Fangs Of Necrodivine Harmony
MERCYLESS- The Mother Of All Plagues [Xenokorp 2020]
More brutal Death Metal than crunchy Thrashyness from this French band nowadays. That isn’t all bad, there are groove, hooking riffs and slaying leads, punishing rhythms and an overall great intensity and powerful growls and a ripping production. Overall a good Death Metal album!
http://www.chez.com/macprod/pages/chmerc.html
GRAVEWÃœRM “Funeral Rites” [Funeral Empire Records]
Good old GRAVEWÃœRM is back, with a vengeance once again, a fistful of Thrashing Black/Death Metal, as we’ve been used to since 1992. “Funeral Rites” is the 16th full length album, if I haven’t counted wrong, since the first full length attack and killer album “Ancient Storms Of War” – and I don’t even dare to start counting how many releases Funeral Grave is behind since the inception of the band in 1992!
Musically midpaced to a tad slower abominations of Doomy Thrashing Black/Death as alreay stated, with a nice slap of epic moments built in, the vocals are strong, the riffing catching and perfect for headbanging, good drumming and pace control and good songwriting, classic pummeling and arsekicing GRAVEWÃœRM!
https://gravewurm.bandcamp.com/album/funeral-rites-2020-album
I drank this beer, while writing the review: Dry & Bitter “Nights Of The Realm” Black Double Ipa
In this modern internet age things tend to move fast if the stars are aligned. I received an email with a video track from a new Dutch band’s first demo, I gave it a listen and liked it, I responded to the email and a little week later received the demo on CD – gave it some spins and a review, and now a week later, I am ready to present a small interview with the mastermind behind DEGENERATE, Rens, who willingly answered all my curious questions. DEGENERATE delivers a powerful display of groovy and hardhitting Thrash delivered with a feel of the 80ties Speed/Thrash Metal scene, done in a modern, but not too sterile manner.
Hi guys, please start of by introducing yourself and tell us, how you ended up in the path of Metal?
Hi, I’m Rens. I’m 28 years old and I live near Amsterdam. I’m the founder of DEGENERATE and I am responsible for writing and recording most of the band’s music. On “Demo 2016” I did all guitars and vocal parts myself.
Ever since I was a child I always had a passion for hard and aggressive music. I started to get interested in metal because I listened to mainstream Rock bands like SLIPKNOT, THE OFFSPRING and METALLICA. I was introduced to their music through pirated tapes and by watching MTV. Later on, while growing up in the late 90’s, the internet was at your fingertips and I broadened my horizons. It was then when I found out that there is so much more beautiful music both Metal and non-Metal as well.
DEGENERATE is a quite new entity, how was the band started?
After a decade of touring with various bands as a session guitarist and merchandise seller, I decided to throw a different approach. At the end of 2015 it was time for me to start my own band and not long after I met Melle Kramer, a big name in the Dutch scene as it comes to technical Death Metal drumming. I decided to show him my ideas and I noticed that he was very excited about it. And not more than four weeks later we already started to record the demo.
As it is now the band is a duo, are there plans to get a full line-up, do some gigs etc?
Yes, the feedback on our “Demo 2016” has been great so far. People really seem to like it and want to hear more. Currently we work on new songs and on a massive line up for the band. I hope to do some gigs before the end of the year.
You released your first demo “Demo 2016” a little while ago, how has it so far been received by the mad Metal crowd?
It’s going really great, some quite awesome publications from all over the world write very positive articles and reviews about our music. It’s so great to have this type of feedback on your work, it only makes you want to work even harder than you did before.
Did the music and the recording turn out as you had planned, is “demo 2016” the perfect expression of DEGENERATE?
Yes and no. I took the time to get the production exactly how I wanted it to be. So in that case you hear the perfect expression of how DEGENERATE wants to sound. But now a few months after the release, I start to hear what we’ve could have done differently. I guess it’s part of the process of growing as a musician. I think you always should be honest and critical to yourself if you want to grow musically. So that’s what I did, I think you can expect some slight differences in the upcoming material.
When you started the band, what did you then have in mind and what can we expect from you and the band in the future?
The only thing I wanted to do is to make the best record I was capable of and that’s what I did. I am therefore very glad and proud that I have released this demo and now I want to gig the hell out of this material and play the best shows I am capable of.
Where do you find inspiration when writing music and what do you want to give us, with your music?
I find my inspiration in science, spiritually and personal affairs. I guess you can
summarize that as in life itself. And the audience can expect some fucking great music that I like myself!
I guess you also are writing the lyrics, what topics do you touch, and how important are the lyrics to the comcept of DEGENERATE?
