Annotations of an Autopsy - Before the Throne of Infection (2008) Review

One of my earliest and shortest posts on here in October 2012, was about Annotations of an Autopsy and their second full-length album, II: The Reign of Darkness. A more death metal-related record compared to the band's discography, it was the next step after a straight-up brutal deathcore / hardcore debut titled Before the Throne of Infection, in 2008. 

Driven by the charming youthful excess of that era, these British lads grew a notorious name for themselves by encapsulating all the best and the worst of UK deathcore, while being one of its most characteristic presenters. Building on the considerable attention through the Welcome to Sludge City EP, whose introduction, samples and grotesque visuals got legend status in the Myspace generation, this full-length expanded on the palette but stayed true to that circle. 

Nostalgia has undoubtedly colored my perception of this record, but I want to believe the quality, for its kind is there. Other than the obvious epic "Sludge City", hearing the different parts of "Human Dust", "Years of Disgust" and "Deities" transports me back to a time period authentic and long gone. Then, you have the rippers in the likes of opener (after the short intro) "Keeper of the Plague Lands", "Prosthetic Erection" and the heavy self-titled final track. 

Unlike everything else on the album, the band includes a clean guitar, dreamy interlude in the vein of late '00s The Faceless on "The Childsnatcher", which is definitely worth mentioning and especially how it clicks with the first seconds of "Prosthetic Erection". Anthemic shouting in some tracks (loved in hardcore, but hated in death metal circles), some crushing noise breakdown instances here and there now used a lot in slam, a lot of more direct death metal riffs, pig squealing and disgusting lyrics that you regret following when you can. 

Thirty minutes, often groovy and slow but generally in the mood of never holding back, Before the Throne of Infection has the satisfyingly primitive sense of early deathcore, despite an expansive ambition the band had at that time. The grit, the brutality and the imperfection is there, and it's perfect to bring up in a pure death metal discussion if you're a joker like me. 

I've not followed the band since 2010, and never checked the 2019 World of Sludge EP, in fact sometimes avoiding even this release due to some lyrics I find indefensible. Thankfully, the gutturals are sufficiently inhuman — brutal deathcore at its... Messiest.

Fun fact: The Dark Days EP (2011), a mini-album released right after The Reign of Darkness, has an average of 10% rating from eight reviews. A feat!

Rating: 3 out of 5

Cryptworm - Infectious Pathological Waste (2026) Review

No bait and switch, no genre tourism, and no delicate handling on the latest album by Bristol-based swampy death metal band Cryptworm, who have been out and about for a few years now aiming to convince you of their obsession with filth and all things rotten. I've kept these guys within listening range since their debut Spewing Mephitic Putridity in 2022, and interest just went on growing with Oozing Radioactive Vomition shortly after, both albums being convincingly listenable on repeat without stretching the genre's limits. Blending the rawness of Autopsy with the elasticity of Demilich, the band brings forth a recognizable approach, formidable when done well, and that's exactly what one gets with their third effort, Infectious Pathological Waste.

Getting past the gruesomely beautiful cover art and the tracklist that reads as a kind of blackly comedic taxonomy of bodily catastrophe (often encountered in these woods), the music is more considered than the nomenclature implies. With a coherent, almost constant flow of malformed chunks of riffs, old-school death metal groove and tempo magic, Cryptworm ditch the idea of surprising you completely and collude to leave you gasping from all the well-set grotesquerie. I am in favor of the record's production especially compared to Oozing Radioactive Vomition, which makes this paradoxically accessible, as if one would walk in an abattoir kept in order. Vocal structure is completely torn apart in Tibor Hanyi's possibly anatomically inadvisable manner of spewing words on these tracks, yet it's one of the album's instant highlights.

I particularly enjoyed the times the band shamelessly embraced an almost bouncy flair to the already thick riffs, like in "Maimed and Gutted", opener "Gallons of Molten Hominal Goo" or the middle of "Gastrointestinal Seepage". Middle-paced hammering like in "Emanations of Corporeal Pyosis" or the self-titled track feel right any time they surface, but I always opt for speed and bludgeon, e.g. on "Drowning in Purulent Excrementia" or the best track of Infectious Pathological Waste, "Embedded with Parasitic Larvae". Cryptworm knows their pustulant death metal inside and out, sometimes overstate their fixation on sickening grooves, but it never plateaus. 

