v/a - Vinland vs. Finland

The clear winner for me is Vinland, but it's all pretty good. Bone Awl's part is what anyone has come expect of them with their raw black metal goodness. Hammer was surprisingly good. Volkurah created some good rifs, but Vordr. No. That was pretty bad. The vocals, Oh god, the vocals. They sounded horrible, and some of the isntrumentation sounded like there was a cat scratching on a scratching post in the background. Luckily, it wasn't bad enough to ruin the whole split, but especially during "Sabbath of Ruin" my ears were not happy when I was listening to it. So, this is a great compilation... if you just skip Vordr's part.

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

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.

Ascended - The Art of Necromancy (2008)

Genre - Death Metal
Country - Finland!
Review - I dont really need to do this, Why?

1) They play old school death metal.
2) They are from Finland.
3) A sick and horrifying artwork to boast of.
4) Abhorrence + Cartilage + Convulse with modern production.

Enuff said, they are one of the sickest outfit from the country among the recent crops of bands. And I have already praised them a lot in my previous review of Swallowed. Just get THIS!
-EyehateDoG
Mediafire

Swallowed - Discography

Genre - Old School Death Metal, Death/Doom
Reviews - There has been a surge of new bands that worship old school death metal bands and try to play in their vein. I tried more than hundreds of them but to be honest, I wasnt impressed much by any of them (excepting a few like Dead Congregation, Deathevokation, Necros Christos, Maim, Excoriate and of course Swallowed).

This band is a massive Autopsy worship and thats why a cover of "In The Grip of Winter" doesnt quite come as a sweet surprise. The band picks up right from where the album Mental funeral had ended. Though Autopsy have been a source of inspiration for many death/doom bands but most of them fuck it up entirely by adding melodic/synth element. But some of the bands who are intelligent and talented enough are able to sound at least partly like Severed Survival. But in the case of Swallowed we are talking about "Mental Funeral" worship. Yes, you heard me right! Its really a collosal task to create slow doomy music yet sound massively brutal. Thats what Autopsy had achieved with that towering release of theirs which other bands cant even dream of.

Swallowed employs the same slow, crushing, doomy guitars with bluesy touch of Sabbath. It sounds heavy enough to devour you into its choking strangehold. The vocalist sounds as he is himself is Chris Reifert. You can almost touch those similar growls and high pitched screams when he goes berserk. The production is a bit iffy but its quite alright considering its a demo and almost all instruments and just listenable. And "In The Grip Of Winter" is probably one of my favourite Autopsy covers. Watch out for these guys and the band does need some attention so that they get signed and release a full length which I can hardly wait for.

To sum it up this "Epitaph of Nauseation" is like three unreleased tracks from Mental Funeral" unleashed upon you after 16 years.
The tape is long sold out from Detest records but the band may still have some copies left with them. The first demo as well as two rehearsal tracks are provided free on their website, The first demo is more like your usual death metal.

Other bands to be checked out on Detest Records - Miasmal, Abhorrot, Stench of Decay, and more recently the finnish maniacs "Ascended". I hope you guys have heard of the demo "The Art Of Necromancy" by Ascended which was released on Enucleation Records. They are coming up with their new EP "Temple of Dark Offerings" which will also be available on Detest Records.

-EyehateDoG
Megaupload

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)

Xysma - Above the Mind of Morbidity (1990) and Swrming of the Maggots (1989)

Country - Finland
Genre - Death/Grind
Review - Now we are talking grind here. This is one of the sickest EP you would ever listen to! Right from the opening madness of Foetal Mush to the outro of Cranial Cradle, this EP is the epitome of relentless brutality that would force you to pick a sledgehammer and make you fee like smashing the skulls of everyone in your way. Too bad this bad chose to remove a lots of punk and grind influenes from their full lengths otherwise they would have given Impetigo and Carcass a run for their money. The earlier demo "Swarming Through the Maggots" represents the raw version of band, Full of ultra short tracks and hyperfast grind. (Only if you can handle a bit raw production, You will adore it.)

Get It Here

Xysma - Yeah! (1991)

Country - Finland (Hell Yeah! motherfuckers)
Genre - Death/Grind
Review - Along with Repulsion, Brutal Truth, Terrorizer and Impetigo, Xysma were one of the pineering grind acts from old school scene. While their earlier demos and EPs were more grind than death while this one has more of old school death sound than grind. Full of pumelling riffs after riffs (while still maintaining that finnish DM guitar tone), sick growls and nice production (I actually wanted to put their "Swarming of the Maggots" demo here, but some of you may not be very comfrtable with bad production, Or may be I will upload that too). Most of the hardcore influences are missing here but still a great record. It was recorded in the legendary sunlight studio in sweden.
Oh and ignore the "worst possible" album art on this one.
Get It Here
-EyeHateDoG

Pest (Fin) - Hail The Black Metal Wolves Of Belial (2003)

Genre - Black Metal
Review - Pretty much one of the filthiest black metal from the country known to produce some of the greatest music known to humanity. Production wise its quite okay unlike the amateurish effort of many early bands. This belongs to middle era of black metal. This is the compilation of band's entire work. So if you like your black metal full of filth, raw and dirty sound with hints of doom metal(remember Goatlord??) look no further!

