Good new albums come out this year with amazing regularity, and there is so little time for them ... I present to your attention the 61st issue of short reviews, which will help to sort out the accumulated material at least a little , both good and not.
INVOCATIONS SPELLS – Descendent the Black Throne
Year of release: 2015
Label: Hells Headbangers Records
Rating: 7,5 / 10
The second album of the tried and reliable Chileans. Dirty satanic metal with a thrashy flavor that combines the primitiveness of HELLHAMMER with the rusty edge of AURA NOIR. 5 years ago such an album would have caused me more joy, but today it is still quite convincing.
FREEWAYS – True Bearings
Year of release: 2020
Label: Temple of Mystery Records
Rating: 7,8 / 10
For a long time I wanted to roll out a full-fledged review of this album, but decided to throw it into blitz due to lack of time. FREEWAYS play music in the style of "the main character comes to town at the beginning of the movie filmed in the 80s". That is, it is classic hard rock with a wonderful rhythm and an easily perceptible "road" atmosphere (including not only the driving process itself, but also gatherings in the diners). The band seems to be partial to Heavy Metal as well, although they try to hide it. A pinch of DIAMOND HEAD here, a drop of BLACK SABBATH there ... The result is a great album that is easy enough to lit the spark from the first seconds, but addicting enough to listen to it over and over again.
NECROWRETCH – The Ones from Hell
Year of release: 2020
Label: Season of Mist
Rating: 5,7 / 10
The first NECROWRETCH album made a great impression at the time. A band from the depths of the analog underground managed to jump straight to Century Media Records and make a record for them that sounded startlingly evil, offering an unusual take on old Swedish Death Metal (so unusual that the sources of inspiration were almost impossible to guess if you didn't know them beforehand). The band then switched to Season of Mist, but seems to have left all their luggage, apart from the infernal atmosphere, in the offices of the German major label. All of the following NECROWRETCH releases turned out to be an order of magnitude weaker: no riffs, no songs, continuous massacre according to the template. Trying to play slower resulted in failure. A mushy sound does not suit the French either. The new album didn't make any progress. Again, it's nothing but beautifully packed product. Like Lays chips, you can chew to kill time or appease hunger, and even with some pleasure, but it won't do any good.
VOTOV – I.X.X.I.
Year of release: 2020
Label: CDN Records
Rating: 5 / 10
Typical metal from old and not very talented death metal guys who decided, as they say, to throw off the burden of the days gone by and remind about themselves. Everything was done in the worst form for the reviewer, mid-tempo Death Metal (this is conditional, since the lyrics here are not about death) with zero dynamics: the tank rushes through the mud for half an hour. There is nothing to hook on at all. The only outstanding aspect is the good growling vocals. The diligent and faceless sound was made in the home studio. The lyrics, just like in the early 2000s, gloomily and thoughtfully tell about all kinds of boring social bullshit with deadly hackneyed phrases. There is, however, a strange trick with the use of strings, where all words begin with the same letter, but I do not understand what purpose it serves. The design is terrible. In general, you can listen to this and you will not vomit - it's just fast food. At a certain period, the German and American markets were inundated with such one-day albums, and I don't know why anyone, other than the musicians themselves and their friends, needed another one.
COFFIN ROT – A Monument to the Dead
Year of release: 2019
Издатель: Rotted Life Records
Rating: 7,3 / 10
Debut album of American death metallers. The group cites MORTA SKULD, OBITUARY and CANNIBAL CORPSE as sources of inspiration, and the cover refers to the latter, but in fact it is rather a worship of AUTOPSY and the other fathers of primary school of DM. Dumb swotting, dear to the heart of any normal Death Metal fan, vocals in the vein of Kam Lee, viscous sound, crazy guitar solos. Lyrics is about GORE, not some lousy pickles about slaves of religion and sit. Forced Self-Consumption! Dirty, archaic and authentic.
English (UK) 
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