Th End

Everything that has a beginning comes with an end, and so does Metalhead Chronicles. Being a critic is not a hard job, its quite easy to shit-talk about someone else's creative work, and I've not been enjoying doing that of late.

Thank you for buying my opinions till the last review. And now dont ever come back looking for anymore here.

Good Bye and Good fucking luck.

Funerus - Festering Earth

For starters Funerus is an old-school death metal hailing from the early nineties that flaunts some pretty wicked connections. 'The' Guitarist John McEntee hails from Incantation, while Kyle Severn handled the drums for Vital Remains and Acheron. Before you even start thinking that Funerus sounds close to the above bands, you better stop 'cause Funerus is very unlikely to beat away at the same frequency as Incantation or Remains. Playing a very mid-paced variation of death metal that trudges through your ear like bowel movements in your innards, Funerus play on-your-face no-nonsense death metal that melts your senses away with its gravelly bass lines and plucky, clearcut death metal riffs.

In fact the bass in Festering Earth, their only album till date in their 20 years of existence, mildly reminds you off the gargantuan bass sound of Rottrevore. The difference being in Festering Earth the bass sounds as though its sludging through the wayside waters of your neighborhood drain. Songs are structured in a way that the music seamlessly drifts from mid-tempo to high-tempo, walloping through the album showing their command over the music. All without getting too caustic. And credit for that must go to the drummer who pounds on the kit like a warlord waiting to slay lives to quench his blood thirst, without getting too flashy.

As you further proceed along the the album, the doom influences become all too clear when Stagnant Seas or Web of Deceit plays on the list, where the guitarist plays heavily influenced dense doomy riffs that kind of reverberates reminding you of Asphxy style playing as heard in Rack. Now if you are expecting any kind of rapidfire solos to tears your guts apart, then you would be severely mistaken to expect so, 'cause Funerus really masters in playing no-bullshitting groovy death metal without giving a damn to any of the technical wankeries. With most clocking over two and a half minutes, some of them ending rather abruptly, Festering Earth makes an interesting earth where you don't get a single chance to catch your breath.

Production is great in an album like Festering Earth striking the right chord by staying right in between. Higher quality would have killed all the delicate intricacies involved in those riff patterns or bass lines making it too pronounced. Going to the lower end would have make it come off like Rottrevore's Iniquitous whose production is nowhere near good. Festering Earth clearly shows that Funerus is, as I have rightly read somewhere is a clear paradigm of old school death metal: Deep muddy sound that permanently resides in your guts.

Deist - Demo

Good lord its raining quality death metal on me for quite some time now! And I'm surely banging my head as Satan himself does in hell. Quite to my fortune this time it's Chicago based outfit Deist whose explosive demo has once again set my balls on fire with fiery brand of death metal and I certainly won't be sedated till I get my hands on their full length(Thinking about it now, its very unfortunate for me to satisfy myself with just two of their songs). Best part about their demo is that it's free. Yes, you read it right you hypocrite! It's free!

Quality over quantity seems to be their mindset. And I must add I've never seen anyone master this term more perfectly than the guys from Deist. With just two songs, clocking over 11 minutes from their demo, Deist have shown what they're capable of. At first hear, the unstoppable blasting amidst those mammoth riffs almost make them appear as Incantation worship band. But hang on, these guys aren't that shameless. They have their own tricks and the solo at 2.47 in Lost Aspiration almost forces you to die out of the orgasmic pleasure it gives. The demo showcases every ounce of their talent that hooks you up to a wild ecstasy that you only derive from when the dissonance of Immolation rhythm pattern meets otherwordly-kind-of dense bass sounds of Demilich and Gorguts.

Right now there's a resurgence of old school styled death metal as heard from Sinister, Vore, Excoriate, Revolting and Dead Congregation. And this is only a good thing, 'cause there has been enough of mass technical wankery of death metal for quite some time. Listening to the demo is like opening the floodgates of hell. And just like how the floodwaters gushes out strikingly in a cohesive flow, brutality and melody chart out their path hand in hand in the songs. Bloody good song structure is what I mean to say. Check out the demo and don't be surprised if you find the Grim Reaper himself headbanging beside you.


Hail The Resurgence!

