Neuraxis - Trilateral Progression

BACK IN TIME:

#PER CHI AMA: Death/Grind, Cryptopsy, Despised Icon, Cephalic Carnage

Non mi sono ancora ripreso dalla batosta dei Berzerker, che già mi trovo costretto a recensire e farmi maciullare le orecchie da un altro combo dedito al death/grind, ossia i canadesi Neuraxis, band di Montreal attiva oramai dal 1994 e con parecchi album sulle spalle (questo è il quarto di sei). Dopo una breve intro, la rabbia distruttiva del quintetto nord americano si scatena in ogni sua forma: il sound proposto dalla band è un death violento, ma iper-tecnico che sfocia spesso in sfuriate grind, contrapposte ad inserti melodici dal vago sapore scandinavo. Rispetto al passato però, nonostante l’eccelsa tecnica della band e probabilmente al caparbio desiderio di strafare per andare oltre al precedente ed eccellente 'Truth Beyond', ho la sensazione che il combo canadese abbia perso un po’ di smalto e di idee. Non intendo affermare che 'Trilateral Progression' sia un brutto album anzi; però, data la sua estrema compattezza e monoliticità, il combo del Quebec ha perso un po’ di verve e originalità che ne contraddistingueva i passati lavori. Il platter è sicuramente interessante con tutte le sue peculiarità: chitarre tritabudella, voci growl contrapposte a demoniache scream vocals, schegge grind, accenni melodici, inserti techno death che richiamano il sound degli ultimi Death. Quello che alla fine mi lascia un po’ perplesso è quella sensazione, troppo spesso vissuta, di “già sentito” che ammanta l’intero disco. Ad ogni modo, 'Trilateral Progression' riuscirà sicuramente a soddisfare i fan della band canadese perchè, oltre a godere di una splendida produzione, comunque racchiude tutte le caratteristiche di una delle più valide e sorprendenti realtà nell’ambito della musica più estrema accanto ad altri mostri sacri quali sono i Cephalic Carnage... Annichilenti!!! (Francesco Scarci)

(Willowtip - 2005)
Voto: 70

https://willowtip.bandcamp.com/album/trilateral-progression

Watchmaker - Erased From the Memory of Man

BACK IN TIME:

#PER CHI AMA: Grind

Cos’è per voi il caos? Dopo aver ascoltato questo disco sicuramente ne avrete una vaga idea, perchè i 26 minuti di questo cd, rispondono alla perfezione alla mia iniziale domanda. 'Erased From the Memory of Man' racchiude diciotto tracce, tutte collegate fra loro da un unico comune denominatore: la caoticità della proposta musicale di questa seminale band statunitense di Boston. La musica dei Watchmaker è un vero assalto sonoro, fatto di rancidi e violenti suoni thrash metal miscelati rozzamente a schegge grind, ad urla disumane, il tutto spruzzato di suoni cacofonici provenienti da altri ambiti musicali: black, punk-hardcore e death. Fortunatamente il disco non dura molto, altrimenti un volo dal terzo piano, nessuno glielo avrebbe negato. Cos’è il caos per me? Alla fine pura noia... (Francesco Scarci)

