Ripchord - Thrashaholics (1988)

Juvenile thrash metal from a bunch of high school kids. It has purile lyrics (e.g. "We Hate Jocks"), generic thrash riffs, and bad shouted vocals. In short, it's exactly what you'd expect a high school thrash demo from the late 80's to be. That said, the musicianship is at least competent, so while this might be utterly forgettable, at least it won't dwell in infamy.

Innersight - Meandering (2002)

Yeah, Meandering is a good title for this. It's all over the map without any real regard to song flow. That said, despite its somewhat amateurish sound, the music is pretty good. In style, it's similar to Mytra, but not as high quality. The songs are basically heavy, largely instrumental prog metal, melodic but not hook-based and mostly guitar-driven with occasional use of keyboards. The guitar work isn't showy, but it is solid and handles a lot of different styles with ease. The drums seemed programmed, but are reasonably well done. The riffs don't really remind me of anyone in particular, though there aren't any riffs that I find excellent. The only real complaint I have is that the two songs have no organization. The shorter song, "Varazsceruza" is only five minutes long, but goes through three distinct unrelated sections, while the 25-minute title track goes through too many sections to count. That said, I'm looking forward to hearing their later efforts, as this is promising.

This is their third release, after Blue Shadow and I Have Seen the Future. All of their releases are available from their website.

Zindan - Depth (2009)

Zindan are from Uzbekistan and play "Progressive Melodic Death Metal". I suppose that's a fair description, though it's progressive/power metal mixed with melodic death metal, not "progressive death metal", as I was hoping. The music is pretty substandard by Western standards. They use some interesting Asian-sounding ethnic music (Uzbek folk, I assume?) at times, but aside from that it's pretty disappointing. The funk bass parts (in "Facing One Another") in particular weren't a good idea. When they get heavier (the beginning of "In the Depth of Zindan"), they're much better than the typical prog/power metal sections. But in that track, then they degenerate into Metallica worship and a cheesy sing-along gang chorus. The playing is pretty solid, but not very challenging, and the guitar leads and solos are pretty amateurish. They use two different vocal styles: grunted vocals (which are okay) and clean vocals (which sound like Metallica). The production is decent, but at times could use more power and a crisper feel. Check this out if you need to hear some metal from Uzbekistan, but for the rest of us, this is pretty forgettable.

Their MySpace has one track from this album, "Truth Becomes a Lie", and two other tracks.

Led Astray - In Ways Unforeseen (2009)

I have a similar reaction to this as I did to Daath -- it's competent and well produced, but not that memorable. Unlike Daath though, I actually have fond recollections of having liked it while I was listening to it. The music is somewhat technical, and the riffs are not so generic. I still can't identify any element of their music that is uniquely theirs, though. Thus, they're still a long way from the top tier, but this is a reasonable first offering.

Their MySpace page has two songs from this album and one from their demo.

Hybrid Heaven - The Textures of Spirit (2008)

This is sloppy, tech thrash from Mexico. If they could actually play their instruments in time and in tune, this would be good. The music is technical and complex, somewhere between thrash and death metal, with lots of melodic parts and guitar leads. There's a lot of variety in the music and the songs flow reasonably well. The vocals are something between a shout and a black metal rasp, and are a weak point. The production doesn't add a lot of power to the music, but at least the instruments are clear, even the bass. Really the major problem I have with this is the playing, which is sloppy enough to make this unlistenable for me. If they could clean up their act, they could be a force in the tech-thrash scene.

Their MySpace page has four songs from this album.

Mercenary - Thunder March (1989)

OMFG. This is possibly the worst demo I've heard yet. The vocalist reminds me of that old joke: "How do you tell when your lead singer is at the door? He can't find the key and doesn't know when to come in." Ha ha. It's funny because it's true, at least in this case. This guy has no timing; he comes in late and sings too long, then has to scramble to start the next line on time. But don't think that the vocals are the only bad part of this demo. The lyrics are juvenile as hell, the music is plodding and boring, the production is a horrible mess, the guitar solos are a joke, and the band are sloppy as all get-out. My high school metal band was better than this, and we sucked! Heck, I think I'd rather hear Deep Sunshine's cover of "The Final Countdown". They are slightly better than these guys, though.

Sadly, I don't have the cover art for this demo. I'm sure it's as craptacular as the music.

