Tiamat - Sumerian Cry (1990) Review

From the ashes of the more prolific Treblinka, now legendary Tiamat formed in 1989 and as soon as 1990 had their debut full length album Sumerian Cry created already. This is the first release to be recorded at Sunlight Studio, earlier than Entombed's Left Hand Path, even though the latter was actually released first.

At this stage, the band hand’t taken the turn towards more gothic metal patterns that happened later, 1994 with Wildhoney and on, but instead maintained a more extreme character very much in line with a lot of bands of its time that changed afterwards. Not shying away from growls and slow-paced, doom death metal, Sumerian Cry often borrows from early black metal for its riff sections, but it’s not as clear as you would point it today. This illustrates the state of the underground scene at the time, which had much less well defined boundaries between genres still, and Tiamat were also by no means a pure Swedish death metal band either. 

With a chalky production and based on not flawless but organic sound, Sumerian Cry would have been one hell of an interesting album to listen to at the time and still stands well in terms of enjoyment, even if it doesn’t really impress as much as classics of the early 90’s now. Johan Edlund’s vocals are one of the best aspects of the record, as are the sparse, agile solos of the tracks, which are otherwise built upon simplistic but hefty riffs with not a lot of variations. Often times though, only the drumming is a little bit underwhelming as it doesn’t hit hard enough to live up to the aggressive intentions of the rest of the composition. A bluesy, rock’n’roll xylophone session appears in “Evilized” which is the most unexpected moment in Sumerian Cry, which is appreciated even if it is, strictly speaking, out of place.

Solid tracks, all with wonderful macabre lyrics of underground metal, are “The Malicious Paradise”, “Apotheosis of Morbidity” and “Where the Serpents Ever Dwell”. All in all, Sumerian Cry has a warm 90’s sound, innocent mistakes that make it unique, and the contents of a hungry young band with a bright future. An acceptable start.

DAMAGE: 3.25/5

Cancer - To The Gory End (1990) Review

Album | To The Gory End
Country | UK
Genre | Thrash / Death Metal
Label | Vinyl Solution

~ Legacy of his tragedy ~

There were a lot of bands with tremendous potential back in the early nineties, who faded away with time and all we have now is the legacy of their first years. I'm not sure if Cancer is a good example of the fact, but still their first records are more or less amazing for their kind, especially for fans of a more thrashy version of death metal in the nineties. Their debut To the Gory End is exactly that, a good dose of impulsive thrash / death with a sweet retro feeling of what was shining back then.

The simplistic and direct cover of To The Gory End pretty much describes the title of the album, with graphics reminding of low-budget horror movies of the eighties. The band was still young and it's highly possible they were influenced by films like that, when the artwork actually points towards the beloved blade of Jason Voorhees and was based on 1978's movie Dawn of the Dead, a personal favourite as well. The lyrics revolve around such movies and gore, death, witches and the likes, so their attention can be projected there anyway.

The record lasts thirty four minutes, which is a standard length, and it contained nine tracks in total. The production does not differ much from was being released then and it contains all the punching and intimidating moment an album like that should have. 1990 was the year death metal was starting to open it's wings towards the sky of metal, yet Cancer did not fully adjust their sound to immaculate brutality, blending enough thrash metal elements into their music to show the world where all this originally started, as well as the band's tastes, to a certain level.

Given that, it's not difficult to recognize the thrash metal riffs in the vein of bands like Nuclear Assault at some songs, as well as the fast paced riffing and group shouting lyrics often used in the genre. Apart from that, the vocals, done by John Walker, at times have a Carcass-ish tone in them and the compositions themselves include both genres enough. The music of Cancer could be in favor of the early Sepultura records, in the Schizophrenia - Beneath The Remains era mostly. I can't say there is a bad track in To The Gory End, in fact everything in here is splendid.

The guitar work includes enough riffing in each song, as well as a couple of solos here and there, focusing mainly on heavy sounding melodies, and less but enough on very fast / speed jamming. Great work has been done in the changes of the lines and the record doesn't get repetitive, while a short sample (in the self-titled track) and clean guitars (in "Sentenced")  are used in a couple of songs. Needless to say, that the main chorus of the second track "cancer fucking cancer" is catchy enough to randomly scream it while walking days after you have listened to the album.

I was very pleased with the steady vocal work in the album, offering great harsh, spitting word screams. The drum work is affecting enough, while the bass isn't that present to the front lights generally. For a debut, it's a great release by the band that dragged them into the club of the many talented bands of their years, compiling a bunch of amazing records for us to listen today. Notable and not to be missed, highlight tracks are "Imminent Catastrophy", "To The Gory End" and "Body Count".

