39th part of short reviews.
BLACK MOLD – Tales of Degradation
Year of release: 2019
Label: Helldprod Records
Rating: 6,8 / 10
You already faced this band in the Blitz; about a year ago, it released its first demo “Atavism”, which is a pretty strong metal in the vein of early DARKTHRONE and, for example, RAVENCULT. On “Tales of Degradation” the band gone other way; now it plays rhythmic material that could be called rock and roll, if it were not for the gloomy mood. Primitive music and the roar of a smoky throat refer to the old hardcore punk, and sometimes even to HELLHAMMER. A good demo - as in the case of “Atavism”, it is not expressive enough, but aesthetics are observed very carefully.
IMPERATOR – The Time Before Time
Year of release: 1991 / 2019 (this version)
Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions (this release)
Rating: classics
This album hardly needs a description. The classic of Polish ideological Death Metal one of the most important entries in the history of the genre for our western neighbors - what else can you add! This mini-review is intended to draw attention to the fact that the group returned to work last year, and NWN is now happy to re-release its album which has not been released on physical media since 1997. Reissue contains two bonus tracks.
NOMENCLATURE DIABLERIE – 888
Year of release: 1988 / 2019 (this version)
Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions (this release)
Rating: 7 / 10
The very underground release from NWN is a reissue of the only ten-minute demo of the Australian band released in 1988. I have no idea how he dug it up, but the demo is really good. Infernal metal with a cool old sound, continually breaking into a mad gallop, should appeal to all lovers of recordings made in an era when idle journalists and Internet worms have not yet begun to split up extreme metal into genres and styles. Take a note!
PASSÉISME – Austerity Parade
Year of release: 2019
Label: Darker Than Black Records
Rating: 6 / 10
“A mixture of French and Nizhny Novgorod” - one of the buyers at Bandcamp described this demo. A group from Nizhny Novgorod, fascinated by the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, recorded a ten-minute demo about decadence, released by Darker than Black records. The music is very melodic, emotional and fast metal with good guitar and drum parts. It reminds fashionable things from Quebec, but does not cause a subconscious feeling that there is some kind of faggotry happening behind the scenes. The vocals, unfortunately, are completely bad - as if a drunk man with a stray tongue shouts into a blanket. In general, this is a good demo; very few bands in Russia play something like that. But there are still some things to do.
VILE APPARITION – Depravity Ordained
Year of release: 2019
Label: Memento Mori
Rating: 7 / 10
Very strong brutal Death Metal of the old school - with a real sound, gloomy atmosphere, tricky technique of playing. In aesthetic terms - a real gift for fans of the genre. But something is breaking me down here: there is a feeling that all this was done only for the sake of music, and the rest of the elements were added simply because it was necessary. Actually, this is typical for Death Metal, especially for the brutal branch, and therefore I have hardly listened to this music for a long time. And therefore I can be very wrong in my assumptions.