Immolation - Atonement (2017)

I know in the past it may have appeared that I've been a bit hard on Immolation, and to some extent that may be true but that is only because they are one of my all time favorite bands (dating back to 1991 when I first heard Dawn of Possession) and their first four albums are more or less untouchable to me. I mean, that's quite a fucking run, really. In the 'death metal' world, at any rate. Sure, there have been some hiccups, which I can only surmise was due to the fact that their creative fires burned so bright for so long that there was bound to be a stretch of darkness along the way to immortality, yet nonetheless, these motherfuckers have earned their place among the gods for having held high the flag of evil death metal for so long.

Whatever the band's perceived shortcomings may have been, it's clearly irrelevant in hindsight as they have been on an absolutely vicious tear for the past seven years or so starting with 2010's colossal 'Majesty and Decay', followed by the excellent 'Providence' ep and 2013's 'Kingdom of Conspiracy', an overall great album slightly marred by the deafening sound of the drums. All of which brings us to 'Atonement'.... Holy.Fucking.Shit.

First and foremost: The songwriting on 'Atonement' is placed safe and snug beside Immolation's post-'Unholy Cult' body of work, meaning there are scant moments of rampant technicality to be found, if any. The focus here is on simpler, smoother and more straightforward song structures, with, of course, Immolation's signature bizarro tendencies abound. Yes, this is the work of a band that never creatively "sold out", yet has been relentlessly on the hunt for "the perfect riff", casting aside the urge to mindlessly meander along the fretboard (not that that was ever the case, mind you). I'd be lying if I were to say that I do not miss the salad bar of rhythmic fluctuations the band had employed back in the '90's/early '00's, however, this new album is so good that I am completely willing to go wherever it is the band takes me and believe me, listening to and experiencing this album is one hell of a ride!

Speaking of bizarre intricacies, Bob is really firing on all infernal cylinders here! It would seem that he has rediscovered his love for harmonics as they are in full flurry and abound and their inclusion really cements in my mind that they are truly the rotten cherry on top of any evil riff.

I read somewhere that Ross was starting to show a bit of wear this time around. Whoever wrote that must be high on that homemade speed. You know, the kind that meth-zombies with ZZ Top beards out in the backwoods of Texas make by spraying RAID on a screen and shocking it! That motherfucker needs to go Frankenstein a new pair of ears because Ross not only sounds AS good as he has in the past but better. Even the drumming is on point in a way it hasn't been since Alex Hernandez was in the band. It's still not as deliciously kooky in its delivery as it was in the days of old but my man has certainly made it a point to divvy things up a bit instead of answering the guitars in the most mundane way possible.

The album is surprisingly mid-paced, overall, with a few fast and furious moments thrown in for good measure. It kind of reminds me of Morbid Angel's 'Gateways...' in that sense, proving that you don't have to constantly blast like a retard to effectively deliver a sound beating. It also has the feel of a concept album, in the spiritual sense, of course, where everything sort of works together building up to a dark and monumental conclusion.

At this point in the game I feel that Immolation (along with maybe Nile) are at the top of the heap in terms of quality and consistency and as always, I will be impatiently awaiting their next excursion into darkness.

Ritual Chamber - Obscurations (To Feast on the Seraphim) (2016)

More lame tremolo picked bullshit that unimaginative dweebs have already compared to 'Onward to Golgotha'. Please, dweebs, please STOP with that bullshit!

First off, Incantation (or more accurately, John motherfuckin' Mac and Cheese!) actually WRITE RIFFS!! They don't sit there chilling on the E string trying to jack it off as fast as they can and then palm it off as being evil and atmospheric. There's actually thought given to the process which in turn produces a variable landscape of ups and downs... nooks and crannies, so on and so fourth. One thing I always hated about black metal as well as this blackened death bullshit is that people insist that mediocrity somehow translates to atmospheric. It does not. Playing like this just means that you suck and lack creativity. Plain and fucking simple. This is the kind of shit a 12 year old whips together and records on his cell-phone after an all-nighter consisting of large doses of adderall and jacking off to Transylvanian Hunger, you know, for inspiration.

To sum it up... I'll never forget a good friend of mine who was a 'zine editor and college radio station DJ back where I'm from telling me (half jokingly) that I should start a black metal band. His reasoning? "you don't even have to know how to play!"

Malignancy - Ignorance is Bliss [demo] (1997)

As they have progressively lost me throughout the years by way of their increasing technicality, Malignancy's 1997 demo 'Ignorance is Bliss', for me, remains the band's crowning achievement.

Ignorance is Bliss sounds like some bestial offspring of Mortician and Immolation (both of whom are also Yonkers natives). The retardation of how ridiculously heavy the guitar sound is and many of the slower, more "chugging" sections immediately bring to mind Mortician while the faster and more bizarre tremolo/harmonic acrobatics remind me of Immolation. Of course everything over in Maligville is taken WAY the fuck further out into left field and the end result had me hypnotically listening over and over, etc al. At that point, in my mind, this band could do no wrong.

