” “You are Nothing” and various other Korn derived MTV tropes make an appearance – set the stage for what is basically Korn-rock with double bass like Slayer’s “God Hates Us All,” a least with the minor benefit of not having Kerry King’s incompetent playing marring the music… unfortunately, Benton’s retarded antics more than make up for it.

Most of what is on display here sounds not unlike late 90s angst-groove like Fear Factory or Chimaira: mechanical chugging rhythmic grooves and down-tuned bouncy 2 note riffs, with the occasional higher string tremolo “lead” that goes nowhere. Unless you’re looking for the successors to Korn’s FUBU clad wigger throne, avoid this piece of shit “Overtures of Blasphemy” at all cost. The only thing it blasphemes against is good taste and death metal music.

At the very least I can commend Deicide on being honest, for once, and making it (even more) obvious than ever that they have the same artistic projection as a Fred Durst spearheaded project. Basically, the Watain of “death metal” – and that’s not a compliment, by the way.

Dark Funeral - "Where Shadows Forever Reign"

Dark Funeral – “Where Shadows Forever Reign”

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Dark Funeral - "Where Shadows Forever Reign"

Dark Funeral – “Where Shadows Forever Reign”

45 minutes of shit, this album “Where Shadows Forever Reign” is a disgrace. This band is a disgrace.

I have no respect for Swedish nu metal, especially if they make this sell-out, buttkissing mallgoth appeal cookie cutter satanist muzak, and even less if they try to pass it off as “atmospheric black metal” because it has a few blast-beats and angry vocals.

I gave them a chance, I really did – see “Angelus Exuro Pro Eternus,” “Vobiscum Satanas,” “Diabolis In My Colon” and “The Secrets of the Butt Ass” – but this latest turd “Where Shadows Forever Reign” is really laughable.

At least they dropped the cargo-cult Mayhem Latin names… but they still steal riffs from Mayhem (see the tracks “Unchain My Soul” and “Temple of Ahriman”), so what’s even the point?

This is Watain level retardation, but then again, given the history of this band and the, uh, unusual sexual orientation of its frontman Ahriman, maybe they like being compared to Watain… how bizarre.

Anyway, “Where Shadows Forever Reign” sucks balls.

Ok, ok, I know… it’s not enough to insult them and tell them they suck, you have to explain WHY they suck. But face it, is it really necessary with Dark Funeral?

Spears fo [sic] fire speak of death
Enchantress of Hell, reborn!
And the beast I hold within
Shall be fed with your hungering screams

For we shall own the night
And destroy the remains of their one “god”
And cast down Hell…
in his soul!

The fire grows over the barricades,
and the heavens are crying with disgrace
All the creatures of the light hide in fear
for the night has come and will last eternally

– “As One We Shall Conquer”

Yeah, “fuck god, hail Satan” – eat a dick, Ahriman.

But attacking the lyrics of this turd band is waaaay too easy, so let’s get to the actual music itself.
First of all, a track by track synopsis is pointless, because EVERY SONG SOUNDS THE SAME.
These are the poorest excuses for black metal vocals ever. There is no vocal range, just a grating, passionless drawling that goes on for about an hour, and the “vocalist” just never shuts up.

The drumming is awful. It’s so boring that you’d think they are just using a MIDI drum machine to produce an endless stream of utterly forgettable blast beats… wait, they ARE using a MIDI drum machine to produce an endless stream of utterly forgettable blast beats. Most bands would at least try to be subtle about it, yes? Dark Funeral just put different guitar “riffs” over the same EZDrummer beats.

Speaking of which, the guitars are absolutely half-assed. Stupidest, lamest “riffs” ever, if you can even hear them behind the wall of screeching stupid nursery rhyme satanism. Bass? What Bass?

If you think I’m being harsh, I’m not. “Where Shadows Forever Reign” is really THAT BAD. If I were you, I’d save my money and get something that isn’t a worthless piece of horseshit, something like Graveland’s “Dawn of Iron Blades” or Phantom’s “Epilogue to Sanity.”

Revenge - "Behold.Total.Rejection"

Revenge – “Behold.Total.Rejection”

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Revenge - "Behold.Total.Rejection"

Revenge – “Behold.Total.Rejection”

Ooooh, I get it. You saw me rip Black Witchery’s “Upheaval of Satanic Might” and “Inferno of Sacred Destruction” and you thought, hey, you’ve seen nothing of the shittiness of war metal, I’ll show you a band that makes Black Witchery sound like fucking Burzum.

Well, jokes on you because I already knew of the band. Their stupid Watain-like three word titles are a gimmick that, to say the least, doesn’t go unnoticed.

