MANDATORY (Ger) Where they bleed MCD'07. ASPHYXIATE Recordings.

This MANDATORY did a bit of noise in the constantly reanimated corpse of old school Death metal microcosm that might grow again little by little, but who can be sure about it? (Manifestations of rebirth are too small and sporadic to certify a new rise of morbidity...)According to what I read (And my understanding isn't always very efficient these days) I expected something to be more crushing and with more devouring power… Maybe I'm not close enough to some nostalgic feelings that would "force" some peoples to brutally hail a band once the style is close to old styled Swedish Death metal... Yes, that's actually it, MANDATORY is mainly influenced by Swedish "Métal de la mort" from the 90's, both for the fast parts, the slower moments of sorrow, some heaviness, the production and everything you could expect from a band of this retro-style... Apart from a mega intense and devouring feeling of carnal morbidity (That would almost force you to turn the place inside out), and maybe a little more effort could be made towards the logic in the architecture of riffs... But that's not a bad recording in fact, I can listen to the whole thinking "Ok... Ok... Cool... Ok..." and reminding some DISMEMBER, GRAVE, a bit of early ENTOMBED, a bit of CARNAGE, a bit of early DEATH (1st Lp) and other kinds of Death bands from this era... But as far as I understand, it's only for big fans of the style and decrepiting nostalgiacs (Nostalgic maniacs) since it's only somewhere between the cool... and the cool ;-)

PURGE (Fra) Symbols of disgrace Demo tape'04.

On. Off. On. Off. On. Off... When the fuck will the remains of the underground let continuously flow the dense vibrations of morbidity? When we, us the putrefiers, will be able to completely rejoice in morbidity? Boring, boring... I'm hungry for pure fucking death!! Boring, boring, boring... Well since the real massive revelation of cadaveric entrapment isn't scheduled for tomorrow, I'm hopefully able to introduce a nice small band that might help the patience of your ugly needs... PURGE is a quite cool Death metal band whose main influences are old-styled and remind what used to be procreated years ago... To clearly view the body of all sufferrances, you need to imagine some early DEATH, old MORGOTH, few AUTOPSY, mixed with the US Death metal of once (Like IMMOLATION's first album, some doomy DECREPIT, bits of INCANTATION, or eventually DETERIORATE's first Lp). You'll be served quite a lot of various tempos: Mid placed, fast (Almost no blasts), slow, doomy... Some parts are cool or nicely energetic, some doomy riffs or IMMOLATION influences sounds okey to drip in a nice atmosphere... But on the other hand some riffs are a bit too usual, and sometimes I feel like listening to the standard Death metal bands that tried to evolve in France 12 years ago... All in all, it's a demo with both cool and not so cool moments, but it contains enough coolness for the listener to check the tape from time to time and imagine quite good future underground promises.The band was basically born as the Death metal subproject of some black metallers, but since the recording of this tape-rape many things changed in the line-up section, and it seems to me PURGE became more than a sub-project... I'm waiting for the next recording to judge what could morbidly occur in the depths of insane viciousness! http://www.myspace.com/purgedeathmetal

MALICIOUM (Swe) Cursed ground Demo CDr'08.

Fresh and motivated thrash death metal ripping your skull à la MERCILESS ("The awakening") with some technical and not so technical influences of AUDIOPAIN, and maybe a little something of KREATOR's "Terrible certainty". It's packed with a lot of right-hand-suffering riffs that makes them sounding kinda technical, even if it's not really, or not specially the case (Depending on your musical background). The screaming vocals make this band sound even closer to the outfits quoted before. MALICIOUM is definitely not something old school for the retro guys who need something soulful to rest, but there's no post end-90s influences either: It's motivated and fresh sounding, and I guess it would rather please younger enthusiastic bangers or energetic peoples who think it's never fast enough.Now on a critical point of spike, even if the whole sounds fresh and quite entertaining, I regret there's nothing really burning-catchy (You probably know, this kind of riffs many bands would love to write... But it's not only a matter of will...) and maybe some guitars sound a bit too technical/ complicated for a more convenient listening, but this kind of "kick-your head-with-many-notes-riffs" can work quite well in moments of disjoncted compressed brainstorm, and I guess MALICIOUM is too malicious to give a fuck about your tiredness problems héhé... To sum it up, this is a neat thrash demo that doesn't follow too blindly the current retro-trends of the style and could fit the needs of energetic bangers, but this isn't the next jewel of slowly brewed-metal... Check out their page to make your own alcoholic mind: http://www.myspace.com/malicioum666

REPUGNANT (Swe) Epitome Of Darkness CD'06. SOULSELLER Recs.

