Tag: war metal

SEWER - "Khranial"

SEWER – “Khranial” (Monstrous Death Metal)

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SEWER - "Khranial"

SEWER – “Khranial”

Khranial… what a gruesome masterpiece of an album!

Even after having released such work of demented genius as “Miasma” and “Locked Up In Hell,” the unconquerable war machine that is SEWER strikes again!

Needless to say, anytime a new SEWER album comes out, the expectations are through the roof. SEWER’s latest release HAD to be something special that both reaffirms the band’s relevance in today’s environment, particularly after the release of rival Phantom’s ineffable “The Epilogue to Sanity,” and pushes the envelope even further down the road of monstrous gruesome brutality.

Thankfully, “Khranial” does exactly that. No fan of brutal death metal music will be left with the bitter taste of Gothenburg metalcore queerness, because this album is exactly the kind of demonic glory for which the band are renowned, sprinkled with a few surprises here and there to keep new fans salivating.

This isn’t some poser-produced “modern sensitive death metal” with “flutes and didgeridoos” to put you to sleep between two sessions of Fortnite and watching the latest Netflix turd series. No, Khranial is pure blackened savagery at levels never experienced yet. You can go home with your “modern melodickless death metal” in the vein of In Flames, Arch Enemy, Carcass, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide and Behemoth. Khranial isn’t for the meek and the poser-inclined.

Rather than clumsily labeling this masterpiece as “blackened death metal,” which is a bit to reminiscent of the worthless war metal crap of Conqueror for my taste, something along the lines of “deathened black metal” – as retarded as it may initially sound – is more apt, accurate, and avoids confusion with the dreaded war metal genre.

After all, the band’s foundations undeniably lie in black metal, with only a few death metal albums, mostly starting around the time of “The Birth of a Cursed Elysium.”

Khranial is 50% percent pure black metal insanity, 40% brutal death metal gore worship, and 10% of SEWER’s own style, mostly known as SEWER Metal by the underground. Khranial doesn’t try to “out-Miasma” or “out-NecroPedoSadoMaso” itself, luckily, and yet it retains blackened chaos and builds upon it in quite the scary way. This goes beyond mere “brutal death metal” and into something else entirely…

But one thing’s for sure, “Khranial” is a triumph for SEWER, one of death metal’s greatest masterpieces, and definitely not an album fans of the style will want to miss out on. Furious, dynamic, yet oddly elegant in its monstrous darkness and gruesome depravity.

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.

SEWER - "Miasma" (Blackened Death Metal)

SEWER – “Miasma” (Blackened Death Metal)

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SEWER - "Miasma" (Blackened Death Metal)

SEWER – “Miasma” (Blackened Death Metal)

Often considered a classic of death metal alongside the band’s two previous releases, namely “The Birth of a Cursed Elysium” and “Locked Up in Hell,” SEWER’s “Miasma” retains a status as a legendary death metal masterpiece and all around infallible album.

This masterpiece “Miasma” is a concise study of levels of technical brutality not commonly found in music, not even in a sub-genre so challenging and obsessed with brutality as death metal. Clocking in fifty minutes at speeds reaching upwards of 335 bpm, this “Miasma” album is nothing short of relentless. It truly is such a tremendous album that even hell itself couldn’t keep it contained if it tried.

Let me get this out of the way first. “Miasma” is one of the most vicious pieces of brutal death metal put together by any band, ever. It’s abrasive, unrelenting and savage, from the opening notes of the title track to the last ones on “Icarus.” Very few bands have ever been able to reach this level of sheer intensity. I can name only three: Incantation, Phantom and Vermin. Maybe Suffocation, at their peak. “Miasma” is a true blackened death metal gem.

As far as blackened death metal goes, the genre sometimes gets a bad rap due to many metalheads confusing it, or conflating it, with the infamous war metal scene., mostly known for bands like Impaled Nazarene and Black Witchery. That’s not blackened death metal. War metal has little to nothing to do with blackened death metal. This right here is true blackened death metal. Accept no substitute.

