(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. Continue reading »