Enjoying this could be entirely up to whether the listener thinks familiarity is a virtue or a flaw, yet the album is straightforward, deceptively nuanced, and undeniably catchy all around. Cryptworm's sensibility towards death metal's legends still comes across in a form that feels their own, and they don't even strive for reaching a peak in the traditional sense. I can't argue further than relaying how enjoyable I find this approach, and how well the band treats it, maintaining the nauseating pressure as it was on Oozing Radioactive Vomition, with an even better sound. Beware, as you know what you're getting into.

Release: March 27th, 2026 | Me Saco un Ojo Records
Rating: 4 out of 5

Store: Bigcartel

Akercocke - Antichrist (2007)

I enjoyed Akercocke's return in 2017 with Renaissance in Extremis quite a lot, and I have raved with their side project The Antichrist Imperium (and especially their latest album Volume III: Satan in His Original Glory) more than most albums of the current decade, it's that awesome. Looking at the works of these guys for the last 25 years, one may think they are the most evil satanists on the planet. 

Yet, at the time of release of Antichrist, the band was shortly featured on BBC after it caught the attention of conservative Ireland due to an upcoming live show there, which you can watch here. Apart from the sound delay that damages communication between the musicians and the panel, which just adds to the overall situation, the back and forth argumentation is one as old as time. 

In lovely English accent, Akercocke explain that the fans love them and that they never meant to offend, instead they believe in freedom of speech and are against "censorship on any level" with a lot of key words thrown around without considering their magnitude.

I'd rather not talk too much about the specific album itself, this is incredibly forward thinking, unique and well delivered death metal that is instantly recognizable, and in my book this is the only band that has treated clean vocals fairly. They wouldn't top Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone from 2005 but no one can, yet Antichrist's quality shines.

More importantly, their stance in that video is simply disappointing, and so banal that it makes me wonder if these guys actually comprehend aspects they talk about, or is it all just teenage wondering angst without any actual maturity.

Akercocke clearly seeks to offend with edgy titles and lyrics, and playing dumb when Christian communities are offended by their material. You're turning your back on your work when you play the neutrality card, avoiding to stand by your own statements by adopting the safest, most superficial approach possible. Everything they said in that video is textbook pseudo-intellect.

Here is a snippet of another interview they did (available in full):

We also wanted to reflect the lyrical content in the imagery, hence a lot of the rather attractive young ladies that featured heavily in the Robert Nye version of Faust from where the band name came... and let's be honest, the ever-present sexism that is implicit in most heavy metal! Sex sells. So, we used it to sell. We weren't as sexy as the girls, haha!

Some other responses there also paint the picture of, well, essentially what being a poser actually looks like.

Man, these dudes may be even worse than Behemoth in that topic. Once you dare to take a step towards this anti-religious, blasphemous content, learn to support it when someone puts you in the spotlight. Or else, don't do it at all. Spooky covers, titles and lyrics don't scare anyone here.

Once again relevant:

Spider God - Fly in the Trap (2022) Review

My first interaction with Spider God was a split with Μνήμα from 2021, where both bands expressed similar kind of filth in a few tracks and had me excited about another uprising quality raw black metal band. You can imagine my reaction coming across Black Renditions a year later, however I quickly moved on with a big question mark on how it was the same band that produced the two. Spider God proved hard working and release their actual debut full length album Fly in the Trap, which still remains unconventional if not polarizing for a black metal record. With a strangely eerie artwork, the record deals with the famous story of the death of Elisa Lam and includes quite interesting, ghost musicians like Rope Sect, Revenant Marquis and A Forest of Stars. Employing heavy doses of melody, most of the tracks abuse tremolo picking in a meaningful way and often manage guitar lines under a lot of brightness, contradicting the usually soul crushing atmospheres found in black metal. On the contrary, Fly in the Trap is borderline uplifting to listen to (check out the chorus of "Labyrinth of Hallways" for example) and doesn't really have the nuances of the genre Spider God are actually playing, yet the musicianship is skilled enough to construct wonderful compositions with nice riff transitions all throughout the album. I found the vocals a little bit repetitive at times, a few titles questionable (e.g. "Hiroshima Mon Amour" or "A Thousand Lonely Spiders") but tracks like the opening "The Fifty Second Murderer" or "Flies in the Trap" have their moments. The unclear direction of "The Hermit" places is clearly as the album's weakest point, and the closing track "Invisible Light" features an introduction straight out of a Running Wild record, and that's how much far away from black metal Fly in the Trap really is. Spider God have the potential to provoke and impress, yet this doesn't translate to the work's essence actually being groundbreaking. By no means a dull listen though. [3/5 - Good]

