(Our French contributor Zoltar has provided us with short reviews of four recently released records, two of them reissues of music dating to the ’90s and two of them brand new, from just a bit earlier this year.)
CRANIAL TORMENT – STADES OF REPRESSION
There weren’t that many ‘pure’ death metal bands to speak of in Greece in the late ’90s, one of the only notable exceptions being Inveracity and their killer debut Circle Of Perversion released through Unmatched Brutality (who else?) back in 2003. The thing is that most of the leaders of the movement, like Septicflesh – or Septic Flesh in two words as they were called back then – Horrified or Nightfall (the latter featuring a then rather unknown yet super promising drummer called George Kollias who would soon rise to fame with Nile), had all moved on to greener pastures.
So to say that local hardcore maniacs like Vassilis ‘Bill’ Benakis (guitar and vocals) and future Repulsive Echo Records founder Kostas Vaxevanos (drums) were wasting their time talking to a wall would be quite an understatement. Yet as Cranial Torment the pair nevertheless recorded no fewer than three demos – the second being almost album-length, clocking at 30 minutes – in between August 1998 and May 1999 before vanishing into oblivion, until now.
Stades Of Repression compiles all this material, sixteen tracks in total, albeit not in chronological order as demo number two The Triumph Of Impudence opens the hostilities, and it’s easy to know why, as after a cruder first recording this is where Cranial Torment truly came into their own, somehow taking the Sadistic Intent approach of things (i.e., sinister riffing and dark-as-fuck vibe) only to speed it up and make it even more suffocating.
Of course, the demo production values mean that the six-strings and Benakis‘ quite guttural vocals tend to overshadow the drums in the mix, but the truth is, it’s hard to see any other Greek band sounding so freaking dark and menacing during that period, especially with that relentless attitude, paving (maybe) the way for Dead Congregation, a full six years before their first ever rehearsal.
Their last recording may not have the same intensity and crispy sound (it also seems that Vaxevanos was replaced by a drum machine although I’m not sure) but Stades Of Repression is worth getting for that aforementioned second demo alone.
https://cranialtormentofficial.bandcamp.com/
https://doomedtoobscurityrecords.bandcamp.com/album/stades-of-repression
ETERNAL DIRGE – KHAOS MAGICK
Indeed, looks like death metal has been very keen on looking in the rearview mirror lately, as if trying to reconnect with a bygone period where everything seemed new, fresh, and dangerous. There isn’t a month passing by without at least a bunch of supposedly ‘cult’ (i.e., long forgotten by 99% of us, and sometimes for good reasons) recordings being reissued. Some of those ‘lost gems’ brought back from the grave aged well, others less. And then there’s the rare case of a band still puzzling us three decades down the line. Enter Eternal Dirge.
Those Germans were the wrong band at the wrong place at the wrong time. By the time they released their second – and final – album Khaos Magick in 1996, their home country, and once THE one territory where death metal was the most popular on the continent, had turned its back on the genre. And the fact that said album was being put out by Morbid Records, a very cool imprint yet first and foremost famed for hitting the shops with some of the vilest yet coolest death/grind bands still standing (Dead Infection, Haemorrhage, CSSO etc.), didn’t help either. Nor did their stylistic shift, as after incorporating a full-time keyboard player they had decided to get onboard a spaceship and chase Nocturnus through the galaxy, albeit with slight touches of black and thrash metal.
The thing with Khaos Magick is that it’s a kind of technical death metal album that doesn’t quite sound like one, clearly lacking a firm direction yet trying its best to do… something. What exactly? Fuck if I know. And they don’t seem to know either. Call it confused death metal then. But hey, at least they tried. It’s also sooooo mid-’90s (those who know, well, know).
While it’s now part of its charm twenty-nine years later, the mix is unbalanced to say the least, with the kind of keyboards one could have been expected to hear in some Nintendo 64 game intro taking over, with the drums struggling to be heard, as were the over-muffled vocals. Minus the right producer and a clear vision, this is the sound of a band trying to blossom and failing, yet not without a few moments of clarity.
And to add to the confusion, the bonus track, side B of the post-Khaos Magick seven inch they put out right before splitting up, only adds to the confusion as it turns out to be some awfully awkward mix of grunts with EBM/electro, sadly reminding us of that one time when some people (at least in Germany) thought it was THE thing. It still makes it a rather interesting if slightly disoriented oddity.
And for those looking for their earlier, far more conventional if slightly less attention-grabbing, music, you can track down the double-CD collection put together by Unspeakable Axe Records back in 2017.
https://www.facebook.com/EternalDirge/
https://vicrecords1.bandcamp.com/album/khaos-magick
HOROH – HORDE OF HORROR
If this duo would happen to be based in Kentucky or something and this still would be 2002, Horde Of Horror would have most likely been released through Razorback Records. From the Dennis Dread-like comics artwork to the lyrical theme (the record opens up with a sample from the first Hellraiser movie) or musical references (Impetigo, Frightmare, Autopsy), it’s all here… Or is it?
Past the weird, slightly mechanical guitar tone and drum machine, the emphasis here is less on speed and utter brutality than it is on groove and fat mosh parts, as if to emphasize even more the truly disgusting and predominant-in-the-mix vocals of former Inhumate Sébastien Mockers whose performance really elevates this second album above the norm.
There’s something sticky, slimy and utterly discomforting about Horde Of Horror, down to its Blood cover (“Death Evoken”) including the Germans’ own frontman Martin on guest vocals, and only its slightly too-digital production values get in the way, preventing from reaching the highs, or the lows as a matter of fact, they’re aiming to drag us to.
https://www.facebook.com/Horohdm/
https://cryptofdrgore.bandcamp.com/album/horde-of-horror
PYRE – WHERE OBSCURITY SWAYS
Maybe it was a very European thing but a decade ago or something, everybody wanted to be Asphyx, especially its Martin van Drunen-fronted version. So one did to stand out in the crowd? Saint-Petersburg’s Pyre vowed to not only put the old-school pedal to the max in a country (Russia) where brainless, bovine slam-death reigns supreme but also to use the world-famed HM-2 pedal so dear to all us SweDeath lovers around the world as their main weapon. Problem was that although they’ve been around since 2011, they haven’t been that productive to say the least, Where Obscurity Sways being only their third album and their first fresh material in over five years.
Whereas its two predecessors were trying a bit too hard for their own good to beat the Swedes at their own game, Where Obscurity Sways avoids that trap by simply being, so to speak, ‘just’ an old-school death metal album. Yet one with a refined sense of melody but also a more obvious than ever vintage heavy metal influence to boot.
Not that they’re started sounding like some Iron Maiden clone, mind you. Yet, the way a song like “Murderous Transcendence” slowly spreads its wings while piling one solo after the other, with plenty of divebombs to boot, or how most of the tracks here follow intricate arrangements, don’t exactly lead a listener where he/she expected to go.
Fear not, this ain’t no progressive album and it’s still deeply entrenched in the classic sound of the ’90s, with a now more notable Unleashed influence. But you can feel their desire to deliver something a bit more than just another OSDM album, and while their transition ain’t quite achieved yet – some songs lack intensity and direction – they’re clearly onto something here. Just make sure the next one won’t take another five years to come to life, will ya boys?
https://www.facebook.com/pyredeathmetal/
https://osmoseproductions.bandcamp.com/album/where-obscurity-sways