Get This Here!
-EyehateDoG

Fungus Liver - The Real Core of the Inevitable Shit (2009)

I'm not really sure how to describe these Finnish rockers. They're drunken hard rock howling isn't really normally my kind of thing but I saw this album on Mininova and downloaded it because of the title. When I booted up iTunes and got this shit cranking I was really pleasantly surprised by the quality of this release. It turns out that these guys uploaded their album to Mininova and the Pirate Bay themselves and completely forwent any traditional form of album release, kudos to them for that.

As for what the band actually sounds like, I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to describe them. I don't really listen to a lot of similar stuff, but they do remind me a bit of Turbonegro if that's helpful at all. The singer is also in Feastem who play a pretty good if unspectacular brand of grind. I hope Fungus Liver proves to be more than just a Feastem side project, because I definitely see a lot of potential here.







HEAVEN OR HELL
LET'S ROCK

Rippikoulu - Musta Seremonia (1993)

Genre - Death/Doom

Hailing from Finland, they are probably the finest death/doom band that didnt go on to release a full-length. While their first demo "Mutaation Aiheuttama Sisäinen Mätäneminen " released in 1992 was an ameteurish effort than this one, also the profuction was so horrible that songs were almost inaudible. But this one is a huge improvement over the last one. They play sick dark death/doom mixed with mid paced death metal. And it does have that filthy and raw old school finnish death sound. SO its a must for any fan of Convulse, Runemagick etc! Prepare to get assaulted by 31 minutes of mega dose of heavy riffs.

-EyeHateDoG
Mediafire

Finnish Death Metal Megapost

Now I am no expert on Finnish death metal, oldschool death metal, or even death metal in general really; but I find that Finnish death metal has a certain dark grimy aspect not present in Swedish death metal. The Finnish scene is and has always been smaller than either the Swedish or US scenes, but it has still plenty of quality material. I am still exploring musically and finding new bands everyday, so this should just be considered a mere scratch of the surface.

Abhorrence

Taken from last.fm: "Abhorrence was a death metal band from Finland, which was only active for one year. They recorded a demo tape, that was in heavy circulation all the way to mid 90’s underground scene and an EP for the Seraphic Decay records, infamous for ripping off the bands whose music they released."

They were approached a about a record deal by Relapse, but unfortunately it was too late, and they had already broken up. This is all a real shame because if they hadn't been ripped off by Seraphic Decay (who also ripped off Xysma, Derketa, and Incantation) they may not have broken up, and if they had been able to accept Relapse's record deal they may have become more well know and been able to further developed their sound....

Speaking of sound, what do they sound like? Abhorrence play a fuzzed out unearthly brand of death metal. The fast parts are brutal in an old school sense, but the slow parts reveal a more melodic doom influence.

The production isn't amazing but it's acceptable. Their demo has pretty much shit sound quality, but the s/t 7" is actually probably helped by the production as it adds to the otherworldly feel.

Excrement

Excrement seems to be a very mysterious band. They formed in 1990 as Apoplexy released one demo, changed their name to Excrement released a demo and an EP and promptly split forever.

Excrement seems to me to be the Finnish Dismember, they chug ahead with reckless abandon. This is classic old school brutality. The production here is great as well, perfect guitar tone and drum sound.

Purtenance Avulsion

Purtenance Avulsion is one of the most soul crushingly brutal bands I have ever heard, they capture the spirit of death metal in a way that modern bands do not. Their blasting sections are killer, but when they slow down the tempo every thing dissolves into one vicious wall of murk. The slow murky parts of this album are everything that I look for in death metal, dark brooding, and filthy. Absolutely amazing. They only released one four song demo under this name then changed there name to...

Purtenance
Purtenance released one EP and then one full length before splitting up in 1992. This release shows a lot of musical maturation form the Purtenance Avulsion days, but it still shows a lot of energy. They developed a style mixing heavy sludgy doom sections with faster death thrash sections. Purtenance also managed to incorporate some melodic elements lacking from their early days. This release rips just as much as the Purtenance Avulsion demo and the mix of Doom/Thrash/Death gives it a unique character.

I have compiled the following releases into the two links below:
Abhorrence - Vulgar Necrolatry (1990)
Abhorrence - S/T 7" (1990)
Excrement - Scorched (1994)
Purtenance Avulsion - s/t (1991)
Purtenance - Member of Immortal Damnation (1992)

DL Link 1
DL Link 2

Vordr - I (2004)

When listening to Vordr, you'd have a hard time believing that they were formed in 2003. These Finns play raw-as-fuck punk-ish old school black metal akin to Von, Darkthrone or, most obviously, Ild-fucking-jarn.