This is Deist

Video: Abandoned Agony - Deformed

That Abandoned Agony 'terrorize, brutalize and sodomize' their audience in their high octane live shows is a fact that every Bangalore metalhead will give a nod to with their horns raised high up in the air. They've already replicated that energy on their demo 'Infected Unborn' even though I still prefer their live performance over studio acts. And now these guys are out with their first video of their song - Deformed.

Treated in a very noir-esque way, the video is very much in the likes of Cannibal Corpse video were the protaganist is always portrayed with immense distress while the antagonist is curiously missing from the scene. The acting of their former guitarist Kiran is quite funny to be honest. But then hats off to the guys for coming out with a true death metal video in the domestic metal scene.

Life is One Big Chasm

Hamano always had big words for Chasm. He almost seemed hysterical. Words of wild adulation flew out of his mouth as though he was possessed by an entity of another kind. I now envy that bastard for taking their first interview in over 5 years. Deathcult For Eternity : The Triumph. The album has finally showed me why Chasm turns your life upside down and changes your view on 'quality death metal acts'

There's no looking back for me now, I've already fallen into the Chasm.

Disma - The Vault Of Membros

For starters, Disma is the new project of Incantation and Funebrarum members. Yes, you read that right. Incantation and Funebrarum. Is the music nastily heavy as fuck? Hell yeah! When Craig Pillard, Daryl Kahan and Shawn Eldridge come together to make music after finishing crates of beer, they dont make nonsense. They churn out some crushing, straightforward old school laced death metal to show that these guys are still the front-runners of the burgeoning death metal scenes and not followers.

The Vault of Membros is their first demo release and you certainly won't be satisfied by listening to just three songs on the demo. Cleverly combining Funebrarum styled structures with Incantation's all out energy, Disma makes a strong impact in just 16 minutes of its listing. Disma's music is mostly melodic leadlines riding upon American styled frantic(which sometime tends to get too hasty) rhythm riffage, which makes the album an interesting hear. At time's the music sounds quite dense like in doom metal which suddenly caves in to rapid death metal blasting, as heard in Vault of Membros. Vocals is an interesting mix of Craig Pillard's low guttural with black metal styled background growl.

However this shouldn't allow you to mistake the band as a blackened death outfit 'cause these guys draw a clear line between black metal and death metal. Sometimes the song repeats excessively before moving on, and thats's minor glitch in the demo. Clocking them below 4 minutes instead of long 6 minutes, could've helped them sort this out. Nevertheless the demo pretty much shows Disma are a force to reckon with in the new uprising of OSDM and you sure can expect a hell lot of more skull-crushing beats from these guys in the future. Till then Vault of Membros awaits your honour.

Infected - Crawlspace

Yes, it sure is a mad world out there. Endless wars are being fought and endless lives are being lost, all without a greater reason. But then most of these people are victims of forces beyond their control. However the guys who chose to make music on these issues are not. Expressing all these thoughts in a unusual mix of industrial and death metal, Crawlspace is Aussie act Infected's remastered release of their second offering by the same name.

The hybrid of industrial and death elements in Crawlspace is unusual to a large extent. Mostly because the songwriting is not strong enough to incorporate industrial elements to a death metal structure. Also missing is the lack of direction in the album which is clearly evident when one notes the oddly timed tempo changes and cameo-role of guitar solos which come out of nowhere and leave without a trace as in tracks like Truthkill, Assimilate and Never. But as one proceeds in the album, one thing becomes clear Infected are pretty much in the vein of Fear Factory. Except the guys in Infected have a knack of playing at a milder pace than their well known counterparts.

First half of the album is played in a morbid style of death metal where the guitarist Mathew Jefferson belts out riff as though they're coming out of a maze without any sense of purpose and direction, aimlessly colliding with an equally raw sounding basslines from John Campbell. The keyboards and the clean vocals are definitely out of the place in the album which once again gives the feeling as though the whole purpose of the album;s existence seem out of place. Industrial element comes in the latter half of the album in Assimilate and Never and its very much like early Fear Factory. Needless to say the tracks are mostly listenable in their beginning until they complicate things by making things more technical and complex.

Lyrics are truly a strong point of the album and they almost have a poetic feel to it - 'Watch the honey drip from their tongues/It will turn to shit once they've won'. In fact the high sense of despair that carries along with the lyrics almost give it a very Kafkaesque edge to it. Sadly the music wasn't strong enough to guide in that direction and Infected have truly made a glorious asshole of themselves in the album. Approach it at your own risk.