Katedra - Natus in Articulo Mortis (1992)

This sounds a little like Voivod's Nothingface; it's speedy thrash with dissonant guitars. It's not outstanding, but decent. It's a little dated for 1992, but they're from Lithuania, so we'll let that slide... Unfortunately, the vocals are terrible; they're half-growled / half-sung without much range. The music really requires vocals that are more melodic. The guitar solos and leads are just okay. Sometimes they sound pretty amateurish and sloppy; other times they sound okay. The guitarists sometimes try to play above their ability levels; when they keep it simple, they do well. The bass playing and drumming are good but not really noteworthy.

Their MySpace page has four songs from their 2008 release, Ugnikalnis, which have an updated sound but some similarities to this disc.

The Arkitecht - Hyperstructure (2008)

Uhhh... what the heck? This is like Awake-era Dream Theater mixed with pop, grunge, some Faith No More, some Pantera, some industrial-style death metal, some Symphony X, and even some jazz fusion. It tries to do everything and ends up doing nothing well. Now, it is impressive is that this is largely a one-man project, but that only goes so far. The production and playing are good. The guitarist in particular is actually quite impressive, at least for the few times he actually decides to play something interesting. The keyboards are well performed, but are in the typical cheesy progmetal style, and the guest vocals are okay but they have a noticable accent. However, none of that saves the unfocused songwriting. And even despite the variety of influences, I also don't hear much originality. A lot of the riffs in the whole album sounded similar to other riffs I've heard. Or perhaps I'm just getting old... Anyway, the last track, "Face Thief" is the best one here, but that seems a little over-long (32 minutes), and borrows heavily from Symphony X's much-superior "The Divine Wings of Tragedy".

Their MySpace page contains two songs from the album and two clips from "Face Thief".

Vehemence - January 1992 demo (1992)

This isn't the same Vehemence from Phoenix who released God Was Created. These guys are from Los Angeles, and this 5 song demo is their only release. Given the quality, I can understand why. It's noisy thrash/hardcore. The vocals are standard hardcore-style shouting and the riffs are repetitive and simple thrash. The whole thing has a "punk" vibe to it. The production is really noisy, making it hard to hear exactly what's being played. This does absolutely nothing for me, and I doubt even crossover fans would be interested in it these days.

Pendulum - Atrocity Sin (1990)

This is decent thrash from the late 80's San Antonio scene. It's relatively uneventful, but the riffs are faster and more involved than normal. Perhaps they were inspired by fellow Texans WatchTower and Helstar. The guitar solos are about average -- the style is pointless wankery, but they show some remarkable speed and skill. Unfortunately, the vocals are worse than average -- the singer has that goofy half-talked/half-sung-with-no-range style that was more common with punk bands of the time. In addition, the production is weak and the vocals are mixed way too loud, so sometimes it's hard to hear the guitars. The best song here is the 8-minute mostly-instrumental "Crown of Thorns" (vocals kick in about the 5:30 mark). The band apparently put out a demo/EP after this, so I'll be on the lookout for that as well, as this shows some potential.

Daath - The Concealers (2009)

Ho hum. Another competently played, well-produced album of generic melodic death metal. It sounds like tons of other bands. I've listened to it twice, and I can barely remember anything about it -- none of the songs, none of the melodies, not even whether there were any particularly good or bad songs. Guys -- if you want to be one of the top tier, you need to have a unique sound and make music that people remember. This is eminently forgettable.

Their MySpace page contains three of these songs.

Random Mullet - Lifeless (2005)

These guys are Finnish, and mix pop, tech metal, prog metal, and some other influences. I generally dislike bands that mix too many styles together, and this is no exception, even if the music is well-played. Focus, guys, focus! The music switches from happy sing-along choruses to dissonant tech metal back to melodic metal and then to Meshuggah-style amelodic, syncopated riffing. Even if you like all of the styles presented, the songs are so random that they have no flow to them. I could get over that if the riffs were exceptional, but there's nothing here that really impressed me, either in its execution or its originality. This is a quality product, and the band are skilled with their instruments, but their songwriting could use some work.

This demo is freely available from the band's website.