Sacred Son - The Foul Deth of Engelond (2022) Review

For the first time in their discography so far, Sacred Son make a significant stylistic change of heart when deciding for an album cover art, a topic that was on its own a topic of discussion up to now. We were used to seeing rather earthly, social media-like personal pictures so far, which not only didn't remind of a black metal band at all, they wouldn't fit (unlike the music) any category of the "extreme" scene or anything even remote to that. At the same time, that was the most eye-catching point of the band for me, as the music itself was, at the times when it wasn't just clear reproduction of already known atmospheric / black metal, just uninspiring.

To be fair, the cover of The Foul Deth of Engelond is now amazing. The story behind this conceptual album is also really intriguing, covering the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, an important event in the history of England, and with a clear social predilection that is still relevant today, and more and more vocal within extreme metal. In that sense, I am totally for the turn Sacred Son have taken with their latest album. However, the band's material is still carrying the same problematic ends I have found in their previous works, and while having a handful of potent moments, it is in general a rather mediocre effort.

All tracks (apart from an one minute introduction) are long in duration and have multiple segments stapled together. There is a sense of flow which isn't perfect, but not completely out of balance either, as there are dots connecting the different parts together. Sacred Son's formula is easy to follow, and one can listen to it in the album's first two tracks, which are basically identical: middle paced build up moments, intense fast tempos with pale keyboards in the back, and back to slow or too slow sections that sometimes overstay their welcome.

For example, the ending of the self-titled track is clearly too long and without any kind of change, filling up a couple of extra minutes for no apparent reason. At the same time, the earlier, faster part is decent, and the same goes for "La Blakheth", which has a really dull introduction but a bit more intriguing guitar activity towards the middle (yet, something you have definitely heard before), before going back to slow-tempos of too many repetitions. The vocals are generally weak, and these two tracks specifically, have a kind of whispering / breathing into the microphone technique that I thought was horrible.

The Foul Deth of Engelond continues with an equally turbulent track that is unsure in itself what atmosphere to evoke (a general problem of the album, it's clear and without a substantial atmosphere at any point despite the attempts). By "Vengeance I & II", the album's last track, Sacred Son have completely given up, that track is basically nine minutes of waiting for a main part that never comes. Apart from the rhythmic introduction with male / female clean vocals, which makes you want to listen to late Wolves in the Throne Room or Wardruna, this track is by far the weakest here.

From the record, I enjoyed the more violent moments. However, they are scrambled together with a lot of slow-paced monotony, too many smaller elements that don't add up (piano, samples, unfortunately don't work) and a clear weakness of understanding of how to take a certain approach. The Foul Deth of Engelond remains as another boring Sacred Son album that I'm not going to listen to again, yet I was satisfied that I saw such a nice design and tracks with interesting lyrics for once. That they know well.

DAMAGE: 2.5/5 [Average]

Venom Prison - Erebos (2022) Review

Band: Venom Prison

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Erebos

Label: Century Media Records

Website: Instagram

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Another act that made its presence known quickly after its formation, Venom Prison's debut Animus in 2016 contained its fine amount of hardcore induced death metal and it was quite expressive when it comes to the contents and the messages it conveyed, an expression that started from the album's splendid and afflictive cover art. I'm really glad to see that they stick to the same kind of aesthetics in their albums, as it is evident from the equally dense design of their fourth full length album to date, Erebos.

From day one, the band didn't fall in a specific genre well, yet the different elements in their music come from styles that are already well connected. I would definitely put them into the category of modern death metal, but one who goes into a Venom Prison album expecting just that would be, quite possibly, repeatedly surprised. Personally, as much as I find some aspects of the band interesting, more often that I would have hoped for, I found myself having difficulties appreciating the musical directions because of a feeling of idleness it gave me, as it is in a sense, a jack of all trades example of a band. The music scene praises them for their genre-defying work, yet I am not clearly seeing that: you have heard of some deathcore, Carcass, groove metal, and then you have already mapped almost all of Venom Prison's content.