This album should remain a one-off, since Sweden’s Repugnant decided to call it quits shortly after the release of the disc. Mainly the product of one mastermind’s efforts, singer-guitarist Mary Goore (huhu), the conception of this record seems to have taken a lot of time and sweat. But whatever it took, the end result is worth the dime, it’s a solid piece of thrashing death metal, sweating both DIY, handcraft passion and experience (these guys sure ain’t newbies) by every pore. I for sure am no Swedish DM fan boy. I like very, very little stuff from that scene and even Entombed’s ‘Clandestine’ fails to convince me. Despite its undeniable qualities, Repugnant’s album is unlikely to change my mind, but they do it so good it just can’t be ignored either.These guys shamelessly but successfully try to recapture the feel and sound of their scene’s golden days, not the Sunlight era but actually the garage/demo days of Nihilist, Grotesque, Unleashed etc (hence the Morbid cover at the end of the album). Such a project requires total control over what they’re doing, that’s why they produced it themselves and did all the artwork too, even the photo shoots and members nicknames seem to have been thoroughly chosen. To cut it short, while never betraying their underground ethic, the band’s attitude and work is 100% professional. Nice tour de force! The music’s seemingly been conceived the same way. It’s raw and dirty as shit, but honestly not the scariest or most morbid stuff I’ve heard, despite the album‘s title, lyrics or imagery. This stuff’s been beaten to death for so long…I guess it’s only here to fit the ‘back to the roots’ approach. To me these songs’ appeal is elsewhere. They’re full of thrashing groove and head banging-friendly speed. There’s a certain melodic feel too, otherwise this wouldn’t be an old school Swedish DM album, but the music almost totally focuses on energy. Sound-wise, and this is also a hint about these dudes’ in-depth knowledge and specialist craft in old school DM, the listener will find pretty much everything buried under echo, especially the vocals. Those are totally in the vein of what could be heard in the late 80s on this side of the Atlantic : sharp, harsh, raspy screams with all available echo effects on ten, see Hellhammer, Bathory, early Sodom & Kreator and the likes. Keyword : E-V-I-L hehe.Interesting piece of work overall, only weakened by a somewhat zealous ’tribute’ approach resulting in a lack of personality. But out of the bunch of old school revival acts I know, this has to be the most convincing I’ve heard by now. TG of Death

STEELFACES #16

This is a kinda pro-printed alike alook zine I directly got in trade with the editor who resides in Argentina. This issue isn't so big, but it's given for free, so you're not particularly in the right position to complain, you little clicking beggar. It's all written in Portuguese or Spanish (Not sure how to make the difference) so I won't be able to talk about the real content (Some peoples might say I'm a master at reviewing zines without reading! héhé) but a little description is always possible, so here you go: You can find quite a lot of articles in these 16 A4 pages, mostly interviews, live reports and reviews, but also some adverts for local shops and stuffs like that... Well these adverts probably pay for the printing costs, so why would you complain, you little clicking beggar? The interviews seem to be a bit short, but it also depends on the bands' talkative abilities (And Satan knows how the tongues of some bands occur to shorten so much, in these days of massive robotic myspace use...). The kinds of metal it deals with are quite varied, but not particularly modern; According to what I see I'd say the editor is between 25 and 30 years old. Well I'm not able to say much more. I did a trade with this guy and it went Ok, so STEELFACES might be a cool contact if you want to trade some stuffs or get some support in Argentina.

