Nervochaos: To the Death

    Raw, ravenous, and potently aggressive with a maelstrom of insidious grooves which just tease and coax the passions into their version of an erection, To the Death is an album you just cannot avoid finding strong affection for. The new release from Brazilian metallers Nervochaos is not without flaws or maybe a sense of a lost opportunity but it also leaves one more than satisfied and willing to share precious time with the release on a regular basis.

Formed in 1996, Nervochaos has unleashed their underground acclaimed blend of death and thrash metal consistently through the years and over a series of well received releases. They do not offer the most angry or violent sound around and you will find other more intense and destructive encounters elsewhere for sure but as with this their fifth album, the band has a compelling presence and creativity which ticks enough of the right boxes to be a welcome and pleasing companion. The grooves unleashed within the death metal breath and thrash powered bruises posing as songs are of a devil spawn irresistibility and make the band one you cannot ignore. Released via Cogumelo Records, the new album follows their live album of 2011 and the previous full length release Battalions of Hate of the year before, both Tumba Records released. Gaining a cult status in the underground extreme metal scene the quartet of vocalist /guitarist Guiller, guitarist Quinho, bassist Felipe Freitas, and drummer Eduardo Lane, has equally impressed alongside the likes of Venom, Cannibal Corpse, Agnostic Front, Mayhem, The Exploited, Carcass, Divine Heresy, Ragnarok, and many more, the quartet continually adding to their strong reputation.

The album opens with the high energy Mark of the Beast, a fury of unforgiving rhythms and gnawing riffs shaped around a hungry persistent groove. It does not offer anything new or inventively breath-taking but like a sonic magnet has ears and attention locked into its unfettered energy. Ok it is relatively undemanding but still opens up the album with an accomplished and riveting presence which sets up the rest of the release perfectly.

Sheep Amongst Wolves with its gnarly bass and serpentine sonic flames stands tall next to continue the emerging compelling persuasion of the release. Again there is irresistibility to the flowing craft and intent of the song with another defined groove at mischievous play alongside further inviting melodic fire from the guitars. It does not quite live up to the opener but makes a more than decent bridge to the first of the highlights of the album in Your World’s Trend. This track opens almost identically to how its predecessor ended but soon opens up a variation to the sonic beckoning and pummelling rhythms it unleashes. It is the group vocal shouts alongside the persistently scarring scowls of Guiller which help raise the game further and lies impressively against the excellent erosive grind of the track.

Whilst the following likes of Gospel of Judas, The Exile, and Smoking Mortal Remains ensure one is gripped by a strong need to delve deeper into the album, the release saves its finest moments for a couple of tracks nestled within the trio. The title track opens with the snarling bass opening its deep cavernous throat with tight mesmeric grooves of the guitars soon joining the confrontation. Unrelenting rhythms soon entrap the senses within their merciless tempest whilst now into its stride, the track sets frees a deluge of eager synapse chewing riffs and a sonic whipping which leaves only bliss in its glorious wake. It is two and a half minutes of delicious enterprise and greedy contagion impossible to deny and heartily welcomed. To match the impressive attack of the first the following Hate piles on more infectious riffing and primal chuggery around instinctive rapture sparking twisting grooves.

Arguably the album never reaches the heights of this excellent pair elsewhere but still offers plenty to grab the imagination. To the Death does have a familiar uniformity across a lot of its creativity and sound which holds the release back reaching the depth of acclaim maybe it could have found but is still impressive and enjoyable enough to make the album one easy to recommend. As songs like Mind Under Siege, Destroyer of Worlds, and Warlords Unbound continue to make the encounter a pleasing one this is an album that is easy to continually return to and Nervochaos a band with some of the most agreeable grooves and riffing ability around.

www.facebook.com/NervoChaos.

RingMaster 29/01/2013

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Aetherium Mors – Drenched In Victorious Blood

It has taken eight years for UK blackened death metallers Aetherium Mors to get to this point of releasing their debut album but Drenched In Victorious Blood shows the wait was worthwhile. An inventive and accomplished release, the album is a collection of songs written across their years as a band but soaked in a melodic wash of imagination and skill which is as fresh as it is rewarding.