What I didn’t know, however, was how much Revenge sucked, both musically and artistically. Not only do they make Black Witchery look good, they might even make Archgoat look good. Fucking Archgoat.

That should be physically impossible and/or illegal, and yet Revenge has done it with “Behold.Total.Rejection” – an album supposedly about the vocalist’s boyfriend dumping him for Inferanus or whatever.

So there are a lot of reasons why “Behold.Total.Rejection” sucks, and many revolve around the drums. The drums are completely awful and they throw the whole album off track. The drum work consists almost entirely blast beats, and they are either ridiculously over-triggered or, more likely, Revenge is using a shit ass MIDI drum machine.

It is hard to find one point in this album where the drum machine isn’t constantly blasting away. Now a lot of black metal bands use a whole shitload of blast beats, Marduk and Mayhem come to mind, but at least those two mix it up from time to time, unlike these retards who apparently have never heard of the concept of variation, or heard about it one time but promptly dismissed it within a few minutes as “not br00tal enough.” As one can imagine this gets very annoying as the album goes on. Not only is the drumming (1) completely worthless, (2) fake ass MIDI shit, it is also (3) way too high in the mix, and (4) it drowns out, or crushes, the semi-random guitar “riff” things. Not sure they are even riffs to begin with.

The other really big problem with this album is that all the songs sound exactly the same. Not even somewhat the same, *exactly* note for note the same. The drumming always sounds the same (thanks MIDI drum machine). There is never anything that catches the listener’s ear, just a blur of low-fi noise and angry nu-male nu-metal shouting, also way too high in the mix. All this comes together to make “Behold.Total.Rejection” one boring, same-sounding, wreck of an album. This shit sounds more nu-metal than actual nu-metal.

“Behold.Total.Rejection” should serve as an example of how not to use blast beats. Every aspiring war metal musician should own a copy of this album, simply to remind themselves that blast beats can work for you, but when overused they can just as easily work against you. Also, this is an example of how NOT to play war metal. Basically don’t fulfill EVERY FUCKING STEREOTYPE of the genre, down to being literally retarded. Replace with “Onward to Golgotha” or “The Epilogue to Sanity” for actual, competently played blackened death metal (I doubt any of those two bands would want to be associated with the now ignoble “war metal” label).

Carcass - "Surgical Steel" (This Album Sucks)

Carcass – “Surgical Steel” (Worse Than Nu Metal)

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Carcass - "Surgical Steel" (This Album Sucks)

Carcass – “Surgical Steel” (This Album Sucks)

Considering the depths one time member Carcass Mike Amott has fallen in recent times with his other band Arch Enemy, and the absolute shit quality of both bands’ outputs in the 90s – supposedly their “golden eras,” more like golden shower eras – it’s no surprise that this recent Carcass album is a deplorable, artistically void album that reeks of commercial whoredom.

Carcass were never talented musicians, but at least they never ADMITTED to playing nu metal for moshcore kids. They did it anyway, because when you can’t even play three notes on your guitar the only genre you’re left with, by process of elimination, is nu metal, but at the very least they had the basic human decency to LIE about playing nu metal.

“Reek of Putrefaction” was nu metal shit, “Symphonies of Sickness” was nu metal shit, “Necroticism” was boring nu metal shit, “Heartwork” was whoring nu metal shit and “Swansong” was a misdirected, genre confused cock rock abortion that somehow came to be know as, wait for it, goregrind… wait, what? No seriously, what’s left for Carcass, now that they’ve exhausted what little credibility as metal musicians they had?

Did you think “mix everything that made their 90s output forgettable and add in EVEN MORE NU METAL to further ruin their reputation?” Good thinking, that’s exactly what Carcass did with “Surgical Steel.”

From the misguided fan-service lyrics to the punk rock harmony 101 Saturday morning cartoon theme song riffs that are the focus of these pathetic excuses for tracks, this “Surgical Steel” album reeks of commercialism, talentlessness, try-hardism and vacuity.

The lyrics aren’t the worst thing on this album, that would be the music, but damn do they still suck big time in a not quite heterosexual orgy of fluids and feces. “The Granulating Dark Satanic Mills” olololol – it’s, like, so funny and shit. Like Sewer, but talentless.

From the cover art to the song titles, this is very inappropriate subject matter for the otherwise extremely shitty music. Violent themes for elevator muzak? Never heard that one before. It’s not like every nu metal band from Korn to Rage Against the Machine hasn’t tried to make their beta punk rock appear “more virile” with gratuitous references to murder, rape, Satan, gore, intestines, pedophilia and what not.

