Poison (GER) - Into the Abyss

I haven't posted in a few decades now, so I figure I owe you guys this one. It's not really well known, but by no means enshrouded in darkness either, as plenty of you have probably heard this already. Still, it deserves a spot here, as it easily sits among the best primal thrash/death/black metal albums I've heard. You may be thinking, "pity it's only four tracks", but fear not, for each of these are 7+ minute sojourns into the darkest recesses of riffage known to man.

Alright, I'll cut with the theatrics and let you guys have the link: MediaFire

Insepultus - Considerations (1995)

The album is filled with awesome piano solos and killer riffs. It has some influences of Incantation.

Password - "Roxor"

GET IT HERE

Damnation - Rebel Souls (1996)

Most people into death metal nowadays have heard of Poland's Azarath, and if they haven't surely Inferno, Behemoth's drummer, rings a bell. Comparatively few know that, in 1996, when Azarath didn't even exist and Nergal&co were still firmly in the realm of (rather generic if you ask me) black metal, Inferno and Azarath's guitarist Bart were part of not-very-imaginatively-named Damnation. Under that ubiquitous moniker (metal-archives mentions 12 other Damnations) an album called Rebel Souls was released that year.

Of course, with a name like that, one can safely say that Morbid Angel would rank among the leading influences without even listening to the record. And they would be right, but a clone this is not. It doesn't take long to notice that the structure is dynamic, expansive, almost epic rather than thrashy, progressive or deconstructive. Spacey keys and solos with lots of reverb punctuate the dense riffage but what really holds the album together is Inferno's drumming. While there are some slower fills and patterns, "incessant pounding" wouldn't be a very innacurate description, as just a few seconds into the first proper track he's already blasting away as he is in the very last moments of the closer, Might Returns. That's not to say the guitars, bass or vocals come lacking - everything falls well into it's place and the blend of agression and melody (there's not a lot of it, don't worry) works.

Not just that, but Rebel Souls really feels like an album, not a bunch of songs (or worse, an agglomeration of ideas). I would be hard pressed to come up with tracks or parts of them as highlights. Sure, one tends to remember the catchy choruses more because, well, they're catchy but neither them nor the ultra-fast bit of Son of Fire, not even the almost-atmospheric part of the title track would hold any value without the lead-ins. And that brings me to the only possible defect of Rebel Souls - where I see its flowing, homogeneous nature others might see monotony but I guess that depends on what you're actually looking for.
All in all, if you're looking for some Polish death metal released before 90% of it started sounding the same or for a quality slab of the genre in general, this is a safe bet. And if you like it, get the other two full lengths by Damnation, they're both a bit different but well worth it. And get Azarath.

rapidshiz

Kralizec - Origin

Quirky key-heavy melodically-inclined sometimes-technical death metal with the odd nod to folk metal ala Ensiferum, Brutal Death, and oldschool Gothenburg bands. They also have some of the most blatantly programmed drums I think I've ever heard.

If some of the clean vocal sections sound oddly familiar to you, it's likely because they were contributed by Patrick Loisel (now the frontman of Augury) who also played lead guitar and keys on this album.

This album is ridiculously hard to come by on the interwebs, so I hope you like it.
Get it here.

Winterwolf

Winterwolf was formed in 1997 by a bunch of Bolt Thrower and Celtic Frost obssessed Finns who... just happened to be awesome musicians.

A few years of intensive practicing and a few studio sessions produced two demos of riff-centric somewhat thrashy death metal with underlying Finnish OSDM grooves, deep gutterals, and incredible soloing, all complimented by an awesome oldschool production and Stockholm OSDM chainsaw guitartone.

The second of those demos, titled "Blood For Death" you can (and should) get here (Mediafire, I know, I'm working on it).

Their Guitarist/Vocalist Corpse moved away in 2001, going on to play Bass for the reformed Demilich when they began touring in 2005. The others went on with the band, recruiting new members to fill Corpses position, and decided to change their name to Deathchain.

