Doom:vs - Earthless (2014)

Six long years passed since the release of Dead Words Speak. With Doom:vs being a side project, this is somewhat understandable, but still far too long. Rumours of a follow-up started a couple years back, and yet it still took this long for anything to come of it. With the release of Earthless, in April 2014, it would seem that it does not live up to the expectations set by the previous works.

The primary drawback to this record has to be in the vocal department. For one reason or another, Johan decided to bring in Thomas A. G. Jensen from Saturnus to provide vocals for most of the album. This was a horrible mistake, as there was nothing about the vocals of the first two albums that needed to be improved, really. Jensen's voice is too deep, losing what little feeling could have been added to the music. These sort of toilet-bowl gargles were fine for the old Broken Hope records, but here they are ineffective. Even worse, the clean parts that he contributes are completely unlistenable, possessing a nasal and whining quality. However, the worst of all are the parts that are neither harsh nor clean, but just sort of a hardcore shouting. Johan still contributes some clean bits, doing his best My Dying Bride impersonation, but these brief moments fail to save anything as they come off as forced and disingenuous.

The songwriting is much the same as before, featuring a good number of crushingly heavy riffs with a bleak and dismal feeling, as mournful melodies accentuate this melancholic vibe. Early on, Earthless is somewhat reminiscent of October Tide's A Thin Shell, with the title track not being too dissimilar from "The Custodian of Silence" is some aspects. There is no severe drop in quality from the previous releases, though it is by no means good enough to warrant such a long wait. One would think that Johan could have come up with this material, quite easily, back in 2010 or so. The number of truly memorable melodies is quite few, not nearly enough to make up for the problems this album possesses.

The production is about the same as the last albums in that it is pretty modern-sounding, but not so overdone as to lose the feeling of the music. Of course, being several years later, there is a noticeable difference. There is a bit more fuzz to the guitar tone than before, with neither helps nor hurts the music. To be honest, making the sound more raw would only have made the vocals even more unbearable, as this guy does not have an underground voice, at all.

Earthless is filled with rather average material, with the exception of "The Slow Ascent", which includes some gloomy tremolo riffs. Of course, as with the rest of this disappointing album, Jensen ruins most of it with his terrible vocal performance. Johan may have a thing for Saturnus, but some people actually wanted another Doom:vs album and we got ripped off. So much for this band. Avoid this.

Ravenclaw - Winternacht (1996)

Ravenclaw was a side project from Gaamalzagoth, of Moonblood. Whereas he only did vocals in his primary band, here he handled everything himself. The band's second demo, titled Winternacht, was released in March 1996, around the same time as Blut & Krieg. The end result, however, is not as positive as one might have hoped for.

This is straightforward, raw Black Metal. Of this, there is no doubt. The musicianship is roughly the same as that of Occulta Mors in Moonblood, yet the songwriting is nowhere near as brilliant. While being solid, the riffs here are good on their own but average by comparison. Each song sticks to the same formula, more or less, being pure Bathory and Darkthrone worship with fast tremolo riffs and primitive drums. As for the latter, Gaamalzagoth utilized a drum machine and it sounds terrible. It really takes away from any feeling that the music could have had, especially with the particularly raw recording of the guitars. They just do not fit together well.

The sound is not really up to the same quality as one would expect from a proper demo of this period, though more along the lines of the Moonblood rehearsals. The quality is good enough for the guitar melodies to be heard, as well as the hate-filled vocals, but something about the guitars sound rather distant. This may also have something to do with the drum programming throwing the sound off.

Winternacht is not a terrible demo. It is certainly worth checking out for fans of Moonblood. However, with that said, do not expect the same songwriting genius. Gaamalzagoth is competent, but he is no Occulta Mors when it comes to composing music, it seems. For what it is, Ravenclaw is pretty decent and would have sounded quite good with real drums. Give it a listen, but keep your expectations low.