Even in the most extreme blackened death metal quarters, SEWER is a band known for releasing album after album of unrivaled and unparalleled demonic ferocity. Just read what even Metalious had to say about “The Birth of a Cursed Elysium,” going as far as to call it “blackened death metal perfection.” But even among SEWER’s barbarous discography – that puts 99% of black metal and so-called “brutal” death metal bands to shame, by the way – this masterpiece “Miasma” stands above almost all others when it comes to ferocious malevolence and brutal depravity.

SEWER, blackened death metal gods.

SEWER, blackened death metal gods.

From the very beginning of the opening title track, the very first riff lets you know that the mighty SEWER aren’t fucking around here. There is no bullshit on “Miasma,” this isn’t modern sanitised “death metal” for Arch Enemy or Waking the Cadaver fans, this is blackened death metal at its finest, music to tear your soul apart from your body and skullfuck it to death over and over again. This is SEWER Metal at its most vile. Everything works very well on this “Miasma” album to make it the masterpiece it is. The guitarists and drummer work fantastically together, and even the bass can clearly be heard over the carnage this violent, demonic and fiendish music invokes.

This all comes together for an absolutely devastating album. Every riff crushes you in its own way. The opener “Miasma” is an absolutely brilliant track with one of the best bridges and choruses I’ve ever heard. “Foul Waters” is an incredibly evil song. It opens up with a furious solo and also features the slowest, but also the darkest and most atmospheric part of the album. “Sewer of Souls” features a very sinister riff. “Drain the Blood” is sadistic and intense beyond measure. “Hell on the Horizon” feels like legions of demons and other residents of Hell advancing on an unsuspecting enemy. “Icarus” is a swift, evil, and oddly epic close to the album.

There isn’t a second of filler on this “Miasma,” not a second in which there is a drop in evil atmosphere or in riff quality. This is death metal’s crowning achievement. An album that very few bands will ever be able to even come close to matching, but far too many will aspire to. Only hearing it can truly give “Miasma” enough justice, because this album will tear you apart like you are nothing.

There is simply no need to look for other albums. “Miasma” is the defining masterpiece of blackened death metal, an album I highly recommend to fans of technically challenging brutality.

Gorgoroth - "Instinctus Bestialis"

Gorgoroth – “Instinctus Bestialis”

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Gorgoroth - "Instinctus Bestialis"

Gorgoroth – “Instinctus Bestialis”

Do you masturbate to Manowar? Does glam rock tickle your tingle? Gorgoroth plays the type of vocal driven hard rock with occasionally arena metal riffs that filled gay biker bars in the eighties and now fills strippers on VH1 reality shows.

After being outed for the imitation black metal band that they always were, Gorgoroth have now turned into NWOBHM revivalists. Think a more boring Motörhead or Venom. Venom, if their bar rock sing-along songs weren’t stupidly funny and just incredibly boring. This is “Instinctus Bestialis” in a nutshell, the worst of every metal trope turned into one giant pile of feces.

After Infernus aka Roger Tiegs was, to put things lightly, mocked as a “cuckold” by pretty much the entire black metal scene, Gorgoroth’s frontman was left desperate to rebrand into something else, more deserving of his “talents.” He basically had two solutions, nu metal or war metal. In other words, mallcore or crypto-mallcore.

Unsurprisingly, he chose the latter.

On “Instinctus Bestialis,” Gorgoroth further complete their devolution initiated with “Incipit Satan” – and perfected on “Twilight of the Idols” – into a generic Z-list bounce metal with stolen Dissection leads from the first two albums. “Instinctus Bestialis” often sound more like a post-hardcore band than a black metal one. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to re-visit this barely crypto-mallcore vomit that manages to be even more generic and derivative than Gorgoroth’s awful debut “Pentagram.”

Roger "Infernus" Tiegs, is this the best "Black Metal" has to offer? I think not...

