The San Diego Slayer

In August 1988, authorities from Washington and San Diego issued an announcement that at least ten unsolved murders, logged since June of 1985, were "definitely" linked with other homicides committed near Seattle and Tacoma by the elusive "Green River Killer." One detective referred to the connection as "common knowledge," and some investigators placed the body-count a good deal higher. Lt. Bill Baxter, head of the San Diego Sheriff's Homicide Department, declared that at least ten - and no more than twelve women had been murdered by one man over the past three years. Detective Tom Streed, leading the investigation, was inclined to think the killer's death toll might have reached eighteen. Whatever their opinion, all concerned agreed upon ten victims in the case. The first to die had been 22-year-old Donna Gentile, last seen alive on June 22, 1985. Her naked, strangled body was recovered three days later, in the neighborhood of Mount Laguna, rocks and gravel packed inside her mouth and throat. The second victim was a young "Jane Doe," her body badly decomposed when hikers found it near a rural creek, head lodged beneath a tree limb, on July 22, 1986. Nearby, authorities found clothing and a wedding ring believed to be the victim's, but the evidence has not provided any clue to her identity. Theresa Brewer, 26 years old, was next to face the killer's wrath. Bound in a fetal position and "probably strangled," her body was found on August 3, 1986, identified three days later from a comparison of dental records . On April 23, 1987, a group of illegal immigrants discovered the nude, decomposing remains of Rosmarie Ritter, age 29. Despite a ruling of death due to methamphetamine poisoning , she is listed as one of the murderer's "definite" victims. Two months later, on June 22, 32-year-old Anna Varela was found in Pine Valley, by joggers who nearly stumbled over her naked, strangled corpse. Sally Moorman-Field, a 19-year-old prostitute and drug abuser, joined the list on September 20, 1987, stripped and strangled prior to her discovery by bicyclists. The cause of death was undetermined five days later, when the decomposed remains of Sara Gedalecia, a 36-year-old transient, were discovered at Alpine. Likewise, on October 19, the authorities could list no cause of death for 24-year-old Diana Moffitt, but dismemberment of her skeleton placed her on the victims list. Another "Jane Doe" victim, found at Rancho Bernardo on April 13, 1988, had been dead for a week when her body was discovered, the cause of death once again undetermined. Melissa Sandoval, a 20-year-old junkie prostitute, was last seen alive on May 21, climbing into the car of an unidentified "trick." Her strangled body was recovered eight days later, within thirty yards of the previous dump site at Rancho Bernardo. At this writing, police appear no closer to solution of the homicides in Washington or San Diego County. If their statements on a link between the crimes are accurate, the nomadic "Green River" killer may hold a new record for American serial murders, with a minimum toll of 56 known victims

(article from Oct. 8, 1988)

SAN DIEGO (AP) _ Wendy Lee Coffield's strangled body was found dumped in the Green River south of Seattle in 1982. This year, the scattered remains of Peri Suzette Farmer were found in rural San Diego County.

Some 1,700 miles and six years separates the slayings, but task forces in Washington and California are trying to determine whether an elusive murderer's path can be traced between them - a path marked by up to 56 other deaths and disappearances.

Coffield, 16, was the first victim linked to the so-called Green River serial killer, who is officially blamed for the murders of 40 women in Washington and Oregon.

On Sept. 27, a San Diego County Sheriff's Department spokesperson said the department had identified Farmer, 22, and that her death was being investigated by a 10-member task force formed to investigate the killings and any possible link to the Green River case.

Police blame the disappearances of eight others in Washington and Oregon on the same killer, who preyed mostly on prostitutes and transients until the slayings appeared to end in March 1984.

The San Diego task force is looking into the deaths of women, dating back to June 1985, whose bodies were dumped throughout the county and whose murders seem to fit the pattern of the Green River killings.

Lt. Bill Baxter, head of the San Diego Sheriff's Department homicide unit, has said up to a dozen cases may be related.

''It's a possibility,'' Baxter said this summer. ''I wouldn't say it's remote. But it hasn't risen to a conclusive statement that there's a linkage.''

''The lead detectives in this case believe the Green River killer is responsible for some of the killings in San Diego,'' a Green River Task Force detective told The San Diego Union newspaper in August.

San Diego sheriff's spokeswoman Sgt. Liz Foster said two men arrested in connection with attacks on prostitutes are being investigated.

No one contacted Saturday at either the sheriff's office or the police department knew about the status of the investigation.

Similarities exist among the cases:

-Most victims were strangled, had backgrounds in prostitution or drug use and were transients.

-Most of the Seattle victims were found near an area called Pacific Highway South, which is dotted with motels and bars popular with prostitutes. Most of the San Diego victims were found near or along El Cajon Boulevard, an area much like the Seattle strip.

-In Seattle, the killer dumped a number of his victims in wooded areas 30 to 40 miles from the city. In San Diego, many of the bodies were left on secondary roads within 75 miles of the city.

-The Green River series appears to have ended in 1984, after police began heavy enforcement efforts against men patronizing prostitutes. The San Diego series began in 1985.

Self-described streetwalkers on El Cajon Boulevard say they are aware of the killings.

''The police let us know how many girls are missing or if one is found,'' said one woman, who identified herself as Christy, 18, from Washington, D.C.

She said the police also have warned prostitutes to be careful of whom they solicit for business. ''The fear's there,'' she added.

In Seattle, it wasn't until two years after Coffield's body was found, and many killings later, that a task force was formed.

King County Police Capt. Bob Evans, head of the Green River Task Force, believes a more concerted effort in the beginning could have ended the Seattle spree.

''If we knew back in '82-'83 what we know now, then all of these killings wouldn't have happened,'' he said.

(article from the NY Times, Sept 22, 1990)

Five years after a serial killer, or killers, began attacking prostitutes and other young women here, the San Diego police are still searching for suspects and a special task force has begun investigating the investigation itself.