Formed in 2004, the Plymouth band took inspiration from bands such as Death, Carcass, At The Gates, and Dissection, their form of classic extreme metal openly flavouring the sound of Aetherium Mors. The band was originally a quintet but forced into becoming a studio project with the departure of members. This left the band in the accomplished hands of guitarist/bassist/drummer Dan Couch and vocalist Kane Nelson. Their involvement with other projects (Couch drumming for UK Black/Thrash band Holodomor and the guitarist in progressive metal band Daggers Drawn and Nelson fronting UK Sludge/Death band Warcrab) meant the band was enforced into a time of inactivity. Now the duo has returned with Drenched In Victorious Blood, the album a long overdue kind of record to date of the band and its journey.

The songs making up the release musically are inventive and well-formed providing an engaging and intimidating backdrop to a lyrical scathing indictment of the Christian religion. The songs, ‘Tales of a fictional, bloody conflict are entwined with influences of Lavey’s philosophies of mortals empowered into becoming self-made Gods.’ With new songs being written for an EP for late 2013, the album is a chapter musically in the creative presence of Aetherium Mors which belies the length of time the tracks span such their fluid companionship. You can tell the later songs, their maturer songwriting and breath clear but an easy fit with the older tracks showing the strength of early songs.

The opening Sons Of Men immediately seizes attention through the gnawing riffs and scowling growls of Nelson, his delivery a mix of death and black metal rasping. The rhythms have a metronomic gait which is hypnotic if distracting at times but it is the impressive guitar invention of Couch which leaves the biggest pleasure. The vocals and drumming is skilled and takes a worthy place in the fury of this and each song but the guitarist steals the biggest acclaim throughout, his stylish and adventurous attack compelling.

The strong start is exceeded by Luciferian March; a slowly consuming erosion which unleashes flurries of energy and senses poaching sonic malevolence to match the serpentine vocals. The track opens up greater thoughts and appreciation for the band, again predominately through the fine guitar play and continually shifting presence of the song. It is fair to say there is not a wealth of new avenues being explored by the band, those inspirations clear and dominate but it does not disguise the promise and satisfaction being explored and given across the release.

Dreadlord is the insidious encounter which comes next, its irresistible groove and acid coated melodic flourishes framed by imaginative and forceful rhythmic brutality whilst guest bassist Rhys Jackson (Athura) adds extra deep menace. It again ignites a further rise in appreciation for the release whose greatest pinnacles are found in the tracks The Fall Of God and Order Of The Talion. Both songs hold a greater expanse of expressive heart and inciting energy to enflame the ear, the first bringing a twisting groove and ravenous breath to spark full enthusiasm for its infectious creativity and the second offering mesmeric spires of sonic and melodic brilliance against the blackened gait of the song. These two songs especially inspire anticipation that the promise shown will be realised into something startling in the future from the band.

Closing with the towering Annihilating Fire which has additional guitar solos from Steve Dean (ex-Holodomor, Carcinoma) within its pleasing flames, Drenched In Victorious Blood is an album well worthy of investigation. With a desire for greater diversity to the still more than decent vocals of Nelson the only personal wish to make the album even more gratifying, Aetherium Mors is a band which should be watched closely especially if they can now concentrate on themselves without further distractions.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aetherium-Mors/196329630411544?fref=ts

RingMaster 15/01/2013

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Fuck Hammer: Hammered To Fuck

As subtle as a house brick between the eyes and at times just as painful, Fuck Hammer is a quartet from Northern Ireland who twist their brand of death metal into a grind, crust, and sludge veined corruption. It takes no prisoners nor wants to make friends, but just consumes and blasts every atom, with venom and festering intensity.

Hammered To Fuck is the first EP from Fuckhammer and was originally self released as a limited quantity CDR. The release found a great response and reviews within the local scene and caught the attention of the young Northern Ireland death metal label, Grindscene Records who has now given it a professional re-release. Musically it is a pit of noise with flavours from the likes of Crowbar, Eyehategod, Iron Monkey, and Carcass. The production is not the best it could have been but offers a rawness which adds to the violating tempest which assaults from every angle whilst the sound, as well as the vocals, brings an abrasive consumption with no respite.

