Immensity (Greece) Eternal Helcaraxe (Ireland)

Dogbane (U.S.) Breed Infection (Iran)

REVIEWS: Bestial Holocaust (Bolivia), Dreaming Dead (U.S.), Incantation (U.S.), Ominous Crucifix (Mexico), Pagan Altar (U.K.) PLUS: “Incursions of Monolithism, Extremity, Absurdity”: Brume d’Automne, Cellgraft, Chaos Inception, Emptiness, King, Nexhymn, Revolting, Shadows in the Crypt, Savage Annihilation, Unconsecrated Metal Bulletin zine #33 www.fuglymaniacs.comcontact the zine: theoutcastzine@juno.com

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Immensity (Greece) Immensity’s melodic, melancholic doom unexpectedly stood out when I first heard it because the band is different from the majority of the black/death/thrash barrage that this zine covers. Their EP is called “The Lonely Aquarelle” and you can download it for free at immensity.bandcamp.com and it features two long songs: “Eradicate (The Pain of Remembrance)” (8:54) and “Adornment” (10:49).

The quality of the recording is very good, and coupled with their well-written songs, Immensity makes music to be heard again and again. It is certainly quality and distinctive melodic doom. Andreas (guitars) responded to the zine’s questions. -- How is life for your band Immensity, in Greece? You recorded a very good promo, “The Lonely Aquarelle.” Hi, there, I'm Andreas. Thanks for your kind words and thank you for your time and the opportunity you give us to express ourselves. Very difficult to live as you want in Greece at this time, but we're tough as people and humble at the same time and we will succeed. Generally up till now we have been receiving very positive reviews from known webzines, there is a positive atmosphere and this comes to us a pleasant surprise. We are very thankful to everyone who supports us. So, do you have more songs already recorded? Maybe you have a complete album ready to be published? There are songs written since 2004 that are re-arranged with the current line-up, as well as new songs. We have enough material in the process and that helps us being productive. When we finish the orchestration of all the songs we will have a large number of them. Then we get into the screening process. However, the material for our album is not complete yet, it will eventually take some time, but If everything goes well by the end of winter we will have it all ready and done. At a time of economic crisis, what is the situation for playing shows for your band in Greece? Is there an audience in Athens, Greece for your music or do you find that you are outsiders to the metal scene? Are you all college students?

Immensity since 2009 has not made a single show. But we all have a long history of experience in concerts from older bands. Until now we have decided to devote ourselves in writing songs. Generally, the conditions here to do a show are not the best for a band to play at a known venue. Most of the underground bands play in front of 30 to 70 people the most, I guess basically due to economic reasons or according to the band's popularity, there are many issues and problems. The truth is all expenses are on the shoulders of the bands playing on stage. Nobody thinks that the payment of the band is a great device to make a step further, which money will help move quicker on technical issues (studio rehearsal, recordings, new instruments etc.) and for that we are not at all arrogant. This means delay and waste of time, I've witnessed very good bands lost in time and forgotten, we dearly hope not to end up in that dark road or dead end. In recent years I see more traffic in this kind here in Greece, new bands are born and it is very pleasant, but we're still few and scattered, but it comes to a good event I think we all support the Greek Doom Metal scene.

As time goes by things will get better and the audience will grow. As Immensity we are still unknown, but we do not mind, everything should be done properly without rushing things. It's Metal the music we play, we do not belong elsewhere or feel strangers in the Metal scene. We grew up with this music. Yes, we are all finished or still college students with degrees which are gathering dust in closed drawers. Half of the members of the band are unemployed and those who are working spend life with very low wages. What is the story behind “Eradicate”? It is almost nine minutes long. I found your music to be different, in a good way, since this zine reviews a lot death/black/thrash metal. “Eradicate” contrasts the heaviness of death metal, with the melody of doom metal. Is this one of your earliest songs? Personally I do not know how to explain the difference, we write music as we feel, yes you might say we play along with the Death metal character combined with melancholy and intrigue or diversity, but the lyrics are based on personal experiences and thoughts, stretching to means of facts of reality, dreams, metaphor even sorrow and solitude. The meaning of "eradicate (the pain of remembrance)” is about to rid the pain within from a sad loss or fight your personal demons, a way to the light then just living in the darkness and fears. It's an earlier song though, the music was written back in 2005 if I recall well, but all the lyrics were written a few years later by our singer. What about “Adornment”? That one is almost 11 minutes long. So, you are not planning to write a “hit song” of 3 minutes?! “Adornment” made me think of My Dying Bride at the beginning, which is not a bad thing, but then the melodies are really kick in and that’s kind of Immensity’s trademark. Lots of people say that “Adornment” reminds them of My Dying Bride, the truth is we're not just based on that fact, since our influences are numerous to mention, but some of the bands we really like and I guess share a similar path, but always focusing on our own direction are surely November's Doom, Daylight Dies, Novembre, Swallow The Sun, Draconian, Katatonia, Evoken, Shape of Despair, older Anathema, older Opeth, even more older the Gathering just to name a few, but getting back to "Adornment" we liked the feeling coming out from that song, we played along and wrote it, simply. We do not mind if as a song brings in My Dying Bride which is a part of our influences, truly it's an honor for us if people say

