Review - Stigma (Greece) - Sickness of no survivors 1991

A magnificent death metal demo. Featuring great technical thrash riffs, one of the most amazing drum sound/performance ever layed on tape, absolutely frantic, some keyboard and acoustic breaks similar to how Death did them around the same period; good if slightly unimpressive vocals. The main draw--apart from the quality of the songwriting--for me are the drums, similar in energy to the drums in the second Thanatos album but with a more natural sound. Truly amazing. It's a shame the band didn't release any official albums; one of the best death metal early 90's bands from Greece, along with Death Courier, Septicemia and Selefice,

You can listen to the demo on Youtube here

Their next and final demo, Epitaph (1993), is also great, with a more straight death metal sound and vocals, slightly less exciting production though--but still very high quality. You can check this one out here

Review- Cosmic Void Ritual (2017)

Two awesome demos I just discovered!

This one is "Transcendence through galactic death."

This one is "Gateways through septic flesh."















I came upon them when looking for the new Septic Flesh song (album shapes up to be disappointing [again], alas!) but god bless Youtube this is amazing.

From the  90's cassette sound to the nonsensical riffs, the drums keeping the goddamn beat, no bullshit fills and random wankery, both demos are awesome.

Really, the moment I heard the first riff on "gateways" I got teary-eyed. Great, great death metal, and great artwork on both demos. According to encyclopedia metallum it's a one man band, Jesus!

Links to youtube videos:
Gateways to septic flesh
Transcendence through galactic death
Listen to the awesomeness!

Link to the band's site on Bandcamp: Cosmic Void Ritual

And Blood Harvest is re-releasing the two tapes in one - here's the link
And there will be mlp/cd releases later.

Check them out!

Blood Incantation - Starspawn (2016) - Review

An interesting record by a new band, old-school death metal but with decidedly forward-leaning thinking, at least in their choice of dissonance. There is enough innovation to satisfy someone jaded when it comes to the "classical" style of playing, and enough of the good old stuff for anyone jaded by the modern-sounding bands.

The production is well balanced, with natural sounding drums--always a plus, audible base, agreat guitar tone with enough mids for people like me who don't like the modern "scooped" sound most bands go for.

Very interesting guitar lines; they seem to be balanced right on the edge between old-school and more modern dissonance. Some melodies here and there nothing much. Good vocals, not too low, and enough surprising elements to keep you invested for the entirety of the record.

The lyrics, horror themed/inspired, don't make a lot of sense, but who cares? The cover artwork is excellent, very evocative.

I enjoyed this one very much, as you can tell since this is my first review of an album; there seems to be a renaissance in death metal, and Blood Incantation could be at the forefront of it. I hope they go places.

A facebook fan-page - (they don't seem to have an official one)
Their bandcamp page
The album on youtube - give it a try