Guttural Secrete - Nourishing the Spoil

By Bryan Camphire. I saw Guttural Secrete perform Friday July 28th, 2017. They traveled from Las Vegas, Nevada to play the fourth annual Chicago Domination Fest. They came out of retirement more or less to play this gig plus a few select others.

By Bryan Camphire.

Cover art by Mike Hrubovcak.

I saw Guttural Secrete perform Friday July 28th, 2017. They traveled from Las Vegas, Nevada to play the fourth annual Chicago Domination Fest. They came out of retirement more or less to play this gig plus a few select others. Just like every movie you've ever seen where the protagonist comes out of retirement to do just one last ill-advised job against all odds, it was enormously entertaining to behold. Seeing these men play under a strobe light, it appeared that they all had twenty fingers on each hand. It was unreal. Having finally seen them perform live, I thought it high time this masterpiece of theirs, Nourishing the Spoil, got a little more praise, if only to fan the flames in hopes of more to come.

But first a few words about the form. Brutal death metal sets itself apart from other types of metal. The attire is different. You're unlikely to see a lot of leather jackets, jean vests, spikes and bullet belts when these groups play live. You'll see cargo shorts, sweats, band logos on socks and snapbacks ...and oh the band logos. If you were to start your own brutal death metal band, discussing its logo might sound like ordering hashbrowns at a Wafflehouse in the southern parts of the United States. You can get your logos scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, diced and topped. Album imagery is all gore and more gore, with a few exceptions. The style the bands play deviates from one another only slightly - at least on the surface. To me, it's almost like old-school punk in this sense: groups doing their thing, very happy to be a part of this scene, paying homage to their idols, showing deep respect within the community, and at the same time putting forth a fuck-all type of attitude towards the outside world as though we're all going to hell in a handbasket anyway.

Photo by Bryan.

The ethos is unique at a brutal death metal show. Bands are likely to talk about partying (read: imbibing of illicit substances) with such abandon that you'd be forgiven if you felt like you were in an episode of Wayne's World. The music is rife with riffs that are referred to as "slams", meaning, essentially, that they're - gulp - danceable. Moshing is highly encouraged. Moshing, that dance form that is so easily misunderstood as a machismo display of excess testosterone instead of what it really is, which is people losing themselves in music to a near trance-like extent that manifests itself as intensely physical. After all, women like moshing too. Also, crowd surfing happens, to add to the revery and abandon. Bands thank the audience for their energy. Singers are likely to jump into the pit. In these respects, a brutal death metal show has more in common with seeing a band like Fishbone than it does seeing a band like Portal. I think some of these reasons are, sadly, why more people don't seem to take brutal death metal seriously. But, on the other hand, perhaps it's best preserved as a well-kept secret among those in the know. The bands do seem to enjoy not taking themselves too seriously on certain levels anyway.

But then there's the music. It's technical. Unholy hellfire, is it technical. Guttural Secrete reign supreme in this regard. Since acquiring Nourishing The Spoil some four or five years ago, I've checked out more brutal death metal bands than I can count in hopes of finding some whose music can hold a candle to this record. There are but a precious few that I've been able to discover. One is Spain's Wormed. Another is Malta's Abysmal Torment. I saw yet another band open for Guttural Secrete the other night who hold a candle to them in terms of berserk level of songwriting skill. They're called Delusional Parasitosis. Man, I love that band name. The guitarist was wearing the same Guttural Secrete t-shirt I had on at the show. I had to buy one of their shirts out of respect. I digress. My point is that it's really ridiculously difficult to play the music that these guys play, and that bands who are able to do this with extreme finesse are few and far between. I feel like in the time it took Guttural Secrete to write and rehearse this album, they could have replicated painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Nourishing the Spoil is the telos of the brutal death metal sound.

Photo by Bryan.

The singing in brutal death metal can be thought of as the grain alcohol of metal vocals. It's overproof, and that's the whole point. It can knock you on your ass. This is yet another reason that brutal death metal is put on a shelf and ignored instead of closely examined to access its rich potential. Its not for the faint of heart. Mixed into just the right concoction, however, and this stuff can make for a transcendental experience. Fortunately, that's just what the Guttural Secrete does with their singing. It's beyond the pale, and for that reason it fits the tunes perfectly.

