Priesticide Lust - Pride of Ignorance (1994)

"It's like being hit with a sack of hammers that were fans of Incantation." - Funeralmass

Priesticide Lust, aside from having an amazing band name play extrememly kvlt death doom from Poland. This shit is fucking crushing. They pummel you into oblivion and then just when you can't take any more they change the pace with a blasting death section. The vocalist is of Demilichian flavor. Well enough rambling, hit this shit up.

peace

Gorguts - ...And Then Comes Lividity (1990)

Considering how Gorguts is responsible for four of the greatest death metal records ever and how their debut, Considered Dead, is an OSDM masterpiece it shouldn't come as a surprise that their demo ...And Then Comes Lividity is outrageously awesome. What is surprising, however, is how it has been completely overlooked even by enthusiasts of the group.

While their debut had a very dense and heavy sound this demo is sharp and clear. For a late 80s/early 90s demo the sound quality is great, not perfect but it complements the tracks excellently. As for the songs themselves, holy SHIT. The early Death influence is a bit clearer (though it is still distinctively Gorguts), especially on the three tracks which weren't rerecorded for Considered Dead, but the songwriting is much more impressive. There isn't much else to say, its everything that makes pre-Obscura Gorguts one of the most noteworthy OSDM bands in its earliest and roughest stages, blowing much of what that movement produced out of the water.

herr

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

Infester (Swe) - Demo I (1991)

Genre:Old School Death Metal
Artist:Infester(SWE)
Album:DEMOI
Released:1991

Skull crushing old school death metal from where else other than Sweden.

Talking of Swedish OSDM instantly reminds me of Nirvana 2002 who left us with some quality Death Metal, but wait this isn't Death Metal with the muddy production which we all love.

Surprisingly this Demo has a rather clean production but this doesn't take away anything away from Infester, awesome riffs and solos which reminds me of Trey Azagthoth for some reason, not to take away anything from the bass and drumming which are damn tight and makes this an enjoyable listen.

This album is definitely a grower, been loving it more with every listen i give to it, totally worth your time, so get it.

- Ghost of Satvrn

Leech

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.

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

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

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

Abhorrent [Nor] - Occultus Brujeria (1990)

What we have here is a nice pocket sized demo, released by a Norwegian band, so you know it's good. They later became Thyabhorrent, but I don't know if they released anymore material.
Anyway, this is their only demo. It's pretty epic, and I know I throw that word around a lot, but I mean it this time. It's got a nice buzz to it, and the production actually does wonders.
It's got chants, operatic singing, piano, what sounds like a synth and it just chugs along, in a good way. My only complaints are that the vocals are barely heard at some points.
If you like Timeghoul, you'll probably like this.

-funeralmass

Mediafire

Ceremony - Tyranny From Above (1993)

I've been on a huge NYDM binge lately and I remembered this virtually unknown Dutch band that sortof has that typical NY style, though a bit eurofied.

This isn't as good as the 3 "-ations" and Morpheus Descends, but still very worthy of attention to fans of underground old school death metal.

Enjoy!

iFolder

Exoto - Carnival of Souls + The Fifth Season [Demo]

Teutonic thrash has it's big three, but so does Belgian osdm. There's the epic Caducity, the technical Chemical Breath and last but not least the death/thrash attack of Exoto.

I would descibe their style as a lovechild of Master and Massacra, with a little bit of attempt at proggy stuff on their demo, which was wisely removed for their full length.

So if it's solid death/thrash you want, get this!

Download [MU]

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

Cianide - Ashes To Dust (2006)

Disc I
Tracks 02 - 03 from the "Funeral" demo.
Tracks 04 - 08 from the "Second Life" demo.
Tracks 09 - 12 from the "Kills" demo.
Tracks 13 - 14 from the unreleased 1993 demo.

Disc II
Tracks 01 - 05 from the "Rage War" demo.
Track 06 from the unreleased 1997 demo.
Tracks 07 - 09 from the "Promo 1998"
Tracks 10 - 12 from the unreleased June 1999 demo.
Tracks 13 - 14 from the unreleased October 1999.