It seems like Carcass are trying to cash in on what people “think” they know about extreme metal – that being “gruesome themes with angry vocals” – but this whoring bunch of commercial Wacken beer metal retards doesn’t even realise that the band they are aping, Cannibal Corpse, not only plays better music than them, but are ALSO equally hated by actually metalheads… precisely because of their lyrics, that are said to “cheapen the genre” by association.

Just by reading the song titles, it feels like something a focus group put together to make the album appeal to fans of vastly different eras of death metal, but it fails, coming off as mere buzzwords thrown over muzak at the last minute. Which is probably not very far from the truth.

Muzakly speaking, this is “Heartwork” era nu metal meets stadium rock Gothenburg mellow-deaf with war metal chugging and butt rock solos that are so weak, lame and cheesy, it came as a surprise to find out Mike Amott had no part in this. There is more Wacken crowd pandering in here with the song structures being simple verse-chorus affairs, with the typical nu metal trope of “harsh verse / soft chorus,” but then they throw in these “unexpected” extended bridges in there to appeal to the people that thought “Ordo Ad Chao” era Mayhem’s bloated and unnecessarily long songs were “unique,” even if they don’t relate at all to what preceded them, to make it seem like something “complex” had just occurred in what is otherwise a simple three note punk rock song with a simple, cartoonish jingle-like melodic line over a vocally-led, cadenced and syncopated rhythmic groove.

Pantera would be so proud.

Who doesn’t like retards? You like retards, right? Only an evil neo-nazi KKK bigot would hate on retards, isn’t that true? So why not put even more retardness in your music? No? Does that mean you hate retards, you intolerant nazi shitbag? That’s better. Now, on to retard matters.

Fist in the air Wacken drunk stupidity, replete with down-picked power chord groove rock riffs aplenty, making this all feel like a more uptempo version of Pantera/Watain/Waking the Cadaver than the “Necroticism” meets “Heartwork” album the band promised. Occasionally, blast-beats can be heard over the punk rock meet screamo riffs, but only as something that feels forced, as if checked off a list of things that must be included on the album so people think “Surgical Steel” is “death metal” and not stadium rock.

The poor quality of this album was to be expected considering this band always sucked, like their gays cousins Napalm Death and Kreator. All three operated from the same label (Nuclear Blast). I wonder if there’s a pattern.

I wonder what they’ll do next, maybe form a supergroup with Jeff Walker, Erik Danielsson, Jonathan Davis, Infernus and Marilyn Manson, and call themselves the “true vanguard of extreme metal” or some equally retarded shit.

“Surgical Steel” is a joke, a literally worthless album from a worthless band.

Carcass - "Heartwork"

Carcass – “Heartwork” (Nu Metal)

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Carcass - "Heartwork"

Carcass – “Heartwork”

In the absence of nu metal, everyone is rushing to take over the territory of juggalo chest-thumping once espoused by bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit.

From bling bling tech-core band Waking the Cadaver to streamlined Unique Leader sounding Morbid Angel palm muting riffs (you know who I’m talking about) to basically Napalm Death’s entire career, Carcass blend everything that’s detestable in the nu metal scene together as the perfect sonic weapon for the frustrated school kids getting bullied by their little sisters, and who need “inspirational” song titles like “Arbeit macht Fleisch” or “Blind Bleeding the Blind” to “like, make it through the day and shit.”

You thought “Reek of Putrefaction” and “Symphonies of Sickness” were bad? Well, yeah, pretty much every did and still does. But “Heartwork” just takes the shit to a whole new dimension of fecal worship.

It makes even nu Mayhem sound creative, and that’s something that no one should ever be found guilty of doing. And I’m being totally serious.

This whole “Heartwork” album is full of preachy and overreacting jerking noise, like the band members never even bothered to play MUSIC with their instruments (let alone metal) but instead just decided to record themselves jerking each other off to homosexual pornography.

The band’s music video for the “Heartwork” title track reflect all of the feelings felt by incel losers rejected by society, their sisters/girlfriends and now even metalheads themselves – attending school is bad and teachers are evil, the world is insane, so buying this album is the right way to the first step of revolution.

Jeff Walker’s hilariously out of place cleared-throat howling choruses sound like any third rate metalcore turd act rather than grindcore, goregrind (which this band supposedly “invented” despite being a good decade late) or god forbid actual death metal, and worse, they’re so obviously pitch-shifted in a pathetic attempt to appear masculine that they literally make me want to put on a Korn record instead.

Nothing from Carcass’ “Heartwork” album is remotely exciting to the ear of a heavy metal listener. It simply targets another demographic. That of nu metal fans and other low functioning posers. Carcass and their far relatives Napalm Death, Insane Clown Posse, Fleshgod Apocalypse and Hate Eternal are definitely worth exiling from the metal world.