DAMAGE: [8/10]

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Necrophagia - Ready for Death (1990) Review

Album | Ready for Death
Country | USA
Genre | Death Metal
Label | Embalming

~ Infecting thousands by the day ~

Necrophagia is one of the veteran bands in the genre of death metal, because they formed as early as 1983. The band also introduced the horror elements to their lyrics, a catchy subject later adapted by many a band, showing the efffect these guys had to this day. The band released their first and iconic album Season of the Dead in 1987, even though Ready for Death consists of even earlier recordings. The tracks for their second album, which was officially out in 1990, were actually made in 1986 and the label refused to release them. Now, why is that?

If you think other material by Necrophagia are primitive, wait till you listen to this. The barbaric sound of this bootleg album characterizes it's cult status as one of the sickest recordings of the genre, praised by the most extreme death metal fans. However, I don't want to give it more credit than it deserves, as it clearly isn't the best effort they have made and not the most influential album by them either. By 1986, it seems like Necrophagia had a relatively long way to go, which they wishfully did in a year before their ravenous debut.

The production of Ready for Death is up and down shitty, but not completely unbearable. Imagine listening to the first Impetigo records, but with a lot less grind elements. Labels often fought against the bands trying to get even more extreme because it was still uncertain economically and I'm glad these guys waited until Season of the Dead, which is an improvement in all aspects. Necrophagia's style is not yet distinctive in Ready for Death, as there are plenty of thrash metal elements, along with a bit of black metal in the vocals, as they are similar to early black metal recordings of the late 80s. I guess all extreme metal was one back then.

The compositions feature a couple of pure death metal riffs here and there, but mostly are an unsteady blend of playing with not much to give to the listener of today. In fact, there is often a jam rage, with repetitive high hats and shreddy riffing, making the songs even more fuzzy. Ready for Death is not an album for purely musical interest, as it is more agressive and unfriendly, especially for it's time. Apart from that, the album will be an awesome ride for fans of dirty death metal, early grindcore, goregrind or anything similar. The lyrics are graphic enough, at least the ones available.

Two tracks were later used in Season of the Dead, "Ancient Slumber" and "Mental Decay", while the rest of the tracks were used in a compilation released later in 2000 titled A Legacy of Horror, Gore and Sickness. Necrophagia's Ready for Death isn't that special, being an early and sloppy recording by the band. It could easily be their debut record but it seems fate was on their side, offering a more complete work only a year later. All Necrophagia freaks out there need this too though.

The name on the grave on the right is Edward Gein? Great.

DAMAGE: [4/10]

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Beherit - At the Devil's Studio 1990 (2011) Review

Album | At the Devil's Studio 1990
Country | Finland
Genre | Black Metal
Label | Kvlt

| Nocturnal evil |

Beherit had been out of activity for almost fifteen years when they made their return with the well known, but still legit fourth full length album Engram. I tend to think of their discography as a collection that doesn't contain the two electronic efforts they released, not because I don't like them but because they have a completely different sound. If they were a side project by Holocausto (that many bands do) it might have been better. Yet, I don't have the same problem with the Burzum case so I guess it's just my personal disfunction with these guys, always forgetting the 1994-1996 work.

It seems like a main member of the band, Sodomatic Slaughter, found a tape of the mixes of what could easily be the first full length album by Beherit, before Drawing Down the Moon. For their own reasons, they weren't able to release this album so it was buried by time, only to arrive in 2010. Of course, they would cease the moment and immediately release it, fetching the fans with more, unheard material of their kvlt days, even older than their opus in 1993. In At the Devil's Studio 1990, there are two unreleased songs, as well as different versions of their old tracks, so I guess it's already easy to guess what this contains.

It's not clear to me, why they decided to release this as a full length, and not as a compilation, since it's just a collection of old tracks. In fact, it has the exact track listing structure of new, pointless compilations: demo / rehearsal versions of known tracks plus a couple of new ones. Even if it was intended to be a full length album twenty years ago, it's not how it should be released today and they could have chosen a better format. Of course it doesn't make the tinniest difference whatsoever, since the music would be the same either way, but still it bothers me, for some reason.

Maybe it's not right to judge this album, since it wasn't released as a new effort by the band but mostly for archival purposes, they know old record hunters are dying for anything that was released a bunch of years ago. I would also release a tape of my two decade old music, especially if I had built a legit name back then. Imagine being a die-hard fan of the band, I think you would have been filled with joy listening to the news on this record and you would save money for an LP as well, just for the sake of the collection. I made the mistake and listened to this as if it was a real record, and there it has nothing more than mediocre, monotonous black / death, half the size of Profanatica's dicks.

The production is quite dirty and a bit sloppy, as the volume of the guitars is higher than needed, covering the sound of the drums (I could only listen to the cymbals, unless I wanted to hurt my ears trying to find the rest of the kit) and the gargling vocals. It's sound is naturally affiliated with their demos at the time, which is understandable but still somehow unbearable, making me think that it would be so much better if they completely re-recorded it. Then, it might fit the title of a full length as well, or at least it would get a little bit closer. I don't have many comments to make on At the Devil's Studio 1990. If you are a fan, you will enjoy it. If you try to review it objectively, in the 21st century and not in 1990, you will see that it's frustrating and boring.