Moonblood - Fullmoon Witchery (1996)

As part of the monumental From Hell boxed set, released in November 2013, there is included a 7" E.P. that was originally recorded in 1996. Though only containing two tracks, Fullmoon Witchery is one of Moonblood's best efforts and is absolutely essential for fans of the band and of Black Metal, in general. The reasons for never properly releasing this at the time seem rather mysterious, as this is yet another recording that displays the genius that this band possessed and would have easily stood out among the majority of the albums that were released back then.

The music conveys an atmosphere that is cold and sombre. The fast-picked tremolo melodies are very memorable and possess a melancholic quality without being overtly depressive in the sense that is commonly associated with some bands, these days. The title track features some additional melodies that really add to the epic feeling of the song. As with many of their other works, it is as if this music transports your mind back in time. There is a gloominess that exists to mourn the world that was lost, long before this wrong and empty existence came into being. As for "Under the Abyssic Black Wings of the 3rd Angel", there is a bit of a Viking-era Bathory influence in the acoustic intro and the mid-paced riffs that serve to further take you on a journey to another time and place. Regardless of which style that Occulta Mors utilized, he was always able to create an epic atmosphere, which was accentuated by the evil and hellish voice of Gaamalzagoth. At times, the second song seems to foreshadow what would come with Nachtfalke. Some of the playing is a bit rough, but the vibe is always genuine and pure, which is worth more than a million "perfectly executed" albums with the sickening modern production and no feeling, whatsoever.

Regarding the production, this ranks alongside Sob a lua do bode and Of Lunar Passion and Sombre Blood as having the best sound of any recording throughout the band's career. Unlike the many demos and rehearsals, where one would have to train the ear and put forth effort to make out what was going on, at times, the guitars come through very well, here. The brilliant melodies created by Occulta Mors are able to be more fully appreciated on Fullmoon Witchery. The guitar tone is cold and, though not razor-sharp, still rather thin and trebly which suits the music perfectly. The blood-chilling screams and hateful-filled vocals are mixed at a perfect level to be heard and yet to not overpower the rest. The same can be said of the drumming, which is clear enough but not overbearing.

Fullmoon Witchery clocks in at only ten minutes in length and consists of but two songs, yet this recording is far more essential and important than 90% of the Black Metal releases that have come since its creation in 1996. These tracks have been floating around on bootlegs for some time, but if you haven't already acquired them in some manner then make haste in doing so now. This is highly recommended and is a good example of Black Metal done right... something that is often lost on people, in this disgusting modern age.

Havohej - Dethrone the Son of God (1993)

Havohej is an American Black / Death Metal band formed by Paul Ledney, basically picking up from where Profanatica left off. Upon first discovering them, I was a bit turned off. Satanic and anti-Christian themes are fine in opposing the Great Lie, but some bands seem to go a little too far. Their lyrics show almost too much knowledge of this fictional nonsense. As well, in this case, the band name was just very unimpressive as was the fact that the band hailed from the states. Thankfully, I ended up giving them a chance and discovering just what an evil record Dethrone the Son of God is.

Released in 1993, this album seems to show a bit of influence from the Scandinavian Black Metal scene. This is particularly evident with the production, which is quite a but thinner and more raw than on the Profanatica releases. Speaking of which, one would not be wrong to consider this the true first full-length from that band, seeing as how it is a direct continuation of the work begun on Putrescence of... and Weeping in Heaven. Not only are several Profanatica songs re-recorded here, but the overall style of the music is precisely the same.

On Dethrone the Son of God, there seems to be an added emphasis on the fast tempos, though the album is not without the gloomy mid-paced sections as well. "Once Removed Savior" is a prime example of the latter, which is about as morose of a track as Paul Ledney ever created. His raspy vocals and evil lyrics really help the sinister atmosphere and set this apart from the other bands in the American underground at the time. Musically, much of this could be taken as Death Metal, with the vocals and overall vibe being the main thing to distinguish it from the likes of Incantation. One of the only complaints about this album, though, is its extreme brevity. So many of the songs struggle to even get past the one or two-minute mark. The songwriting is strong enough, just not as fully developed as it could have been. A song like "The King of the Jews", for example, is barely over a minute and a half and the main guitar melody is very good, just rather incomplete. The same can be said of "Behold the Prince of Peace", though at least it possesses vocals.