The opening Born Of The Ass immediately goes to work on the senses with a delicious greedy groove which winds and grinds its way deeper and deeper.  As the bile spewing serpentine vocals come in the riffs flare up before returning to that persistent destructive groove. The song in many ways is repetitive but it works great and to be honest when the track does venture slightly away from its sonic shaft one wants that irresistible groove back to rub the wounds it caused even more. The track, like the whole release, does not have any designs to restyle or invent its core sounds but just unleashes the intent to wring every essence from them for the best results.

The following Drone mixes things up with flurries of tempos, beats, and crunching riffs. The twists and turns all brought with the fullest intensity make for two minutes which do not reflect the title at all but still offer a thick sludge oppression to admire. The guitars and drums crush and dispose of any obstacles within the senses with undeniable strength and craft so for even in its brief assault the song is a thunderous enjoyable confrontation.

The remaining Hillbillies and Abortion Addict vary things again, the first with a stoner swagger to its death spawn vocals and conspiracy of insatiable grooves and thrash tinted riffage, whilst the second is a grindcore/death metal avalanche of towering riffs and abusive rhythms. Their hunger is different in intensity too with Hillbillies chewing on the senses with a southern greed and incestuous appetite whilst its successor gnaws and consumes with a rabid vehemence, the release again creating a varied violation to be endured and ultimately enjoyed.

Fuck Hammer is a band still in its informative years musically one feels and as such Hammered To Fuck is not drenched in any really distinct originality, its sounds heard elsewhere though dished up in a different and energized way. Vocally too some diversity would have been a good additive. The delivery and spiteful aggression works well for the most part but do diminish and distract from the effect of some aspects of sound like the tighter grooved parts without a complimentary variation.

For all that though the EP is an enjoyable release giving plenty of promise for the band and an anticipation of what will emerge when they are given access to a proper studio and production set up.

www.myspace.com/fuckkhammer

RingMaster 30/08/2012

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

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Cattle Decapitation: Monolith of Inhumanity

Without having a full and firm knowledge of the career and previous output of Californian death grinders Cattle Decapitation, there is still a feeling that it is not too far from the mark to claim their new album Monolith of Inhumanity is up there as possibly the best thing they have unleashed upon. The album is immense, a towering brutality that takes all that the band is known for to a deeper and harsher level whilst stretching themselves and the genre with an incisive invention and inspired originality. With previous album the excellent The Harvest Floor as the main reference to compare the new album with, there is a further defined intention and realisation on the new album to bring not only the aggression and combative directness but also themselves and their music as a whole into new and imaginative avenues.

Cattle Decapitation have not veered sharply away from the intense and dehabilitating extreme sounds they have been known for and cultured since their beginning in 1995, in fact they have turned that aspect up to flesh searing and bone snapping heights. Into this though they have brought irresistible melodic insertions, groove fuelled hooks and lures, diverse vocals, and multiple infectious invitations unlike anything the band has created before. These are used subtly and sparingly but when used they bring something special to the visceral decimation going on all around. Monolith of Inhumanity is outstanding and makes being punished by its limitless violence a pleasure.

Released via Metal Blade Records on May 8^th Monolith of Inhumanity sees the first appearance of bassist Derek Engemann in songwriting and recording. Joining vocalist Travis Ryan, guitarist Josh Elmore, and David McGraw on drums and alongside producer Dave Otero (Allegaeon, Cephalic Carnage), together they have spawn an album which lives and breathes to annihilate the senses as it brings through its concept of where humanity will end up if it continues its current course. From the moment the opening track The Carbon Stampede swarms around and bears its heavy vindictive weight upon the ear you know Cattle Decapitation have not lost their might and viciousness but have increased it with relish. The track rages like a furnace as the riffs splinter the sinews holding the ear in place whilst twisting the senses into a defenceless molten obedience. It is a devastating start still only suggests the greater things to come.

The darkly grinning bass of Engemann in the following Dead Set In Suicide alongside devastating rhythms from McGraw send bestial claws straight into the soul but it is the impressively varied and contrasting guttural gratings of Ryan with presumably his own high higher pitched demonic chorus which whips the song to be an immediate highlight. With riffs puncturing the body like offspring from a semi-automatic and melodic guitar play as sharp as cheese wire the track is enormous.