The killings began in June 1985 with the slaying of Donna Gentile, a 22-year-old prostitute whose battered body was found in a remote part of San Diego with small stones and gravel stuffed in her mouth. Since then there have been 42 other victims.

The investigation intensified this month after a grand jury report harshly criticized the police department's conduct in investigating a ring of high-priced call girls in 1987. Although the grand jury's investigation did not focus on the series of killings here, it raised several questions about police misconduct, concluding among other things that some San Diego officers had hired prostitutes.

As a result, officials have called in outside experts to help with the inquiry into the 43 deaths and into the actions of the police.

'We Want a Solution'

''Questions have been unanswered for much too long,'' Mayor Maureen O'Connor said in an interview. ''All of us, the Chief, City Manager and Council, are very frustrated. We want a solution.''

Although the grand jury could not find enough evidence to warrant criminal charges, its criticism of the police department has led to heightened scrutiny of the department and speculation that the conduct that tainted the call-girl operation may also have harmed the investigation into the killings.

''Something serious may be awry in the police department,'' The San Diego Union said in an editorial last month. ''But only a thorough investigation will confirm whether the suspicions are founded or are just sensational rumors.''

The expansion of the police task force brings in officials from the district attorney's office and the office of the State Attorney General. One unit of the enlarged force will look into the multiple deaths and the possibility that not one but several serial killers have been at work here.

Focus on First Victim

''There appears to be several groupings of cases, and that would lend itself to there being two or three or maybe four people doing a number of them,'' said Bonnie Dumanis, a deputy district attorney who is the task force spokeswoman.

A second unit will focus on the death of Miss Gentile, believed to have been a police informer who was also known to have been involved socially with police officers. Shortly before her death, she testified at Civil Service Commission hearings about her relationships with two police officers, one of whom was later dismissed and the other demoted.

Before she was killed, Miss Gentile gave her lawyer a videotape that spoke of her fears, saying, ''I feel someone in a uniform with a badge can still be a serious criminal.''

The lawyer, Doug Holbrook, told The Union, ''Two things bothered her: that a police officer might have somebody harm her,'' or that ''someone she might have turned in would get her.''

Stones Seen as a Signal

Local news reports have speculated that the stones and gravel found stuffed in her mouth could have been a signal that she was killed because she had spoken too much.

The third branch of the task force, headed by a deputy attorney general, will pursue allegations of police misconduct, including, in the words of the chief deputy district attorney, Brian Michaels, ''the possibility that one or more police officers might be involved in one or more of the murders.''

Ms. Dumanis said, ''Any policeman who had an association with a prostitute needs to be looked at.''

Movie Poster of the Week: Don't Go In The House (1979)

Movie Poster of the Week: Invasion of the Blood Farmers (1972)

Entombed - To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth (1997)

Not sure why everyone pisses and moans about this album all the while praising 'Wolverine Blues' as the be all end all of Entombed's death -n- roll turnover. Sure, I mean, if you didn't have a taste for this sort of thing to begin with, than I can totally understand, but I'm perplexed as to what the big difference is in both albums. For one, 'TRSSASTT' is the very last album by Entombed to feature the notorious "chainsaw" guitar sound that they themselves created so long ago under the Nihilist moniker. It also features the same style of balls out, death drenched classic rock that the band had introduced on the 'Hollowman' ep. Now if you're crying because Entombed abandoned the full on death metal sound of Left Hand Path and Clandestine, then sure, that makes plenty of sense, but to dance a festive jig and howl praises to the sky over Wolverine Blues, only to cop out like a limp dick over this album makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. WB and TRSSASTT are stylistically identical. Every ounce of beer soaked aggression that made Wolverine Blues such a behemoth to behold has been seamlessly carried over onto this album. Each song a one hitter quitter.

It's funny because Entombed does a better job at emulating  the classic rock of the 70's than most bands who dedicate themselves to wholly copycatting that style, originality be damned. The infamous 'Sunlight' sound coating each riff with a drunken rage that would make a berserker cringe in fear.

This album marks an end to an era. Obviously, the album after this is where it all began to unravel for the band as apparently, the band were transfixed by the sounds of Creed and Candlebox and felt the need to give their own take on that style of music. Of course we've all the praises of how the band "returned to their roots" starting with 'Uprising' and culminating with 'Morning Star', but to me that's a huge pile of misinformed bullshit. Entombed have never recovered, despite the fact that I actually don't mind, and to some extent even enjoy some of the albums they've released since TRSSASTT, but the fact of the matter is that their death metal days vanished after the release of Clandestine and the mighty 'Skogsberg/Kuzner' sound was cast aside for good after the release of this album. Bottom line.

Do yourself a favor and pick this up and give it an honest shot. Fuck the naysayers. This is a full on Entombed album in the classic sense and they haven't sounded this damn good since.

Pig Destroyer - Prowler in the Yard (2001)

This was the first time I ever thought to myself, "holy shit, this sounds like Slayer". Obviously Pig Destroyer do not really "sound" like Slayer, but there are definitely, without an ioda of a doubt, moments throughout this album where the guitar riffs conjure the same feeling I had decades ago when I first heard Reign in Blood. No shit. I understand that most people, including the band themselves, equate Pig Destroyer's music with grindcore, and that's all well and good. I get the estimate, but, dare I say that if you were to weed away much of the blasting here you'd have a straight up thrash metal album.

The vocals took some getting used to as I'm not particularly fond of the screaming bitch variety. After a while I chose to ignore them as best as I could as I was compelled to see my way through the labyrinthine onslaught of riffs, blasts and drum rolls. There are singular moments where the vocalist emits a rather triumphant sounding roar and I thought, "well hey now". Unfortunately, though, this is one of those guys who is generally compelled to scream over just about every conceivable rhythmic fluctuation from start to finish, thus making the enjoyment of the positive aspects of this album a chore to accomplish.