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that. Actually it is very pleasing they like so much

"Adornment", this might mean that we share the same emotions and have a mutual understanding. Musically we like to go with the flow of a current coming from the music itself. We don't really limit ourselves in a specific time frame, if the composition "tells" us to push the envelope even further in length we just do it. We don't really plan things, even when sometimes we ask ourselves:

"Hey this song is almost as long as the epic movie The Ten Commandments or Ben Hur (starring Charlton Heston). Are we nuts? Nah, what the hell, let's keep it that way.”

But by all means, in a logical basis with diversity to keep things interesting, and of course, lots of melody and memorable moments. Then you never know, the next song might be as short as Danny De Vito, which I doubt it haha! By the way, does your music sound depressing to you, or do you find that the slow melodies and the heaviness are full of joy, just in a slow way? Immensity wants to slow things down and explore the feeling of doom, and not the aggression in metal, correct? Did you have a difficult time finding a good clean vocalist? A lot of people can growl, but clean vocals are sometimes more difficult to find, right? We consider that we manage to sound depressive, we like this kind of expression with various alternations that characterize us. We love to play melodic, heavy and slow, aggression is not the prime element, but will not renounce to our music, there may be some outbreaks through a natural progression as we evolve in the future. All sorts of people have passed from Immensity for the last 7 years, finally after so much effort we found the most suitable for the band since musically carries a duality of emotion but also reasonable aggression.

Concerning Leonidas, our singer, well, I was fortunate to know him before I started working on the current line up, by listening to the songs and realizing how much he liked them, it wasn't long till I offered him the job to sing for Immensity, who of course accepted, with great pleasure. Coming really from a Progressive metal background and though singing occasionally with Brutal/Growls surely needs some specific technique for avoiding fatigue or harming the voice, but I'm pleased to say and can assure you that Leonidas can handle both very well. There aren't really standards in his way of singing in Immensity, however he continues to adjust and progress on emotions and flow of the music. What else do we need to know? Your promo is a lot fun and I have been listening to it a lot. Take care! Oh that's great to know you enjoy our music. Well, next week we begin rehearsals for the actual orchestration of songs and subsequently we will enter the studio to record. As humble, simple, ordinary and happy people we are, love to write sad music (pretty weird right? Hahahahaha). Thank you very much for your kind words and support Mauricio and wish the best in whatever you do and we're so pleased that our music intrigued you enough for this wonderful interview. Cheers...Doom on! THE END. --

Eternal Helcaraxe (Ireland) The album “Against All Odds” constructs melodies within a black/viking metal framework, with slight symphonic/folk overtones (not too much, though). Eternal Helcaraxe works with good arrangements and it is a matter of listening to the songs and hearing where they go, to places of where mood and melody are joined, and which the listening ear will assemble with relative ease, and understand the vibe of Eternal Helcaraxe’s dark melodies.