But, in 2006 Corpse returned, and the band decided to bring back the old Winterwolf name and lineup, recruiting a new vocalist and later Corpse's newfound associate Antti Boman (Demilich, c'mon guys) to play guitar and add the sweet gurgly demon-frog-from-hell vocal style you all know an love to the band.

In 2009 they released a limited vinyl full length last year to be wildly released sometime this year on CD.

The samples they have on their myspace page are beyond fucking awesome- leagues ahead of the already remarkably good material on their early demos, so you all best keep an eye out for it.

Until then, I hope this post tides you over.
- FeatherofHuginn

Bonesaw - Sawtopsy

Band : Bonesaw
Album : Sawtopsy
Genre : Death Metal

Artwork done by Riefert. The name of the album Sawtopsy. Backing vocals done by Riefert (in some tracks). There's no prizes for guessing what this band's main influence is. Bonesaw from Aberdeen in Scotland has one major influence: Autopsy. On this full-length debut they didn’t try hiding their adoration for this Californian band and fans of this style of death metal will know enough to get an urge to check out Bonesaw.

Taking the filth of Severed Survival and mixing it with the heaviness and atmosphere of Mental Funeral, this band has got to be the best old school death metal revivalist band o one heard or cared about.

DEAD !!!!!!!!

Atrocity - Todessehnsucht (1992)

Though most noticed for their later albums consisting entirely of 80's cover songs, Germany's Atrocity was at one time a pioneer of technical death metal. Predating Gorguts' tech-death career and much of the work from Monstrosity, Todessehnsucht still managed to create one of the most blasphemously intricate albums of the genre, and still go mostly unnoticed. Even though their previous album, Hallucinations, from 1990 lacked the quality of this release, much of the experimentaion was still there, yet the widespread acclaim garnered by the likes of the aforemention Monstrosity and Gorguts, along with Suffocation, Death, and others eluded them. I'm guessing this was the basis for their unfortunate shift in style towards radio-friendly goth-metal, further cementing this band's story as one of tragedy. But I'm sure you're not here to listen to me whine all day, so listen to the album and have your mind blown.

Megaupload

Adversarial - Thralls (2008)

Just a demo today, folks, but this is some prime shit. Adversarial are a band I hadn't even heard of until a friend of mine on RYM recommended their first, and only demo, "Thralls." This hit me like a sack of bricks, as it deftly combines practically every awesome element of modern and old school death metal into a three track block of excellency. Tempos shift from groovy midpaced riffs into frantic (but controlled) blasts of semi-melodic frenzy, and then into a fierce whirlwind of dissonance reminiscant of The Chasm or Immolation, two of the most prominant influences here, yet others shine through (evidenced in an homage to Suffocation's "Torn Into Enthrallment" on the second track.). Even the production shines, being incredibly above average for a demo. About the only flaw I see here is that there isn't more from this band, so drink up what you can now.

Witchrist - Curses of Annihilation (2009)

Artist: Witchrist

Album: Curses of Annihilation

Genre: Death Metal

Country: New Zealand



Not so much a standard album but a compilation of the first two demos with (one unreleased) from this new band from New Zealand, playing primitive Black/Death Metal. Witchrist share members with Diocletian so one would rightly assume there are some comparisons sound-wise, however Witchrist lean further towards Death Metal and have a slightly more plodding/ritualistic atmosphere than the full-on attack of Diocletian. As is usual with this style of Death Metal, riffs are rather straightforward and focus more on pummelling the listener with huge slabs of heaviness and creating an ominous atmosphere than impressing with technical wank. The drumming follows suit, nice solid beats full of conviction, gotta love a drummer that hits hard. Production is rather bottom-end heavy but not too muddy that details get lost as is often the case with this style. Probably not a release for everyone, but check it out if you like Archgoat, Teitanblood, older Bolt Thrower and early Incantation.