The drummer is a joy beyond measure as I can actually hear him fucking up from time to time! Imagine that. Not since Sepultura's 'Morbid Visions' have I heard a drummer skip a beat or throw in the unintentional triplet whilst galloping along in a frenzy. That's not to say that this guy sucks because, frankly, I was blown away with the lot of his accomplishments on this album. The fact that he fucks up ever so slightly now and again makes it seem as though the band recorded this album in one take, lending it a sort of "live" quality. Believe me, this is a grand endeavor in comparison to the clinical and robotic approach most death and grind bands generally favor these days.

I know that these days, over a decade after this album was released, it's sort of the "in" thing now amongst wannabe "old school death metallers" to diss and shit all over Pig Destroyer. I'm not sure how much of it has to do with the fact that the band themselves look like a squadron of chumps, but I assure you, there is a huge difference between them and your typical "core" band. As I said earlier, take away the blasts and what you have here is a bonafide thrash band, one who has a better grasp of things than most of the fags that have been emulating that style for the last few years.

Cathedral - Endtyme (2001)

While certainly no "return" to the days when LD and the gang wandered aimlessly through the Forest of Equilibrium, Endtyme is actually a pretty decent album in its own right.

Once I got over the fact that, no, this is not going to be a return to the band's original incarnation, I had actually begun to enjoy the album for what it's worth. A large quantity of this album is as Sabbath soaked as the band has ever sounded before or after, hell, even more so. A lot of folks had made mention at the time of how heavy this album was and how it reminded them of FOE. I don't see the FOE comparison whatsoever, but the guitar tone on this album is probably the heaviest it's been since The Ethereal Mirror, which, despite the goof and the glam, was actually heavy in it's own right. The production is a Billy Anderson job, who I'm not terribly fond of. I don't mind an edge in regards to rawness but a little too much can sound just as contrived as any one of these mindlessly overproduced, assembly wrought monstrosities of the past decade or so. I will say, that well after the first chords are struck, my displeasure begins to fade and all that is left is the music itself.

Dorrian sounds a wee bit more "restrained" than usual, which is a good thing as I'm not particularly fond of his mad rantings on previous albums. The one flaw I've noticed throughout the duration of this album is that Gary Jennings seems to have forgotten many of the subtle tricks and nuances that made Forest of Equilibrium such an enduring treasure to behold. Many of the slower sections on this album sound like some sort of bootleg Cathedral fumbling around in a dark room. While I never thought I'd say this about an alleged "doom" band, I find the more "rockin'" and upbeat material on this album to be where it's at. Credit is surely given to the band for at least attempting to, once again slow things down a bit, but at this point in the game ,  I'm fairly convinced that the band is way out of touch with and rather indifferent to their 1991 state of mind.

Desolate - Sanity Obliterated (2012)

Absolutely devastating death metal from New England!

Desolate were one of many burgeoning death metal bands from the New England area during the early 90's. They went on to release two demos for Wild Rags and then up and disappeared. Two members went on to form the equally crushing Warhorse (Ma) while drummer Eric Roy continued to sonically devastate senses with fellow Massachusetts terrorists, Scattered Remnants.

Sanity Obliterated is a compilation featuring the band's two demos and two unreleased tracks that were originally intended to be released as part of a split ep with Delusion (Ma).

If you didn't know any better, the material here could easily be mistaken for some overlooked band from Sweden during that country's early 90's heyday. The guitar sound here is absolutely crushing and there are plenty of slowed down, doomy sections to paint a wintry atmosphere all around you as your jaw drops and you begin to drool at just how awe-inspiring the heaviness of this band actually is. The demo material sounds just as heavy now as it did almost 20 years ago and the two remaining tracks make me salivate at the thought of what could have been had the band remained and continued to dish out death/doom of this quality. There's no doubt in my mind that if Desolate were around today they'd be giving the likes of Disma, Incantation and others of their ilk a serious run for their pesos.

It's a damn fucking shame that Desolate remain as obscure as they ever were. I'd put any one of their demos up against the lot of the OSDM craze that is currently keeping the masses enthralled within its reign of retardation. Instead of searching out the latest band of merry dolts emulating the icons of the past, you should be unearthing this forgotten masterpiece and allowing it to smash your head wide open.

Krisiun - Conquerors of Armageddon (2000)

Absolutely fucking boring shit right here, folks. People rave about "how fast" this band is. Huh??!! Aside from the fact that the drummer can't really do anything beyond "attempt" a blast beat, his shit really isn't even that fast. His approach is the musical equivalent of one of those tiny little piece of shit spic dogs furiously trying to hump the leg of an elephant. The shit just don't work. This guy makes the clown from Cannibal Corpse sound like a fucking maestro.

Then we have the absolutely lame fucking guitar riffs coupled with what some consider to be decent leads. Decent, until you realize that the dude is doing the same shit on every song. Leads, riffs, everything, the same shit. I can't believe these guys have somehow managed to release the same exact album over and over again throughout the years and still remain signed to Century Media. Someone is asleep at the fucking wheel over at the CM camp.

The vocals are "ok", somewhat reminding me of Deicide sans the demonic midget perched on Glen Benton's shoulder, screaming at everyone.

The funniest thing about this album is that it was produced by none other than Erik Rutan, whose own band consistently sounds like shit with each release, whereas the production here is the only redeeming value to be found. I can't say that I understand exactly how the fuck that works out, but whatever. I couldn't give a fuck less about either band.

This band is Lame (notice the capital 'L'). Sure, I've heard worse, but that doesn't mean that these guys are all of a sudden cool as a result.

