Seventh part of short reviews.
LIVING ALTAR – Scythes Towards Psyche
Year of release: 2018
Label: Inferna Profundus Records
Rating: 5 / 10
The first EP in the career of the Lithuanian project, founded in 2011, is a rather noisy extreme metal with an indefinite aesthetics and style. I do not say that musicians do not know how to play - they know and they can. But why and what for - they can not give an answer to this question, at least if you judge by the official press release containing an excerpt from the interview that says only about the changes in music. The lyrical component is based on the most miserable and incoherent of ideas - "images of a psycho-spiritual world". Read it like "nonsence for check". The music itself is really evil and poisonous, but it lacks of ingenuity. I heard this stuff hundred times already.
PA VESH EN – A Ghost
Year of release: 2018
Label: Iron Bonehead Productions
Rating: 7 / 10
he mysterious Belarusian project PA VESH EN continues to create new stuff, preparing to release the debut full-length. This event is preceded by the release of the seven-inch vinyl "A Ghost", containing two tracks which are designed to show what awaits us in the nearest future. The material is not far from what "Knife Ritual" and "Dead Womb" cassettes offered, only this time it is less depressive and more ambient. The latter expressed not only directly in the ambient segments, but also in the style of metal part. Blackness, mud, emptiness, cold and death in some ugly casemates with shabby walls - all this is conveyed very convincingly. There are no tracks from this record on the official resources yet, so just look at the cover:
POUNDER – Faster Than Fire
Year of release: 2018
Label: Shadow Kingdom Records
Rating: 6,8 / 10
POUNDER is another project of famous extreme musicians who decided to play something heavy. People from NAUSEA, CARCASS, DEKAPITATOR, EXHUMED, REPULSION are participating. The upcoming seven-inch will contain 4 songs - 3 of their own + cover of ANGEL WITCH. 2 songs are good fast heavy metal in the vein of SATAN. They have their bright moments. The third is a typical pathetic mid-tempo radio hit in the vein of old ACCEPT. I did not hear the cover, because it is not in my promo version. In general, quite a good release which is worth listening to.
SCARIFICARE – Tilasm
Year of release: 2018
Label: Helldprod Records
Rating: 5 / 10
Portuguese extreme metal before us. And Portuguese, Spanish and Italian metal, as it is known, is an utter bullshit in 90% of cases, where even attempts to create the most traditional music end up with catastrophe. SCARIFICARE try to pinch everything off a little, and in the end they get something like fried bacon with strawberries and fish paste. Among the melodic inserts there are really good ones, but the "extreme" part seems to be thoroughly false. I will add that the sound here is at the level of 2007 (remember, how then they loved compression and the loudness turned up to the sky?), As a result, the album sounds utterly unnatural.
VAHRZAW – Husk
Year of release: 2018
Label: Blood Harvest
Rating: 7 / 10
Australian band VAHRZAW in many ways personifies the tastes of Blood Harvest rex: vicious blackened death thrash metal, prickly sound, old-fashioned music full of hatred. It seems that it wants to bite you. Stupid and disgusting, that's why it's wonderful. The only big disadvantage is this fucking shrill-wheezing vocals that makes music worse, and much worse. The vocalist growls much better.
English (UK) 
Крыўская