Macabra - "Blood-Nurtured Nature" Review

This is a 90’s styled death metal band, featuring none other than acclaimed artist Mark Riddick, who plays all instruments and is accompanied by vocalist Adrien "Liquifier" Weber (aka Lord Genocide?!). The nature of this beast is clear, as I opened this review with such a statement, from the opening tune ‘Life is the Symptom’ you get a taste of what I really like, classic death metal. Although, duplication may be called into question leading into the second track ’Fragments of Torpor’, the opening riff is very similar to the first track, listen hard, I know its different but to the casual listener? Hey, does it really matter, this is good stuff.

The guitar tone is haunting, dirty and precise, the vocals hit their mark without any hesitation or any lack of power, and the mix is rather good as I would come to expect in this genre and day and age. ‘Hominal Peel Diggers’ has a groove, a blast of speed, a blueprint of 90’s US and European Death metal. Modern touches in the guitar techniques surface to shatter any disrespectful comment on originality anyone may have, in truth, this is as good as it gets, I certainly prefer this genre to Riddick’s previous brutal death metal incarnations. 

There is no denying this is a solid release and Riddick is an acclaimed musician and artist, but I wonder if there could be more life in these songs if there were more writers involved, from my files I have no such information regarding writers, hence, I stand by my comment. However, pondering questions aside, any fan of pure organic early 90’s death metal before the technical geeks got involved in the genre should really check out this effort.

Sphere - Homo Hereticus Review

Rooted in a mix of old school and brutal death metal, Sphere are from Poland, often a country associated with promising death metal bands, and Sphere are no couch potato either. Twisting the very fabric of musicianship coupled with pure brutality, these gents hold dear much of their forefathers in musician’s terms have fought fro from relative obscurity. The links of Vader and Behemoth have helped somewhat, but it is more the former mixed with say Immolation’s speed and Deicide’s riffing precision that makes ‘Homo Hereticus’ a healthy buying option.

But, I really don’t like pig squealing vocals, this is mixed in certain quarters, this is a shame because for me there is no need for Sphere to do this, the music is brutal enough, especially the remainder of ‘Third Scent Carcass’. Double bass thunder and blast beat speed mixes with a few of your more expected death metal entities, groovy in places whilst infrequent pitched artificial harmonics give some atmosphere amongst its chaos. ‘Grave’s Cold Darkness’ has an old school feel, wonderfully groovy, powerful and the vocal delivery matches the speed changes from the drumming perfectly. There is a good balance between technicality and the arrangements that Sphere produce, it’s heart-warming not to hear a constant barrage of riffs, Sphere emphasis is on “songs”, very much a group product rather than individual headline opportunities. When you hear something like ‘Devils Reunion’ and the war machine that is ‘Beyond Madness of Gods’, this justifies just that little bit of excitement, a little wonder, but ‘Homo Hereticus’ is a solid effort and well worthy of your time and investment, every bit of ‘Homo Hereticus’ is competent and precise Death Metal.

Vallenfyre – A Fragile King

2011 might as well be dubbed the year of Swedish Retro Death. Band after loathsome band has burst from the underground to pay rancid homage to genre legends like Entombed, Dismember and Grave. Despite the sheer volume of the stuff, Steel Druhm has remained supportive and for the most part, the trend hasn’t worn out its welcome. Now we get Vallenfyre‘s debut full length from a veritable death metal super group featuring members of Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Cradle of Filth. With such a pedigree, it shouldn’t be too surprising when A Fragile King has everything you would reasonably expect from a Swedish death album. It’s chunky, thick, nasty and vile. It’s an ode to all things Entombed with a sizeable injection of Celtic Frosty goodness as well. At times, its so much like the immortal Left Hand Path it’s uncanny, yet it also brings in plenty of dire dirges to shake things up. This MOFO was conceived in unholy sin, birthed in ungodly filth and raised on bloody carnage. There’s a guitar sound heavy enough to fracture your vertebrae and vocals so grisly they’ll disturb the deranged. But, you rightly ask, is it actually good? Oh yes, it’s really good! This is unapologetically retro and doesn’t strive for innovation but it nails home the tried-and-true Swedish sound with the subtlety of a Panzer division. How this will sit with you depends entirely on your tolerance for more Swedish death. If 2011 has fed you all the old-time death you can stomach, move along and I won’t think less of you. If not, belly up to the death buffet and chow down on this meatloaf of the damned.

As soon as the guitars roar to unlife in opener “All Will Suffer,” you know you are in for a harrowing experience. The basic Sunlight Studios guitar tone is there but sounds even more murky and raw that it did back in the salad days of the style. The tempo is slow to mid-paced and the riffing will remind old-timers of the pummeling might of Celtic Frost. One hell of an opener for sure. “Desecration” ups the speed and throws in creepy, slithering riff patterns and mournful, forlorn solos not unlike those heard on the first Entrails album (listen at 3:57 for a very moody, glum example). Elsewhere, songs like “Cathedrals of the Dread” and “Seeds” feature super doom riffs  of Trouble and Saint Vitus proportions accompanied by raucous death metal. “Seeds” in particular works very well as a creepy, doom-death gem. Numbers like “Black Siberia” and “The Divine Have Fled”  go right for the classic Entombed playbook and get it pretty close to perfect. At no point are things technical, progressive or clean. It’s all raw, dirty and crushingly heavy. The writing is crisp, the songs all have memorable aspects to them and there’s plenty of variety in tempo and dynamics.

The guitars are the guts of Vallenfyre and the ridiculously heavy riffing is admirably rendered by Hamish Hamiliton Glencross (My Dying Bride) and a gentleman simply known as Mully. The tone is gigantic,   hideous and the riffing will give   you the sensation of being run over by an armored column, which later backs over your corpse just to be dicks. Gregor Macintosh’s (Paradise Lost) death croaks are low, phlegmy and very convincing (this album is his attempt to work through some personal tragedy and loss). His bellowing, along with the relentless sledgehammer riffing will cause you to feel a touch of bell’s palsy in and around the facial area (it’s just a partial paralysis). The production is solid, nicely raw and basically serves to amp up the guitar buzz to insane levels of sonic abuse. It’s distortion for distortion’s sake and I never argue with that (it’s death metal, after all).

At the end of the day, there’s a shelf life to the whole Swedish death retro wave and its expiration date is drawing ever nearer. I love the sound, I love the style and I really enjoyed most of the retro releases this year, including this one. But, even I can’t handle the volume with which this stuff is currently propagating. However, I have no hesitation recommending this platter of plague and pain. It’s brutal, skull cracking music done by vets of extreme music, for fans of extreme music. Ponderous man, fucking ponderous.