Listening to the songs on Nourishing the Spoil is akin to being dropped into the middle of a dark forest and having to fend your way outward with a machete. The tunes operate on their own logic, it's not one you're familiar with because it's unique unto itself. Only the most intrepid listeners will make it through this record unscathed. The sheer intensity of this music rips through you and eviscerates, like the obscene gore on the record's cover.

I have to admit I am a beginner to brutal death metal. Judging by talking to several wonderful people I met at the show, die hard fans seem to live this brutal lifestyle 24/7/365. Regardless of whether you approach this music as a casual listener or as a brutal death metal obsessive, you'll find that this record is in a class of its own. It's impossible to be indifferent to Nourishing the Spoil, and for that reason if nothing else, it deserves respect. Music this monstrous is not to be taken lightly.

Judas Iscariot - To Embrace the Corpses Bleeding

By Andy Curtis-Brignell. I discovered my 'thing' pretty late. Not that, don't be stupid - I'm referring to the virulent notion that there's SOMETHING you're supposed to do with your life. Normally caught some time before 'career goals' replace 'I want to be an astronaut' but after you stop believing in Santa

By Andy Curtis-Brignell.


I discovered my 'thing' pretty late. Not that, don't be stupid - I'm referring to the virulent notion that there's SOMETHING you're supposed to do with your life. Normally caught some time before 'career goals' replace 'I want to be an astronaut' but after you stop believing in Santa, children experience this illness chiefly in temporary fads and phases, but, like polio, sometimes it fucks you up for life. Black Metal was my thing, and I caught it late, at 15. Judas Iscariot were in the first crop of 5-10 black metal bands I ever heard, and 15 years on I'm still feeling the effects of this exposure.

The man behind Judas Iscariot, Andrew Harris, seems to have caught it early, putting out the project's first demo in 1992, particularly when one considers that most of the black metal albums we consider genre defining hadn't been made yet. In this sense, Harris was perfectly positioned at the nexus of the burgeoning black metal culture, and this is reflected in Judas Iscariot's music. Black Metal, or at least its original iterations, can generally be identified by region sonically – the descending chord progressions and melancholic chill of Scandinavian black metal; the awkward timing and ascending nodes of French and Benelux black metal; the bass heavy and percussive South American scene, and so on. Harris combined these elements in various forms at different points in Judas Iscariot's discography, but on To Embrace the Corpses Bleeding, the final Judas Iscariot full length, he finally presents his unified vision and immediately withdraws from the scene in the liner notes of the CD. How bold, how dramatic, how enfant terrible! That this is a self-reflexive move is beyond doubt – this is 'gaze on my works ye mighty and despair' territory.

Where previous albums seemed to be challenges to other bands or movements - see Distant in Solitary Night's precise, metronomic deconstruction of post-Transilvanian Hunger Darkthrone and Heaven in Flames' two fingered salute to Emperor's speed and synthesizers – To Embrace... is both varied and unified. It also has the most consistent and effective sound production of Harris's entire career, the warmth and fat tone of the rhythm section presenting an elegant juxtaposition against the icebound guitar and vocals – the music was written in the USA and the lyrics in Romania and Germany, and you can feel the old world and the new straining against one another. This, along with the artwork lifted from Dore's Ancient Mariner engravings, makes perfect sense when one considers Harris's immediate relocation to Europe following the completion of the Moonlight Butchery EP the same year as this album. His last works before escaping into solitude speak of dislocation, isolation – a perfect soundtrack for the vast ocean Harris would cross both personally and musically. However this is no forlorn retreat. From the liner notes to the strident song titles which proclaim 'In the Valley of Death, I am their King', this is the king withdrawing to his mountain, not the creature crawling beneath it. The overt fatalism of Dethroned, Conquered and Forgotten two years before feels a million miles away. This might be the end, but it brings with it the winds of Ragnarok – maybe not a bang, but certainly not a whimper.

Demigod - Slumber of Sullen Eyes

By Autothrall. Along with the similarly-named Demilich, Demigod represent exactly 1/2 of the best Finnish death output of the 90s. Slumber of Sullen Eyes is an album of remarkable depth for 1992, incorporating somber melodies and atmosphere into its base brutality.