Praetorian (guitars, vocals) answers questions about “Against All Odds.” At the end of the interview you will find all the contact information. -- “Against All Odds” took little time to convince me that it is a good album. How have people in Ireland learned about it? Thanks. Mostly through word of mouth I'd say, through the internet, too, probably. There was a lot of hype about the album before it's release here in Ireland, because the release "To Whatever End" before it seemed to do pretty well. What is the story of “One Stands Still Here”? It’s the black metal feeling of the guitar speed/feel and the drumming style, but the melody echoes in the listener’s mind after the song ends. It will probably stay in your live setlist for a while? “One Stands Still Here” just came together. We've only played one show since the release of "Against All Odds" and it was our second song. Didn't realize it was so popular till we played it to be honest! But it's a funny release, as everyone seems to have a different favourite song, my personal favourite changes depending on my mood. “As the Snow Gathers” has lyrics that communicate the idea of cold freezing death. You used clean vocals on this one, but you have the sense not to make it a formula for every song. How many vocalists are there on that song? There are three vocalists on every song on the album. We find that the three vocals can add another dimension to the songs. Thule our bass player does the clean vocal on that song. I think less is more when it comes to this type of music, but if it suits the song, that's all that matters. We always just try to write the best song we can. “Shadow of the Wolf” catches the listener’s attention and it is about 4 minutes long, probably the most all-out black metal song. Did you feel that you are becoming too epic and need some balance? Is it closer to your earlier songs? Was your demo “Palest Kingdom” (2008) less multidimensional than “Against All Odds”? Maybe not? I have not heard it yet! No, didn't really think of the album as a whole when we were writing it, as I said we just wrote one song at a time and try to give each one what we thought it needed. I'm not too sure if our writing style has changed to be honest. We have been playing three of the songs from "Palest Kingdom" in rehearsal because we're re-recording them for a re-release of "To Whatever End" with bonus tracks through Abyss Records. We're re-recording "Burning Light", "Palest Kingdom" and "The Undying Lands". It'll be out next year at some stage. If anything "Palest Kingdom" was probably more epic to be honest, the songs were longer and there was a lot more keyboards on it, too. It was a bedroom recording though so the production really lets it down.

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The song “Against All Odds” could be the love song on the album! The war/blood/sword/wolf imagery on the other songs can come across as macho/nationalistic (and homophobic), but on this one, the lyrics worked out very well for the epic feel. Yes, it's been described as a love song before which is nice, that's what I was aiming for when I wrote it, homophobic is a new one though! Anyway, I think lyrics have to be honest to have impact and that's just how I was feeling when I wrote them. When I'm writing lyrics I don't think of stupid shit like if they are Black metal or Viking metal enough, mainly because most Black metal lyrics in bands are pretty crap, bar a couple of band like Primordial, 40 Watt Sun/Warning or whatever. Metal Archives says that both Tyrith and Praetorian play drums on the album and Praetorian does drums, guitars, keyboards and vocals? No, Tyrith done all the drums. I don't know were they got that from, they should probably do some research into these things! I do guitars, keyboards and a third of the vocals. Do all of you live in the same city? Only Praetorian remains from the old days? Was it hard to find like-minded people? We all live in the same town, yeah. No, myself and Maulgrim (guitars, vocals) have been in the band from the start. Haha, maybe you should do your research, too! Yeah, both of us couldn't find members to work and stick with us until after the "Palest Kingdom" release. But the line-up we have had for the last two releases have been great. We've also started writing the new album, too and it’s really strong. What type of childhood did Praetorian have that he learned guitar, drums, keyboards and vocals? “Drums” does not mean “drum machine programming” in this case, does it? By the way, what is “Éadóchas”? I just loved music when I was younger. Still do. Yeah, I programmed the drums for the first release, badly. “Éadóchas” is an ambient side project I do. First release "Beneath The Lonely Mountain" is out on Sword Production. (http://www.sword.pt.vu/) Any one interested, check it out. http://www.reverbnation.com/eadochas http://www.myspace.com/eadochas New album "Against All Odds" is available from: www.officialabyssrecords.com http://www.eternalhelcaraxe.net THE END. -- Dogbane (U.S.) Dogbane’s album “Residual Alcatrazz” goes back and forth between traditional heavy metal and doom metal. In any case, it is “big riff” metal, so that the guitar work sounds like it comes from a secret riff vault that Tony Iommi put away in a hidden corner of North Carolina, where Dogbane found it, opened it and hit the jackpot! Dogbane basically has a bit of everything for people who like different moods in their heavy metal. However, this is key: variety within the field of straight traditional heavy metal. For Dogbane, the metal trends/genres/styles that came after 1982 are of little interest to them. Thus, surprisingly little traces of thrash/ death/black/grind, no emo/core/screamo/breakdowns, no poppy melodies and no funny-looking haircuts, no rapping, no synchronized jumping and things like that, basically.