Download

Retrospection and Inure

Artist: Inure
Album Name/Year Released: Inure (2004)
Genre: Black Metal/Death Metal/Hardcore Punk
Country: The United States of America

Bring your mind back a couple of Fridays ago to the morning of the 23rd of October. Depending on where you live, you could have been doing anything- You might have been sleeping, prepping for work, or on a commute to college. I found myself embarking on a long trek on foot across my Northern Minnesotan city.

But for the mechanical bustle of morning traffic, the streets were largely devoid of any sort of life, the skies were overcast with a pallor of opressive gray clouds all too commonly cast upon the firmament here in late fall.
I was kept warm only by my thin WitTR shirt, some khaki pants, and a pair of headphones I was using as an improvised set of earmuffs- through which was playing whatever I'd hastily thrown on my tiny 1gb iPod the previous evening before heading out to hang out with my friends. I hadn't slept a wink since then, but a mixture of the gripping cold, and the loud music I was listening to kept me quite alert. Uncommonly alert.

I continued winding on foot through the veritable maze of largely unnecessary pre-winter road-construction (your tax dollars at work, go stimulus!), eventually dropping in and out of a library to warm myself. I passed leaf-shorn trees dotting the corners of sidewalks, people with glazed eyes, long cast in the molds of weary working lives. Kindness made tedium.

Strange waves of lucid introspection.
Extrospection.
The music I was listening to wasn't distracting me from the world, it was allowing me to focus on it. On myself. Away from the grey, meaninglessness of these concrete labyrinths, away from this substantially inert city. This constant slog. This generality.
Not worth attention. Not worth concern...

Dropped into a local organic foods shop, grabbed an application. Worth a shot, even if I'm tired of shooting. Gotta get off the cycle somehow.

Crossing the mainstreet, I found myself walking about with a sense of purpose, so uncommon for me these days.

As I began traversing the bridge connecting downtown Bemidji to the pseudo-suburb of Nymore, my home, and stared out into the brooding, angry, royal blue of Lake Bemidji, the music I was listening to started truly grabbing me, started making me think even more. The album that was by a band from Baltimore, MD. Likely no-one in a hundred mile radius in relation to where I stood had heard of them. And there I was, connecting with their material at the most sincere level. Pounding drumwork offset by mellow acoustics, standout basswork, and multi-person harsh vocals.
Coming to the next song, I instantly recognized the soul-sheering voice of Mis, who after recording with Inure would branch off to front sludge doomsters Moonshine and lend her abilities to the great Wake Up On Fire. There was her characteristic high alto clean voice too...

I was passing the construction sight of the new Bemidji Event's Center to my left, the great hulking skeleton of the thing cutting a huge swath of imposing iron framework into the sky and across the landscape. A monument to fatheaded human impetuousness and indolent, corporate greed. It was an eyesore.

And yet, staring at the glaring visage of the thing I laughed, heartily, and as I did, I was caught by one of the most gorgeous tremelo melodies I'd heard in ages (see the end of "Dos"). I moved on. Pushing forward, through the cold air and empty walkways, accompanied by somber, sober, acoustics, striking vocals, and gripping, layered riffwork; wondering at how odd an occurrence it was that I am so drawn to music like this, how easily I can connect to it, and why it gets through to me.

Enter punkish rhythms, more gorgeous tremelos.

"There's something about underground music, underground extreme music in particular, like this that I just can't help but like. I find it in my tiny local scene too- a mix of artistic integrity, talent, and sincerity. The Baltimore scene has quite apparently had a bigger chance to flourish, and mature, and I see it in the material of bands like these. I love it, and I hope the Bemidji scene someday gets the chance to to progress as much. We're working on setting up the framework. I'll do what I can to make sure it pans out."

Enter more extended acoustics and alto vocals, quick change to furious tremelos...

I was finally passing the last winding stretch of houses before I would reach my own.