At the same time, it's quite clear that they try to push their own boundaries with every release, without that meaning that the situation changes that much. There's more attempts of experimentation, or to put it more accurately, not real musical experimentation but an addition of song types that you wouldn't think they fit here, which is the case in Erebos for example with "Pain of Oizys". Much like "Immortal" in Der Weg Einer Freiheit's latest opus Noktvrn, "Pain of Oizys" sticks out like a fly in milk and features a pop rock song with a few moments of angst, screams above clean guitars and eerie keys, but also with lyrics much closer to the heart and of personal struggle rather than a social one. In my opinion, apart from an interesting (almost post-rock, if you listen to it as a stand alone melody, it would easily fit in a God Is An Astronaut or If These Trees Could Talk session) solo towards the end, there's no smooth transition in this song and it crumbles because of its own ambition, a quite clear weak point in Erebos. At the same time, it will be one that might be the favorite for many out there, so probably it's a great piece!

Thankfully, this mellow / indie trickery is contained in just one track and the listener gets immediately repaid for his patience with an ultra bombastic piece "Golden Apples of the Hesperides", bringing back the loathe of modern society and its rotten foundations. Erebos deals a lot with oppression and inequality but its more particular target against misogyny, which was central in previous works, is also present here, for example in "Gorgon Sisters", which has some of the nicest and most visceral breakdows of the record, much like in "Judges of the Underworld", also spewing a seriously heavy part towards its end. Forceful grooves are employed in "Nemesis", along with some short clean guitar lines that make Venom Prison different from the whole lot, and there's plenty of riveting riffing and soloing throughout Erebos to make its case solid.

At the same time, we shouldn't exaggerate by how much innovation the band has. Take a track like "Comfort of Complicity", which is a clear reproduction of Lamb of God riffs and fast paced As Blood Runs Black patterns, and that's all. If it wasn't for Larissa Stupar's unique vocals, you wouldn't tell the difference, it's just too close. I hear almost Swedish melodic black / death metal in "Technologies of Death" and slight The Black Dahlia Murder influences might be hidden here and there, especially in the vocals.. "Veil of Night" is a solid track, yet "Castigated in Steel and Concrete" is not nearly as heavy as the title suggests. These comments don't stand as pure complaints for Erebos, however I see Venom Prison in accordance to their magnitude at the moment and while the band is fully deserving of someone times, and that goes also further than the music, I don't see myself lifting them higher than at the level of an above average band.

If you're into implausibly heavy death metal, Erebos will feel like a Christmas cookie to you. If you're into socially angry, groovy deathcore with some death metal influences, and a couple of twists towards lesser aggressive sounds, Venom Prison is for you. The band has a singer with a great vocal variety, striking lyrics, a mind for new ideas which might not work for this author sometimes, yet the intentions are pure. Since I listened to the new Acranius album at the same day as Erebos, the comparison with more ear punishing clamors might not have helped them, but Venom Prison are surely a more multifaceted band. I'm slightly offput by the possible misspelling of the album title too. Anyway, in the end, just listen to some Dyscarnate when you're in this mood.

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Release date: February 4th, 2022

Tracklist:

1. Born from Chaos

2. Judges of the Underworld

3. Nemesis

4. Comfort of Complicity

5. Pain of Oizys

6. Golden Apples of the Hesperides

7. Castigated in Steel and Concrete

8. Gorgon Sisters

9. Veil of Night

10. Technologies of Death

Listen:

Youtube | TIDAL

Grave Miasma - Abyss of Wrathful Deities (2021) Review

Not as good as it should have been

A long time ago, back in 2013, right before Grave Miasma’s debut Odori Sepulcrorum was about to be released, I was spending a lot of time with the early Cruciamentum material, their demos and especially 2011’s EP Engulfed in Desolation. Of course, it was already a few years after Dead Congregation’s massive Graves of the Archangels (a death metal classic from one of the best bands the genre has ever seen), yet a new band of the same elements was about to come out with their own first work. And at the time, that band was the talk of the town, highly anticipated and hugely praised by the scene as the spiritual successors (along the other two bands) of the Incantation school of thought.