Incantation - Diabolical Conquest (1998)

Musically, this is right on par with the band's material leading up until this point. There is a lot of diversity in regards to tempo shifts and picking technique, be it of the galloping variety, "blackened" tremolo style or just plain all out doomy dirge-fests. This album never gets boring in that sense. There is a healthy quantity of everything here to dig in and enjoy. My main (and in all likelihood, only) problem with this album is the vocals of Daniel Corchado. I understand well enough that there are plenty of folks out there who prefer the faggy rasp of black metal style vocals and so upon hearing this album were tickled pink that Incantation chose to go this route. I also noticed that there are a lot of vocal nods to the gay pirate of Autopsy himself, Chris Reifert, on this album. Being that I never enjoyed that dude's vocal style, I was perplexed and rather mortified upon hearing the sounds being gushed fourth from out of Danny C's cephalic cunt hole. I kept wondering to myself "what the fuck were they thinking??!!"

It's really a fucking shame as I could only imagine how awesome this album would've been had Pillard or some similar sounding entity handled the mic. Instead, some beaner with a wretched fag rasp proceeded to shit all over an otherwise decent sounding album. Great job Incant.

Incantation - The Forsaken Mourning of Angelic Anguish (1997)

This is pretty much the last Incantation release that I truly give a fuck about. Sure, 'Diabolical Conquest' had some decent tunes (though why the band chose to replace the low end ungodliness of Pillard with Danny Corchado's throat-fucked rasp is way the fuck beyond me) and I'll even go as far to say that 'Blasphemy' is something of an underrated classic, but this was the last time I felt that Incantation was flat out perfecto-fucking-mundo. Some of the band's most evil sounding shit to date is right here, buckaroo. Forget all the shit that ol' Johnny Mac & Cheese himself has been vocalizing over, this is the band's pinnacle achievement right here. Sure, it's only an 'ep', but I'll put this release up against anything the band has shat fourth since!

Surprisingly enough, TFMOAA showcases what is easily Craig Pillard's weakest vocal performance to date. Don't get me wrong, they're not outright faggy sounding by any stretch and I'll take Craig on a bad day over most others, but they do sound ever so slightly tired and uninspired.

TFMOAA marked the first recording to feature now longtime Incant skin master, Kyle Severn, and almost solely for his performance on this ep alone do I rank him as one of my top 5 all time favorite drummers.

John McEntee's riffary here is among his best and the production of Bill Korecky is spot fucking on, bringing out the band's true essence and flawless knack for conjuring fourth negative vibes.

The only real complaint I have here is the inclusion of the ultra-lame cover of Death's 'Scream Bloody Gore'. As much as I prefer Pillard's cavernous style over Chucks's, it's just downright fucking miserable to endure his rendition of this death metal classic. The end result, while not horrible in any significant way, just sounds rather gratuitous and beat and I would have much rather have had the band opt to include another original.

Again, while I do like Diabolical Conquest and Blasphemy, for me, this is the last of the truly essential Incantation releases.

Mortician - Mortal Massacre (1991)

I've always found it to be painfully tragic that the intros on any one Mortician release are usually, at the very least, double the length of the song itself. Of course, it doesn't help that the band persists on stuffing every last bit of useless dialogue into the equation rather than singling out and focusing on the "punchline" and then... ZAP! Instead, you're "treated" to having endure 5 casual minutes of breathing, footsteps, screaming, bad
acting and a wide array of sound effects until, finally, the band belts out a cool 52 second track for your listening displeasure.

Actually, aside from the endless amount of gratuitous intros, I quite like Mortician, though I've learned through the years that I can only tolerate them in extremely small doses, which is probably why I tend to favor their ep's over their full length endeavors, not to mention that the band's stronger material has almost predictably been released in 7" format. It seems like the band tends to drop the ball when coming up with an albums worth of material. That's not to say that there aren't prized gems to be found on any one of their LP's, but there usually tends to be a great deal of monotony as well, despite the speedy pace.

The fact that Mortician has been employing the services of a drum machine for the last 20 years hasn't bothered me in the slightest bit (though the band did have an actual drummer within their ranks on this 'ep' as well as their earlier material). I'm also not one of those people who cries and makes a big deal about bands who use triggers. There are far worse offenses committed in the metal world. The number one draw for me when it comes to Mortician is the band's ridiculously heavy sound. I remember thinking how much of an improvement 'Mortal Massacre' was over the 'Brutally Mutilated' ep, not to mention the fact that Will Rahmer's vocals took a turn for the ungodly the second time around.

Where Mortician truly succeeds is when they drop the tempo and proceed to slowly chug your ass to death. I mean, seriously, when you have a guitar sound that fucking heavy, you owe it to the listener to pummel them into a hot red sticky mush with a generous assault of down picked mutes embellished by an inhumanly low and ghoulish vocal croak that lasts the duration.

I believe Mortician would be taken a bit more seriously if they would cut out 3/4's of the intro's and perhaps weed out a bit of their weaker fare. When it comes to heaviness and primal brutality, I'd much rather listen to Mortician than any one of the 90,000,00 'D' bands that hail from Texas and California, but unfortunately, when I am actually in the mood for this style of music, I don't want to sit through 5-10 minutes of some low budget intro to finally get the ball rolling. It's like watching a program on one of those channels that persist on shoving a commercial down your throat every 5 minutes.

Movie Poster of the Week: Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Incantation - Vanquish in Vengeance (2012)

Let's get this out of the way right off the bat... Incantation, by and large, have been dead to me pretty much since good ol' Johnny Mac & Cheese decided to handle mic duties. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with being unable to competently handle two things at once, but I noticed that once JM decided to become Incant's "official" MC, the goings-on within the riff department became decidedly generic, not to mention that, despite the universal praise ol' chappy has received for a job well done, to mine ears (and apparently mine alone) Johnny boy's vocals sound laughably inept and rather painful to endure, and whereas the "low-ended" growls sound like some pussy chumpskate attempting to mimic his betters, the occasional high-end rasps that ol' Mac & Cheese emits from time to time are truly and absolutely embarrassing to behold. Normally I would laugh my ass off at such an atrociously lame attempt at death metal vocals, but because Incantation was at one point a band that I held in the highest regard, all I can do is cringe in horror.