In Staid Grace - Revelations (2009)

This Pennsylvania band are supposed to play "Progressive black metal". That's not even close to an accurate description. What it sounds like to me is melodic Swedish doom/death metal, of the variety that was popular in the mid-90's. The vocals are more akin to death metal than black metal, and while there are some elements of black metal in the guitars, they more often than not have the tone and speed of Swedish bands like Miscreant and Katatonia. That said, this is pretty decent for that style, but not really exceptional. The production is clear at least, but doesn't really add a lot of power to the music. The playing is usually pretty decent, but there are some notable places where it sounds cheap and unprofessional, such as the reticent arpeggios at the end of "In Staid Grace" and the horrible solo guitar intro to "Lifestream". The band also has trouble putting together a consistent effort. My favorite part of the album is the intro to "Feast on the Weak", which features twin acoustic guitars overlayed with a Meshuggah-like rhythm. The song continues in their usual melodic death metal sound, but about halfway through, they switch to a more drab sound and add some very flat clean vocals, and end with a minute long passage of almost ambient music before the guitars kick back in and they overlay a horrible guitar solo on top. That said, there are some nice ideas here and they do show some potential, but I think they could use a re-focusing on what it is that they do well.

Their MySpace page has five songs from this album, including the aforementioned "Feast on the Weak". "Soulscythe" is also a typical sound for them.

Talon - 1987 demo

Talon hailed from Texas and this was their only demo. After releasing it, they changed their name to Sedition and released a couple more demos, then disbanded. That's somewhat surprising, because while this demo isn't really very interesting, it is at least competent for the time. The music is pretty straightforward thrash with angry vocals (sounding like a heavier Bobby Blitz), fast riffs, and noisy guitar solos. The production is solid, with the bass coming through quite clearly. There are some interesting sections here and there -- mostly the acoustic sections and some of the melodic leads -- but for the most part, there's not a lot that I find worthwhile about it now. Still, this was decent for the time and I'm somewhat surprised that they never went on to sign a deal and record more than demos.

Ensoph - Rex Mundi X-Ile (2009)

I've followed these guys since their 1998 debut, Les Confessions du Mat. This is certainly much different than the gloomy gothic metal of that EP, but it follows the tradition they started with 2001's Bleeding Womb of Annanke. They pull influences from gothic metal, techno/industrial, and black metal, and fuse them into a reasonably coherent style. Imagine a mix of Solefald with Assemblage 23 and you have a reasonable starting point. Somehow, it works to some degree for them; I guess it's because they're not trying to staple together dissonant styles -- their riffs seem to blend much better with the techno bits than Infravision's. They utilize a lot of different vocal styles -- male and female, distorted, shouted, screamed, spoken, and soprano, among others, and a variety of instrumentation types as well. Most of the music is a mix between guitar-driven and keyboard-driven. The production is surprisingly heavy too; it really helps their sound. Although this isn't really my style, I can appreciate this album for its uniqueness. I can't think of anyone who sounds a lot like this. Their cover of Alice in Chain's "Would" was an interesting touch, too.

Their MySpace page has some samples from the album.

Silent Scream - Demo (1989)

This is a completely different Silent Scream than the first one I reviewed, and while these guys are better, they're still not very good. Each of the songs here is different -- "Gogmagog" is cheesy hair metal, "Tibet" sounds like a half-assed version of Fates Warning, and "Don't Play in the Dark" reminds me of Dio. The band is solid but the songs don't really have anything to say, they're just kinda going through the motions. I suppose this would have been an average demo for the time, but it certainly doesn't do anything for me now.

Abhorrence - Abhorrence (1990) and Vulgar Necrolatry (1990)

Abhorrence is of course the pre-Amorphis project of Tomi Koivusaari. And it sounds like really early Amorphis: brutal death metal with deep growls and crushing riffs, with a few melodic bits like on The Karelian Isthmus. But mostly it's just not that interesting. Actually, I found the 7" really boring, while Vulgar Necrolatry was decent. The best song was the title track from VN, which I didn't find surprising considering that Amorphis covered it for the CD release of TKI. Even still, this was mostly a curiosity for me at this point. I had some nostalgic fun listening to VN, but neither demo is really something that I'm going to listen to again.

Both demos (and some other recordings) are available from the band's website.