Disc 1
1. Morbid Restitution (Unreleased Song) 03:44
2. Funeral 04:06
3. Choose Your Death 02:26
4. The Dying Truth 05:43
5. Mindscrape 05:29
6. Human Cesspool 03:29
7. The Suffering 03:58
8. Second Life 05:45
9. The Gates of Slumber 03:33
10. Eulogy 06:12
11. The Undead March 03:04
12. Darkness 05:42
13. The Luciferion Twilight 05:43
14. Beyond the Fallen Horizon 05:47
Disc 2
1. Rage War 02:13
2. Metal Never Bends 02:34
3. Envy and Hatred 05:51
4. Deadly Spawn 03:06
5. (We Are) the Doomed 05:43
6. Thou Shalt Not Kill 06:13
7. Divide and Conquer 02:28
8. Throne of Blood 03:36
9. Death Machine 02:28
10. Bastardized 02:56
11. Battle-Scarred 03:18
12. Filled with Hate 03:02
13. Remain in Hell 07:22
14. Apocalyptic Fears 03:39

Well almost 2 hours of great solid death/doom. Dare I say that this is the best compilation CD I have ever heard. While I was already a big fan of Cianide considering how great their albums "This Dying Truth" and "A Descent Into Hell" were. But this demos made me worship the band. Right from the opening riff of the song Funeral to the outro of Apocalyptic fate, this is pure fuckin WIN. And to my surprise, the quality of the recording is brilliant considering these are just demo songs from early 90s. If you already possess their entire discography, You might give this an escape because most of the tracks have featured on some full-lengths but if you think that Cianide was all about ADIH and TDT then think again and get this album. Pretty much due to this compilation, Cianide are now among my top 5 death metak bands.
-EyeHateDoG
Get This Or Die!

Lepra - Leprosos Satanicos (1995)

Sorry for that pathetic image. That was the only one I could find. I guess I posted this in the group too. But no one seem to take notice except RectalMorbidity and Estanford.This has been a really long time since i rated a death metal album with a 4.5 stars on RYM. I must say that this band absolutely slays. Great death/grind with riff fest. The vocalist is an absolute monster, I must say there are very few dudes who deliver better vocals in death metal than the guy in this band.He uses pitch shifts to excellnt results. Too bad the lyrices are in Spanish.Anyone who hasnt yet heard them should definitely check them out.This is going to be on my playlist for a long long time.
And finally to quote our death metal veteran Necrobobsledder aka Rectalmorbidity - "That guy makes Glen Benton sound like Madonna!" (referring to the vocalist).

Megaupload
- EyeHateDoG

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

Armagedon (pol) - Invisible Circles (1993)

Genre - Old School Death Metal
Review - Well, I am not a very big fan of polish death metal scene. I would prefer Florida,NY,Finnish and swedish scene anyday over the polish one. One of the reasons is because the polish scene itself doesnt have a characteristic sound of its own. But I have seen death metallers who are mad about a few polish bands (read Vader, Behemoth).
Yes, yes I am keeping this trend of giving you guys the lost,forgotten old classics of the genres. It may not be as aggressive as Azarath, It may not be as sinister or evil as Autopsy. But certainly it has a brutal vibe that is particularly prominent on the recording of the drums. The vocals are great too, quite similar sounding as early Master. Seriously the first band band that came to my mind on listening to them was Master and obviously Master worship cant be a bad thing in death metal, or can it? And oh yeah! They are much better than their much overrated counterparts Behemoth and Vader.

-Get it here (sorry for RS links)
- EyeHateDoG

Antropomorphia - Necromantic Love Songs (1993)

Antropomorphia is a Death Metal band from the Netherlands. They formed back in 1989. They have a few other releases, but this record is their best known. I can't really tell what the bands current status is, M-A says they've changed their name, but doesn't explicitly say whether or not they are still active... it's doubtful as their last release was in 1998 so yeah... all of this bands members seem to have pretty much dropped off the radar. These days most people only know Antropomaorphia from DeathenvokatioN's cover of Chunks of Meat.

I have negligible knowledge of the Dutch metal scene, but from what I've heard these guys take the cake for Death Metal.

This is dirty, heavy, and low-pitched... the way death metal should be. Unintelligible grunts for vocals, groovy down tempo parts, blistering tremolo picking.

Get this if you like your death metal brutal, but old school. No Suffo worship here.