Dogbane= heavy metal of doom. The band’s guitarist Mitchell Allred elucidates their take on metal. -- To start off, please clarify something on Metal Archives. Your other guitarist David Ellenburg died this year 2012, but he did play on your album “Residual Alcatraz”? Did David play and hear the album completed before he died? MA: Yes, David did play on the album. In addition David was a major contributor to our song writing process, as well as a founding member of the band. We both split the solo duties on the recording and worked together in laying down all the harmonies. The man was a friend and a pleasure to work with. Dogbane meant the world to him. David did see the release of “Residual Alcatraz” and we played several dates in support of the album before he passed. He was very proud of the album and excited about our future. We all miss him terribly, but carry on in his memory. Tell us about the North Carolina world of metal that you guys come from. Does it have a bunch of dudes into heavy and doom stuff? Metal Archives says that your vocalist Jeff Neal is in Steelwolf, a band active since 1984(!)? So, Dogbane is a bunch of total classic doomheads? I suppose you were into Trouble and Candlemass back in the day? Here in North Carolina at least in our particular area Dogbane stick out like a sore thumb. I think that is a good thing though. Most bands here seem to have a hardcore slant to them and vocalists that you can’t understand. We are certainly coming from a more traditional standpoint. Call us “old school” if you will, but a band needs melody, good song writing, and a vocalist that makes some kind of sense. There are some better-known doom oriented/slanted bands in the state, but they are certainly less traditional than Dogbane.

In regards to Jeff and “Steelwolf,” he did provide vocals in an early demo of theirs and was a member, but he is no longer in the band. All members of Dogbane have been involved in the scene for many years with various other bands. Speaking strictly for myself, “classic doom head” describes me perfectly. I’m still into Trouble and Candlemass. I think “Psalms of the Dead” was one of the best releases of 2012. “Residual Alcatraz” begins with two up tempo, rocking, big-riff songs, “Ride the Serpent” and “Born to Die.” So, how are you getting that classic guitar sound, the bigness of it, of the Iommi School and fountain of inspiration, to sound so good and organic? Are your recording techniques different? Is it the methods? There is no doubt that the “Iommi” influence is present. If one plays heavy metal guitar, how could it not be? Dogbane gets the classic guitar sound the very same way other bands have gotten it before us; Gibsons and Marshalls. As a band we do feel most new recordings sound too mechanical and sterile, and we have made a conscious decision to seek a more organic sound.

One will never discover pro-tooling, triggers etc. on a Dogbane album… that just isn’t us. A big portion of the credit must go to our engineer Kevin Davis, who just so happens to be our bass player. He makes sure we keep that big warm sound we all want. I’m not sure if our recording

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techniques/methods are any different from anyone else’s, perhaps it is the recording equipment: it’s all vintage. I notice that you seem to care very little about image, gimmicks and other such marketing clichés. Does this come from having been around the block and observing the folly of aspiring musicians selling their souls to the devil just to “make it”? Do you figure, whatever happens, that you are ok having day jobs and playing music for fun, to be a cult band? I think it just comes from being real. Dogbane is made up of a group of guys who are in their early to mid-forties. If we show up in skinny jeans and dyed hair the jig is up. We are not into being something we are not. We play the type of music we grew up listening to, the type of music we love. I think it is very obvious that we are not hipsters jumping on the retro metal bandwagon. We come from an honest place and I think it shows. I also feel this honesty resonates with people.

We are too old to care about trends or what is hot at the moment. We feel like we don’t have anything to prove to anyone and even if no one was listening to us we would still be rehearsing on Sunday afternoons because music is what we do. Honestly, every musician wants their band to do well, and in that sense we are no different from anyone else. What separates Dogbane from other bands is that we see things for what they are and we have no illusions of grandeur. We travelled those paths a long time ago. What is the importance of age and wisdom in the world of the music business? Do you think that it is not a coincidence that it is young people, with their hopes and illusions of “making it” that get victimized by the veterans/sharks in the business, and their promises of “you can go far if you stick with me, kid”? Have you gone through some of these experiences? One of the few things that get better with age is one’s bullshit detector. It will be in your band’s best interest to hone and use this tool. The fact of the matter is that there will always be those out there who want to take advantage of you if they feel there is a dollar to be made and you’re dumb enough to let them. If what you are being told sounds too good to be true, chances are it is. The best way to combat this problem is to be involved with as much of your product as possible. Dogbane produces almost everything in-house, our recordings, merchandise, along with our product design and layout. You will have to step outside in terms of distribution, public relations, mastering, and some advertising, but the more you can handle yourself, the better off you will be. The good news is that through new technology you can control a lot more than in years past. We have tried to avoid those bad kinds of experiences at all possible cost. “Tell us how the heavy metal and doom metal heads can get in touch with you and get a copy of the album. For more information, go to www.dogbaneband.com. We have a complete line of merchandise for those interested, and you can listen to several tracks off of the album. While you are there, follow the links to our Facebook, MySpace, and ReverbNation pages along with our label’s website Heaven and Hell Records. You can also follow us on Twitter. There are no plans for touring at present. THE END. --