An Autothrall Classic. Originally published here.

Cover art by Rob Smits

Along with the similarly-named Demilich, Demigod represent exactly 1/2 of the best Finnish death output of the 90s. Slumber of Sullen Eyes is an album of remarkable depth for 1992, incorporating somber melodies and atmosphere into its base brutality. This band has never disappointed me, but I still identify most strongly with their roots, fusing deep, Floridian-influenced death metal grooves with cosmic and mystical themes.

A brief intro erupts into the searing "As I Behold I Despise", with a basic if killer riff transforming into a groove reminiscent of Bolt Thrower. Of note is the lengthy bridge segment where the bands becomes highly atmospheric, adding melodies and tasteful leads. "Dead Soul" crushes with a thrashing low-end riff over steady double bass rhythms, again the groove recalls early Bolt Thrower (and maybe a little Dismember on this tune) but capitalized on its use of leads to create a progressive edge for its day. "The Forlorn" opens with an excellent riff, dual guitar harmonies creating a classic death hammering which alternates with a shifting groove. "Tears of God" is a death/doom piece with scarce use of synths to add a layer of atmosphere above its tireless and frightening groove and step. The title track has an air of Pestilence in its chords and composition, one of the most enduring tracks on this release. The remainder of the tracks are all good, with special attention to the bass strumming of "Fear Obscures from Within" and the excellent descending rhythm of "Towards the Shrouded Infinity".

Lifeless are their minds
In the embrace of death
In infinity awakened souls
Shall remain forlorn
The journey through eternities
Mists and blackened skies
I became the one
Beyond all mortal purity

One gets the feeling listening to Slumber of Sullen Eyes that it was very much ahead of its time. While it's not an entirely unique experience, it does use its own influences to set the stage for much to come over the next decade. Brutal and percussive, there was plenty to appeal towards the pit population, yet the material is much deeper. Finland never developed a death metal scene in the 90s to rival that of neighbors Sweden, but Demigod was certainly worthy, and they remain so even if we don't hear from them as often as we might like.

Note: The version of Slumber of Sullen Eyes available on the Metalhit Bandcamp is the 2006 remaster featuring 4 bonus tracks.

Deceased - Supernatural Addiction

An Autothrall Classic. Fearless Undead Machines (1997) was a pretty good horror metal concept album, from one of Americas best old school advocates Deceased, but three years later they would

An Autothrall Classic. Originally published here.

Cover art by Allen Koszowski

Fearless Undead Machines (1997) was a pretty good horror metal concept album, from one of Americas best old school advocates Deceased, but three years later they would trump that release with the more melodic, classic metal tinge of Supernatural Addiction, which I consider to be the band's strongest work to date. If you're a fan of the band's earlier, heavier work, fear not, because the primal death/thrash metal roots are abundant. But the injection of pure 80s inspired NWOBHM melodies into the mix adds a depth to the writing which simply did not exist in large quantities prior to this.

Deceased 2011. Photo by Metal Chris

Like the cover art implies, the focus of this album is to celebrate the more cerebral, psychological side of horror than the visceral corruption covered on Fearless Undead Machines. The writings of Poe, the classic ghost story, the dark black and white horror of silent film, all of these are inherent influences which translate well into the lyrics. "The Premonition" is a driving track with some soaring if haunting melodies, and King's Venom-like voice is at its peak, mixed in extremely well with the rhythm guitars and leads. "Dark Chilling Heartbeat" has a pair of fine, winding leads to intro the shuffling, somber tone of the obvious tribute to Poe's Telltale Heart. "A Very Familiar Stranger" is a raging roadster based on The Hitchhiker. Other excellent tracks on the album include the blistering "Frozen Screams", the morose and beautiful "Doll With the Hideous Spirit", and the fright fest "Chambers of the Waiting Blind".