(Willowtip Records - 2005)
Voto: 50

https://willowtip.bandcamp.com/album/erased-from-the-memory-of-man

Abhorrent - Intransigence

#FOR FANS OF: Brutal/Techno Death, Atrocious Abnormality, Origin, Deeds of Flesh

The debut effort from Texas brutal/technical death metal psychos Abhorrent features plenty of enjoyable yet somewhat formulaic takes on the merging of the two styles. With the brutality making the most impactful impression here, from the tight, raging rhythms and furious, swirling riff-work on display here there’s plenty to note here of this style which makes the album seem all the more technically challenging when it manages to make these seem all the more devastating by offering the kind of overwhelming musicianship that works nicely alongside that heavy chugging rhythms. This makes for a rather enjoyable time where it manages to mix them even further with challenging, complex riff-work that offers tight, brutally blistering rhythms alongside the fine drumming carrying that alongside its series of blasting charges that work really well together. Though this one does tend to come off a little one-sided with it’s rhythms as the songs tend to blend together into a blur of tight chugging and blasting drum-work, it’s really the one problem here. On the whole the tracks aren’t that bad. Instrumental intro ‘Passage’ offers an ambient sound collage amidst a sea of churning riffing leading into proper first track ‘The Elegance of Asymmetry’ featuring plenty of tight chugging riffing, dexterous drum-blasts and churning patterns keeping the unrelenting pace full of complex tempo changes and rhythm switches as the brutal blasting drumming brings the tempo changes into the final half for a strong opener. ‘Ifrit’ uses swirling technical patterns and charging drumming full of challenging arrangements utilizing tight, frantic patterns alongside the technically-challenging riffing charging into the swirling arrangements and brutal drum-work in the finale for another strong effort. ‘Reward System Malfunction’ utilizes churning rhythms and plenty of tight, blasting drumming that takes the challenging, complex patterns alongside the mid-tempo riff-work churning along through the series of swarming, churning rhythms blasting along through the final half for the album’s clear highlight offering. The mid-album instrumental breather ‘Clarity of Will’ brings deep, thunderous bass-lines and classical piano notes that offer a calming, relaxing air leading into next track ‘A Lightness of Mind’ features tight, blaring rhythms and plenty of technical swirling rhythms charging along throughout the plodding mid-tempo paces with the charging rhythms and blaring bass-lines holding the complex rhythms along into the tight finale for an enjoyable effort. ‘Ill-Conceived’ immediately blasts through tight patterns and chugging rhythms with plenty of frantic and complex arrangements making for a rather charging series of riffing patterns leading into the swarming solo section and chugging along into the complex final half for another solid and enjoyable effort. ‘Eternal Recurrence’ takes frantic mid-tempo chugging and complex riffing alongside the rattling drum-work utilizing plenty of tight, raging rhythms throughout the sprawling tempos charging along the mid-section with the aimless chugging and frantic drumming blasting along in the finale for a mostly bland effort overall. ‘Larva’ uses a light, extended acoustic intro before turning into tight, complex riff-work and dexterous, blistering drum-blasts taking the thumping rhythms along through the sprawling mid-tempo rhythms featuring the challenging riffing turning back into blistering drum-work for the final half into a stylish and enjoyable effort. Album-closer ‘Parasite’ takes a steady, sprawling rhythms and complex, blasting drum-work that soon settles into frantic, unrelenting riff-work alongside the explosive, challenging rhythms leading into the churning rhythms along throughout the steady tribal patterns leading through the finale for a solid lasting impression. There’s not a whole lot here that doesn’t really hold it back. (Don Anelli)

(Willow Tip - 2015)

Score: 80

https://willowtip.bandcamp.com/album/intransigence

Sarpanitum - Blessed Be My Brothers…

#PER CHI AMA: Brutal Death Melodico, Mithras, Nile

Non sono mai stato un fan del death metal tout court, di quello fatto di chitarre arroventate, growling vocals paurose e sezioni di batteria che somigliano più ad una contraerea impazzita che a uno strumento musicale. Quando però c'è da essere obiettivi e togliersi il cappello di fronte ad una band eccezionale che propone tale genere, io sono il primo a farlo. Da quando mi sono imbattutto nel furibondo e quanto mai tagliente sound degli inglesi Sarpanitum, non ne sono più riuscito a fare a meno. 'Blessed be my Brothers...' si è consumato all'interno del mio lettore, fosse quello dell'auto o di casa. Il trio di Birmingham mi ha letteralmente conquistato con quel loro modo di suonare tanto debitore della scena inglese, Mithras in testa. Non a caso tra le fila del combo albionico milita proprio Leon Macey, chitarrista e batterista della band britannica suddetta. E parte dell'impianto sonoro che il buon Leon utilizza nella sua band principale, è stato trasferito anche nella matrice dei Sarpanitum. Ritmiche serratissime e acuminate come un rasoio, tirate a velocità supersoniche ma anche dotate di rallentamenti da brividi. Una intro strumentale a dir poco notevole e poi tocca a "By Virtuous Reclamation" farsi portavoce del marchio di fabbrica dei Sarpanitum: si tratta di una cavalcata di vorace ed epico death brutale, in grado di maciullare le carni ma anche di deliziare con mirabolanti aperture melodiche in grado di scatenare brividi mai ipotizzati per tale genere. Incredibile a dirsi di un disco che parte da solidissime basi death metal che poggiano sui dettami di gente del calibro di Nile o Immolation, o per rimanere in casa loro, di Napalm Death o Benediction. I Sarpanitum non sono degli sprovveduti e la loro eccelsa perizia tecnica rappresenta un biglietto da visita incontrovertibile che testimonia a più riprese la capacità e la sapienza di una band, di saper coniugare death brutale, melodia e alte, altissime dosi di epicità. L'album spacca letteralmente grazie a quei riff selvaggi, alle atmosfere che si rifanno ad un duo formato da Nocturnus e Melechesh, turbinii sonori di scuola Mithras, e spaventosi cambi di tempo conditi da altrettanto pazzeschi assoli, a cura di Tom Hyde. Detto della notevole traccia numero due, ce ne sono altre nel magnifico lotto che che vorrei citare: "Glorification upon the Powdered Bones of the Sundered Dead" è un bel mix tra Morbid Angel e Nile mentre "I Defy for I Am Free" è forse il pezzo più completo del disco con quel malinconico incipit, la sua veemenza nella sua parte centrale, e un assolo conclusivo a dir poco fotonico che vale probabilmente da solo il costo del disco. Incredibili! (Francesco Scarci)