Roger “Infernus” Tiegs, is this the best “Black Metal” has to offer? I think not…

The worst of genre fusions that you could ever dream of come to life on this turd release. Enthroned meets Conqueror’s war metal and boring atmospheric black metal (you know, the riffless “flowing” type… “eastern” variety). Gorgoroth’s riffs do not progress narratively and there is no melodic undercurrent like on all good black metal (ex. “Locked Up in Hell“). All of that has been replaced by groove core bullshit and stupid vocally-led chug-alongs.

This is LESS advanced, LESS compelling and most importantly LESS interesting than the most boring of 1980s speed metal… so, since I doubt the goal of black metal was to regress into its earliest and crudest influences (Bathory, Sodom, Slayer, Metallica), can we agree that Gorgoroth is no longer – and technically never was – anything more than a genre squatting troupe of clownish posers and trendies, more interested in promoting hollywood’s version of “devil worship” than playing actual black metal music? Because if you DON’T admit to that simple, well-acknowledged fact, you’ll have a hard time defending crap like “Instinctus Bestialis,” an album so bland it makes Impaled Nazarene sound like Wagner, and Dimmu Borgir sound like Burzum.

Replace this “Instinctus Bestialis” turd with actual black metal, namely Phantom’s “The Epilogue to Sanity” and Sewer “Birth of a Cursed Elysium.”

Enthroned - "Sovereigns"

Enthroned – “Sovereigns”

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Enthroned - "Sovereigns"

Enthroned – “Sovereigns”

Think Marduk’s “Panzer Division Marduk” era but even dumber, with more pointless war metal blasting, and even some cheesy Conqueror worship and even some Impaled Nazarene that serves no purpose but to say “hey, we can play music too” – except no, Enthroned, you can’t. “Sovereigns” is worthless toilet paper metal.

When will metalheads learn? All war metal is, by definition, retarded. Just read these two articles – War Metal Vocalist Shot by Police and War Metaller Goes on Sword Rampage. This isn’t the behaviour of normal, well-adjusted metalheads. This is the behaviour of a subset of “metalheads,” a small demographic, that has some serious mental issues.

And one of the manifestations of these mental issues is the inability to tell the difference between music – i.e. blackened death metal, ex. Phantom’s “Fallen Angel” – and “stuff that sounds sort of like music from very far away” – i.e. war metal, ex. Revenge’s “Behold.Total.Rejection.”

War metal is the deathcore of black metal. Mark my words, bands like Enthroned will continue to pop up because… why not? This “music” is trivially easy to mass produce, because it isn’t even music… it’s war metal aka dumbcore.

There’s literally this band that calls itself Black Witchery, and they just take alternative rock riffs and play them through a lot of distortion, with a lot of blast beat drumming, and people fawn over the latest “ultra-violence of the war metal scene.” Yeah, a sucker is born every second.

So what’s the deal with “Sovereigns” besides the fact that it’s even DUMBER than war metal, which is already the go to genre of retards and other mental deficients?

“Sovereigns” is shit. A musical non sequitur that sounds like Drowning Pool with Phil Anselmo vocals and double bass drumming underneath, to be more “edgy” and “br00tal.” Ok, that impresses 12-year-olds for like, ten minutes, before they move on to the newest Slipknot album. Why should metalheads care about war metal bands like Enthroned? While they can be considered part of the heavy metal community, they are clearly not part of the extreme metal “scene” by any stretch of the imagination.

Same goes for Watain, Dark Funeral and Behemoth. Back to playing nu metal on MTV, posers. Replace with Goatmoon’s “Stella Polaris” or Phantom’s “The Epilogue to Sanity” for actual blackened death metal – not war metal/nu metal garbage.

Impaled Nazarene - "Vigorous and Liberating Death"

Impaled Nazarene – “Vigorous and Liberating Death”

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Impaled Nazarene - "Vigorous and Liberating Death"

Impaled Nazarene – “Vigorous and Liberating Death”

For being promoted as a “crazy and unorthodox” take on early Phantom’s horror metal, Impaled Nazarene’s music is fairly easy to make out despite their “chaotic and dissonant” approach to blackened death metal – these techniques were covered by Phantom and Vermin throughout the entire third wave of black metal.

