Brain Drill at Myspace

One thing that can be said about Brain Drill’s debut and perhaps only album “Apocalyptic Feasting” is although its not an album that will universally loved by all death metal fans, some devotees of the genre will find lots on offer here. Imagine Necrophagist’s technical wizardry/overkill (delete as appropriate in regards to your preferences) with the straight up chaotic brutality of King of all Kings/I Monarch era Hate Eternal and you’ve basically thought up Brain Drill. For those of you who loved the virtuoso performances of Mohammed Sucimez and co, you will be blown away by the level of technical ability exhibited all members of the band on this record. To be honest I think the “Apocalyptic Feasting” Brain Drill line-up probably just about beats the Necrophagist’s “Epitaph” line-up in terms of sheer musical skill.

There are people out there who aren’t really that fond of Necrophagist; they believe that concepts such as song-writing and atmosphere are jettisoned in pursuit of excessive and almost masturbatory technicality. Well don’t worry as that doesn’t necessarily mean that this is a record that you will automatically stay clear of. Brain Drill have superb song writing skills and their brutal death metal Influences ensure that the tracks are well rounded and natural flowing pieces of tech death metal.

For a debut album, this is about as good as it gets these days, and it has to be hoped that Brain Drill head honcho Dylan Ruskin can put together a new stable line up as although some death metal fans will regard “Apocalyptic Feasting as an abomination I’d love to see where these guys progress if they make another album.

Dethklok at Myspace

The Adult Swim show “Metalocalypse” has proved to be very controversial in the metal community. Some have praised it, while others think that it makes a mockery of the genre. Personally, I like it a lot, but I wasn’t sure if series creator Brendon Small could make a worthwhile album out of the music from the show. After hearing the album, I have to say that it’s pretty good. Small made a great decision in recruiting Gene Hoglan to play the drums; his playing is a huge improvement over the drum machine used on the show. Small handles all the other instruments, and he’s competent but not amazing.

I have to say that the songs from the show tend to be better than the songs written specifically for the album. They tend to be significantly better performed than the original versions (although I preferred Small’s delivery of the intro to Fansong in the show). The lyrics to the original songs just aren’t quite as funny as the ones from the show; “Bloodtrocuted” was probably the best of them. I especially disliked the clean vocals on “Hatredcopter” and “Kill You”. I should also mention that there is a special edition with an extra disc. It has five extra songs and the non-musical “Dethklok Gets In Tune”. The material here just isn’t as strong, and I understand why it got relegated to a bonus disc (even though one disc could’ve held all the songs). The only song I really liked on the bonus disc was the blues number “Murdertrain a Comin’”. Two other things I disliked were the absence of Dr. Rockzo and the song “Sewn Back Together Wrong,” but these are minor grievances.

I would recommend this album for people who are prepared to listen to the hilarious lyrics and who have a sense of humor. Dethklok isn’t the be-all and end-all of metal that the Hot Topic crowd thinks it is, but I’d rather have them be the public’s image of metal than Dragonforce.

Gutworm at Myspace

Gutworm mix the aggressive type of fast-paced sludge metal that the Northamptonshire area became famous for in the days of Raging Speedhorn and Scurge with relatively accessible extreme metal à la The Haunted, Strapping Young Lad, At the Gates and Gojira. The result is something that won’t tick any metal stereotype’s boxes. It’s too proletarian and uncool for the scene kids, far too heavy for mainstream metal fans, and too similar to Pantera in places for the extreme metal fans.

Gutworm are a band who will never find a niche, which is in their favour since they’re not pandering to the one crowd. But personally, I think ‘Disfigured Narcissus’ is a step backwards from ‘Ruin the Memory’. There’s less emphasis on their death metal elements, with a perfect example being ‘Imperfect Harmony’, sounding like Crowbar French-kissing Lamb of God. ..And not in a good way!

There’s no equivalent here to ‘What You Are’, the clear standout track of their debut, and as the record progresses you can tell whether part of a particular track is engaging by how metalcore it sounds. Gutworm can pull off sludgy, groovy death metal but I think they might have miscalculated by adding metalcore into their sound. This was never going to be an album that purist death metal fans would enjoy, but it even lacks that crispness and clarity that made ‘Ruin the Memory’ so good.

Goretorture at Myspace

I wanted to like this album, I really did. I hoped that it would have the same sense of goofy fun that Arnocorps had and that Austrian Death Machine lacked. I mean, I love brutal death metal, so what could be better than a brutal death metal album where every song has an Arnold Schwarzenegger sample? Plenty, that’s what.

The production is absolutely abysmal, as if I was hearing a performance that went through YouTube levels of compression. Normally, I don’t put much emphasis on production, but this album is just insanely muddy. I could have looked past that if the material was good, but all aspects are mediocre at best. The vocals don’t really stand out much and aren’t especially good, the guitars are fairly generic, and the drum machine is so badly programmed that I had to double-check to make sure that Lars Ulrich hadn’t guested on some tracks. And the humorous samples don’t really add as much as I had hoped; one song has an excruciatingly long three-minute sample that takes up half of the track.

If you’re curious about what Mortician would sound sound like if they were obsessed with Arnold Schwarzenegger films instead of horror movies, you might want to check this out. Everyone else should stay far away.

Kruger at Myspace

Kruger are one of those special bands who at least at this stage in their career cannot be pigeonholed into any specific genre. Their unique sound contains elements of death metal, progressive metal and sludge metal, but cannot wholly fall within only one of those categories. Their one-of-a-kind brand of metal fuses the catharsis and melodic desolation found in such artists such as Cult of Luna, Isis and Baroness with the Stockholm death’n'roll sound of Entombed and Grave, topped off with a deeply progressive and innovative flavour that evokes the spirit of Mastodon and Gojira.

The songs on this album ebb and flow, with a fine example being the full frontal assault slowly dissipating into a post rock manor with the sombre low key passage in ‘Holy Fire’ before building up slowly and melodically into the bass heavy, Tool-like intro to the next track ‘Army of Lovers’. ‘Army of Lovers’ with its powerfully heavy yet catchy chorus is one of the two best tracks on this album, along with the opener ‘Ammunition Matters’, with its savage and furious and almost physical attack on the listener’s senses. Along with Knut and Nostromo, Kruger are proving that Switzerland is still a breeding ground for inventive yet crushingly heavy metal like it was in the days of Celtic Frost, Coroner, and Samael.