A last incredible tremelo, strong riffwork, more vicious vocals...

I found myself within sight of my doorstep. Just as I walked up to it, the album ended. I laughed a last time and walked in, wishing only for the warmth of that house of respite to chase the feeling back into my limbs.

Mediafire

Abramelin (1990-2001)

Genre:Death Metal
Country: Australia

One of Australia's best kept secrets, Abramelin produced some grade A death metal that possessed that old school brutality with tinges of non cheese infested melodies. Within the bands 11 year career the band suffered from a severe case of the dreaded revolving door lineup, with the only constants being vocalist Simon Dower and guitarist Tim Aldridge. While their first EP and full length was recorded with a full band, their last full length, Deadspeak, was recorded with a drum machine.

Band or no band, Dower penned some of the dirtiest lyrics that caused controversy in their home land, and performed them with excellence. His voice fits the music extremely well, somewhat reminding me of both sides of Carcass. Aldridge produced some of the most headbangable riffs I've heard. With the perfect amounts of groove, brutality, and melody, he had the formula down for each song. Hell, he's even not afraid to bust out the acoustic guitar for a nice contrast and mood settler. Together they wrote some awesome songs that separated themselves from the rest of the pack.


Transgression From Acheron [EP] (1994)
A nice little release. Dirty, yet audible. Only song re-recorded later on is Humble Abode.


Abramelin (1996)
This is probably the definitive album they released. Recorded with a full band, with that nice gritty old-school production. You can hear the cymbols vibrate! Songs like Misfortune, Humble Abode, and both parts of Stargazer is where the band shines. Hell, it's even ended with a mindblowingly awesome cover of Dead Can Dance's Cantara.



Deadspeak (2000)
The band's swan song. This was recorded as a two piece, and yes, it does have a drum machine. But don't be worried, it sounds well done and you can tell that the band wanted to play the material live. There are some inhuman rolls and a missed fill here and there, but it's nothing worth crying over. The production is prettier this time around, taming the guitar tone from last time around and putting the rest in its place. The band still maintains it's old school sound despite these.

Cadaver - Necrosis (2004)

Many of you have heard this band's 1992 album ...In Pains, but I hadn't noticed much attention being directed to this, their rather great swansong. Excellent death/thrash, with a slight technical streak.

Mediafire (sorry, Raj)

Kaamos - Lvcifer Rising (2005)

A little gem out of Sweden that far too few people have heard, as far as I'm concerned. Kaamos play OSDM with style, crafting plenty of twisted riffs in a similar fashion to the master Trey Azagthoth, while still keeping songs refined enough to drive straight through hell and back without slowing down. Quite a bit stronger than their debut, and unfortunately the last thing the band ever did before they split in 2007, this is one of the few sleepers in my collection, and it's a damn good one at that.

Again, this is a case where I can provide a FLAC rip, so just ask away if you want me to upload.

For now: Mediafire

Morbius - Sojourns Through the Septiac (2005)

This is what The Chasm would sound like without any doom influences; well, almost. Another ethereal, epic death metal band with no absolute peers and a penchant for obscurity and noteworthy cameos (one of Morbius' drummers went on to play in Arghoslent, under the alias of Alienchrist, an album by the latter). It's nothing truly amazing, but it certainly works and deserves far more attention than it has received at this point.

Megauuuuuupload

Adramelech - Psychostasia (1996)

This may or may not be redundant, but if you haven't heard this yet, do so now and save yourself from the eternal fires of ignorance.

Mediafire (128)
Flac Part One, Part Two

Bonus: Seven and The Fall EPs, in full lossless glory.