Necromantic Love Songs [1993]

Cynic - Roadrunner Demo (1991)

I'm fucking sick of people creaming their pants over the last Cynic album, or their "breathtaking" live performances, or even those that think "Focus" was some kind of mindblowing tech death revelation.
The thing that bugs me the most is that they had shitloads of potential during their early days, as this '91 demo will prove. It's some obliterating thrashing old school death metal with a slight technical edge that's guaranteed to make you fuck up your vertebraes, ask "Focus what?" and shed a tear for the abrupt end to their brilliant style.
Seriously, listen to the third track. The riffing/soloing towards the end has got to be some of the catchiest guitar work ever to come out of Florida. It's like Atheist's "Piece of Time", but a slight bit thrashier and memorable.
I sure am sorry for the poor saps that hail fusion thrown into death metal as some sort of creative breakthrough for mankind, yet have not had a chance to listen to this old gem.

Download

-Radu

Nirvana 2002 (swe) - Disembodied Spirits (1990)

Genre - Old School Death Metal
Ratings - 97/100
Reviews -
Nirvana 2002 is another one of the forgotten Swedish death metal legend that one often overlooks while talking about old school death metal scene. For some unforeseen reasons the band could never come up with an entire full length but before quitting they left us with few songs of such skull crushing brutality that were set to become a cult in the underground death metal scene. In 1988, Eric and Orvar came together and decided to form a band. They came up with ideas and ended up releasing a few demo tapes. Few of them like Truth and Beauty and Excursions in 2002 became very famous among the underground fans. Both of them were independently released and hence the production was arguably poor but one could not overlook the musical talents of these maniacs and the labels started to take interests in them. Consequently one of their tracks appeared on the famous split consisting of Appendix, Authorize and Fallen Angel and Nirvana 2002 themselves. Finally they got to release their most famous work Disembodied Spirits under CBR records.

I firmly believe that this is the best EP I have ever heard in metal let alone death metal. Everything is just about perfect on the three tracks on this EP.There are no fillers, no cheesy moments, everything is just class.

The EP begins with the song Slumber which kicks off with a muddy chaotic riff followed by a solo only to make way for inhuman growls of Orvar Safstrom who goes like :

"Guilty
The seal has been broken the last door is shut
Ashes
Whirling in the slumbering dephts
A pale gleaming
The last lantern in the darkness to come
Rising from the veils of slumber
To reap the dark souls and bring blessing to some."

That sure turns out to be a blessing for the listener. Orvar may not be one of the best in the busines as far as death metal vcals are concerned, he may not be gifted with satan like voice box to be throwing evil growls like Jimmy Karlsson or Greg Chandler but he manages to create a brutal atmosphere with his vocals. He uses his inhaled breath sounds on mike to perfection. The best example can be seen on the song The Awakening Of... when he screams "Time To Die". That is certainly my favorite moment on the entire EP. Slumber is full of riffs after riffs and invaded by a few solos in between, that come as a pleasant surprise, with drum rolls and blastbeats thrown aptly at places. This song is orgasmic. The Zombieification and The Awakening of arent without great moments too. The drum intro of Zombieifiecation, solos on The Awakenings of.. are perfect examples of that. No matter how much I praise Orvar and Lars on guitars and drums, I still wouldn't be doing them justice. The excellent use and perfect timing of drum rolls on toms, drum fills on high-hats and cymbals and blastbeats just make him stand apart from the usual blastbeat predominant drummers of early 90s Scandinavian death metal bands.

Apart from the near flawless metal assault of these stalwarts, the production value is another one of the reasons why I chose this EP over any other. The guitar sound is well produced and never sounds buried under the sound of the bass drum which is often one of the frequently encountered problems with demos and EPs of early 90s death metal bands otherwise. The production of drums is phenomenal too. The snareshots pound directly on your ears and the bass drums are just loud enough to be heard clearly. The bass guitar does sound a bit subdued compared to the the others but I guess you wouldnt mind that.

Before you start to wonder "Why not a perfect 100 despite such mouthful of praise?" Well may be because the EP seems too short to me and the bass guitar production could have been better.

Oh, and by the way, I have not had the pleasure to own anything original by the band. There were news in 2007 that the band might start working again together when they played live for the last time in a gig. There have been talks of the release of their entire material as a compilation. I for one sure if going to buy because that will be like a diamond in my collection. So, watch out !!
JUST FUCKIN BUY THIS whenever its released as compilation.

Download (Mediafire)