Odori Sepulcrorum had the expected impact. I don’t know if the term “cavernous” was used for modern bands up to that point, but it was surely established these years and expanded further later on, in what seems now like an old school “revival” with a lot of new names. Ever since, there wasn’t any significant activity from Grave Miasma except an EP in 2016, which would just raise the stakes of any follow-up work higher and higher, until we arrive to 2021, and why Abyss of Wrathful Deities, their second album after Odori Sepulcrorum, eight years later, might be the most anticipated death metal record of the year so far. Being a driving factor in this particular sub-style of the genre, I wanted Grave Miasma to live up to their name and deliver a ground shaking work, but in reality it doesn’t reach the starry heights it aims for. We’re talking about an album faithfully following the formula, offering an abundance of brutality with hammering drums and guitars, painful growls and conceptual twists towards Middle Eastern meditation thematics that also influence the music itself. At the same time, Abyss of Wrathful Deities, while seemingly explosive at the first listen, loses a bit of its shine after it’s repeated a lot. And such an effect have albums that are a little bit more one-dimensional than what they seem.

Already from the art itself, the record by no means has a cover reminiscent of the visual mastery other death metal albums of that kind have. To me, the title also feels equally puerile, questioning the choices of the band when it comes to the album’s textual part and aesthetics. Frankly, it baffles me to think that such a cover art / album title would be conceived and accepted among the members of Grave Miasma, given that the tracks themselves are full of well-written lyrics. As a band that thrives on its crippling atmosphere, the fog has cleared out a lot in Abyss of Wrathful Deities and its clear production brings to the surface parts that are musically fragile, for example, the transitions between “Erudite Decomposition” and “Under the Megalith” are fine pointers of these filler moments, where the record doesn’t even fill that heavy anymore. The predictability is also quite high after just a couple of tracks, where the listener has already listened to how fast Grave Miasma will play, as well as their Slayer-ish frantic solo additions here and there. The intensity is even more watered down in following songs like “Demons of the Sand” and an unnecessary interlude, pointing out that Abyss of Wrathful Deities has, as a whole, mediocre content. “Rogyapa” can be considered a highlight (strongly reminding of their brother band Cruciamentum here) as well as the last track of the record “Kingdoms Beyond Kallash”, which also is slightly more interesting to listen to.

I can imagine how Abyss of Wrathful Deities might be enjoyed all around by death metal listeners, however in my point of view, it doesn’t compare in terms of quality, neither to their previous material neither to the other-like minded artists. The world needs more of Charnel Passages, and less of this. Maybe listen to some Obliteration even, and you will get a better slap in the face than this. This album is a bit of a let down and a victim of its own ambition, Grave Miasma could have done miracles within the genre but didn’t keep up with some consistency. While it isn’t a totally poorly made effort, and it will probably get the same blind praise as they have previously had, yet once you scratch the surface slightly more violently, you will also see the inner cracks.

Damage: 2.5/5 [Average]

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Winterfylleth - The Reckoning Dawn (2020) Review

Even if this album wasn't as good as it is, it almost feels like it would have been what the audience would desperately want from Winterfylleth for the last five years or so, making its case an even stronger banger as in reality. The Dark Hereafter in 2016 was solid but a bit short (could have been a fine EP), and The Hallowing of Heirdom in 2018 was fully acoustic and directed to a part of the listeners that is more selective. I've always been comfortable with the band's acoustic parts but it's the atmospheric black metal that actually hooked me to them, and that's exactly what is openly given in The Reckoning Dawn. Potent tracks with amazing riffs one after the other, well catered production, excellent flow and once again beautiful lyrics is what characterizes what might be the absolutely flawless Winterfylleth album to date. Don't skip any song in the record, but make sure to check the limited edition that contains three additional new recordings, including an amazing cover of Enslaved's "Wotan" from the Frost era, named by Winterfylleth as "Woden". I salute the best atmospheric black metal band from the United Kingdom.

Listen to The Reckoning Dawn:

Royal Blood - Royal Blood (2014)

Artist: Royal Blood

Origin: Brighton, United Kingdom

Genre: Alternative Rock

Album: Royal Blood

Year: 2014

Website

Track listing:

1. Out of the Black

2. Come On Over

3. Figure It Out

4. You Can Be So Cruel

5. Blood Hands

6. Little Monster

7. Loose Change

8. Careless

9. Ten Tonne Skeleton

10. Better Strangers

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While I think I will never get into their second album How Did We Get So Dark?, this was a breath of fresh air from the alternative rock scene for me and I was quite impressed by the power they delivered in just a drums - bass setup. Most of the tracks are catchy as hell and easy to listen to, simple and great at the same time.