Deceased 2011. Photo by Metal Chris

Six days and still they starve him as they offer mercy none,
For the hate it brews within them from his past,
In his body there is panic as he senses dread approaching,
He starts screaming for this torture ride to end

Like some of the past records, Supernatural Addiction uses a different sort of lyrical approach from the typical metal album; where the words simply speak the narrative of each tale, organized into a rough approximation of verse and chorus. I wouldn't call them poetic so much as a death metal Rod Serling sitting by the fireplace, recounting visions of the macabre. The mix of this album is simply unmatched by anything else in the history of the band, and like its predecessor, each track is loaded with a slew of riffs to explore. Few artists can balance such an excellent array of influences as King Fowley and crew, thus Supernatural Addiction winds up another cult classic for the ages. Whether you enjoy the pioneering thrash/death metal sounds of Possessed or Venom, or the more melodic NWOBHM/power/speed metal of the 80s, this album has many a moment for you. While I have never found any of their albums to be perfect, they are easily one of the more consistent metal bands of the past 20 years.



Note: You can find more Deceased on Bandcamp. A remastered version of their 1991 debut Luck of the Corpse from Horror Pain Gore Death Productions. And their latest full-length, 2011's Surreal Overdose, from Patac Records.

Tribulation - The Formulas of Death

Review by Andy Osborn.

Cover art by Jonathan Hultén

There are a few different types of truly great albums. There’s the ones that initially fly under the radar until dozens of repeat listens reveal their power and significance. There are some that are so ahead of their time that their greatness isn’t realized until years later. And then there are albums that blow you away from the very beginning and you cherish each new second as the recording enters your ears for the first time. This is one of those albums. It’s so good that I’ve been listening to it on a regular basis for six months and have only now been able to put my feelings about it into words. In fact, every time I’ve sat down to write about this record I’ve been so engrossed and distracted by the music that words just seems to escape me.

The relatively dormant Swedes begin their second full-length with the rare instance of an intro track that’s worth listening to. Eschewing ambient noise or the hyper-orchestral build-up, “Vagina Dentata” sounds like a fully realized song sans vocals, plus it has a name that would make any person uncomfortably cross their legs if thought about too much. It sets up the following 70+ minutes flawlessly by presenting the band’s distinct style in an easy to understand burst of energy. One thing to keep in mind is that Tribulation have no qualms about infusing and contorting death metal to the point where it’s almost unrecognizable. This is because the band takes an anything-goes approach to the genre, forging a path in a world rife with maps and pre-defined routes.

The Formulas of Death is anything but. There isn't a single death metal cliche to be found; no gore-obsessed lyrics paired with a guitar tuned to one of the first three letters of the alphabet, and no HM-2 buzzsaw tone or early ‘90s bandwagon hopping. In fact, the simple term Extreme Metal would be the best descriptor to avoid a mass of hyphenated adjectives and subgenre nit-pickery. And Tribulation know the key to extremity lies not in riffs and blasts that scream at the listener to realize how heavy they are, it's rather subtlety and intrigue that draws and holds attention. Destructively catchy riffs are as fleeting as they are numerous as the quintet cycle through a seemingly endless arsenal of head-bangable weaponry.

“Suspiria” is the mid-album, mid-tempo highlight, marking the first time the band has reached into double-digits. It plods through with an impressive groove held up with leads that range from the quietly ominous to bombastically melodic, holding your attention for the next slight turn or sonic deviation. Its almost symmetrical execution shows just why the Arvika natives are such good songwriters; they evolve and add nuance to the song without adding too much experimentation to leave the listener bored. Every song is a highlight in its own way and it’s clear that souls at the very least were signed away to achieve such otherworldly inspiration. Like the first track on the release, the instrumental interludes of the Silent Hill-like “לילה” - Hebrew for “night” - and “Ultra Silvam” aren’t unwelcome and instead add a sense of depth and clarity to the band’s overall mission.

Less thrash-focused than their debut and at more than twice the length, The Formulas of Death is an unusual example of the sophomore self-discovery record that completely transforms a band and launches them to greatness. Its varying styles and nuanced structure provide a hefty dose of vitality into the Swedish death metal scene while launching it into a new era. An era that will be heralded and defined by this release.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Cssaba - Underground Lo-Fi Songs

Review by Majbritt Levinsen.