Interviews: Nunslaughter, Zona negra, Eidyllion, Bayron
Live reports: Napalm death, Exodus, Glenn Hugues, Therion...

c/o CARLOS RENDA
CALLE 8 Nº 3776
BERAZATEGUI (1884)
BUENOS AIRES
ARGENTINA
Email: steelfaces2005@yahoo.com.ar

ETERNAL FIRE #4

It seems like the good old slogan "Are you metal enough for that?" will perfectly fit this new issue of ETERNAL FIRE! Because it has taken quite some time for the editor to release this new issue, he has gained a lot of articles and interviews in his metal bag, and what you could read there is fucking massive! This last word, synonymous with heaviness, doesn't simply stand for the quantity of interviews, but also the quantity of content in itself (Héhé): Most of these interviews are fucking long and detailed, some contain so many infos you should really want to learn more about the band and reach some kind of maniacal fanatic state of emergency to carefully read everything! Will you be metal enough for that? Héhé. There are also quite a lot of reviews, it's quite developed and written in a serious/ cool state of mind. Maybe more criticism toward sucking bullshits would be nice, but I think the editor has reviewed quite a lot of things he likes. Some of the chronicled items aren't very fresh anymore, but it's how it is when a 124 page zine is finally released... The lay out is Ok: It's serious, a bit repetitive, but the text size is small and so much more content could be inserted... And you are there to read, not to watch pictures, ok?
This is great to read this kind of interviews, it could remind the works of BLOOD OF THE ANCIENT (R.I.P or on pause?) or maybe Frank from VOICES FROM THE DARKSIDE. This is a really cool informative issue that was built for those who like metal that actually sounds like metal (Call it "Old school" if you wish)... I wouldn't be surprised to see some peoples consider ETERNAL FIRE #4 as some kind of milestone in their collection, not because of the personality (Because it's a METAL zine whose spirit doesn't really differ from the cool old styled METAL zines… Maybe apart from the strong presence of exotic scenes) but because there's so much cool content and informations that it's impressive... I didn't achieve to read more than half until now... ARGH!

Interviews: Mortem, Incrust, Saram, Dying embrace, Cacodaemon, Revenge, Kratornas, Deformity, Disforterror, Headhunter D.c., Mezzula, Duel, Tonyn destructor, Fastkill, Black angel, Krieg, Necropsia, Grenade, Morbid upheaval, Maar, Ironsword, Wytchkraft, Dominus xul, Exterminator, Thornafire, Torfrom, Embalmed, Ordealis recs, Vrykolakas, Sabbat, Yawar inti productions…

c/o Donner Thomas, 36 quai Lamblardie, 76600 LE HAVRE. FRANCE.
Email: devilucifriend@yahoo.fr

EROTIC DISMEMBERMENT #2

This new A5 fanzine from the United states of harmonica reminds me what was often published before all kinds of sterile spiders vampirized the metal scene with their boring webs; It looks do it yourself and the content isn't focused on a particular kind of music but rather on a state of mind: Underground and extreme music, whatever kind of alternative it might choose... In a way it might remind of DEFIANCE OF GOTHIC NIRVANA, because of the cut and paste layout, the pictures and articles to be inserted here and there, the kind of music to be chronicled and the A5 (Kinda newsletterized) size, but the content isn't so provocative as the tone is more serious, or sober. The interviews are okey, not too focused on the usual promotional questions and so it offers a bit of variety... It might be a bit longer to offer more mental dissections. There are some music reviews (all underground) and some movie chronicles, located somewhere between the describing, the fuck you, and fanview... Maybe he would need to review more stuffs he doesn't like to offer the readers more pleasant crap-bashing moments héhé. I already knew a part of the content so the soap-prize wasn't too gastrically zigzaging. If you like deep underground scriptures that deal with any kind of alternative musics from the extreme, might it be noise, metal, punk or the dirty likes, you might find DJ EROTIC D. to be a nice coffee machine mama-groover (lol). You might get it in trade from something else (Not sure if used underwears are welcome, though).
c/o Sephirotic publishing, Po Box 270423, ST LOUIS MO, 63127, USA.
Email: No email adress... Move your ass, you little clicking beggar!