(Willowtip Records - 2015)
Voto: 85

https://www.facebook.com/sarpanitum

Prostitute Disfigurement - From Crotch to Crown

#FOR FANS OF: Brutal/Techno Death, Cannibal Corpse, Severe Torture, Suffocation 

Honing in on album number five after a lengthy absence, these maniacal Dutchmen offer forth one of their most impressive and imposing albums yet. Having since injected a rather rousing technicality into their old-school formula of utterly brutal and horrifying riffs, together these two elements are like magic in creating one of the most imposing and listenable albums in the genre that really serves as a welcoming template for the carnage to unfold throughout here. The riffs are the old-school Cannibal Corpse style of thrashing, high-speed and intense notes delivered with precision at those high-speeds with jagged leads, crushing rhythms and a dash of unrelenting brutality, moreso than the Floridians ever displayed which speaks to their own past when they were one of the most brutal Death Metal outfits on the scene for that very reason. Like modern Cannibal Corpse, they employ a searing series of riff dynamics which incorporate varied tempos, outstanding soloing and a jaw-dropping amount of energy in keeping this material flying throughout the varying moods and feels throughout. As well, with a more pronounced series of technically-proficient riffs being introduced last time around, there’s a jagged ambience to their attack that serves the brutality as well which makes those stick out far more than their past series of albums ever could when it just focused on the brutality straightforwardly, and when all this accomplished riff-work is melded together with battering-ram style drumming displaying a pronounced knack for brutal rhythms, scorching patterns and unrelenting speed doling out sick fills and rolling double-bass lines along with thick, blood-drenched bass-lines and furious, deep vocals together, the result is a marvelous masterpiece of perversity that incorporates their penchant for dark auras and blinding technicality within their speed-drenched and technical tracks. Tracks like intro "Only Taste for Decay," "Battered to the Grave," "Crowned in Entrails," "Under the Patio" and the title track offer up a strong set of brutally-proficient and technically-complex riffs in raging tempos with non-stop energy throughout, offering rather strong tracks that all serve as the album’s highlights, "Patio" in particular for its dazzling use of traditionally-minded soloing that comes off far more dynamic and expressive than the other, denser tracks. Even stuff like "Set Forth to Annihilate" and "Reduced to Stumps" provide some rather frenetic moments as they set forth raging through their paces. For some diversity, "Dismember the Transgender" offers a more mid-paced selection that plods along nicely with a nice progression of solos that build in intensity and brutality from its more modest beginnings, while "Glorify Through Cyanide" drops the raging tempo for a destructive mid-tempo blast littered with non-stop explosive blastbeats against more of that traditionally-minded soloing. Overall, it’s not concerned with diversity, only in unleashing major amounts of physical trauma and bludgeoning atmospheres, and right now very few have done that better than this offering. (Don Anelli)

(Willowtip - 2014) 

Score: 85 

http://www.prostitutedisfigurement.com/

Mesphistopheles - Sounds of the End

#FOR FANS OF: Technical Death Metal, Psycropotic, Obscura

With a seemingly profound influx of Technical Death Metal into the scene, the wide-reaching spread of it has hit Australia of all places with this second effort from the Tasmanian act Mephistopheles. One of several bands to use the moniker, this version is pretty much what you would consider the standard norm for the genre tag “Technical Death Metal:” a veritable whirlwind of unimaginatively complex and off-kilter guitar riffing styles into densely-packed songs with a fluidity that’s jaw-dropping in the skill-set required to hit those notes, commanding drumming that keeps the rhythms as obscure and complex as the riffing and a smorgasbord of bass riffs that spindle, buzz and generally act as another instrument to display technical prowess and skill rather than giving a heavy tone to the music. As such, this is pretty much directed mainly at those who prefer such music rather than any sort of writing skill for the songs tend to fall into a trap of being unrecognizable after a while and blend into a blur of chaotic, complex guitars rather than a flowing piece of music which a lot of other bands in this style accomplish to a varying degree of success. Rather, this is the prototypical ‘let’s-see-how-many-riffs-we-can-pack-into-a-single-song’ type of band that many look at as the cliché of the genre, even though there’s a smattering of talent that’s needed to be able to play as unrelentingly fast and accurate as they are. Hitting riffs that complicated, at the speed they do so, with the fluidity accomplished, does take real skill and is ably demonstrated such as "Pariahs of the Universe," "Soldiers of the Endtime," "Battle of the Sea and Sky" and "The Siren of Eternity" all attest to mightily. Even shorter stuff like "Silver Doors" and "Generation O" have a fantastic display of talent required to pull off what’s accomplished in those tracks which does leave this as more than just an average tech/death band, but there’s also not a whole lot else to diversify themselves in such a crowded market. However, for those that forsake all this and merely enjoy and appreciate technical bombast for the sake of it all, bump this score up a few extra notches. (Don Anelli)