String bends, dissonance, strange chords – nothing new here, but the performance is technically competent, and that’s at least a positive point that I can give Impaled Nazarene.

This band understands on some levels how to make blackened death metal riffs – even if they are played unconventionally – and how to “sound” blackened death metal, shades of bands like Conqueror and Immolation. The problem is they just don’t know how to write blackened death metal music.

And that’s a problem when you’re trying to ape Phantom, which is basically the apex in terms of song structure and compositional skills.

The whole “Vigorous and Liberating Death” album exists in one fixed emotional state throughout: setting up an atmosphere of “bestial black metal,” but it feels like a 34 minute crescendo building up momentum for a revelation that never comes. Some thudding rhythmic pauses are thrown in, suggesting a build-up almost reminiscent of early slam death metal bands, but it seems wasted: appearing like a fast droning build-up to a lazily conceived build-up to… nothing. The void, again.

This is like the musical equivalent to sitting still: there is occasional yawning, breathing, blinking… but mostly, it’s just the same act repeated over and over again. Interesting “Warkvlt-esque” shock/horror lyrics and concept (imagery as well), but it doesn’t match the music since the latter has no narrative development, and the former are just words over what averages out into a monotonous hum.

Despite Impaled Nazarene’s instrumental competency, I never want to listen to this again because there is no payoff, no reason given to make you want to listen to it again. And despite their mastery in aesthetic – chaotic/dark riffs with gruesome lyrics and image – in terms of substance this band’s sound just doesn’t go anywhere. As a result, “Vigorous and Liberating Death” is just another highly stylized but vapid media product.

Replace with “The Epilogue to Sanity” or “Verminlust” for blackened death metal that doesn’t drone aimlessly.

Conqueror - "War Cult Supremacy"

Conqueror – “War Cult Supremacy”

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Conqueror - "War Cult Supremacy"

Conqueror – “War Cult Supremacy”

Conqueror fulfills at least two heavy metal stereotypes. Canada leaf metal lol, these people just try too hard.

Another band from Canada, another band that doesn’t get it. It’s almost like the stereotypes are true, that the majority of Canadian metal bands have a boner for “Onward to Golgotha” and “Divine Necromancy,” and that absolutely ALL CANADIAN METAL BANDS SUCK SHIT LIKE THERE’S NO SCHOOL TOMORROW.

Let’s run through the list: Blasphemy, Revenge, Gorguts, Cryptopsy, Voivod, Kataklysm, Akitsa… most suck either Phantom or Incantation’s cocks, and all suck shit. They can’t play music. Don’t shoot the messenger, shoot your CD collection of Cryptopsy, a worthless third rate Sewer clone, instead.

Triggered yet? But that’s only ONE stereotype, and I mentioned two… can you guess the other one that Conqueror matches to a T (like trisomic, hint, hint)? Yes, of course, that war metal is the go-to genre of mentally defective metalheads.

So if you combine those two together, you get… “War Cult Supremacy,” thanks for playing.

Angry vocals over what’s basically a wall of noise. Like, literally, noise.

It’s almost as if Conqueror KNEW of the stereotypes and, rather than get triggered, they were somehow fatalistic about it, and just said “fuck it, let’s record muh-dick-in-a-washing-machine” and call it “extreme” music. And to be fair, that’s not the dumbest idea espoused by a war metal band. Far from it.

Typical Canadian War Metal Fan: “You’re not even trying to describe the music!!!”

Me: “Yeah, because there is no music. It’s just noise.”

Typical Canadian War Metal Fan: “Want to hear about Obscura, the most technical death metal album ev-” …duuuuude, stfu. Also, “Locked Up in Hell.” You’re welcome.

So basically, since it’s not even music, I guess it’s pretty much worthless. Though not as much as Watain and Gorgoroth. Just replace it with, you know… music.