So a mail landed in my mailbox telling me a 'new' album from Cssaba was available on bandcamp. As I am a curious person I had to go hear what it was all about. I hit play without any pre-conceptions and the first track "Nails" from the album Underground Lo-Fi Songs started to fill my headphones with a dark industrial beat and atmosphere that lead my first thoughts to NIN. As the track progressed I couldn't help thinking that this was a weird combination of NIN, Locrian and Terra Tenebrosa, but in a dark ambient industrial version.

This is experimental ambient industrial black metal and according to the little info I have been able to dig up, this is a one man band from Poland with Michał "Nihil" Kuźniak behind it all. The album Underground Lo-Fi Songs was originally release in December 2012, but is now made available for download on Bandcamp by Metalhit.

I don’t know why this album appeals to me as it does, as it isn’t really anything I listen to normally as this is way too industrial for my likings. But there is something in the almost droning background ambience, the repeated beats, the dark sounds and the chanting vocal that somehow manages to keep me interested, and a strange calm finds itself in me. "To The Moon" is a perfect example of this.

The tracks all have the same atmosphere, mood and offer little variation in regards to pace, which holds this album together just perfectly. One would maybe think the tracks and the entire album were on the more monotone side of songwriting, but I like the straightforward no-nonsense drive the songs have.

Well if you are up to something different, this is it!

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Enthroned - Obsidium

Review by Natalie Zina Walschots. Originally published here by Exclaim.


Prolific Belgian black metal band Enthroned have been active since 1993. Obsidium is their ninth studio album, in addition to EPs and a live CD; it is also their first with Agonia records, after recently parting ways with Regain. The black metal here is as spiky and strident as an ill-tempered demon. The vast majority of the record blazes ahead at an extremely fast pace, only rarely pulling back to a mid-tempo grind to gather momentum and explore some crawling, ominous tones before galloping off again.

Enthroned have developed a good, slightly raw, underground sound, with just enough of a filthy buzz around the edges of the guitar. There were also thought and care placed into Obsidium's production, giving the vocals a great, undead-sounding rattle and the drums an icicle-shaking chill. The record is filled with complex, memorable songs that draw their strength from a very natural flow and narrative progression. Each song is a distinct musical entity, from the swelling conjuration of "Horns Aflame" to the mournful, eerie "Oblivious Shades."

Obsidium is a work of black metal that values good songwriting and strong musical structures, but resists the impulse to add any heavily melodic, symphonic or experimental elements. Instead, Enthroned have chosen to focus on the best that black metal inherently has to offer, with excellent results.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Acrimonious - Sunyata

Review by Andy Osborn.

Artwork by Kyle Fite

The geographical shift in the propagation of black metal has changed drastically over the past three decades. And while all genres of music see trends in hot spots all across the world, bm’s movement has been particularly interesting. After its beginnings in England, the Nordic second wave took over and held the title as the blasphemic epicenter of the world for a solid 10+ years. As their southern neighbors caught on and the North Americans caught up, waves of fantastic darkness fanned out across the globe. In recent years there’s been an explosion in the USBM scene, with the French and Germans also steadily outputting hundreds out worthy purveyors. But for my money, Greece is currently spewing forth the most interesting mix of blackened acts.

Little surprise that a country experiencing so much turmoil has been lashing out with pissed-off extreme music; an economy in ruins and a vast mistrust of the government is the perfect breeding ground for such passionate exhortations. What Rotting Christ started more than 20 years ago, a horde of young guns have been carrying forward with a plethora of fantastic releases; Ravencult’s Morbid Blood is one of my favorite thrashened attacks, and last year’s debut from Hail Spirit Noir was a powerfully unique album. Which brings us to the newest release from Acrimononious, a band whose decade of existence has seen releases few and far between.

I almost passed on this album, assuming from the trippy cover art that it was just another drugged-out Electric Wizard clone. But upon learning the group shares members in common with American psychotics Nightbringer it piqued my interest. And what the quintet offers forth is a fascinating foray into thinking-man’s black metal. Falling somewhere between the psychedelic and progressive spectrum of things, these Greeks spew forth lengthy attacks of mind-fuckery with their bipolar verses. Some passages are drawn on for minutes, others stop on a dime and contort themselves into territory as familiar as guitar solos or as confounding as Gregorian-style group chants. Drawing on lyrics from global mythologies, Acrimonious doesn’t deal in your cliché Christ-bashing and seem to have more in common with the philosophy of Nile than that of Watain.