The production manages to keep each instrument discernable, while having an overall ancient, cavernous rawness. Composition-wise, it consists mostly of short (around 2 minutes) tracks, with the odd 4-5 miuntes tracks that are mid-paced, Burzum-inspired numbers. These short lengths work to the album's advantage, as no song overstays it's welcome.

The riffs are fucking simplistic and have that great, evil second-wave fuzz, but they never become too repetitive or tiring. Even though you may not be able to tell most of the songs apart, variety isn't a stranger here, especially if you know a thing or two about early '90s Norwegian Black Metal. The drumming is equally simplistic and Burzum-ish. Double bass and blast beats are lacking, though the drummer knows when to pick up the pace in a punk-ish manner.

So, it has the raw black metal aesthethics nailed, but what about the spirit? Well, Vordr sport a kind of Ildjarn-like nature-admiring misanthropy, wishing nothing but death for modern man and all of his contraptions. With schizoid, "Aske"-ish screams to support it! This minimalist, hateful, sylvan theme permeates the album through and through, from the cold, isolated artwork down to the song titles, such as "Rhythm Of The Storms" or "Fertile Human Waste". All in all, I guess I can imagine these guys living in a cabin somewhere in the woods, splitting logs with nothing but their unadultered distaste for humankind, wearing lumberjack shirts, sitting on their porch with a couple of beers, blunts, and hand-made crossbows on their laps, to protect their property from intruders. They're the kind of manly men that hunt deer by repeatedly bludgeoning them to death with their erect phalluses, while humming "Forest Poetry" and mentally sketching a couple more paragraphs for their "Unabomber"-like manifestos. And that's always something welcome!

Download

-Radu

Dolorian - Dolorian (2000)

Genre - Ambient, Doom Metal
Reviews - This would easily be the best band that i stumbled upon this year. I have heard two album of their so far and both of them are kickass. One of the members of our last fm group, Caliban51 had given this album a perfect score on RYM.Obviously i was all excited about this band. Ah, and thankfully nothing went wrong.
They really play an awesome kind of doom metal with lots of atmosphere and is laden with ambient parts all over the album,and add to that soothing "low exhaled vocals" which do great to add atmosphere to the album.
And rightly so,this is so different from any doom band you have ever heard considering in mind doom itself is a vast genre.There are very few albums that leave an indelible impression on the mind of the listener and this happens to be one of them for me.

I was recently told that they have spiritual lyrices and i checked it and yes they were awesome.

Trust the DoG and GET THIS ONE HERE!

Hooded Menace - Fulfill The Curse (2008)

This, like Acid Witch, needed some blog cover too. Razorback Records released lots of great materials last year, this being one of them. Taking cue from the "Tombs of the Blind Dead" series, where eyeless zombie templars chased young women in slow motion on rotting horses, to perform exsanguination rituals on them, these old-school loving freaks are sepulchral, skull-crashing old school doom/death. You could cite Winter or Asphyx as influences, but I think it does a good job of standing on it's own two feet. It's got lots of riffs, melodic soloing, dual guitars and tempo shifts to provide an interesting listen, though if you're into the SAW movie series, fancy caffe lattees and/or rampant male buttfucking, you'd better try to find something else.

Download

BONUS
What's that you say? You haven't seen the Tombs of the Blind Dead? Well, aren't you lucky today! 'Cause I've just happened to upload the first movie of the series! Enjoy "La Noche del Terror Ciego"!

Download

-Radu

Acid Witch - Witchtanic Hallucinations (2008)

Genre - Death/doom, Psychedelic Doom.
Year - 2008
Rating - 95/100 (Yes,Its that fuckin' good).

Reviews - Have u ever, I repeat, Have U fuckin ever imagined, in your wildest imaginations, how would some random kickass 80s heavy metal band sound if they added death growls into their music. And if you think that was the end of the awesomeness Acid Witch not only succeed in adding the 80s heavy metal riffing and soloing to their music but they also manage to add psychedelic elements to their death/doom sound just like some 70s hard rock bands used to do. Now thats called creativity and imagination. We all witnesssed, how in an otherwise shitty musical year Razorback Records signed some great bands and came out with amazing albums. Hooded Menace, Crypticus, Decrepitaph are all good examples. But Acid Witch topples them all. Dare i say its one of my favourite albums of the decade leave alone 2008. The vocalist sounds as if he is growling his throat out on tracks like Into the Cave.It seems as if the intro song has been sung by some witch living in some ancient cave waiting for her prey and while casting her dark spells on some innocent victim. That will scare the shit out of you. They play a style of death/doom similar to none. If you think you can track some band that sound similar, then you are wrong. Nothing sounds similar. I can't fucking wait for these guys to work again on some new material.
-EyeHateDoG
Download Here