With that aside, let us proceed onward...

Musically, this isn't bad. There are are some genuinely "evil" riffs scattered throughout and it's good to see that John & co. still comprehend the art of tempo changes and structure overall. There is a wealth of slow material on here ranging from mid-paced battery to all out doom, all the while dishing out plenty of skank and blast beats for those in the audience who suffer from ADD. The production is "ok". I would much rather have heard the band revisit the cavernous rumblings of their glory days, but apparently as gray hair and receding hair lines come to claim their own, they also take with them the weight of one's sound. Fuck it. Since Incant's pretty much employed this limp-wristed technique for over a decade now, I know better than to hold my breath. Long gone is the gargantuan and monolithic sound of albums such as 'Onward to Golgotha' and 'Mortal Throne of Nazarene'.

Of course, for all the "decent" shit that pops up on this album, there are still plenty of riffs that sound like they were written by a two year old with Down's Syndrome. The kind of remedial shit that someone comes up with during their first week of playing guitar. Allen West would be proud. Believe me, I understand that not everything has to fly by at mach 10, in fact, I have hardly a semblance of tolerance for mindless technicality, but come the fuck on, try and at least be interesting.

Already the masses are gathering to masturbate Johnny and the boys for yet another "bullseye" performance, and I'm sure anyone who happens to stumble upon this review will end up with their hiney in an uproar as a result. Oh fucking well. As I mentioned earlier, Incant's pretty much been a dead issue since after the release of their wildly underrated 'Blasphemy' LP. This certainly isn't the weakest or the worst of their releases, but it is a far cry from the shit that they were spewing out during the glory years. Oh well, I'm sure all of the trendy "OSDM Facebook hipsters" will be jumping for joy when this is released next week (given that they haven't already downloaded the shit out of it by then).

Encoffination - O'Hell, Shine in Thy Whited Sepulchres (2011)

Of the 9,000,000 bands that are tucked within the stinking and rotted crevice that lies betwixt Incantation's grizzled nutsack and tampered with arse, Encoffination are probably the band that comes the closest to capturing the essence of Incant's earlier material. With the low, mountainous yet almost whispery vocal rumblings, the veritable minefield of pinch harmonics and the mandatory cavernous gloom conjured fourth by the guitars, Encoffination certainly have the right idea. The problem is that things tend to meander a bit, and I don't mean that they simply "chill on the E", but there are wide chasms of uninteresting moments, despite the band possessing the necessary tools to chisel out a monolith to end them all. Somehow, Encoffination come up short in the long run.

This is not to say that Encoffination are a lost cause as the band does manage to get a lot right despite their flaws. The tuning and guitar sound overall is impeccable. This is the kind of shit you'd imagine accompanying your thoughts as you cross the River Styx on your way to Medusa's isle. The key phrase here is 'cavernous-fucking-gloom' folks, and Encoffination has quite the impressive grasp on this concept. There are plentiful amounts of crawling doom riffs, drudged through the depths of the river of death and vocalist Justin Stubbs emits a spectral croak to rival those of Craig Pillard and Will Rahmer combined. Again, the problem with Encoffination is that the "miss" moments unfortunately outweigh the hits and I ultimately find myself reaching for something less yawn inducing.

It's actually all a bit disheartening to me as "death/doom" is a style of music very dear to my heart, yet so few truly grasp it's essence. It's obvious that Encoffination do, in fact, have a thorough understanding of what it is that they've involved themselves in. If these guys would take a moment before releasing 52 ep's, 7"s, full length albums and what have you, and actually spent a moment "crafting" instead of mindlessly releasing shit for the sake of being prolific, I'm sure the band could come up with something worthwhile, and I mean that sincerely as I can plainly see that they are in possession of all the proper ingredients. Only time will tell.

Napalm Death - Fear, Emptiness, Despair (1994)

I know all the blast fags of the world had their hineys in an uproar when this came out, but being that I've, for the most part, considered blast beating to be an endeavor enjoyed and obsessed over by the retarded, it didn't bother me much that ND ever so slightly toned the pace this time around. I've always been in search of heavier shit and there was plenty to be found here.

I can only assume that after 4 albums that featured an incessant amount of blast beating, ND decided it was time to explore other avenues of extremity wrought by a slower pace. Fine by me. Fear, Emptiness, Despair features quite a few of what I consider to be ND's best songs including 'Hung', 'State of Emergency' and 'Armageddon X 7'.

The guitar team of Jesse Pintado and Mitch Harris has always been one of my favorites as they were never dry on ideas and always managed to come up with some of the more kookier riffage in death metal. I can say with confidence that FED is the pinnacle of the duo's bizzaro ideas. There's even an ever so slight industrial feel throughout the aural festivities on display which serves to add yet another layer of heaviness atop an already colossal piece of work. The greater portion of this album is on the slower to mid-paced side of the fence with an occasional blast thrown in to accentuate certain riffs and arrangements. Barney sounds particularly bestial on this album as he bellows and shouts in an almost off key approach, a style that he had begun to employ on 'Utopia Banished'.

If I had to say, the weakest link here would be drummer Danny Herrera, who, while certainly not doing a horrible job by any means, just doesn't really do anything terribly interesting. Mick Harris he is not, and I'm also not a big fan of the drum sound on this record. Aside from from that minor gripe, this is probably the last "extreme" album the band released until their much heralded "return to form", although for my money, 'Inside the Torn Apart' could have easily passed as the sequel to this album as the two have much in common. They're both innovative, somewhat progressive and industrial tinged but without sacrificing any of the intensity the band had initially based their career around.

