After six years of not playing together one of the most classical European black metal bands is back. Abigor has returned with all their aggression and with all their unholy vocals and lyrics. Opening with sort of electronic sounds that will surprise the listener in “Warning”, then come some dissonants melodies over which some voices are spoken. And finally the black metal comes to the surface but in a different way than we were used o listen from this Austrian band with more experimentation but with the ultra fast guitar riffs and drumming that are a trademark of the band. The keyboards are used also in order to add some orchestration to the music, and the guitars deliver riffs, experimental solos and melodies all over the compositions. Breaks and changes are all over the place in tunes like “Project: Shadow” and aggressive black metallish vocals are another trademark here. The sound is much better than in previous albums showing that this six years were used to improve their sound and compositional skills. 

Clean guitars open darkly this recording which has two compositions of over 25 minutes each of them. And slowly but surely the rest of the band enters with a rocking feeling and at the same time with intense use of a mid tempo. The repetition of ideas is essential here in order to make things memorable and to make this ideas mutate a little bit on each repetition in order to transform the whole part of the composition. There is heavy experimentation here with changes, with rhythms, with melodies and also with atmospheres. The recording has a definitive seventies sound in the guitars and also on the vocals and that gives a psychedelic feeling to the music (there is also wah wah used in the bass guitar which gives a special sound to the music). Total experimentation.

After many years of waiting here we have the second Aghora album. With a new line-up that still has Sean Reinert (ex- Cynic, Death, Gordian Knot) on drums and virtuoso Santiago Dobles on guitars the band delivers incredibly technical compositions with plenty of solos, arrangements and crushing guitar riffs. New vocalist Diana Serra brings a lot of deep melodies here and makes huge contrasts with the more aggressive parts delivering eastern sounding melodies and melancholic parts. Each tune has plenty of breaks, tempo changes and arrangements that constantly surprises the listener. And here Reinert shines with all the different drumming patterns that he creates, interacting cleverly with the guitars and the bass. The use of heavy guitars and also clean ones is essential here to deliver the different atmospheres that each tune has. The sound achieved with Neil Kernon´s production is great, especially on the huge guitars.

Grinding from beginning to end Ahumado Granujo crushes brutally your mind with intense guitar riffs and bestial drumming full of blast beats and guttural vocals. The vocals are really putrid giving the grindcore feeling to the music and making the music sound even more extreme in most of the tunes. The guitars are fast and they are heavily downtuned creating a huge sound that is emphasized by the bass giving one of the most brutal sounds on Earth. There are also some electronic elements here and there showing an experimental side of Ahumado Granujo´s personality. There are also three covers here, one from Cock and Ball Torture, another from Krisiun and  a Disrupt one, all done in the Ahumado Granujo way, full of hatred and violence. The album has a multimedia section with interesting features such as pictures and many more stuff. This band has already become a classic in the most brutal of the metal scenes.

A spoken intro with some background sounds and electronic noises open up this album of brutal metal music. Here we have elements of thrash metal, hardcore and death metal all combined into the Aktiv Dödshjälp own musical personality. The guitars are fast and have that modern thrash feeling that distinguishes them for example from pure death metal bands. The drumming is intense and fast and at the same time leaves enough space for the guitars and the vocals to develop their ideas. The vocals are really extreme and it is like if someone is torturing this guy before he spits with all hate and anger the lyrics. The rhythm section is tight and interacts really well with the rest of the band. I have to remark the special sound that this recording has, where the guitars and drums are loud and at the same time have sort of an industrial feeling that makes sound machine-like fitting well the spirit of the music.

Starting at a lower volume and soon getting at full loud format the band shows that they are a grindcore brutal death machine where the main goal is to devastate the listener with sheer aggression and brutality. Blast beats are all over the place here and they are combined with fast guitar riffs and intense bass guitar in order to construct a fast wall of sound designed to crush the listeners brain. The vocals are really guttural and give a lot of grindcore feeling to the music. And they are usd like another instrument that adds more brutality to the music. The album has a multimedia bonus that shows lyrics, pictures, the studio and many more things from this crushing band.

This is a Spanish band that starts with an hypnotic intro with eastern sounding melodies called “Sephiroth” before Mara Segura´s Spanish voices full of feeling enter showing amazing vocal skills. The musicianship here is amazing and it mixes Spanish music with eastern melodies, with some jazz and also with flamenco. Each composition is full of melodies and constantly surprises with incredible vocal lines, with acoustic guitars, dulcimer, didgeridoos, flutes and many other instruments. And many of this is thanks to the musical genius of Robert Santamaria who is a skilled musicians and composer, playing many instruments here. One of the most innovative releases of the month.

We have reviewed Ataraxia´s music before and this release shows again the great quality that this Italian band. Climatic sounds open “The song of Axieros” with an italian speaking voice before the band continues with the medieval sounding “The Nine Rituals”. The acoustic guitar passages through all the album are amazing and full of beauty as always. The female voices done by Francesca Nicoli are deeper than ever and it sounds weird to listen the lyrics in English in her voice. Vittorio Vandelli´s instrumental work achieves moments of incredible melancholy in tunes like “Kremasta Nera”. As happens with almost all Ataraxia albums once it has begun you can not stop listening discovering all the multiple arrangements and feelings that are developed through all the album. Another great album in the career of this fantastic band.