The lyrics are as important as the rest of the package. The words have to fit the feel of the songs and vice versa. The topics we’ve touched in our lyrics are the same as those that inspire me in real life. These mainly are: science, spiritually and personal affairs. But I like to write the lyrics in a poetic way so that everyone can project their own feelings on to what they hear.
What should we read out from the band name DEGENERATE?
Whatever someone feels to it. There are no political or ideology thoughts behind this name.
What five albums have you been listening a lot to lately?
CHILDREN OF BODOM – “Hate breeder”
MEGADETH – “Peace sells”
W.A.S.P – “W.A.S.P”
IN FLAMES – “Clayman”
VEKTOR – “Terminal Redux”
Thanks a ton for answering my questions, and I am looking forward to hearing more music from your hands, and if you have anything to add, feel free to add it now!
Thank you for this interview, there will be more DEGENERATE in the future, like us on Facebook and you will find out when its there.
Ares Kingdom – Incendiary (Nuclear War Now! Productions 2010)
I don’t really recall when I got into ARES KINGDOM. I have been a huge fan of ORDER FROM CHAOS since I first laid ears upon them many many years ago. The mighty Chuck Keller knows his way around obscure and thrashy riffing that latches on, and stays in the head long after the last chord has died. I was along the line also caught in the web of VULPECULA, and really miss the madness and mysticism that band possessed. Mike Miller was controlling the backbone in ORDER FROM CHAOS very straight on, a bit sloppy at times, though it shows that, that is his style, to make it sound a tad sloppy, but still powerful and to the point, you sometimes think he’ll lose the beat, but it never happens. I’m pretty sure ARES KINGDOM was my first encounter with Alex Blume, the harsh and intense growler, always making the eerie and sinister output sounding just a bit more evil, he later on roamed in BLASPHEMIC CRUELTY together with another hero of mine Gene Palubicki, mostly know from the mighty ANGEL CORPSE, a band that also derived of ORDER FROM CHAOS, showcasing Pete Helmkamp. And last but not least, when speaking of ARES KINGDOM, Doug Overby who have been handling the rhythm guitars from the very beginning of the band, and he does that quite well, as the rhythm is the driving force of this monster of a thrashy Death Metal band.
I was approached up to the release of “Incendiary” back in 2010, when it was about to be released I reckon, and of course I would like to do a review etc. with one of the bands that I adored. Then entered writer’s block, work, girl trouble and all that continued way too long, I even got tired of the Metal scene and all that roamed in it along the way, and didn’t listen to much Metal for a good while, except the sporadic review for Voices From The Dark Side.
I have begun to love Metal again, the scene somewhat, I am taking that in small bites. The cure for writers block is loud music, beer and icecold cheap whiskey, the women, well, don’t get me started on that one. Work still takes too much time, though I’m taking time to listen and tell the world about good music anyways, that is how it should be, and that is why I have dusted off this old piece of Death Metal, because it is still damned good today, and a perfect treat to accompany beer and icecold cheap whiskey.
Classic thrashy Death Metal riffs delivered at a steady not too fast pace, to an almost doomy pummeling, driving all in its way deep down in the ground, solid base rhythms, topped with the catchy guitarriffs and leads, and an aggressive bass. The vocals from Blume, a snarled and angry growl, frustrated and evil, pure grimness, that fits the sinister world of the band perfectly.
The production is nice dusty and old school, organic and gives the instruments their needed space to act with full force, the stretched riffing, nice airy drum sound and the guitar leads that fill the sound picture when they hit it off with brilliancy. A production fitting the overall arcane and dark, slight mysterious, atmosphere that surrounds this album, and the music of the band generally.
I guess you already have this album in your collection, if not, what the fuck is wrong with you man? I thought you said you liked Death Metal?
And soon to be released should be ARES KINGDOM’s newest output “VENERATION”, a tribute album to the roots of the band, together with a new version of ‘Celestial’ from the VULPECULA days and a version of ‘Oblivion’ from NEPENTHE where Blume roamed before ARES KINGDOM was formed. I am especially looking forward to listening to those 2, but well, also the rest of the album, and even more to new material, whenever that unearths.
http://www.ares-kingdom.com/Â http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ares-Kingdom/97935152280
IMPIOUS BAPTISM – V.A.N.D.A. (Ordo MCM)
This is my first encounter with the Australian horde IMPIOUS BAPTISM, a band consisting of J of, just to mention a few, SITHLORD, DESTRÖYER 666 and HOBB’S ANGEL OF DEATH, a man that have been somewhat around as an armageddon drummer and bringer of warfare. He is now ready with his own entity and the first of 3 releases, so far, this year.
Read the rest of the review @ Voices From The Darkside