This is definitely more death metal than grind, a fact made obvious by the scarce use of blast beats, though it could be reasonably argued that the ND officially became a death metal band with the release of 1990's 'Harmony Corruption'. I for one embraced the band's crossover as I was beginning to get bored by their earlier approach. Sure, 'Scum' knocked my socks off like everyone else at the time of its release and 'From Enslavement to Obliteration' was basically a tighter version of that album, but after the initial shock began to wear off, I had quickly grew tired of the constant blasting/haggard vocal approach and was pleasantly blown away when I heard what the new line-up had to offer. It would be nice to see ND revisit the style that they had begun to mine on this album, but then again, they'd probably manage to somehow drop the ball as most bands do when they try and recapture their glory days. I have to give mention to Meathook Seed's 'Embedded' album as that was a side project of Napalm guitarist Mick Harris and it is very similar in sound what with the bizarre rhythmic tendencies and industrial flavor.

Oldboy (2003)

I usually don’t agree with “best movie” lists but any list that features Park Chan-wook I will pay attention to. Oldboy is one of the few movies that is actually deserving of its hype.

Oldboy is the second part of what is known as the “Vengeance Trilogy” (featuring Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) and is probably the best known of the three films and probably the best known Park film in general. It tells the story of Oh Dae-Su, a man who has been released after being imprisoned for 15 years (in what looks like a hotel room) without knowing why. He encounters a young lady at a seafood restaurant and together they try to uncover who Dae-Su’s captors are and the reason behind his imprisonment.

The beauty of Oldboy is in Park’s camerawork and in Choi Min-sik’s portrayal of Oh Dae-su, a sympathetic and flawed man trying to work his way out of a dark and confusing situation. The fight scene in the hallway is a truly remarkable piece of cinema, being filmed in one take and with Choi really putting himself out there physically. Yu Ji-tae also does an excellent job of playing the sadistic and baby-faced villain Woo-jin.

The characters are fully fleshed out, the cinematography gorgeous, and the soundtrack a beautiful mix of soft classical themes. While this may not be my favorite of Park’s films (Lady Vengeance holds that spot), Oldboy is a beautiful and worthy film that should be viewed by anyone who wants to see how a well-made movie is done.

Napalm Death - Words from the Exit Wound (1998)

Not quite sure what the fuck ND were thinking on this one. They had just begun to recover from the commercial misstep of Diatribes with '97's overlooked gem, Inside the Torn Apart, and then for some reason  said "fuck it" and decided to venture into left field with this release. As bizarre an entity as this release was (and is), it's not even really that much of an oddity in terms of experimentation, although the band had begun to infuse into its aural arsenal such a sterile tone that it makes me wonder if they were all high on rubber cement during the recording of this album.

In a way, this album is sort of the antithesis of Diatribes. While that album was an obvious attempt to commercialize the band's sound with a more compressed accessibility, this album is more "out there" and even, dare I say, "progressive" sounding at times. While this is not a bad thing, ND largely manages to fumble the ball, and this is in no small part due to the sterility of the guitar sound and production overall. Even the riffing sounds uninspired here, which is really saying something considering that even on their more commercial sounding efforts, the ND writing squad has always had a knack for creativity.

Personally, I wasn't bowled over by the band's alleged "return to form" starting with 2000's 'Enemy of the Music Business', mainly because of the oddly sterile guitar sound that the band had carried over with them from this release. Throwing more blasts over that shitty sound and halfhearted riff gymnastics did little to convince me that the band were indeed back on track.

I definitely do not see this album as being some kind of attempt at selling out. For all intents and purposes, the aggression is still there even though this is a far cry from what the band was doing on 'Utopia Banished' and even farther than the Dorrian/Steer era.

This album also marks the last time the band would use that horrendously gay "mid-era" logo that they had begun sporting back in '94.

Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine - Rampton (2002)

After all of the "super sonic martian disco" bullshit that Cathedral has dribbled fourth like an unceremonious bout of diarrhea over the past 20 or so years, it's absolutely mindblowing to me that Lee Dorrian still has what it takes to lay down some monumentally devastating doom such as he had with this album.

Bear in mind that one of these tracks is one of those Sunno)))-esque mindless drone fests that bore me to fucking insanity. Although not as agonizingly sparse, it may or may not begin to wear thin on your nerves depending on your endurance level. The other two, however, are prime cuts of some of the most bone crushingly crepitus doom I've had the pleasure to experience. Dorrian sounds deliciously vile here in a way that he hasn't since Cathedral's ungodly debut, 1991's 'Forest of Equilibrium'. The music here is similarly paced but the flesh of this particular behemoth is suitably more rotted and decayed.

When he's not noodling around with a million pseudo-intellectual drone/ambient/noise fart fests, Stephen O'Malley can actually come up with some thunderous doom for your ass as he has previously done in Thorr's Hammer and Burning Witch. In many ways, TOLRTD is sort of the logical continuation down the path blazed by the aforementioned duo. I know that some websites persist on labeling TOLRTD everything from 'drone' to 'stoner', but for me, this album has more in common with the death/doom genre if anything.

The drum patterns are kept interesting by Iron Monkey/Electric Wizard kit-master, Justin Greaves. One of the main problems with most doom bands is that the percussive dynamics are usually kept to a bare minimum, which is something that has never sat well with me. I've found that some of the more busier drummers out there have done little to nothing in hindering the overall power and dread atmosphere created by the guitars and other instruments. Evoken is a prime example of this. Despite this minimalism of the material found here, Greaves keeps the tempo interesting, which keeps some of the more droning material on this album from becoming a total endurance test.

I'm not sure what exactly the status of TOLRTD is or whether or not they are even a legitimate band beyond this particular album, but I would be thrilled beyond capacity if they were to usher fourth any more material as this is the kind of doom that I enjoy most, not to mention the fact that this is the best that Lee Dorrian has sounded since 1991.

Vio-Lence - Oppressing the Masses (1990)

Yet another decent thrash band from the 80's that managed to curiously employ the services of a castrated alley cat, incessantly whining into the mic whilst engaging in tough guy hand movements and the like.