Turulver - Turulver (2003)

This is competent mid-paced black metal from Hungary. The bass work is pretty nice and the production is very good. Actually the songs are pretty good too, but this isn't really progressive or groundbreaking in any sense. Still, I found this somewhat enjoyable as it wore on. It's a quality product and has enough variability to keep it from the Marduk/Dark Funeral camp of complete drudgery. It also helps that the songs are short -- the longest is 4:39. And with an intro and an outro, this is only five songs lasting 23:15. It's still not a must-download, but fans of black metal could do much, much worse. Then again, if you're a fan of black metal, you have something like this already in your collection.

The band have made this EP and their follow-up full length freely available from their website.

Aggressor - Looking for a Label (1989)

This Aggressor was from Boston and played some pretty decent thrash. It's well performed and produced. Their music isn't very melodic, but it's not completely amelodic either and there is some prominent bass work. Unfortunately, it's not really exceptional in any regard -- the vocals, lyrics, riffs, and guitar solos are just average. But it's a quality product and certainly equal to many of their peers at the time. I'm actually quite surprised that they never went anywhere -- they released one more demo four years later and never signed a record deal or went on to other bands. That's a shame because they coulda been a contender. Certainly many worse bands have gone on to record full-length albums...

Fatal Sin - Demo (1989)

This is pretty standard late 80's thrash, but it's competently performed. The production is really good -- it's clear and powerful. Musically, they remind me of Nasty Savage and Nuclear Assault (esp. vocally). Fast and tight, this is actually a pretty good demo for the time. It doesn't do much for me now, as it's pretty light on melody, but they certainly had some playing ability and I'm surprised they never went anywhere.

Protected Illusion - Festering Fairytales (1990)

This is some decent thrash from Finland. It's not top tier like WatchTower, Toxik, Deathrow or Helstar, but they have some good riffs and a few of the songs are pretty good. They're on par with their countrymen Rectum, but I don't find them as interesting as they focus more on straight-up fast thrash riffs than progressiveness. The vocals are of the typical screamed/shouted style that was common at the time, with perhaps a touch of Chuck Schuldiner in them. They do include one section of clean vocals in the last song, "Runk Opstrom". This was a bad idea, guys. The guitar solos are also pretty bad; thankfully, they're few and far between. Otherwise, the playing is pretty solid, though I wouldn't describe it as flashy. The production is pretty weak, but not worse than others at the time. This is mostly a novelty at this point, but there are some good songs, and fans of late 80's thrash might still enjoy it.

Their MySpace page has four of the songs from this album, though none of them are the best songs.

Helheim - Kaoskult (2008)

Despite this being Helheim's sixth full-length album, I've never heard them before. And I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised. To me, it sounds like later Arcturus mixed with more standard black metal. It's not as avant-garde as Arcturus, but it has an experimental vibe that most black metal doesn't have. It also at times reminds me of Borknagar's underrated The Olden Domain. The songs are generally mid-paced and are driven by black metal guitars as well as clean guitars with a chorus effect. The chorus-effect guitars seem to be the main driver of the unique sound -- they're used everywhere: alone and under the distorted guitars. And it's such a simple thing, but they really help produce an atmosphere. Add to the guitars reasonably good drumming, good bass work, a light use of keyboards for atmosphere, raspy and clean Viking metal-style singing, and solid production, and you have a quality product.

Their MySpace page contains the first two songs from this album: "Det Norrone Alter" and "Northern Forces".

Infravision - This Epileptic Serenity (2008)

Infravision hail from Greece and fuse industrial with death/thrash metal, utilizing keyboards heavily and adding a large dollop of techno. They use mostly grunted vocals, but occasionally switch to clean vocals (which are not very good). This yields a somewhat unfocused sound -- they switch back and forth between heavy and cheesy. They haven't yet mastered the art of blending the two styles into a seamless package. That said, they do have significant technical skill -- when they choose to show it -- and they do have some potential. I'm not sure that I'll ever like the mixing of techno with death metal, but this is at least somewhat original.

Their MySpace page has three songs from this album.

Brutality - Sadistic (1992)

The year before Florida's Brutality released their classic debut, Screams of Anguish, they released this 7". Not surprisingly, it's much in the same style of technical death metal, but the melodic leads aren't as well done. The production could also use some work -- it's a little distorted and not as tight as it could be. The second track here, "Spawned Illusion" is the better track -- but it ended up being re-recorded on SoA, while the title track did not (it was included in the 2008 re-release though). Still, this is a good slab of classic Florida death metal, but as with Metamorphosis, it's mostly a curiosity now.