Breed Infection (Iran) In the U.S., what things are necessary to play death metal of the heaviest brutality and what are some obstacles?: indifference, ridicule, connecting with other metallers, lack of resources and finding channels of activity, and more. For Breed Infection these questions are very relevant in Iran also, as guitarist H.R. illustrates. If you think that death metal, and metal in general, is worthwhile music, Breed Infection’s recording “The Maze of the Inaccurate Assumptions” offers much that you should support. Visit www.reverbnation.com/BreedInfection and get in contact with the band: breedinfection@gmail.com -- “The Maze of the Inaccurate Assumptions“ is a brutal work. Where did you record it? You have been active since 2010? H.R: Thank you. Since the sound quality of our work was very important for us, we recorded that in a studio. Yes, we have been working since 2010. At the present time, I'm involved with BI. How did you start listening to death metal? For the first time, by one of my friends who gave me a few CDs from Death and Morbid Angel, when I listened to them, I became so astonished and after one week, tracks were repeated over and over. What do your parents and neighbors think, and where do you rehearse? Do they say, “No one understands what you are saying in the songs!!” By the way, how many languages do you know: Persian, English, Mazandarani/Tabari, too? We’re practicing in a room we have prepared. We have tried to avoid propagation of sound as much as possible so that we don’t bother anyone. Fortunately, none of the neighbors has complained so far.

Persian and English and of course, Mazandarani isn’t a language, but it’s a type of dialect, like in Texas. You live in Mazandaran, near the Caspian Sea/Mazandaran Sea. If you want to see a metal concert, where do you go? If I want to go, I’ll probably go to Indonesia since it’s the center of Asian death metal. We’re in Mazandaran, near the Caspian Sea, but there isn’t any club in Iran in which we can have any performance. Furthermore, live performance of metal music is illegal here. Other underground artists may also do live performance in houses or villas, but we don’t do that. Can you tell us names of other metal bands in Iran? Was there death metal in the 1990s in Iran? Currently, several good metal bands are working in Iran. You can refer to some of the websites such as ReverbNation and Metal-Archives and listen to their songs or get more information. Yes, the root of death metal in Iran goes back to 90. The U.S. government has done great damage to the economy of Iran. The U.S. politicians celebrate that they have made life very difficult for people in Iran. They want to humiliate Iran, that’s imperialist aggression and arrogance. In this situation of economic hardship, what kinds of things are possible for Breed Infection in Iran? You know, working people in the U.S. do not want war with Iran. The wars in Iraq and

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Afghanistan have made people here think about all these wars and invasions. Iranian economy is really in a disorganized situation. In the current month, the Iranian Rial's value dropped to the minimum price. Inflation rate has increased to the highest level. The price of products and even foodstuffs has multiplied and is still increasing. People change their deposits into gold and dollars to avoid devaluation of their assets. One of the reasons that we couldn’t record a full-length album was the very bad economic situation.

We hope no war begins between Iran and the U.S., but the final situation will certainly beyond our desire and hope, and it will depend on the politicians.

As you know, metal music in Iran is forbidden and the only thing we can do is fade to underground. How can people reading this interview contact you? We appreciate all those who supported us. The orders we received were beyond our expectations but unfortunately we couldn’t accept all of them due to international sanctions. However, we have a good surprise for those who didn’t receive our album. Thank you for interview, much appreciated. THE END. --

REVIEWS by MMB Bestial Holocaust (Bolivia): Into the Goat Vulva (Iron Bonehead Productions) People who swear by South American bulletbelt and leather-spikes-chains metal can point to Bestial Holocaust to demonstrate. The pentagram-evil-goat-inverted-cross and vomit-snarl-black deathrash raw war metal hits the mark of the fine and distinct tradition of metal that Bestial Holocaust represents.

So, then, what does motivate Bestial Holocaust to come up with those sharp-blade black thrashing riffs, that savage blasting and those growl-snarls? Most likely, it is the sounds of early, classic Venom, Bathory, Sodom, Destruction, Sepultura and perhaps no band standing in highest regard than Sarcófago and their classic album “INRI.”

Bestial Holocaust sounds like a band that thinks that Sodom’s best work was their first EP, “In the Sign of Evil”; that Sepultura’s most inspired work was the fury of their first EP “Bestial Devastation”; that Destruction’s best was their first EP “Sentence of Death,” so and so forth. Actually, once you hear this, how can you argue with Bestial Holocaust?

