Yet another beating with six releases from Hells Headbangers…
For some reason unbeknownst to man and beast, MR’s Jason Guest appears to enjoy banging his head as Hell’s door. And so in the name of death metal, once again he cranks the volume in readiness for yet another beating with six releases from Hells Headbangers (Website; Bandcamp; Facebook):
- Goat Semen – Ego Svm Satana
- Atomic Aggressor – Sights of Suffering
- Nunslaughter / The Lurking Corpses – Split 7”
- Nunslaughter – Burn The Cross
- Bat – Primitive Age
- Dwell – Vermin and Ashes
Goat Semen – Ego Svm Satana
Release date: 24 February 2015
Another band emerging from the depths, how can a ludicrously loud blast possibly be refused? Formed in 2000 and with two demos, five splits and two live albums released up until 2007, it appeared that Peru’s Goat Semen had all but disappeared. Re-emerging in 2013 with a three-track demo, the love juice of the horned one was back and now, a mere(!?) fifteen years after their formation they have released their first full length, Ego Svm Satana. In short, it’s an utter bastard of an album.
Black, death, and the odd bit of thrash and traditional heavy metal thrown in, Goat Semen happily hit every extreme for their blasphemous and brutally satanic war metal. Featuring three tracks from the 2013 demo and a few tracks from the early releases, this is a sort of ‘Best of…’ with some new material added. The old material has stood the test of time well, as violent and raw as they were upon first release, traits that spill into the newer material. The music is a chaotic ejaculate of rampant riffs, Slayer-esque dive bomb noise and maniacal leads, blast beats and frenzied fills, and a deranged vocalist spewing unending, uncontained and irreverent bile. Granted, the tracks blur into one after a while but it’s got a bite like a rabid dog with lockjaw.
7.5 out of 10
Track Listing:
- Letianas de Satanpect
- Holocausto
- Genocidio
- Warfare Noise
- Revelaciones
- Altares De Pandemonium
- Madre Muerto
- Hambre, Peste, Guerra y Muerte
- Ego Svm Satana
Atomic Aggressor – Sights of Suffering
Release date: 24 February 2015
Formed 1985, released three demos before their split in 1992, reformed in 2007, released a live album and two splits in 2013 and 2014, and now, thirty years in and Chilean Lovecraft-lovers Atomic Aggressor are finally releasing their debut album, Sights of Suffering. For all intents and purposes it may as well be 1992 because Atomic Aggressor haven’t changed a bit. Grimy riffs, pummelling drums, manic lead work, and a guttural vocal, this is about as authentically old school as you can probably hope to get.
There’s nothing new here, in neither style nor sound. Seriously, the band must have wandered into the freezers in the underground and someone unwittingly locked the door behind them, the error discovered only recently during an inventory undertaken by some death metal archaeologist from Hells Headbangers. Now defrosted and with a bunch of new tracks on offer (and featuring ‘Twilight Spectres’, a track that’s been around since 1990, as a bonus track), it embodies all that the genre embodies. But we’ve heard it, time and again, and again, and again… It’s undeniably a solid DM album but with not a track or two that stands out or anything particularly unique about it, Sights of Suffering’s little more than an interesting piece of work, good rather than great. Exciting for old school devotees but more of the same for the rest.
6 out of 10
Track Listing:
- Circle Of Evocation
- Faceless Torment
- Spawn Of Doom
- Sights Of Suffering
- Curse Of Creation
- Greed Supremacy
- Unbodied Rites
- The Ancient Burial
- Lords Of The Abyss
- I Beheld
Nunslaughter / The Lurking Corpses – Split 7”; Nunslaughter – Burn The Cross
Release date: 17 February 2015
Horror Metal, huh? Turns out The Lurking Corpses are fucking great. Another band to explore. Nunslaughter are fucking superb anyway and so it goes almost without saying that so is their track, ‘Hordes of Gomorrah’. ‘nuff said? Nah. 2004’s Burn The Cross recently got a picture disc re-release too. More Nunslaughter. Laughing? We almost died…
7 out of 10
Nunslaughter / The Lurking Corpses:
- Nunslaughter – Hordes of Gomorrah
- The Lurking Corpses – Creatures of the Blackened Moon
Nunslaughter – Burn The Cross:
- Burn The Cross (Don Of The Dead Lyrics)
- Ride My Nightmare
- Burn The Cross (Jim Sadist Lyrics_
- All Of The Dead
Bat – Primitive Age
Release date: 17 February 2015
Bat’s Primitive Age is (well, was, as it was originally released in 2013) Venom all over again. But having a line-up featuring Ryan Waste of Municipal Waste and Volture on bass and vocals, Felix Griffin of D.R.I. on drums, and Nick Poulos of Volture and ex-Cannabis Corpse on guitar means that we get something more authentic than what so many of the imitators churn out. In fact, this is probably what the 80s Venom would have sounded like had they practiced their instruments a little more.
A bunch of old school heavy metal and punk riffs decorated with a buzzy fuzzy farting guitar sound, a bass that switches smoothly between the rhythmic and the melodic, no bullshit drumming, and an adept Cronos impersonator for a vocalist, it may be nothing special but it’s fast, furious, and fun.
6 out of 10
Track Listing:
- BAT
- Total Wreckage
- Code Rude
- Rule of the Beast
- Primitive Age
Dwell – Vermin and Ashes
Release date: 10 February 2015
From Denmark’s doom/death devotees Dwell comes Vermin and Ashes, a compilation featuring the three tracks from their 2013 demo and three new tracks recorded in 2014. What’s immediately apparent is that Dwell want to do something different. With opener ‘A Collapse Sublime’, the death and doom aspects of their sound are well in place and it’s the use of keyboards and the repetition of the textural guitar line behind the vocals that bring an interesting dimension to the dense atmosphere, but it feels contrived, forced even.
‘Vermin In My Arteries’ is where they get it right, the guitars, keyboards and drums working well together in the track’s well-structured six minutes. And both ‘Plunging…’ and closer ‘Perditions…’ from the 2013 demo show a band whose direction was settled very early into their careers and whose sound is developing very well. But placing two ambient tracks between the heavy tracks makes it feel padded. Had the ambient aspect of the band been more integrated, this would have been a much better album.
6 out of 10
Track Listing:
- A Collapse Sublime
- Pathless And Dormant
- Vermin In My Arteries
- Plunging Into Ash Tombs
- Become The Void
- Perditions Mire
