Descend - Demonstration Cassette 1995

Tasty and long forgotten slab of rotten, old skull death metal from Ohio fairly close in sound to renowned Fin's Demilich and early Disgrace while not getting overly technical and "noodly" like the former.

I'm actually surprised that I haven't seen these guys getting all types of posthumous praise among the 'OSDM' crowd like I usually do with these types of "forgotten" demos. Believe me, this one is worth every bit of worship one can bestow upon it. This has it all. Grimy, low tuned guitars, barfy, dual Carcass-style vocals and an ancient Finnish death metal feel overall. Hell, even the production is surprisingly well done. It's a demo that was released on cassette so don't expect Morrisound and you'll be just fine.

Death - Scream Bloody Gore (1987)

When I was younger and Death had only released their initial trio of albums I think I may have preferred this album to the other two. Through the years, though, I've come to the conclusion that, aside from the novelty that this was about as intense of an album as you could get during the time of it's release (with the exception of Napalm Death's 'Scum'), I found it to be rather boring and despite what certain pseudo-intellectual bloggers might tell ya, I'll take Deicide's debut over this any day of the week.

The identity of the songs on display here vary a bit more than on 'Leprosy' but they're all still painfully straightforward and after about 1/2-way through the first track I'm already planning my exit-strategy.

Sure, this sounded groundbreaking and pretty damn cool when it came out but it didn't take long for me to outgrow it and unlike most fanatics out there, I actually prefer the 3rd and 4th albums over the first two. Oddly enough, I'm not a fan of Symbolic whatsoever and the small amount I've heard off of the last album (The Sound of Perseverance) did little to nothing for me as well. I feel that Death pretty much peaked right smack dab in the middle of their (Chuck's) career with Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy being stepping stones toward bigger and better things. Innovative? Perhaps in terms of intensity but again, for me the novelty of being a death metal band so early in the game wore off once I heard what else was out there such as Carcass, Pestilence and Entombed. Those were band's that were creating material that catered to my imagination in a way that Death never could.

Death - Leprosy (1988)

Cool and iconic album cover aside, for the life of me I just cannot get into this album. Granted, Death were an important stepping stone in my life when it came to early death metal, but there were always better things out there lying in wait.

First off, the songs are just fucking boring. Sure, there's a moment or two where things get fairly interesting, such as the beginning of 'Left to Die', but it doesn't take long before the 'womp womp' kicks back in. Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know, I know... Chuck's this "awesome" lead guitar player, yada-fucking-yada. Oh well. Guess what? Never gave a fuck about leads, so 'blam'... once you take that out of the equation what have you got left? The drums? Ha! An amputated midget could've come up with more interesting fills and beats and holy-fucking-shitballs... what the FUCK is up with that annoying god-damned snare? This guy's barely past the Lars Ulrich stage. I mean, dude, c'mon... skank beat after skank beat. And they're not even like the Slayer-style skanks filled with anxiety and aggression. These just sound like the drummer is bored out of his fucking mind and can't wait to go sit in traffic for an hour.

The actual riffs/songs themselves are not much better. I swear, even for an older, "catchier" album the tracks on 'Leprosy' have a tendency to bleed into one another and I begin to think I'm listening to some epic song of unparalleled and rage-inducing boredom until I realize that three tracks have already skated on by. Believe me, as a fan of funeral doom I am no stranger to redundant droning and the like, but this...

About the only thing of worth here, to me, are the vocals, which were quite the tasty morsel in their day and still sound very convincing even now. Unfortunately, they do very little to make the rest of this album interesting to me. To be honest, I've always been on the fence with Death, even back when I first heard them in the late '80's, which is saying something as death metal as a genre was still in the cradle sucking on a pacifier. For me, the band didn't truly begin to "cook" until their 3rd LP, 'Spiritual Healing', which even then carried many of the same lackluster traits that made it so hard for me to get into their first two albums. Sure, the nostalgia factor is not lost on me and I respect the band's historical standing but again, I have never been able to transcend the notion that in the beginning, despite the novelty of being THE pioneering death metal band, Death was on the losing side of a battle with tepid mediocrity and it wouldn't be until the homos from Cynic hopped on board that Death truly came into their own. As far as the early sounds of death metal are concerned and the long-standing debate of the beginnings of the genre, I'll take Possessed any day of the week.

Lvcifyre - Svn Eater (2014)

Boy, Dark Descent has been on an absolute tear this year with quality releases from Corpsessed, Emptiness, Thantifixath and Lvcifyre spearheading the onslaught with their sophomore album being the label's first full length of the year.

As if Lvcifyre took a page out of the playbook of labelmates Emptiness, Svn Eater could easily be mistaken for the work of a different band when compare to their debut The Calling Depths. That album had a distinctive Immolation/Morbid Angel flare to it (mainly in the nuances) though I think it's fair to say that one could be forgiven for thinking they were listening to Centurian as well, had they not known otherwise. This time 'round, however, Lvcifyre seemingly decided to abandon their quest for technical progression in favor of a much, much darker approach. Oh yes... Svn Eater, indeed! This fucker is pitch black, and no, I don't mean in the faggoty black metal sort of way (though they do employ the services of Cult des Ghoules 'Mark of the Devil' himself, and to extraordinary effect, I might add). No, this is some monstrously evil shit not far removed from the works of Immolation or Coffin Texts, though things tend to get a bit muddy throughout, a symptom that could quickly manifest as detrimental to the proceedings but thankfully does not.

Though the muddiness of the production does naught to deter one from walking the path of darkness blazed by the intent of the band there is one thing that does make proceeding onward a fairly difficult endeavor and that is the fact that many of the songs on Svn Eater bleed into one another and many of them tend to sound alike, which when coupled with production woes can prove to be a bit of a buzzkill, not to mention the fact that it makes it harder to stay on board for the duration. Nevertheless, nobody said that the experience of this album would be an easy ride and for those of you who do manage to see it all the way through I'm sure the experience will have been quite worth your patience.

Bolzer - Soma (2014)

And so the mighty duo known as Bolzer return to tease the masses with yet another -ep-. This shit can get highly annoying, especially when committed by a band as great as Bolzer yet on the other hand, I'll take what I can get!

The beginning riff on opener 'Steppes' sounds a bit "regressed", meaning I wouldn't be surprised if it was an unused piece of material that the band decided to stick into the equation in order to add length to the existing body of work. It's not terrible but it's also not terribly interesting. Unfortunately, Bolzer has set the bar so incredibly high that everything they do is subject to an almost unfair amount of scrutiny. Sorry fellas but it's all in the reflexes, not to mention it's the nature of the beast.

Once you get past the introductory riff exchange things start poppin' in the usual Bolzer fashion and don't be surprised if you find yourself dazed, drooling and daydreaming in the midst of the band's epic knack for painting visual mindscapes. Sure, Aura may still be the reigning champ of Bolzer's string of shortrunners but by no means is this some sort of drop in quality. If anything the band are heading "further out there" and I'm almost afraid that next time 'round my mind might not make it back to the ship before its return trip.