DEMONS OF GUILLOTINE - Demons Of Guillotine

DEMONS OF GUILLOTINE
Demons Of Guillotine
Art Music Group
8/10





Here’s an extremely impressive package put together by Russia’s finest purveyors of black metal, the notorious Demons Of Guillotine. The song titles and lyrics are all in Russian, but who cares, this band completely rips, and we have posted the English titles above for you to see.

Everything here is grim, dark and powerful, with some excellent guitars by Proteus, as he can rip through Bodom style melodic runs or issue blazing sonic lacerations with ease. He is surely one of the most proficient guitarists in the Russian scene today, shredding the strings with a relentless hatred. Being that the lyrics are in Russian, the band has a different feel than other black metal acts, the Russian language lending itself quite nicely to music of this style. Overall, the band is very thrashy and their sound is bleak and chilling. Zodiak is a mid range screamer that uses fairly wide vocal envelopes and screams mixed with aggressive black chants and invocations.

The sixth track is appropriately named “The Devil’s Dollz”, a grating double kick fueled thrashing panzer attack of hatred that never lets up, while the eighth cut, ‘The Burnt Paradise” contains a dismal sounding break that is melodic and utterly dark. “The Gray Fog” is a highlight of the record as bassist Pulse attacks the four strings with a vengeance. The chorus of this track could be likened to Dimmu Borgir in that it is anthemic in nature, preparing the festival crowds for a crippling occult induction. This track actually has a very melodic vocal passage that is right at home with the band’s insane sound and the Russian chanting sounds extremely cool when coupled with Demons Of Guillotine’s blasting onslaught.

This is a really awesome record that is one of the more original sounding black metal albums of late, largely in part to the way in which the Russian vocal phrasing compliments the music so well. Black metal devotees can’t afford to pass this gem up.

Written By: Shemlarak

CARPATHIAN FOREST - Fuck You All!!!!(Caput Tuum In Anno Est)

CARPATHIAN FOREST
Fuck You All!!!!(Caput Tuum In Anno Est)
Season Of Mist
8/10





Although Carpathian Forest has strayed to some extent from the “True” sound for which the band became veritable icons of the Black Metal anti-establishment, its latest outing, Fuck You All, is not without certain redeeming, morbidly evil qualities. While many fans of Carpathian Forest might feel betrayed by the direction taken on this record, as with every band, time gone by brings change. Forsaking all-out assaults for atmospheric wickedness, Fuck You All should, however, be rightly perceived as a progression in vision as opposed to a regression in the career of this hard working act.

Certainly, the group has not lost view of their patented sense of irony and the cacophony conjured up by Nattefrost, Tchort and their cohorts remains suitably and irrefutably bleak.

If Carpathian Forest has taken on an approach of restrained tempos, the intently impious riffing and substantially belligerent song structures found on tracks such as “The Frostbitten Woodlands Of NORWAY” take on an appropriately adversarial tone, while cuts like “Submit to SATAN!!!” belie the group’s roots in classic, Venom-style, classic Black Metal while bearing a distinctly frenzied appeal.

Certainly, Fuck You All!!!! pales in comparison to the outright savagery of recent efforts by bands such as 1349 if all you’re seeking is an overbearing bludgeoning. But it’s self-evident that Carpathian Forest is going for a unusual feel in terms of songwriting, perhaps looking back toward the old school a bit too much for those who have recently latched onto this sort of music. Even so, this is an album that’s wicked enough to incite a bit of ire in the heart of any real Black Metal fan and that’s reason enough to give this effort a closer look.

Written By: Great Old One

BLOOD RITUAL - Black Grimoire

BLOOD RITUAL
Black Grimoire
Moribund Records
7.5/10





Being that there is such a hefty sum of competition for the awareness of extreme music fans, it is compulsory in most cases for an artist to take their music a step further in order to gain some form of recognition.

Blood Ritual has no troubles with that at all. Coming at their music from more than a few different angles, the group employs a variety of styles with the final result being an unholy slab of despair that prods at an assortment of predictably dark emotions. Showing that they are well versed in several musical forms, Blood Ritual tackle the classic Swedish death metal sound on the blustery opener, “Invocation Of Satan”, which is initiated by a torrential barrage.

Further along in this track, the group treads into more melodic territory, pulling off Megadeth style chugging and concurrently unleashing a flurry of shredding guitar licks.