 

“In Your Blood” is the new album of Italian extreme metal icon Cadaveria. This album has all the features that this band has shown in the previous albums but with a big strengthening in sound. The compositions sound memorable with the huge guitars riffs and with Cadaveria´s extremely agonic vocals. You just have to check the opener “100.000 faces” to see how huge the band can sound. The music is the combination of pure metal, death metal, thrash metal and many other styles. And trademarks here are the catchy choruses and the combination of huge heavy guitars with the keyboards that give a completely different atmosphere to the compositions. Cadaveria´s voice goes from screaming to delivering melodies constructing amazing passages through all the compositions. The band sounds extremely compact showing big improvement through the years. And the sound is one step forward in the right direction for the band making the extreme sound be crystal clear and direct.

Here is the new promo by this extremely brutal band whose previous release we reviewed some time ago. And this promo release shows again how big is the amount of brutality that this band can deliver. Three tracks are enough to make your ear bleeds with aggression and to let you feel all the bestiality created by the huge downtuned guitars riffs and the panzer division-like drumming. The growling vocals are essential to add even more brutality to the music. And this time this guys have a better sound where each instrument is shining and letting you feel their aggression like a razor through your skin. If you are into the most extreme type of death metal bands then you surely have to check Caedere.

Car Bomb has achieved here new levels of brutality within extremely aggressive song structures. Here the guys unleash eleven tunes full of extreme bestiality and experimentation. And that is one of the trademarks of this band´s sound: the fact that they go beyond the common structures used by bands in the death metal or grind or black metal style. Crushing guitars are essential here in order to create the amazing wall of sound that is a trademark of Car Bomb´s music. And here we have multiple changes in tempo and rhythm and multiple breaks and pattern combinations that are the extreme experimentation used here. And the vocals are really extreme giving even more aggression to the music. Pure brutality with truly original ideas.

Some feedback opens up this album before chaos and brutality takes over the stage. Catholicon is an extremely brutal band with influences of pure black metal and death metal that delivers here thirteen tunes of pure unholy aggression from beginning to end. Ultra fast guitar riffs are one of the trademarks here, along with the extreme aggressive and agonic vocals (sometimes really taken to the extreme of the possibilities). The drumming goes from fast tempos to blast beats without any mercy for the listener showing how brutal Catholicon´s rhythms are. The use of keyboards that contrast heavily with the raw guitars is another of the trademarks here and they are essential to create the dark atmosphere that all the tunes here have. The sound of the recording is raw and direct and sometimes it has the feeling of being in a Catholicon´s live show. And the band shows a lot of improvement in sound when compared to previous recordings that we reviewed before. Pure unholy extreme metal with extreme aggression.

The brutal masters from the Czech Republic Cerebral Turbulency come back again with their crushing music full of death metal combined with experimentation and multiple tempo changes and breaks. The raw guitar riffs are fast and furious and they are complex in many parts showing that these guys have a lot of musicianship besides aggression. There are some grinding parts with ultra fast parts like the ones in “Evil Machines” but most of the time the band goes beyond this rhythms creating passages full of technical skills and brutality. The recording has a loud sound that emphasizes the guitars and the drumming and adding extra brutality to the music (bands that think that they are more extreme having a bad mix should check this one).

 

Here we have the new release by Cryonik. Nad it starts really well with a catchy tune called “Second Journey”. For those who don´t know Cryonik, this is a powerful one man band that has an industrial feeling and that has constructed several interesting compositions on this release. Here we have plenty of electronics and distorted sounds and Daniel´s voice is deep and fits perfectly the rest of the music, being essential to achieve the Cryonik sound and delivering the essential melodies to make all the tunes really memorable. There is plenty of experimentation here and that is evident on each tune. Check for example the programmed drumming in “Vacuum” and see how well developed are the ideas here. Five tunes leave you wanting more from the imagination of Cryonik.

An atmospheric intro with dark keyboards and an epic feeling opens up before “We all shall all bleed” opens up with full violence with a shout of “Come on motherfuckers” before all the band blasts at full speed over the listener. Those who have listened the band before will surly love to listen again the Sabine and Johannes vocal contrast that arrives on this album to amazing climaxes. The guitars are as brutal as in their previous album but this time they are even better mixed shinning through all the recording. One of the best things here is also the drumming that sounds like a brutal machine that destroys everything on its path with intense double bass and fast snare drumming. As I said, the vocals here are wonderful, making things really brutal in the case of Johannes, who growls through all the album and also giving a beauty feeling in each composition when Sabine enters the recording. A great release from this band that deserves to be one of the best known names in metal.

A rhythmic riffs opens up this MCD showing in just few seconds all the aggression that the people from Death Mental can create. With influences of old school death metal and thrash metal the band manages to create here two tracks of pure violence and also a track with pure melancholy as “Escape”. Take the sound of bands like Venom and Celtic Frost and add them some old school band like Possessed and then add a really deathly voice in order to achieve the Death Mental sound. The guitars sound raw and fast showing pure aggression and brutality. And the voice is pure death. I would mix a little bit louder the guitars in order to make them sound more compact with the vocals that are mixed really loud. A crushing band with an extreme raw sound full of bestiality.

Debauchery has found its own sound here: that is a combination of pure brutal death metal with rocking riffs and rhythms. Growling vocals of the most pure death metal kind are delivered here against guitar riffs that brought to my mind some Entombed, for example, but with a more crushing sound. The drumming is really brutal, delivering fast double bass, speedy patterns and crushing cymbals hitting. I have to remark the huge sound that this recording has, specially on the guitars and drums that sound really big and right in your face.  There are covers here of tunes by Rammstein “Weisses Fleisch”, Genesis “I can´t dance” and more. And there is also a bonus cd with other covers like Manowar´s “Kings of Metal” and many others. A devastating release.