I swear, the 80's were a weird fucking time. If I had 1/2 a cent for each band that exceeded the rest in terms of guitar work and drumming yet for some ungodly and unknown reason insisted upon shuffling out some  laughably horrendous vocalist out to the mic, I'd be swimming in a veritable sea of Twinkies and pineapple soda from here until the end of time.

I'll never forget the first time I heard the band's debut, 'Eternal Nightmare' sometime back in the late 80's. I remember thinking, "ok, the music's decent enough" and then the vocals began to emerge, and I couldn't help but think to myself that this was some sort of joke. I know that thrash has been enjoying a good deal of renewed interest as of late and I'm well aware that many of these folks fondly regard vocals such as these as being part of some sort of brilliant endeavor, well, did I mention that I'm also privy to the solid fact that the world is alarmingly populated with dumbfucks and dipsticks?

Oppressing the Masses is one of those unfortunate albums in the sense that, musically, the album fucking rocks. There's certainly no shortage of bad ass riffery or pattern arrangements to behold, but once those absurdly goofy vocals kick in, all else is tainted and instantly dumbed down as a result. This was one of the reasons why I could never truly get into Exodus' Bonded By Blood. Sure, over time I've actually been able to accept and even enjoy Paul Baloff's absolutely maniacal approach, but this guy here does not come across as threatening in the least bit and result is an annoying distraction that takes away from everything else.

In terms of riffage, I'd put this up against Metallica, Dark Angel and Overkill ANY day of the week. They may or may not come out on top but they're certainly capable of standing alongside any of those bands and holding their own. The production here by Alex Perialas is very similar, if not identical to that of Terry Date, giving the guitars that sheen that brought out the best in albums like 'Time Does Not Heal' and 'The Years of Decay'. Again, I can only wish that the band had employed the services of a more capable and menacing sounding vocalist instead of this goofball, but unfortunately they did not, so as a result, Vio-Lence is not a band that gets much play around these premises.

Diagonal - The Second Mechanism (2012)

Absolutely fucking phenomenal! This time around Diagonal delves even further into the progressive realm that they had unearthed on their 2008 self titled debut. The overall sound here is very organic without being overtly so. Each rhythmic corridor whilst wonderfully anfractuous, never loses sight of itself or its intent.

The album is devoid of a goodly sum of the vocals that made their appearance on the first album, which is fine by me. I'm actually glad that the band opted to venture down this path as I am more interested in what is going on musically and where each instrument is going to take me. I'm tempted to believe that having a great deal of vocals liberally peppered throughout would only hinder the band in the long run. Having said that, I did like the dustiness of the vocals on the first album and felt that the band did a stellar job, on all fronts,  transporting the listener 30 or 40 years back in time. This is a feat Diagonal has managed to pull off yet again with The Second Mechanism.

The great thing about many of these sort of modern progressive/neo-classic rock bands is that they have a whole history of great music to work from and that includes the ability to avoid stepping into certain piles of shit that many of their great predecessors had previously not seen before and all around them. Many of these bands, such as Elephant9, Fire! and of course Diagonal, are not fucking around and have instead gotten right down to the business of painting aural landscapes for the mind to explore sans the overindulgent tendencies of their musical forefathers. Diagonal have once again outdone themselves and my only fear is that we will have to wait another 4 years until their next phase of brilliance has revealed itself.

Begotten (1990)

Begotten is one of those movies that has been spoken of in some form or another for the past twenty years and with good reason. If David Lynch films like “Eraserhead” are hard to explain, then Begotten is damn near impossible. There’s an explanation offered on the video box, going on and on about how the movie is actually a veiled re-enactment of three biblical stories “creation, the Nativity and Jesus’ torture and death at Golgotha”. Whether or not that’s what you end seeing is up to the viewer.

Begotten is every arthouse film student’s wet dream. It’s a visual experience where the story is not only inconsequential but almost, not even there. What you see is a human-like thing bleeding and dying on a chair, a woman rises from behind, impregnates herself with the human/god-like thing’s semen, gives birth to a quivering adult-child thing that looks like it’s having an hour long seizure. These dwarf/druid things are all up in their business and things happen. While that is the gist of what is going on in terms of story, the visuals are much more visceral and … I hate to be corny but they are literally entrancing. (For me) watching this highly grainy, highly contrasted black and white movie was like being in  trance, where any and all commentary was completely unnecessary and moving my eyes from the screen was not an option or a thought.

This movie is not for everyone. It is truly an “either love it or hate it” experience. If you’re fine with movies that don’t need a plot but tell a story solely through it’s imagery, if you’re cool with silent movies (except for a low droning slightly staticky sound) then this might be the movie for you. If what I just described seems incredibly stupid and pretentious, stay far away.

Voivod - Phobos (1997)

Although I do not mind and actually rather like 'Angel Rat' and 'The Outer Limits', it's the two albums that succeed the aforementioned duo that really catch my interest.

I truly find it to be a crying shame that the E-Force era is largely panned and ignored as with the absence of vocalist, Snake, a large quantity of fans abandoned ship, and that's not counting those who turned their backs on the band after the divisive 'Angel Rat'. If anything, 'Negatron' and 'Phobos' are without a doubt, a return to the bands past aggression, albeit a bit tempered and controlled as opposed to the rustier sound and approach of the band's punk/thrash beginnings.

'Phobos' is undoubtedly the superior of the two Eric Forrest releases, though that's not to say that 'Negatron' is lacking in any way. I just find the darker, spacier grooves of the latter to be more appealing. Vocally, Eric was a perfect fit as he could effortlessly shift from Snake's earlier aggression to the rhythmic crooning of Voivod's space/thrash era. Of course that's not to say that he does not have an identity of his own, but it does make it a little less painful of a pill to swallow in terms of changing vocalists. It is also a testament of E-Force's diversity and mastery of the mic.