Vocally, you will hear verbed-out guttural bellows driven by the depths of the abyss. The lyrical invocations here take a backseat to the guitar work, as on the cold, steely “Necromancy.”

Blood Ritual takes every opportunity to evoke the darkest reverberations imaginable, whether ripping through torrid solitary note string mangling or opting for a more menacing vibe with cavernous, ringing chords.

Both “Destruction Ritual” and “Hand Of Glory” are particularly devastating; with the former featuring some of the best lead work on the album.

Most often, the music of Blood Ritual is a mixture of thrash, black and most importantly to their sound, death metal that will be tempting to fans of Sinister, Vader and groups of a similar nature. “Black Grimoire” reveals that not only are Blood Ritual one of the most extremely dark groups around today, their intensity is a convincing, extraordinary and highly addictive malevolence.

Written by: Shemlarak

ENTHRONED - Xes Haereticum

ENTHRONED
Xes Haereticum
Napalm Records
7.5/10





Enthroned delivers a blasphemous blackened storm of blasting beats that cruise along like a launched warhead. Their sinister brand of black metal is powered by a diabolical aura that is truly their own as the group issues a scathing, hate-filled attack on the unrelenting opener “Crimson Legions”.

Their overall sound stems from the purest type of blasting black metal, as Enthroned hit mach speed on “Dance Of A Thousand Knives”; it’s obvious that they are deadly serious about summoning total sonic annihilation. With so many different bands carrying the black metal banner these days, it can be difficult to be distinguished from the vast legions of demonic hordes issuing material of this type, but rest assured that the material you will hear on “Xes Haereticum” (figure it out) are of the truest nature.

Ferocity is redefined within these ten tracks, with the band blasting their way through tracks like “Blacker Than Black” and “Vortex Of Confusion” without remorse nor mercy. Punishing walls of guitars meld with subsonic, blazing rhythms in order to form a united front of pure evil on “Daemon’s Claw”. Some may be put off by the harshness of Enthroned’s sound initially, but once you gain a familiarity with the group’s style, the production style makes a lot of sense.

In the end, this is a good example of exactly what a black metal band should be in all contexts. A strong effort.


ERIN FOX © 2005 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I.C.E - Apocalyptic End In White

I.C.E
Apocalyptic End In White
Crash Music
9.5/10




‘Apocalyptic End In White’ features the hands down “coolest” (pardon the pun) album cover on a black metal album ever. The band members are pictured as alien wizards summoning flying octopi amongst a backdrop of gleaming frost.

From the album’s first frostbitten scream proclaiming “We are fucking I.C.E…” you know that you are in for one hell of an album. And yes, folks Hell HAS frozen over, overtaken by Bleak, Mammoth, Blisserred and Icesickkill, the frost summoning alien wizards from the realm of arctic blasts blinding snow who command the wintry destructive power that is known as Imperial Crystalline Entombment.

Insanely fast, chilling blasts propel accelerated black metal rhythms which are accentuated by piercing northern screams and numbing shrieks. The band’s demo EP caused a great stir in the black metal community upon its release, prompting wild speculation about the group and its undertakings. A tremendous amount of anticipation has surrounded the release of this album, and with good reason.

With ‘Apocalyptic End In White’, I.C.E. has managed to emerge as the black metal band with not only the best image in the genre, but as some of the most incredibly proficient musicians as well. Summoned from the sub-zero abyss, I.C.E. dominates on tracks such as ‘Astral Frost Invocation’ and ‘Convulsing Frigid Death’.

This band is the total package – visuals, lyrics, music, mysterious personas and most of all they take their frigid concept and extend it into every facet of their existence. The bracing speed of ‘Cascade Cavern Catharsis’ slices through your skin while ‘Behold Thy Frozen Arctic Kingdom’ envelops you inside its gelid grasp with blistering licks and a brain freezing breakdown that proves this band does not always need to play at top speed in order to be decisively lethal.

’Upheaving The Ancient Thirst’ unleashes a flurry of Arctic magic, a hailstorm of riffs that drift into one another with a howl like the Northern winds. The unrelenting nature of the band’s sonic attack is remarkable as they slam through blast after blast like a machine. For those that are of the opinion that this band sounds like Immortal, let me clue you in. Immortal cannot touch I.C.E. Period.

Rise winter zombies, Rise! I.C.E. has come forth to chill you to the bone. Behold the frigid winter nightmare that is Imperial Crystalline Entombment!


ERIN FOX © 2005 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED