Lords of Procrastination: The Ketchup Post

Metal Night has been going on successfully for a little over a year, just a couple of dudes getting together every Monday Night for a few drinks and heavy tunes. I started this blog in March of last year, writing down our(actually mine) observations about the albums. For a while, it was just a review blog, and about 6 months ago, Demon Scourge started the chronicle of our netherworld world adventures. Well, writing about all that is time consuming, so inevitably we got really behind, since we all have lives and actual girlfriends who need attention and at least one of us has a real job. But, being tired of procrastination purgatory, it's time to catch up, so we are just going to blurb a bit about all these albums we listened to in a the past few weeks.

Bands With Battle In Their Name by Demon Scourge

Battleroar- To Death and Beyond-This album was winner of the night. Greece was been home to a real power metal revival during the last decade and Battleroar were the leaders of the crusade. With song titles like “The Wrathforge” and “Warlord of Mars” you know right away what’s in store. From atmospheric intro to the last blast of power in the song “Death Before Disgrace”  Battleroar did not disappoint. Lyrically, all the PM bases are covered. Battle songs (the aforementioned album closer), paeans to metal brotherhood (Born in the 70’s, Metal from Hellas), and fantasy epics (Dragonhelm, every other song). Musically, they represent a heavy speed metal vibe with tons of dynamics and some nice violin during the quieter passages. Encyclopedia Metallum lists them as being active but this album, released in 2008, represents their last recorded output.


Battle Ram-Smash the Gates - Classic NWOBHM throwback metal. Think Priest and Dianno-era Maiden. Compentent, if a bit forgettable. I loved it but the less PM inclined (Bloodmace) found it to be lackluster.


Battlerage-Steel Supremacy-Orthodox trad metal from Chile. Good crunchy riffage and tasty dual guitar work made this one a contender. They have since gone on to put out three more well received full lengths
....................................................................................................................................................................
Florida Death Metal Part 2 by Bloodmace

Nocturnus- The Key- One of the greatest death metal albums of all time, though atypical of the style, pre-dating symphonic black metal in its use of keyboards, but applied much more tastefully. A blistering speedball death metal album with a blasphemous sci-fi lyrical take. BC?AD is a nice little ditty about building a time machine to go back and kill the baby Jesus. My vote for the night.



Morbid Angel- Covenant My second favorite Morbid Angel album is also their most commercially successful. There are some surprisingly warm tones coming from the crushing guitar attack. The second half is when the album really destroys with doomy riffs and ambient passages.

Atheist- Unquestionable Presence-This album is the ground zero tech death album. Musicianly, jazzy without getting up its own ass, a little thrashy, the riffs confusing you as they rip you to shreds. Nearly perfect, but I voted for Nocturnus. Everyone else dug this album more. But I am the Judgement Of Metal Night, so fuck those bitches.
...................................................................................................................................................................
Some Random Shit by Demon Scourge

Chastain-Ruler of the Wastelands- While they didn’t take home any prizes, I can find nothing wrong with Chastain’s brand of 80’s D&D metal. Great solos, great classic metal vocals by the underappreciated Leather Leone and tons of quality songwriting. If you have any interest in classic power metal, Chastain is an essential part of your education.

Agent Steel-Unstoppable Force - Yep. this is my jam. There will be no discussion about this album's merits or fawning prose praising its mighty metallic vision.Listen to it now. Agent Steel fucking rules, that is all.   

Stormwitch-Walpurgis Night-Great Running Wild-inspired heavy metal. Had these guys gone against anyone but the Agent, this would have been THE album that night.

Leatherwolf-S/T - Leather-fucking-wolf. That's a name. Famous for having a triple guitar attack, and the first riff of 'spitter' really jams the shit out of that three part harmony. Hard night to judge for me as I love some tough glam but, again, the Steel is a tough act to follow.
......................................................................................................................................................................
DEATH DEATH DEATH by Bloodmace
Cryptopsy-Once was Not-One of the masterpieces of extreme blasting death metal. Almost a math metal album, but achieves its aims through alchemy instead of trigonometry. Once you make it through the din, this album just keeps rewarding, as you discover some new musical impossibility each time. This is a drummers band. Winner of the night.


Catacomb-In the Maze of Kadeth demo-Perfectly blasting French death metal. Nice doomy tones, reminicent of early Paradise Lost, . Good production for a demo. Many Lovecraft references. No distinctive songs, just good creepy grooves and atmosphere.


