Here are some things I spied and heard over the last 24 hours, including a destructive new song and an invigorating new video. But I begin with some teasing photos that appeared in my Facebook news feed. The first one is above, accompanied by these words:
“Legendary Florida Death Metal pioneers Massacre will return with their first studio album effort in almost 20 years! Programmatically entitled Back From Beyond, the album will be released on March 24th in Europe and April 1st in North America.”
Here are some others, with the verbiage that accompanied them. If you don’t recognize the faces, hover your mouse over the images.
(NCS writer Israel Flanders delivers a review of the latest release from Bloodsoaked, beginning with this…)
Yeah. Bow down. It’s time for the new Bloodsoaked album The Death Of Hope.
Bloodsoaked is a one-man death metal project who’s put out two albums before this one. If you are at all familiar with Peter Hassalbrack, then you know what to expect: Crushing, old school, grimy death metal that maintains a FINE balance of trudge and speed. The first thing you will notice right away, however, is that the man has changed his vocal style from his forceful gutturals of the past to a more old-school rasp that really suits what’s going on here.
The album opens with the imperial trudging might of “Lies”, with a slam that’s got the heft of a mammoth. Peter here works THE EXACT SAME MELODY for two minutes, spinning variations of the riff and managing to keep it interesting the entire time. Really badass stuff.
Next is “Forever Damned”, which is an under-2-minute onslaught of blast beats and sharp tremolo riffing that hits with flesh-ripping ferocity. “Infestation” strikes with a furious blasting assault until it transitions into an ABSOLUTLEY DEVASTATING groove that should make you bust your head on the nearest hard surface. The verse of this song reminds me a lot of Human-era Death. A welcome influence to be heard. I like how the song switches between the mid-paced verse riff and the behemoth-sized slamming groove established at the beginning. Gives it a nice jarring feel, and LOTS of that technical blast-beat action cuts through your skull like a buzz-saw from hell itself. (more after the jump, including a full album stream . . .)Continue reading »