Dãm - The Difference Engine (2007)

Dãm (Hebrew for "blood") is a Progressive Death/Black Metal band from the U.K. that has remained perplexingly unrecognized by the metal-loving-masses since their inception in 1997.
Their 2007 album, "The Difference Engine" (taking it's name from the 1990 steampunk novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling), is indicative of this apparent quandary.
In it, the band manages to take influences from later Death as well as some of the musical tendencies and verbosity of fellow countrymen Carcass, borrow themes straight from the playbook of Philip Glass's 'Koyaanisqatsi', and filter it all through the veneer of forward-thinking Norwegian Blackmetallers Emperor WITHOUT sacrificing cohesiveness- a problem all too common with genre-hopping metal bands today.

Check them out. You might be pleasantly surprised-
Try
Buy (C'mon, you can spare 3 euros)

-FeatherofHuginn

Mitochondrion - Archaeaeon (2008)

Contained within the meager frame of this 70 minute long album is a barrage of sound, fury and calculated aural abomination which puts the previous efforts of many bands to great shame. Twin vocal attacks bludgeon and pierce as a wall of dissonance and percussion paint landscapes of torment and decimation. Fleeting acoustic passages create contrast and offer slight respite from the wailing, atonal opuses, and indeed on first listen this album seems almost entirely and incomprehensibly chaotic, drawing equally from Canadian War Metal and the unique, horrific soundscapes of Portal, but after prolonged exposure patterns begin to appear, not just within the songs themselves but their progression throughout the album. The first several tracks are whiplash assaults of sonic violence, offering little breathing room for melody or tonality. "The Eternal Contempt of Man" marks a shift in Mitochondrion's attack, slowing down to assail the listener with truly twisted riffs which harken to the likes of Ved Buens Ende or Enslaved, and by the time "Oath in Defiance" rattles its dying breath, a near total transformation has occurred. "Wraithlike" relies less upon the constant cacophony of the earlier tracks, and more upon the build and release of epic, melodic crescendos. Still other tracks showcase such influences as doom metal and harsh noise, to one extent or another.

Despite this staggering sum of influences, Mitochondrion manage to create one of the most cohesive listens in recent memory, stringing together riffs, songs and styles as expertly as French innovators Magma did when creating the genre of Zeuhl. My only hope from this point onward is that more begin to pay attention to this and other bands, not content with perpetuating the same tepid sound until no one remains who is willing to pay attention. Without innovation or progression, the essence of art is dead. I for one hope this to mark a new beginning, rather than be a tragic swansong, falsely prophesying what could have been.

320
FLAC

Weapon (Can) - Drakonian Paradigm (2009)

Be prepared to have your mind blown; Weapon has delivered perhaps one of the greatest albums of the year with Drakonian Paradigm, an odd mix of Rotting Christ, Hellhammer and The Chasm. Mid-paced, riff heavy black metal would be the best way to describe it, but there are also elements of death metal, and quite a few melodic flourishes throughout, giving each song a memorable place on the album and the album itself a personality of its own to stand out above the waves of metal releases that have been coming this year. Highly recommended.

Mediafire

Convulse - Reflections (1994)

Alright, I'm sure most of you old school elitists are considering Convulse's first effort, "World Without God", a nut-crushingly heavy misanthropic beast of an album, one that's pretty much finnish death metal canon by now. But what about their second one? Well, "Reflections" is one catchy motherfucker; they've cleaned up the production and opted for a less iconoclastic lyrical theme, and spawned some goddamned awesome death/thrash - some might even say death'n'roll. The album's not that agressive, but what it lacks in balls, it makes up for in riffs.
I'm almost tempted to label this as "technical", but it's not really on the extremely progressive side of things, they're just a band with fresh riffing wanting to make a fun record, and succeeding in spades. Enjoy.

-Radu

Download (sorry for the rapidshare link, couldn't find anything else)

Putrevore - Morphed From Deadbreath (2008)

Jesus Christ, wanna talk about heavy? One of the more pleasant surprises I've come across recently, Putrevore make their own brand of sludgy, brutal (not the genre) death metal that is reminiscent, strangely, of the more recent Denial, except with a much more prominent bass sound. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it does smash it to pieces and burn the remains rather efficiently.

Mediafire