The album though just gets better and better, from the consuming vehemence of A Living, Breathing Piece of Defecating Meat with more brilliant diverse vocals and …well, just about everything, through the spiteful deeply intrusive Gristle Licker with a groove that opens up in the latter stages as demanding and additive as heard anywhere, to Lifestalker a track which almost breaks out initially into a wanton grooved swing attack until its bestial heart reasserts itself, the quality simply rises and rises.

The best is saved to last though with the trio of tracks Do Not Resuscitate, Your Disposal, and the closing Kingdom Of Tyrants. The first of the three turns the senses into a splatter board for the debris from its uncompromising intrusions of blistering riffs, acidic invention, and ravenous vocals. As shown everywhere the production allows each member to express their individual agenda and malice to bring a fuller and open but no less titanic assault from Cattle Decapitation. Your Disposal is the best song on the album, bringing all the best elements on the album into one rampaging maelstrom of intensity, violation, and ingenuity. It is like being in the middle of a charnel pit as your skin and bone are flayed by the sounds.

Kingdom of Tyrants is equally impressive and unpredictably imaginative, the perfect creative and destructive end to an outstanding album. With essences of the likes of Carcass, Dimmu Borgir, and Cannibal Corpse spicing up their own distinct death, grind, and what is at times melodic black metal, Cattle Decapitation have let loose one of the best extreme metal albums in a long time. Monolith of Inhumanity will leave you on your knees and devoid of feeling but most of all it will leave you fully satisfied.

RingMaster 03/05/2012

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General Surgery: A Collection of Depravation

If you are a goregrind fan and definitely a blood soaked follower of General Surgery than the release of A Collection of Depravation is a must investigate invitation. Having re-signed with Relapse Records recently the band has brought their rarer slices of bloodied mayhem from across their twenty odd years into a charnel house of pleasure in the shape of this compilation album. The thirty track medically ruptured colossus includes tracks from out of print singles, some vinyl only EP releases, unheard demos, songs that blistered compilations and also a few covers. With the release digitally remastered by Scott Hull of Pig Destroyer the result is an intense and malicious blood fest that if it is your kind of car crash tipple will please intensely, a gore hound metal treat.

General Surgery are often called Carcass clones which though it is easy to understand with the sounds the band violate with taking a definite lead from that band it has always been a harsh and uninspired comment to throw against them. Admittedly here at RR neither band has previously been high on our listening list or featured on our table of knowledge but the General Surgery sounds we have come across has always had that individual something to easily stand tall and distinct in their own right, the new release the proof.

A Collection of Depravation features almost every General Surgery line-up in their time, the members across the years having also featured in the likes of Dismember, Afflicted, Crematory, Nasum, Repugnant, Regurgitate to name a few. The release is a major slab of band and goregrind history which with its quality tracks and the considered attention given to its contents and release stands high amongst a flurry of rediscovered/re-released materials from bands in recent months.

The majority of songs on the album barely learn to count past two minutes, many much shorter but they still leave one breathless and eager for more of their intrusive festered sounds. Though their chosen structure the excellent Convival Corpose Disposal Methodology and its six minute carnage shows the band has the ability to turn their violations into an epic brutal assault just as easily and skilfully.

Personal standout tracks on A Collection of Depravation include the brilliant pair of Fulguration and Idle Teratoma Core, both offering a groove and hypnotic grind that leads one eagerly into the less welcomingly putrid blood baths elsewhere. The duo easily take top honours on the release but the likes of Mortuary Wars, Restrained Remains, Unruly Dissection Marathon, and Scalpel Infestation all are very impressive slabs of meat too as well as the excellent Xysma and Carcass covers of Foetal Mush and Empathological Necroticism respectively. There is no weak track anywhere to be fair, the proof of maybe how underrated the band have been.

A Collection of Depravation in many ways is mainly for goregrind and Swedish death metal lovers though there is plenty for other extreme metalers to get their kicks from within the release. As mentioned General Surgery has not previously been a band followed closely here but after this fine compilation a look into their other releases is certainly the next order of the day.

Ringmaster 30/03/2012

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