Unfortunately, Malignancy would opt for a more technically progressive approach as the years weaned on which, frankly, doesn't do a whole lot for me. Don't get me wrong, a few of their releases, (notably the string of 'ep's' that bridge the gap between their first and second albums) are absolutely on point, but the primal war-machine of old had clearly run its course and has sadly been left unattended and seemingly forgotten.

Trust me when I tell you... there aren't many bands aside from Bolt Thrower themselves who can so effortlessly convey images of apocalyptic battle as Malignancy had on this masterpiece. Make no mistake, though, this isn't merely a roller coaster ride through a kaleidoscope of violence and chaos. There are some genuinely haunting and moody passages clustered throughout that really place this in a category of it's own, although it could be argued that the misty graveyard sequences that pop up (most notably during 'Your Life is Shit') are some sort of inherent characteristic of bands from the Hudson River Valley (Incantation, Immolation, Morpheus Descends, etc.). This doesn't imply that Malignancy are aping their stats from other bands. Hardly. If anything, I believe there to be a case that they may very well be the most original sounding death metal band from their area, hell, the US, for that matter.

Disembowelment - Transcendence into the Peripheral (1993)

One of the most worshiped and idolized funeral/death-doom albums out there. Despite this, I've always been a bit on the fence with this one. On one side there are moments of absolute brilliance while on the other there are times where everything sounds a bit forced and disjointed.

The production and sound, overall, is a little too good while the vocals fall short of my expectations. They sound a bit haggard and weak. Not as elemental and powerful as I would have liked. The drumming here is technically sound, but again, I feel as though they are a little too precise. The aural perfection of this record lends to it an almost industrial feel. The one song on here that is a straight win for me is the Into the Pandemonium-esque 'Nightside of Eden'.

Overall, there's nothing terribly offensive about this album in terms of blatant suckage and there are certainly some very enjoyable moments clustered throughout, but I normally do not turn in this direction when I am looking to quench my thirst for funeral/death-doom. I find this album to be an incomplete experience that has me picking up on its flaws rather than sitting back and being carried away by the sounds provided within.

Kataklysm - Temple of Knowledge [Kataklysm Part III] (1996)

I remember hearing about Kataklysm around the time Sorcery was released. I believe it was an ad for that album probably on the back cover of an old issue of Metal Maniacs. This would've been around '95 and that was, for me, probably the dreariest year for death metal as far as bands breaking up or changing styles was concerned. I remember not being terribly impressed by Sorcery and pretty much wrote the band off.

A few years later, at the behest of my guitarist/Kataklysm nut, I gave in and checked out the band's sophomore LP, Temple of Knowledge.

I could tell this wasn't bad but there was still something that I wasn't quite feeling. It was almost like the guitarist would have preferred playing thrash but was being forced to come up with death metal riffs. Either that or the guy went from not knowing how to play a lick to writing songs in a matter of a few hours. I don't mean to imply that the kid couldn't play, but everything just sounded forced. Add to that the insanity (and believe me, I mean INSANITY!!!) of the vocalist and his desire to jam pack his lyrics into every orifice, nook and cranny dealt out by the guitars and finalize it all with an average drummer who is left to somehow make sense of all this, and voila... I give you... Temple of Knowledge!

All in all, this is easily the band's crowning achievement and they've pretty much released a long line of 'blah' since. Nothing terribly bad. Nothing tremendously good. Just... eh. Much of this has to do with the fact that this album was the last to feature the midget, bearded kook-monster himself, Sylvain Houde. I can say, with absolute confidence, that his work on this album is the most insane shit I've ever heard from a death metal vocalist, not to mention his frenetic stage presence. I would have really loved to have heard him in Cryptopsy after Lord Worm had gone about his way. I can only imagine how much better the Mike DiSalvo albums would've sounded had Houde been in control of that ship.

Temple of Knowledge is hardly a "stellar" album and aside from the shock value of Houde's performance there's really nothing here beyond a handful of decent riffs and accompanying blasts.

Exodus - Blood in Blood Out (2014)

When I first heard that the fat, afro-wave Bon Scott wannabe was back in the band (again) I was pretty excited. For one, I've always preferred 'Pleasures...' over 'Bonded...' and two, I thought that he sounded pretty damn good fronting his kid's band, however weird that concept may be.

Well, impact was assuredly imminent and the reunion of Souza and Exodus turned out to be one big crash and fucking burn.

The riffs are a grab-bag of 'ok' mixed in with sonic Xanax and other, various sleep inducing benzos. The main problem with them (and pretty much the album as a whole) is the production. This is quite possibly the worst sounding Exodus album in that regard. Having a "full" sound is normally good, yet, as with everything else in life, there is always the potential to overdo shit and boy did this thing overstay its welcome the oven!

While I thought Souza sounded killer in Hatriot, he sounds downright awful here. Of course the atrociously juvenile lyrics do not help in any way. They may have been cool 30 years ago, written by some hessian teen with a 1/4 ounce of pot tucked away in the pocket of his flannel, but to hear this shit dribbling fourth from a 50 year old goes WAY beyond the realm of comedy and is just plain excruciating to endure.

TRUST me... this is nowhere near as good as the first few Exodus albums. Hell, it aint even as good as Force of Habit! It's just one, gigantic mess written by a bunch of bloated guys who're only a few years away from senior citizen status.