Sunyata is a tough one to digest, the eight tracks take some getting use to as the band’s style is more concerned with creating whole pieces of art rather than a few short interesting hooks or choruses. With a riffing style similar to latter-day Belphegor the album isn’t wholly unfamiliar to those with a taste for extreme metal, but it sits on the palate as quite the oddity for the first few listens. But as you reach the final few songs, Acriomnious’ talent become immediately apparent. “Vitalising the Red-Purple in Asher-Zemurium” is the definite highlight of the album, conjuring up a Marduk-like groove with a vortex of a melody that will get stuck in your cranial box. The sophomore release is a powerful one, with no slump to be found and the sort of attitude that shows creative masterminds at their best. If only a country’s debt could be paid for in high quality black metal, Greece’s debt crises would be solved.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Spotlight: Metalhit

Digital distributor Metalhit has opened a Bandcamp where there's currently 147 albums available from their catalog, all for the low price of $4.95! In one fell swoop Metalhit have managed to vastly improve your metal life on Bandcamp, and also make it more complicated. Allow me to explain. The good things are obvious: Lots of great albums for a very fair price, most of which haven't been available on Bandcamp before. It's the albums that already are available on Bandcamp that complicates things a little.

Take Sunyata by Greek black metallers Acrimonious. Available on Metalhit for $4.95, and on the Agonia Records Bandcamp for $9.99. Same thing with releases from other labels, you can often find them cheaper on the Metalhit Bandcamp. But also the opposite: The Womb Beyond The World, funeral doom by The Howling Void released by Solitude Productions, and available for $4, and off course for $4.95 from Metalhit. And the excellent black metal demo from Hellige, which Metalhit sells for the usual price, is available as a free download from the Hellige Bandcamp! So if you're interested in the best deal for an album, it sometimes pay to be diligent and search Bandcamp to see what is available.

I'm featuring four albums from the Metalhit catalog. The first two are releases from last year that I have been eagerly awaiting to see released on Bandcamp, the last two examples of the breath of excellent albums Metalhit has made available. Anhedonist - Netherwards combines forlorn majestic doom and grotesque death as Atanamar Sunyata puts it, and he continues:

Reverberant clean guitar lines bleed into rivers of molten magma and then rush into torrents of raging death. The guitars sprawl out across the stereo field, filling a cavernous soundscape with spine-chilling repartee. The drums are as judiciously dynamic as the songs, keeping modest time in moments of mire, stepping on the pedals for acceleration and bringing the animalistic fury when called upon.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Deus Otiosus - Godless is death metal from Denmark, with distinct tunes and a knack for not sounding like all the other death metal bands. The mighty Autothrall explains:

The meaty, clear riffing patterns offer a hybrid of dark West Coast thrash like Slayer or Possessed and steadier death metal grooves from the 90s, threaded with tremolo picked passages that betray a hint of a Swedish black/death metal influence. Often there will be eruptions of more uptempo melodies you might expect of Deceased (as in "Cast from Heaven"), but they can also creep along with a cleaner, less crushing death/doom aesthetic.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Aosoth - III is an example of French black metal when it is best. Not much more needs to be said really, but That's How Kids Dies waxed poetically about the album:

Simply put, III is a pitch-black womb of distortion, inviting you to crawl deep inside and die. The album seethes and lurches; the maw of the great abyss opens wide, yawning your demise. Its atmosphere recalls Aosoth’s French black metal brethren such as Deathspell Omega, but Aosoth’s approach is less frenzied and angular, more deliberate and methodical. III also defies black metal convention by possessing crushing levels of low end; there is a eerie, droning ambience that pervades the entire album, adding to its mesmerizing qualities and tapping into something deeply primal, the rotten blackness that lies at the core of all human life, the capacity for unspeakable evil.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Skepticism - Stormcrowfleet from 1995 is considered one of the albums that gave birth to the funeral doom genre. I haven't had time to listen to the entire album yet, but a string of very positive reviews on Metal Archives has piqued my interest. There seems to be an ancient beauty here, one that you can see and hear, but are forbidden to touch. - this sounds like the kind of funeral doom I could easily loose myself in.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]