Movie Poster of the Week: Escape from New York (1981)

Hyponic - Black Sun (2001)

The debut of China's Hyponic, 'Black Sun', is a bit more death metal than its successor, 'The Noise of Time'. If I didn't know any better I would've sworn these guys were from New Jersey as their music sounds uncannily similar to early Incantation, Symphony of Grief, Solemn and others from that area. Suffice to say that this is some supremely evil sounding shit!

As I mentioned above, this album is definitely a bit more on the DM side of the fence but fear not, there is plenty of doom to go around as well, but do not expect the droned out Esoteric worship found on Hyponic's sophomore LP.

Vocally, this is some putrid shit, right up there alongside Craig Pillard and Mark Mastro (Rottrevore). There is a righteously evil vibe that emanates from each guitar riff and though the pace is decidedly faster than what the band would go on later to produce, things never get too fast, meaning that the rotten vibe of this album is never trampled over by mindless blast beating. Thank Yog-Sothoth for that!

Unfortunately, these guys are supremely sluggish at releasing material as evidenced by the fact that their last album came out in 2005!! And even then, that was four fucking years after this album! Apparently they are still around as they have a Facebook page (which you can visit here) that they seem to update every so often, but as far as new material goes, your guess is as good as mine.

Imprecation - Satanae Tenebris Infinita (2013)

This is one of those rare death metal albums that has come along in the last ten or so years that I genuinely like. I don't know if it's because I'm getting closer and closer to 'old fuck' status or what, but death metal has become increasingly unbearable to listen to, not to mention that as each year passes, I find the fans of this music to be that much more irritating to be around. Make no mistake about it... if we're talking about the shit I grew up on (old Entombed, Carnage, Accidental Suicide, etc), then fuck yeah, I have all the time in the world for that, but there's something about the last ten years that has really put me at odds with it all, be it the super over-produced "Michael Bay" sounding bullshit, or the ridiculously clinical noodling of the more technical faction or the side-splittingly laughable attempts at out-"undergrounding" everyone around them by the 'old school death metal' crowd (a trend that I find to be mind-bogglingly quizzical).

One thing I never understood was the insistence on labeling Imprecation a "blackened" death metal band. Vocally, they are about as death metal as you can get. There are no pussy black metal fag screeches to be found here. Speaking of which, this guy's vocals pick up exactly where David Vincent left off on 'Covenant'. I mean, they're just a cunt hair shy of being a fucking dead ringer, which is great as David's vocals on that album are among the best of all time.

The guitar riffs are thick and lean towards the lower end of the spectrum. Again, hardly a black metal trait, which is traditionally to jack up the tuning to the point of sounding like a transexual with his balls in a vice. Imprecation's guitar sound is nice and low with a rusty sheen that gives it a raw edge. The actually songs are definitely in the Incantation/Morbid Angel category of 'evil' sounding death metal. Some of this has to do with the "blasphemous" nature of the lyrical content, but make no mistake, the music needs to match the imagery and Imprecation are absolutely no slouches at painting a dismal atmosphere, proving that you do not need to hail from the lower Hudson River Valley in order to create hauntingly evil death metal of the highest order.

Hopefully it doesn't take another twenty or so years for these guys to release their next album as quality death metal bands like Imprecation are few and far between. Bravo fellas.

Blood Ceremony - The Eldritch Dark (2013)

Wow, what a disappointment. Don't get me wrong, BC haven't drastically altered their sound or anything, but they have consistently gotten more and more "light in the ass" with each release. Whereas their debut album was a refreshing and colossal slab o' doom, this is just basically a folksy sort of rock record, which, is not a terrible thing, but for anyone who was hoping that the band would return to the heavier sound of their first album, you can hang up your hopes and notions immediately.

I still prefer these guys as opposed to the millions of other female fronted/occult rock bands that have been cropping up like a bad case of genital herpes as of late. The tunes on this album are really not that bad, albeit a bit boring, and they certainly have a knack for conjuring that warm, late '60's/early '70's feeling that so many try and fail to capture. Again, I wish there were more doom riffs such as those found on the first album. That record sounded like the perfect combination of Sabbath and Coven with perhaps a dash of Mellow Candle to spice things up. This time around it seems as if the band grew tired of the doomier aspects of their sound and opted for a more lighthearted approach. I've certainly heard worse and for what it's worth, the band is good at what they do, but it would've have been nice to hear them take a slightly darker approach, nonetheless, no matter what the pace, Blood Ceremony are infinitely more interesting than the stupendously overrated 'The Devil's Blood'.

Movie Poster of the Week: The Driller Killer (1979)

Accidental Suicide - Flesh Parade (1991)

Accidental Suicide. One of the most criminally overlooked bands in the history of death metal. It's a fucking shame as these guys epitomize what classic, early '90's death/doom is all about. Though the band is from Wisconsin, you could easily be fooled into thinking that they were from Scandinavia as they possess that same sort of "chainsaw" guitar sound and exhibit a mastery over slower 'doom' tempos that rival anything that the funeral doom genre itself has to offer.

Vocally, Ed Jackson is a fucking hideous monster, ravenously cannibalistic yet tortured by insanity. Ed has one of the broadest ranges I've heard from a death metal vocalist in well over twenty years. This guy can go from blood curdling shrieks to one of the most commanding lows in the game. Not once, while listening to this did I get the feeling that this was "some dude with a cool death metal voice". Ed really sounds like a crazed beast and that trait of being able to convince the listener that what he/she's hearing is not human further cements the morbid atmosphere conjured fourth by the rest of the band.

The drummer aint no "George Kolias" or anything like that, but he doesn't need to be. I never felt by listening to his work that he "should've did this" or "could've done that". He perfectly answers everything that the guitars throw at him and that's all I could ever ask for. The guitars themselves are absolutely monstrous and effortlessly paint ruinous landscapes amidst the grey desolation that vocalist Ed Jackson resides in.

This demo actually contains pretty much the same versions of these songs that are found on the band's debut full length, only here they are actually tuned lower, thus giving them an even swampier sound.

I understand that finding a physical copy of this is close to impossible, but what with the zillions of blogs and file sharing programs out  there, it shouldn't be terribly difficult to obtain a digital rendering, which I highly suggest you do as doom/death of the classic era does not get any better than this!

Mastication - Demo # 2 (1991)

I would have to say that this was an improvement over Mastication's first demo, which was decent in its own right, but this time around the band sounds that much heavier by deciding to leave out some of the goofier elements found on their debut such as the down picked chugs that just sounded completely amateurish to these ears, especially in comparison to what else was going on in Sweden at the time. That down-picked chug thing can actually get on my nerves if not done properly and convincingly. You not only need the right sound but you have to pick the right notes as well and I felt that Mastication failed to do so the first time around. This time, however, Mastication wisely decided to leave the goofy chugging at the door in order to concentrate more on atmosphere and and overall more "evil" vibe. Still heavy, mind you, but with that much more "flavor", if you will. An infinitely more complete package than its predecessor. It's too bad that they called it a day afterwards as this demo really put them in the same ranks as the more polished acts of that time. Personally, I think these guys had way more going on. musically, than Grave and Unleashed, both of whom have gone on to enjoy lengthy and rather successful careers. Oh well... "and so is life".