The Possessed-obsessed soul known as Sonia Sepulcral scowls, howls, growls and snarls, grunts and screams (and I think I hear pig-squeals, too) thereby assembling an arsenal of vocals that bring to mind Tom G. Warrior, Schmier, Quorthon, Cronos, Jeff Becerra, Angelripper and lots of Wagner Antichrist. I could go on and on, but I need to finish this review now. Zine number 33 is ready to print and I have to stop somewhere. To sum up: Is this music made by Sarcófago fanatics for Sarcófago fanatics? Is this something you would enjoy if you like black thrash deathrash war metal? Is Bestial Holocaust perfect? Yes, to all that. www.ironbonehead.de www.myspace.com/bestialholocaust Dreaming Dead (U.S.): Midnightmares

Dreaming Dead’s thrashy speedy, sometimes-blasting progressive growl metal skillfully emphasizes quality, good instrumentation and intelligence. Dreaming Dead illustrates an inclination for bringing together several styles into a coherent identity, while maintaining the intense moments as an integral component. “Into the Depths” is a blasting, speedy number that with one listen impacts. That is also true for “Overlord” and “Corpse Mountain,” pieces in which the headbanging and also the progressive sides are prominent. The instrumental track “In Memoriam” displays the progressive side. Various shades of their music are evident, the thrashy/energetic side, as well as the proggy guitar element is clear. “Departure” is also another instrumental, a rather mellow ending to the album, where guitarist/vocalist Elizabeth Schall decided to take it easy on the listener.

In all, Dreaming Dead still has their best work ahead of them, for sure. “Midnightmares” is a good second album for them, and one that they apparently released independently, taking matters into their own hands, instead of waiting around for someone else to make it happen. What this band will do is obtain more experience, and become a more dangerous machine. I want to hear it happen! www.dreamingdead.com Incantation (U.S.): Vanquish in Vengeance (Listenable R) Brutality, doom and blasphemy = Incantation. Their previous album is from 2006, so this here “Vanquish in Vengeance” has taken a long while to surface, but all is well with Incantation.

This death metal institution is built upon a relentless work ethic: play death metal in the style of when they emerged with their highly regarded 1992 debut “Onward to Golgotha.” They continue playing in that style: low growling, passages of total blasting speed, contrasted with episodes of heavy-duty death doom.

Reliable, consistent, and predictable, Incantation plays death metal in the same fundamental way, always. Meat-and-potatoes death metal is exactly what Incantation specializes, and in fact, it is the only thing they do. If people want to sweeten things up with melody, keyboards or clean singing, Incantation is deaf to such opinions.

As usual, of course, Incantation’s album is a contrast of two sides of death metal they always have done. First, they blast their way in an undeniable manner. These moments are a thunderous roar of downtuned guitar, low growling and intense, fast drumming.

Second, Incantation seriously slows things down to a crawling pace, where everything is in slow motion. There is usually a simple, big, fat riff that moves like a cloud of gloom and doom. It’s not cheerful and it is not light. That’s the part where the band works the listener's patience, building up to the fast segments.

It is true that Incantation in 1992 had a more claustrophobic, thick, thick sound quality that sounds a bit muffled, in 2012 Incantation has a clearer production, but the foundation remains blasting death metal and death doom. On here, the song "Legion of Dis" is more than 11 minutes long, and it is maximum death doom heaviness. That song is some of the slowest they have done and one of the slowest/heaviest things you will hear in 2012.

www.incantation.com

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Ominous Crucifix (Mexico): The Spell of Damnation (FDA) Ominous Crucifix is quite a gem. They allow the riffs to work their effects on the listener, with a steady, uptempo and midtempo style that is easy to feel the crushing heaviness. The band does not pull musical gimmicks or tricks; each song allows the listener to hear it, without depending on blasting for impact or really, anything besides just letting one’s ears absorb the music, and decide if you like it or not based on the song, not on how fast or slow they play. In this death metal style, the vocals, drums, and riffs are clearly heard. Think, perhaps, Death’s “Leprosy,” Autopsy, Massacre, Grave and death metal that really works on the art of playing midtempo, in which the guitar riffs are all revealed to the listener. That is, Ominous Crucifix puts all their cards on the table and hides nothing because they have no fear.