Dethrone the Son of God is a solid, if incomplete, album of Black / Death Metal. It's too bad that this release by Havohej was the final legacy of Profanatica for quite some time, and that Ledney didn't manage to continue being as prolific as he once once, immediately following this release. his projects definitely had a lot of potential, and the recordings that do exist are certainly worth hearing, but it seemed as if he could have done so much more. If you haven't yet listened to this, ignore the stupid band name and give it a chance.

Incantation - Onward to Golgotha (1992)

Already by 1992, Death Metal was undergoing quite a transformation. Atmosphere was being replaced by technicality, in some cases. Many were trying to outdo one another, in some idiotic contest to see who could make the most brutal and pointless music. A lot of bands were changing in the name of "maturity", moving on to make simplified nonsense or just tackling subject matter that had nothing to do with what this music was supposed to be about. Thankfully, in May, Incantation's first full-length record was released. Onward to Golgotha is a massive beast of evil Death Metal, taking the concepts of the previous releases and really solidifying the band's sound. As a bonus, the band avoids the common themes of horror and gore, instead conveying a strong anti-Christian sentiment.

Incantation is certainly one band that understands that atmosphere comes before all else and this is quite evident on their debut album. Everything has a purpose, as nothing is played just for the sake of showing off. The fast tremolo riffs build the intensity and sense of urgency, while the various slower passages add an aura of darkness and utter doom. Each track displays some amount of variation in tempo and manages to maintain its own identity, yet the changes are done with purpose and not just to disorient the listener and never seem to become formulaic. Songs like "Golgotha" and "Devoured Death" truly batter your senses, while the likes of "Blasphemous Cremation" and "Christening the Afterbirth" drag you to the murky depths with doom passages that really add to the darkened feel of the album. There are times when the drumming is too fluid and adds a sense of groove, when perhaps the music would have sounded more intense with the primitive type of drumming featured in Profanatica. The one change that would have benefited this album the most would have been if Paul Ledney had not left the band. His much raspier vocal approach would have made this much more sinister and memorable, as the super-low vocals sort of blend in with the music and do very little for me, personally.

The production is a bit more polished than necessary, but not to an irritating level by any means. However, the compositions would have really come across better with a more raw sound that placed more emphasis on the guitars. Unfortunately, around this time, Death Metal was changing and everything was going lower; i.e. lower-pitched vocals, lower tuning on the guitars, the prominence of the bass and drums in the mix. These things work against the sort of vibe that Death Metal is supposed to have. That said, Incantation still managed to create something very worthwhile, here.

Onward to Golgotha is a definite classic of Death Metal. It is unfortunate that Incantation suffered so many problems with lineup difficulties and with their label, as this material is far stronger than most of the other albums from this era that regularly receive so much more praise. For example, and album like Tomb of the Mutilated is widely known and has had tons of praise heaped upon it for two decades, yet it has been my experience that Incantation is not as highly regarded as Cannibal Corpse, despite being a better band. Nevertheless, this album is highly recommended to any fan of the old school Death Metal sound, back when it was supposed to create a feeling of dread, darkness, death and evil, rather than being a wanking contest between attention whores with no clue what this music was meant to be. Seek this out if you do not already own it.

Cannibal Corpse - Butchered at Birth (1991)

Cannibal Corpse has always been a rather prolific band, going all the way back to their earliest days. Though nearly every album of theirs has sounded the same for well over a decade, such was not the case in the beginning. Each of their first several records had a rather distinctive sound. Released in 1991, Butchered at Birth came across as a bit darker and more serious, leaving behind the '80s Death / Thrash and campy horror movie lyrics in favour of something more disturbing.