Bolt Thrower-The IVth Crusade-I love Bolthrower. I love bands who stay the same, whose musical rewards are subtlety devastating, whose only major stylistic change in 20 years is that they uptuned the guitars after their 5th or 6th album.. This is a band about tone and taste. You can taste the tone as the blood gurgles up from your spleen. Mammoth riff after mammoth riff bowl you over like Panzers, like war elephants. A very blunt instrument; almost a one trick pony, but what a mighty steed that pony is. This is just another one of their albums, though.
.......................................................................................................................................................................
More Random Shit by Bloodmace

Confessor's 1st-A true oddity from the early 90's. An off kilter doom prog concoction. Fate's Warning type vocal shrieks set to doom riffs, to the accompaniment of crazy, odd metered drumming that sometimes sounds like it was not even played in the same building as the rest of the band.

Death-Human-This is Demon Scourge's favorite Death album, and my 4th fav, one of my favorite bands. This album marks the beginning of their tech death phase. It is a jumble of difficult riffs mashed together with a vicious attack. The songs are not quite cohesive, though, which they perfected on the next album, Individual Though Patterns. But there are plenty of killer riffs and rhythms to delve into, making this a good album to come back to.

Forced Entry- As Above, So Below-One of the last great pure thrash albums of the original era. Released in the early 90's, this is a great collection of solid thrash. The guitar player shines above all else, soloing and riffing in the best Megadeth tradition, but retaining a sound all his own. Great album. Too bad this was released during the waning days of thrash, as it would have received much more attention 5 years earlier. Winner of the night, I think. We drank alot.

Florida Death Metal!!!!!!

There used to be this game that they would play on the Howard Stern Show for cash and prizes. Contestants would have to guess whether some heinous and sick crime took place in Florida or Germany. Is it any coincidence that both places are hotbed of metal? Probably.

But back in the late 80's/early 90's, Florida was a hotbed of what Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth called 'crazy satan metal'. He was referring to the death metal scene emanating from Tampa and Morrisound Studios. Bands like Death, Morbid Angel, Obituary, Deicide, and many others forged a new sound from the ashes of thrash metal; heavier, faster, and in some ways simpler, with lyrics focused primarily on death and occult themes. It was the craziest thing going at the time, rivaled only by the grindcore scene happening in England. It's still sounds no less caustic than it did 20 years ago. So here are a few of the many classic albums to came out of that scene.

Obituary's 1990 opus 'Cause Of Death' is one of the heaviest motherfucking albums ever released. It is a propulsion of molten riff after molten riff at varying tempos, from sick slow crawl to blast beats of skull crushing righteousness. The addition of guitar hero James Murphy in this line-up propels the win on this album into the stratosphere, his leads adding just the right touch of melody and virtuosity. Vocalist John Tardy is one of the best death growlers who ever walked on a planet. His voice conjures Satan and everything that is evil; a thick, deep chortle, almost scat-like in it's approach. This album even features a killer cover of Celtic Frost's "Circle of the Tyrants", Frost being this band's logical progenitor. But as good as this album is, it comes in a very close second to the next earthshaker.

Death's classic 'Leprosy' album is clearly the heaviest album of 1988, which was a fantastic year for metal. I would rank this album as heavier (if not greater) than Slayer's 'South of Heaven'. It may be the heaviest album of the 20th century. Nothing sounded like this in '88. Even their previous and primitive 'Scream Bloody Gore' cannot compare. The combination of brute force, technicality with an eye for melody, and intelligently frightening lyrics make this album a classic. Riff after riff just bowls you over, pummels you into submission. It actually leaves you physically exhausted, bringing you one step closer to, well, death. The only small criticism I could make it that the drum sound is weird and a bit compressed, though it actually works well on a few songs. But this is a tiny complaint, as Chris and I agreed that this was the winner of the night.

Coming a distant third is Deicide's 'Amon: Feasting the Beast'. It is a compilation of two demos from the 80's, when the band was known as Amon. It has always been regarded as a release primarily for Deicide fanatics, but I am not one of them, and it is my favorite Deicide release. It is thrashier and the guitars thicker sounding than the albums, a good document of a decent death metal band finding their sound. That said, Chris and I agreed that it comes in third place. It's not terrible, but too gimmicky to be great. The songs thrash around to no where in particular, held together by the band's incredibly tight musicianship. They are capable of shifting tempos and keys at a hair trigger, which holds the atonal riffs in place. But the band tries to be more evil than they actually, Glen Benton's lyrics being either about Satan or taking some horror movie more seriously than it actually is. So it's hard to take this album seriously or for more than a few listens.


That's it for Metal Night for this week. Metal pics have returned. Enjoy our caustic narcissism!