Musically, the band hadn't sounded this "spaced out" since 88's 'Dimension Hatross', as even 'Nothingface' was primarily a more stripped down version of the former. here, the spacey dimensions take on a darker hue, perhaps darker than the band has ever dared to conjure fourth, before or after, and it works brilliantly. In my opinion, this is the most experimental Voivod has ever dared to be throughout their entire career, all the while retaining every last bit of their integrity.

I have to say, although I absolutely love and adore both 'Dimension Hatross' and 'Nothingface', though it's difficult to say for sure, in all probablity this is my favorite Voivod album.

Hollywood Kills (2006)

More people need to learn that low-budget and independent does not have to mean low-quality. In particular, the makers of “Hollywood Kills” really should have paid attention in class on the day that lesson was taught.

“Hollywood Kills” follows four reasonably useless and not particularly likeable young adults as they go party and “audition” at the home of a once-famous director. He takes a liking to one of the girls so instead of letting her loose in his “studio of horrors” filled with big bad guys and semi-traps, he keeps her locked up in the control room and broadcasts his deep and personal conversations with her over a loudspeaker over the loudspeaker so her brother (one of the four schmucks) can listen in.

Considering how shitty this movie is in every respect, I’m assuming that the only reason it was greenlit was so it could hopefully cash in on some of the “torture porn” craze of the mid 2000s. But it fails even in that regard. There’s some rape, some blood, some gore, but the effects are truly awful, the acting would be forgettable if it weren’t so terrible, and everything about it is just really bad. The only barely decent scene is they eyeball needle torture, but even that ends up looking seriously hoaky.

SubRosa - No Help for the Mighty Ones (2011)

The majority of this album is absolutely fucking amazing! There are songs that I am helplessly compelled to listen to over and over and over again. Trust me, I'm not able to do that very often these days, even with the shit that I do enjoy. Unfortunately, there are a few songs that suffer from tremendously boring riffs, which make it all the more frustrating as I cannot just simply put this album on and let it ride straight through.

The guitar sound is definitely of the "stoner" variety, though probably the heaviest you'll find in that genre. The riffs themselves are more along the lines of mid-era Neurosis, although the band's insistence with revisiting the stoner vibe of the guitar sound itself emerges from time to time and that is where the problem lies. There is way too much potential here in other areas that I find the attempts at fitting in with the stoner crowd to be half-hearted and rather lame. I wish that they would focus on the more bizarre tendencies of songs such as 'Borrowed Time, Borrowed Eyes' or 'Beneath the Crown' rather than dumbing themselves down by timidly emulating the "tried and true" stoner formula. Believe me, there is NO fucking shortage in that genre and the potential that SubRosa has here is too precious and far too unique to be dwindled away in an attempt at being properly categorized.

Obviously the big lure here is the triple (!!) violin assault coupled with the vocals of Sarah Pendleton and Rebecca Vernon which all lend an ethereal yet completely bizarre and abstract quality to the music. I see a vast array of exciting possibilities for this band so long as they continue down their own path and ignore the mindless trappings along the way.

Napalm Death - Diatribes (1996)

This was the first notable chink in ND's armor. While many folks decried the experimentation and somewhat slower pace of 'Fear, Emptiness, Despair', I felt that that album was a great and logical step in the right direction for the band. Unfortunately, ND took and ran with some of the "softer" elements of that album and the end result was 1996's 'Diatribes'.

This was an easily identifiable attempt at commercializing their sound with the emphasis for accessibility glaringly transparent. Had these songs actually cracked the Billboard charts and made an appearance on national radio, television, etc, I would have been happy for the band, regardless of my preference for the band's older material. Unfortunately, this was far from the case and the album itself is just far too soft and poppy sounding (regardless of Barney's roaring croak) to be consistent with persistent spins on ye ol' turntable. 

If one thing can be said about ND's brazen attempt at "fitting in", it's that the band certainly proved that they had indeed possessed a knack for writing a catchy tune (although, one could argue that 'Harmony Corruption' had no shortage of snappy odes, albeit a bit more abrasive and maniacally paced than the material found here). I would say that, in terms of straightforwardness and accessibility, ND were closer to the mark than Carcass were on their final outing.

Ultimately, this album comes across as a brief hiccup in ND's career until the infinitely superior 'Inside the Torn Apart' came around the following year. Interestingly, ND would again delve into a period of lackluster songwriting and laughable attempts at sounding aggressive with 1998's 'Words From the Exit Wound'. One could surmise that 97's 'ITTA' should have been the album to succeed 'Fear, Emptiness, Despair', while 'Diatribes' and 'WFTEW' are a bit more properly aligned with one another. Whatever the case, while there have undoubtedly been far worse attempts at selling out, 'Diatribes' is an album that I certainly could have done without and seldom have the desire to revisit.

Movie Poster of the Week: Last House on the Left (1972)

Litmus - Slaughterbahn (2012)

Not quite sure how I feel about this one. Previous albums by Litmus have been extraordinary examples of the possibilities of modern space rock/prog, though Litmus, I think it's fair to say, falls more under the "rock" category than prog as there has never been anything tremendously challenging going on in regards to instrumentation. "Space" rock, however, is something that Litmus more than exceeds at, which is why I'm somewhat at a loss here as the band has largely stripped down the more cosmic elements of their sound in favor of a more straightforward approach, and while I won't say that it's bad, I do not find it to be terribly intriguing either. I suppose after three stellar exercises in intergalactic expertise, Litmus decided to leave the sci-fi insanity behind this time and I'm not too sure that they benefited from the decision to do so.

This is definitely not a bad album, by any means, as the band prove that they can pen a decent tune sans the gimmickry that they're essentially known for. Unfortunately for me, the studio trickery of their previous output is precisely why I bought a ticket for the ride in the first place and I'm wondering if I would've been better off just walking on by as the whole affair, ultimately comes across as a bit pedestrian.