Essentially, when a band plays really fast it can potentially trick the listener: the songs go so fast and they do satisfy the desire for intensity and speed on the part of the listener, but ask the listener to tell you what they just heard, and they might be at loss to tell you. Maybe you just got bamboozled. The method of overwhelming the listener with speed can easily cover up deficiencies in guitar playing, hide the drummer’s inability to keep a beat by playing monotonously and by growling so fast that all we hear is actually a loud murmur.

Ominous Crucifix is not like that at all. The deep, gruff vocals are actually intelligible (if you like death metal) and Mr. Rubens Nergal does the patented Tom G. Warrior “ugh!” and other such sounds. It is good to hear a band really work on the art of serious death metal growling. Of course, the guitar riffs do not go at a blazingly blinding speed, but rather are a magnet for headbanging.

I get the impression that the band has not thrown themselves 100% behind doing guitar solos, but things are good the way they are, and maybe in the future they will bust out with more guitar solos, which would be a good thing. There are some catchy riffs like on “Secular Omens of Doom” or “Primitive Sin,” but really the whole album is guitar riffs midpaced/uptempo immediate-impact-for-headbanging.

Death metal that lets the songs speak for themselves. www.facebook.com/pages/Ominous-Crucifix

www.myspace.com/ominouscrucifix Pagan Altar (U.K.): The Time Lord The quick version of a long story: Pagan Altar is a New Wave of British Heavy Metal doom band that is amongst the least known of bands that recorded full albums. According to Metal Archives, their debut “Volume 1” was released in 1998, but it was recorded in 1982. To what extent, the songs were re-recorded, or repaired or whatnot, that is unclear. If you like classic doom, I highly recommend Pagan Altar, as they are definitely a good band and their albums “Volume 1,” “The Lords of Hypocrisy,” and “Mythical & Magical” are very worthy of your time, if you enjoy classic doom proper. Quite simply, Pagan Altar will make you angry that you have not heard about them and you have been missing out, big time, on their doom metal. Now, about this EP called “The Time Lord”: Metal Archives says that these songs were recorded in 1978-79.

Can you believe that?! Again, I don’t know how much they have restored or re-recorded the songs. This zine has sent them an interview asking them about this matter, but the band has not responded. At any rate, it sounds incredible that the band has been sitting on this material since 1978. What is believable is this: This instantly sounds like classic doom because it is: their appreciation for Black Sabbath’s first four albums is clearly heard on here, alongside other classic, early heavy metal sounds, such as Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, and just a general vibe and attitude in favor of classic 70s heaviness. The guitar solos are done with feeling, the rhythm section rocks these songs, and the riffs are classic doom all the way through. The vocals are not “air raid siren,” but rather have a grit to them, a charm, if you will, with a slight quirk to them, so that it sounds like Pagan Altar. This release is five songs and it is over 30 minutes. It has banging moments, melancholic, space rock moments, moody passages, classic rocking metal shades, and very English classic metal episodes. The sound quality is very good, perfect for the style. Pagan Altar is must for fans of “ye olde metal” as the critic Martin Popoff would maybe say. www.paganaltar.co.uk Incursions of Monolithism, Extremity, Absurdity Brume d’Automne (Canada): Brume d’Automne (Sepulchral Productions) Raw, noisy and chaotic black metal, with a technical/progressive edge: particularly in the combination of the good, distinctive guitar work and the howling/screaming vocals. The songs sound very well written and have a lot to offer for the listener to experience. However, the sound quality is too poor and hinders the songs greatly. I went back and compared this 2012 album with the debut album from 2005 “Fiers et Victorieux” and the quality on the old album is better, specifically the drums. On the 2012 album the drums sound like pots and pans and cans being banged on. Investigate only if a really garage sound quality is no problem. www.facebook.com/BrumeDAutomne Cellgraft (U.S.): Cellgraft LP 17 songs in 12 minutes results in short bursts of blasting speed. They carry on screaming and growling and quickly move on to the next exercise in musical nihilism and absurdity taken to the limits. Play this battering ram of an album and get the grindcore on. The sound quality is pretty good and it sounds ridiculous, just like this was meant to be. Hooray for grindcore! cellgraft.bandcamp.com/album/cellgraft-lp Chaos Inception (U.S.): The Abrogation (Lavadome) Super tight and compact death metal of constant blasting, as an expression of a zealous attachment to the one-track mind blasting variety of death metal, ably carrying out the task. Chaos Inception will be interesting to the total death metal fan, but perhaps not so much to the casual listener that likes “only some death metal, once in a while.” On the other hand, the quality of the sound is good and the execution of the songs is strong, with very brief moments of semi-melody here and there. Essentially, you hear three things: furious drumming, fast/thick guitar and growling.