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Purchase: 12" LP from VelvetMusic in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Dragged Into Sunlight - Terminal Aggressor II (Single, 2020) Review

Origin: United Kingdom
Label: Prosthetic Records
Release: January 10th, 2020
Type: Single

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Right when I was wondering about the Dragged Into Sunlight camp, since I re-listened their remarkable collaboration album with family friendly project Gnaw their Tongues, named NV from 2015, this mini release came out and had me thinking that probably it's part of a bigger record for later this year. Yet, it seems the band has reached an impasse with their label Prosthetic Records, who released this track behind their backs and the members themselves will not have any profit at all from it.

By ignoring this, the fans should still do the right thing and not buy the track from Bandcamp, instead find it elsewhere and just support them through their Gofundme page (link below). Apart from all that, we are now into half an hour of new Dragged Into Sunlight material, and judging by the length of their previous two releases, NV and WidowMaker, one might as well trick themselves into thinking that this is a full album. 

Terminal Aggressor II is related to the band's first ever release from 10 years ago, which was also named Terminal Aggressor I and was in the same format of a single, long track. Their affiliations with noise have always been present in their discography, and that element doesn't shy away at all with Terminal Aggressor II, which could be based mostly on abrasive dark ambient / noise, than pure black metal. You will be treated with unsettling sounds, haunting samples, vocal screams and slow paced, painful parts that characterize Dragged Into Sunlight, well placed in a thirty minute tune that can be vaguely split in two fifteen minute sections.

Right around the fourteenth minute, and after a long multi-layered session of noise practicing, a drum tempo starts building up that gives way to the black metal part of the song. The vocals are tormenting and the guitar lines simple but effective, it doesn't increase speed at any point and generally presents a more meditative, noisy structure that gives out a listen quite far from comfortable. However, from what I believe the potential of Dragged Into Sunlight is, and as much as a nightmare this track is, I still think there was some space for them to push their boundaries. 

What happened with Prosthetic is rather strange since they have been there for quite some time now, but they deserve the support no matter what. My opinion is that this specific project can top many spooky-listening black metal / noise bands out there, they don't have the popularity they could have, and that's why I expect to be moved more than what happened with Terminal Aggressor II. A surely interesting listen, but well into Dragged Into Sunlight's comfort zone.

Track listing:

1. Terminal Aggressor II

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Conan - Blood Eagle (2014) Review

Album | Blood Eagle
Country | United Kingdom
Genre | Stoner / Doom Metal
Label | Napalm Records

| Seek eyeless dwarf |

Conan are one British act that slowly grows into a powerhouse for stoner metal these years, setting their mark with Battle in the Swamp EP in 2007 and releasing material since then. Their debut full length album in 2012 a remarkable statement, working on hypnotic, slow music for pill enthusiasts and stoner freaks. Now, Blood Eagle seems efficient and tight at first glance, while the music is nothing less than what's expected of them, through it's fourty four minute length.

This band knows how to take a single note and repetitively make it awesome, focusing on it's bottomless distortion rather than musical variety. They move above the border of stoner rock, into some really heavy sludge / stoner metal location, maybe as heavy as that genre can be if it has to be listenable as well. Listening to Blood Eagle is all about a riff or two, a stomping bass sound, far chanting vocals and a fuzzy atmosphere, while the speed rarely dares to step further than a standard snail pace, only throwing a couple of a little faster moments, like in the tracks "Total Conquest" and "Foehammer".

The job of Conan seems easy but it's not random and really acute. Their songwriting is not extremely crazy and not even extraordinary for the genre, but still it's production and down tuned aggression is what characterizes it's powerful and outstanding sound. What is regurarly loved in stoner will be highly appreciated here as well, like the monotonous drones, the cymbal rides and of course, the guitar melodies. It's all about them in fact, thick as if you need to lay back, relax and enjoy the album.

The durations of the tracks vary from five to nine minutes and lyrically, the band revolves around mythology instead of typical stoner subjects. The lyrics are not that many either, apart from a few words in each track. Yet, the vocals are amazing and appear as much as they are needed (the less vocals / lyrics, the better. Instrumental equals tripping here), comfortably yelling the words from somewhere far away. I'd rather say it's an album for fans only, because it doesn't leave any space for unaware listeners to indulge, when being that... stoner.

To me, Blood Eagle is a notable release by Conan, already being one of my favorite albums in that area. If you're looking for actual heavy music in stoner, these guys fit all the parameters and know how to slowly distort the reality around you into something more colorful and depressed too. The record shows confidence and stability, that's why it's one of the most legit yet. In the name of doom!

