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Bacteria13
Hatross Overlord
Joined: 30 Jan 2003
Posts: 2465
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 Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 8:13 pm Post subject: 2004 ALBUM ROUND UP part 3 |
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GOATSNAKE – TRAMPLED UNDER HOOF EP (SOUTHERN LORD RECORDS)
From the ashes of The Obsessed, Thorr’s Hammer and Burning Witch come Goatsnake, a Doom Metal quartet sludging round since ’99 with a couple of releases under their buckled belt - this EP follows their last full length, 2000’s ‘Flower of Disease’.
The Trouble with any given genre is that to the unbeliever it all sounds the same, and I guess you can say the same with Doom. Black Sabbath did it first, and in their wake came St. Vitus, Place of Skulls, Cathedral and Electric Wizard to name but a few. There are some who swear by Doom, saying it’s the true form of traditional Heavy Metal. I may disagree, and while not the world’s biggest Doom fan I can appreciate a good tune, and Goatsnake, it must be said, have many a good tune.
There are 5 tracks on this EP, 3 originals - ‘Portraits of Pain’, the thunderously heavy ‘Black Cat Bone’ and the ground-shaking ‘Juniors Jam’, as well as 2 covers; ‘Burial at Sea’ by Saint Vitus, and ‘Hot Rod’ by never-heard-of-them Black Oak Arkansas, with its hilarious southern drawl spoken intro. And unlike other stoner records this EP is actually produced, and 90% feedback free!
‘Trampled under Hoof’ is a perfect introduction to a genre baaaaaaaaaa-oth loved and misunderstood by Metal fans alike.
GOD DETHRONED – LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM (METAL BLADE RECORDS)
Holland’s God Dethroned (Hey DBC!) has been hitting the boards since 1991, and is lately making a name for themselves outside their native homeland. Playing a combo of melodic death and thrash metal, their sound should appeal to those who enjoy early Entombed, Dismember, Arch Enemy, Unleashed, etc. In fact, there is a distinct European sound to GD, almost Scandinavian, though not quite. I don’t know if Holland has its own ‘sound’ yet, has it?
Tracks range from the 6-minute plus imperial march of ‘Rusty Nails’ to the race-ya-to-the-finish ‘Nihilism’. This is solidly played Metal by a band at the peek of their game. If you are currently enjoying The Haunted’s new effort, the abysmally bad ‘rEVOLVEr’ then seek out ‘Lair of the White Worm’ immediately. This pisses all over the Swedes’ new album, folks, and shows how an in-your-face thrash/death album should sound like.
INSISION – REVEALED AND WORSHIPPED (WICKED WORLD/EARACHE RECORDS)
And speaking of Sweden, one band that isn’t slacking off is the face-shredding Insision, on this, their second full length album. Blistering in the extreme is how I’d describe R&W, laying down 11 tracks of brutal death metal in under 35-minutes. Echoes of early 90’s Swedish death are filtered throughout, with hints of classic bands such as Carnage circa 1990 and their carved-in-stone release, ‘Dark Recollections’.
‘No Belief’, ‘We did not come to heal’, ‘The foul smell of humans’; these are the tracks that are keeping the flag flying for noisy Swedish death metal, with zero hint of melody or catchiness in sight.
‘Revealed and Worshipped’ blew me away when I first heard it and still does after repeated listens. Good, brutal stuff.
Bacteria13.[/img]
Last edited by Bacteria13 on Thu Feb 03, 2005 8:38 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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