(Willowtip - 2013)
Score: 70

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mephistopheles

Gigan - Multi-Dimensional Fractal Sorcery

#FOR FANS OF: Techno Death, Gorguts, Mithras and Ulcerate

There appears to be a subtle, but still fairly noticeable recent change in the direction death metal's heading in. Instead of just making thrash metal heavier, meatier and more gruesome, new death metal bands take the more outlandish aspects of Morbid Angel and Autopsy, add a nice dose of Obscura-era Gorguts and streamline it into something very detailed and showy, but still twisted and ugly. Popularized by Ulcerate and Portal, Gigan has actually been playing this brand of abrasive, incomprehensible death metal for quite a while at this point. Back in 2008, 'The Order of the False Eye' was an incorrigible slab of filth that seemed unfortunately out-of-place on a label like Napalm Records. Fortunately, Willowtip is much more fitting to their style and they've refined and grown as a band in the five years since that album came out. 'Multi-Dimensional Fractal Sorcery' is an endless blitz of frantic riffing, but there's still enough oddly captivating melodic guitar frills to give the album a bit of accessibility to almost any death metal fan. Is this the rebirth of Floridian death metal? One can certainly hear the cues taken from things such as 'Altars of Madness' in the brute, low-end death metal riffing, but that's only one face of the multidimensional fabric of the album. Mostly thrashing about in mid to high-note spastic dissonance with the suffocating, mostly linear structuring of Immolation and Gorguts, there are additional flashes of intricate consonance amidst the frantic riff blender to give you something that actually sort of makes sense before swallowing you up in a discordant riff frenzy again. Even in giving you that small piece of melody to grasp at, 'Multi-Dimensional Fractal Sorcery' never loses its speed in the process as long as the guitars are playing. Even when they give you something even remotely pretty-sounding, it's just as detailed, twisted and alien as anything else in the music. As seems to be the staple for any extreme metal band attempting to be "atmospheric", there are a few sections where the guitars and drums stop playing and the keyboards dominate with simple, haunting verses. These infrequent moments actually serve as quite welcome breaks from the intense abrasion that surrounds them, and are placed in the music only for that purpose and never wander for too long to distract the listener from the main purpose: getting paralyzed, scrambled and suffocated in a cosmic vortex. The sense of professionalism that both Willowtip and years of evolving in artistry as well as musicianship has provided to Gigan is almost crucial to the expression of the themes on 'Multi-Dimensional Fractal Sorcery'. Chaos is, in reality, a complex and precise process, and only with the capabilties and resources the band has accumulated can these sort of things properly be articulated. New drummer Nate Cotton is an absolute beast, constantly changing up what he's doing while still staying consistently manic and active. Constantly changing up the riffs like Gigan does on this album requires the drumwork to consistently keep up with the pacing of the riffs, and Cotton accomplishes this masterfully. He stands out really nicely on "Mother of Toads"; it's like Brann Dailor if he listened to way too much Marduk. His performance could have been buried under a raw production, but the crystal-clear modern sheen on this album captures every minuscule detail. That's very fortunate, because 'Multi-Dimensional Fractal Sorcery' has a lot of riffs for you to sink your teeth into. Inevitably, Not every riff is going to be particularly accessible or intriguing. There are riffs you probably won't like very much because they do throw them at you at a rate so fast you can barely catch up to what's going on and nobody bats 1000 with this sort of approach. Nothing ever strays far from the chaotic, astral atmosphere, though, and that in itself is commendable. So this is technical death metal then? I guess. The band is technically proficient, they play death metal--but this won't sound like the technical death metal one might be used to hearing in this day and age, which tends to take heavy cues from modern brutal death metal and deathcore; the similar bands are too old-school on 'Multi-Dimensional Fractal Sorcery' and the music is way too jam-packed and dissonant and lacks the punishing groove or bludgeoning that death metal usually has almost as a byproduct of its nature. Gigan serve to remind us of how versatile death metal can be and how broad a palate of influences death metal bands can draw from these days. (RapeTheDead)

(Willowtip - 2013)
Score: 85

http://www.giganmusic.com/