Their MySpace page has the title track from this 7".

Purulence / Amaymon - split (1993)

Amaymon is pretty generic death metal. Competent but uninteresting. The production is pretty bad, but it doesn't seem that there's much going on in the music, so we're not missing much.

Purulence is moderately technical, and their music is much more varied and interesting. There are plenty of tempo and style changes, but the songs strike a good balance between variety and cohesive songwriting. However, the excessive pinch harmonics kind of annoy me. Also notable is the closing number, "Sinking Into Transparency", which is similar to Gorguts' "Condemned to Obscurity" in that it foreshadows Gorguts' groundbreaking Obscura five years later. I'm kind of surprised that Purulence never went anywhere after this split CD. Of course, Steeve Hurdle went on to play in Gorguts, but it seems Purulence could've really gone somewhere.

Two of Purulence's songs from this split ("Sinking Into Transparency" and "Inhaling the Souls") are available on their MySpace page.

Eternal Torment - Demo (1992)

Boring as shit generic death metal from Buffalo, NY. No redeeming qualities whatsoever, except perhaps that it's only 14 minutes long.

Three of the four songs from this demo are available on their MySpace page. See for yourself if you don't believe me.

Rosebourg - Deathly Silence (2002)

I figured this Bulgarian band would be bad when I saw the following description on their webpage: "The boys are creative and how wonderful - full of fantasy!". And I was right. This is cheesy "progressive"/power metal, mid-tempo with melodic vocals and weak guitars. It reminds me of a slower version of the mid-90's Italian bands (Labyrinth, e.g.). The focus is more on hooks and vocals than on instrumental prowess. As such, the playing is very restrained. It's solid but even the guitar solos are conservative. And neither the vocals nor the songs are really strong enough, so this just comes off as watered-down. I'll call it "power metal without the power".

This demo is freely available from the band's website.

Mordab - Darker Than Grave (2008)

This demo starts out promising, with some nice acoustic guitars that get layered with some distorted guitars and drums. Then it sort of degrades into generic melodic death metal -- competently played and reasonably good, but it doesn't really make an impression, aside from two exceptions. The first is the terrible "Psychotic Depression". This is a pop song, with acoustic guitars and melodic vocals. It's even worse than a hair metal "power ballad". Bad, bad, bad. The second is the closer, "Ascenssion" (sic) which is a melodic doom number, akin to Swallow the Sun, and my favorite track here. They do a good job of creating and maintaining an atmosphere. I do have to give them some credit though -- they're from Iran. I hope they can continue to release music, as there is some potential here.

This release and their previous demo are available from their website.

Innersight - Blue Shadow (1998) and I Have Seen the Future (1999)

Innersight is a strange band from Hungary whose sound has changed dramatically over the years. These are their first two demos, which are described as "post-rock". I'm not really sure what that's supposed to be, but to me they sound like Joe Satriani's "Midnight" (from SwtA) and "Day at the Beach" (from FiaBD): solo clean guitar (though clearly not acoustic) with heavy reverb and lots of delays. The guitarist uses a variety of strumming and picking techniques to provide a little variety, but it's not enough. There are no other instruments here: no drums, no bass, no keys, no singing. Now, I actually like the two Satriani songs, but they're only 2 minutes each. These two demos clock in at 71 minutes between the two of them. That's an awful long time for the same shtick. About the only bright spot after the first few minutes was the cover of "My Friend of Misery". It took me a while to figure out what song it was, since I haven't listened to the Black album in probably 18 years. Anyway, Innersight's next couple of releases are supposed to be progressive death metal. I'll review them in the near future.

This release and all of their releases are freely available from their website.

Hell-Born - Cursed Infernal Steel (2006)

This is the follow up to Hell-Born's 2003 offering Legacy of the Nephilim. I was expecting it would have improved on that pile of garbage. I was wrong. This is possibly the worst death metal album I've ever heard. Utterly and completely boring, horribly over-distorted production, generic dead-simple riffs repeated over and over, generic vocals, juvenile lyrics, and no hint of originality. This is the kind of music that gives death metal a bad name.