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Have your phone handy to call 911 with headbanging-induced neck injuries. www.myspace.com/chaosinception Emptiness (Belgium): Error (Dark Descent Records) Super doom sludge midpaced steady massive dark heaviness, with moments of black metal riffs, shades of prog, but the central thing is that it is cold, unmelodic doom-sludge groove landscapes. Emptiness wants to take their very fat, 50-ton anvil of sound as far as they can. They would like you to join, as long as you have the patience to be dragged through caves and swamps of darkness and sludge. I have listened to Emptiness quite a bit and they have convinced me with their landscapes of doom-death-black-sludge. It’s a nice feeling when you begin to understand the music, you just have to not let the extreme heaviness and coldness of sound cause confusion. These are good songs, but surrounded by gigantic clouds of fog that are there to make it a little bit of puzzle to figure things out. www.emptiness.be King (Colombia): Forged by Satan’s Doctrine (Deathgasm) Total woof-woof metal supremacy, with lyrics aggressively mocking religion: songs do not differentiate themselves for their musicality. Rather, it is monotonous repetitive blasting. King is a “no” to musicality, and an enormous “yes” to totalitarian monolithic one-dimensional, one-way track to mind-numbing roaring. www.myspace.com/kingbathroz Nexhymn (U.S): Black Horizon 22 minutes of death metal where blasting and aural violence are the one objective. The songs go at ferocious pace: when the music ends, there remains in memory a huge, loud blur. Nexhymn is for those with an unending taste for blastattack death metal. Nexhymn sounds very professional in the execution and their death metal is serious business. Approach this if you listen to a lot death metal daily, one album right after another: driving, at the gym, doing homework, brushing your teeth, etc. Not for casual fans, nor for those looking for melody. www.reverbnation.com/nexhymn Revolting (Sweden): Hyms of Ghastly Horror (FDA Recotz) Gore horror movie death metal with lyrics and artwork artwork to show. Revolting’s horror metal has plenty of moments of headbanging good times. They also use melody and memorability in their songs, in addition to the chaos. The style and sound is more Autopsy/Dismember, rather than Krisiun/Origin. The old school feel to the music, regardless of the horror tomfoolery, makes it very easy to enjoy.

Apparently, this is their fourth album since 2009, putting out one every year! Well, well, what have we got here?! An album a year, four years in a row: Revolting is way better than the gore horror image they project. The songs are actually catchy. Surprise, surprise, this rocks! www.myspace.com/revoltingdeath www.reverbnation.com/revolting Savage Annihilation (France): Cannibalisme, hérésie et autres sauvageries (Kaotoxin Records)

Savage Annihilation’s zombified, low-growl, blasting death metal creates the impression of monotonous and mind-numbingly fast and disgusting sounds. That is only partly true. Don’t be fooled! They are a talented bunch with a drummer that sounds like an octopus playing drums: blasting and playing in a complex and fun style. The woof-woof growling is way incomprehensible, so everything’s dandy there. The guitar riffs—really low-heavy tuning--are chugging with some squealing pinch harmonics, without any harmonies/melodies, so that is a major chugging sound. The guitar solos add a nice change of pace from the chugging, actually. www.myspace.com/savageannihilation savageannihilation.bandcamp.com Shadows in the Crypt (U.S.): Cryptic Communications (Horror Pain Gore Death Productions) Traditional raw fugly nasty black metal, with a pretty good sound quality (not garage sound!). However, by far, the most important feature is the fact that the songs are distinctive, with effective guitar solos, intense yet creative drumming played at blasting speeds, plus a general strength for songs that take little time or effort to remember or to get into.

This album is way better than this review makes it seem. Listeners into serious black metal will need to look into this. Get ready to have a smile by how good this is. www.reverbnation.com/shadowsinthecrypt Unconsecrated (Spain): Awakening in the Cemetery Grave Unconsecrated has mastered the Stockholm-style death metal guitar sound, but it is the songs themselves that make the band a pleasurable listen. The growling, the guitar sound, the drumming and the vibe are all competently solid.

The riffs have a bit of identity, so the songs do sound like separate pieces, and not one big blur. Basically, Unconsecrated adds a little of spice, licks, and melody to their sound. That is definitely a prominent feature of the band.

FYI, there are 18 tracks here because it is a compilation of EPs and demos. The sound quality is remarkably good and appropriate. www.myspace.com/unconsecrated --- Check out this zine and other info at:

www.fuglymaniacs.com December 19, 2012