The sophomore effort from Cannibal Corpse is a much heavier record and this is a result not only of the lower tuning for the guitars, but also the thicker production and the bludgeoning riffs. Also, the vocals become less discernible and more of an instrument that pushes the compositions forward, as Chris Barnes uses a deeper and more guttural style than before. This is one of the more negative aspects of the album, as his voice on Eaten Back to Life possessed a deathlike feeling that was lost with the arrival of the infamous "cookie monster" vocals. As for the music, the band discarded more of the trappings of their Thrash Metal roots and embrace a more pure Death Metal style, featuring more droning tremolo riffs and blastbeats. In some ways, Butchered at Birth seems to utilize a more percussive approach. Rather than just keeping a beat, the drums drive the music along just as much as the guitars and vocals. Even during the mid-paced sections, the double-bass never stops rumbling. Some of the riffs start to blend together, and one may have a hard time remembering which one belongs to what song, but then there are tracks like "Vomit the Soul" (featuring guest vocals from Glen Benton of Deicide) and the powerful closer, "Innards Decay", that stick with you long after the album concludes.

Though the production is not as raw and the vocals lack much of the unique character from before, Butchered at Birth is filled with memorable riffs and still stands as a guitar-oriented album. Because of the tuning of the guitars, the lower-pitched vocals and the prominence of the drumming, the sound of this album comes off as rather muddy, in a sense. It is like a wall of sound that repeatedly smashes you in the face, which may have been what the band was going for.

Cannibal Corpse was never the greatest Death Metal band out there, gaining a lot of notoriety from their album covers and promotion and so on, but they were solid in their early years. Butchered at Birth shows a bit of decline in quality from Eaten Back to Life, but it is still a decent Death Metal record with a fair amount of memorable riffs and ideas, if not actually memorable songs. If you are new to the band, or only familiar with their recent output, put that trash away and stick with their first few releases.

Mantas - Death By Metal (1984)

1984 was a special time for Metal, in general. Several seminal Thrash bands had not long before released, or were working on, their debut albums. Black Metal was in its infancy with the likes of Venom, Bathory, Sodom and Hellhammer making hellish recordings. Then we have the birth of Death Metal in its proper form, with the Death By Metal demo from Mantas (later known as Death).

To imagine that something this extreme was already being written at a time when Dio and Ozzy were among the standard-bearers for Metal is quite odd, when put into perspective. Bands like WASP and Motley Crue were all over the radio, along with many more even softer acts. Even the Big Four were still relatively unknown at this point. Yet bands existed that were already pushing the envelope even further.

I wish I would have been old enough at the time to have listened to this for the first time with unsuspecting ears. The intense high-speed riffs already blew Metallica's debut out of the water, and Kill 'Em All had only recently outdone Venom's output in terms of speed. The guitar riffs were powerful and dark, such as the intro to "Legion of Doom", and just hellishly evil and violent in the case of "Beyond the Unholy Grave". As if the songwriting was not extreme enough, the vocals were something that were still relatively new. Kam Lee's approach must have been influenced by Cronos, yet here his voice is much more powerful. It is not as demonic or evil as what Quorthon was doing at the time, but it was certainly among the most brutal for the era during which this was recorded. Schuldiner contributes vocals for "Power of Darkness", with some of the most insane screams that he ever let out.

Out of the five songs that are on the official version of this demo, only "Evil Dead" and "Beyond the Unholy Grave" managed to see a proper recording, later on. While it can be somewhat understood that they left behind the Venom-on-speed approach of "Death By Metal", the omission of "Legion of Doom" from Scream Bloody Gore was a questionable decision. Though the production on this demo is fairly decent, the vocals really are buried and the riffs don't have even a fraction of the power that they do on Death's debut full-length. In truth, it would have been nice to hear all of these re-recorded.

This is an essential recording, not just for fans of Death, but of those interested in the beginnings of Death Metal as a sub-genre. The sound is harsh and unprofessional, which is just how this sort of music should be presented. If you are only familiar with the likes of Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy, and disappointed by the weak direction that the band went afterward, this is definitely worth a listen.