DAMAGE: 8.5/10

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Eastern Front - Blood On Snow (2010) Review

Album | Blood On Snow
Country | United Kingdom
Genre | Black Metal
Label | Candlelight Records

| Pools of frozen blood |

One of the many subjects bands deal with in this music is war, forwarded as history, awe or just the epitome of pain and suffering (which they are). It's one of the least tangling paths to choose and it's rather easy to acquire, given that you avoid unessecary genocide worship or racial hatred that will turn you into a moving target. Personally, I don't get why people go near extreme metal if they have not decided to come in terms with extreme ideologies and I support any band that holds tight to some beliefs, regardless of my thoughts on them. Eastern Front are a relatively new, British and warfriendly black metal band, as you can suspect from their name, and they are good storytellers as well as musicians. Their album Blood On Snow has an obvious concept around historic wars of the modern times, dealing with that in the entirety of the album, so there isn't any anti-religious / satanic/occult bubble talking here.

They have been promoting their 2008 Promo very much before releasing a new album and their efforts were awarded, as they signed to a big label like Candlelight for their debut release. Therefore, the production of the band has been positively predisposed towards a nice and clean balance, avoiding the no-fi syndrome of black metal and instead building it's own wall of disastrous noise. The instruments are audible and the sound is pleasingly polished, widowing the album as gratifying and easy to follow. I don't believe Blood On Snow sounds that bad, even though it has not escaped the vortex of modern mixing tricks and it certainly has some volume of it's own, but still I was happy listening to the various musical elements it contains and the intriguing "soundification" of it's concept. Within it's eight tracks and almost fifty minutes of length, one might as well attend a trip to cold and somber battlefields of wars.

The basic component of the album's compositional structure is definitely the variety of the guitar melodies. They aim a lot on creating epic and powerful riffs in each song so that the feeling of war is captured right away, especially in the amazing lines that have been written for the self-titled track "Blood on Snow" and "Where Warriors Once Fell". Along with the heavy, distorted guitars, lie a couple of acoustic filler parts in the songs, like in the latter of the previously mentioned or the introduction of "Motherland", also adding a lot to the atmosphere of the record. Generally, the fact that the band tries as much as they can to use their own ideas in their songs and avoid repetition and rip off techniques, is apparent and self-evident. They have a personal style in terms of structure and complexity.

I am also very fond of the distinct vocals. They are executed perfectly and in various forms, as the record contains cutting shrieks, ferocious growls and manly clean parts, the last being mostly in a narrating sense than any other. The tongue of the singer Nagant (a name also related to World War II, look it up) is delicate and forceful at the same time, varying a lot throughout the tracks and autharitarian at moments. An example is again the song "Blood On Snow" which is one of the top tracks of the record, for it's epicness, it's breathtaking main riff and the war sound samples. The use of various army, gun and battle samples used in the tracks, as well as in the wonderful instrumental "Dvenadtzat kilometrov ot Moskvy", which has synths and a piano, voice chants, a parade pace, are very accurate and give the album a whole better character.

The combination of the above characteristics is blended wonderfully here, creating a solid and very interesting album structure to listen to, as one doesn't feel as they know what's coming, a common weakness of other black metal bands. Not only that, I think it succeeds in shaping a warlike feeling, since the compositions and the melodies are not vaguely dynamic, but instead infuential and targeted to that particular direction. Blood On Snow could easily be used as a background or soundtrack to a documentary / movie / video collection (if the audience is intimate with the sound of course, hahaha). However, I was a bit balked by the distressed, simplistic lyrics, which are sadly not very effective on their own. I always expect some poetry behind the unfathomable screams, but I didn't get it here. Yet, that hardly reduced my joy listening to it.

In general, the album includes well thought ideas, presenting strong riffology and variety in it's style, while the musicianship is acute and direct. I had the chance to watch these guys live once in 2008 when they participated in a local festival around here, from what I remember they delivered really cool, despite the technical problems and the broad daylight. I'm not sure about the musical plans of the band but they are still active and I hope to see new material some time soon, as Blood On Snow grew on me and it's one of the records I come back to from time to time. If you want to take a break from purely religious themed bands and want something a little bit closer to reality, give this album a spin.

 DAMAGE: 8.5/10

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