Disgrace- Grey Misery (1992)

Now, I don't do this often, but I'm going to recommend a specific pressing of this debut album from Finnish doom-death legends Disgrace. You must get the 2004 version of this 1992 album, because it contains their 1990 demo tape Inside the Labyrinth of Depression and their 1991 EP Debts of Gods. But in all cases, we're talking about some of the most supremely heavy, dark and brutal death metal to ever escape from the nation's shores. Mostly rooted in doom, the band are equally able to lay down sick grind blasts and eerie melodies as well. To my ears, I rate the demo material as actually being the best on offer here, but the production on the actual Grey Misery album itself is titanic, a lesson to any other band hoping to sound as suffocatingly heavy as possible. "Unity's Interlude Dyes Blind Tomorrow" is just ungodly in it's rumbling bass frequencies and mega-guttural vocals. Since the band appear to use psudeonyms, naming them to highlight their efforts is pointless, but along with Lord of Putrefaction and Disembowelment, I have to say that this is among the most impressive doom-death ever recorded. No collection should be without it.

Nuclear Death- Carrion For Worm (1991)

Arizona’s Nuclear Death stand a good contender for being the strangest, most extreme and altogether most bizarre death metal band ever. They had in their ranks a female bassist/vocalist (Lori Bravo) who possessed one of the most otherworldly styles in the genre. Alternately growling and passionately shrieking, she brings a unique manner to the band’s lyrics. Oh yeah, about those lyrics. They are sick…really sick. Not sick in a gore sense, but in a personal and demented sense. Thank guitarist Phil Hampson for this, as his literate, poetic and singular view of all things living as debased garbage makes this band’s poetics both revolting in theme but compelling in their delivery. Sex with dead animals, cannibalism on one’s deceased family members, transsexual vampirism, homosexual necrophilia, heroin addiction and a fascination with decay are all visited. It’s also hard to describe the band’s sound, as their records are often poorly balanced, creating a sound that comes across as a mush of indistinct yet carefully penned arrangements. Doomy breakdowns give way to grindcore velocity, but the guitars remain a wash of static, underpinned by Bravo’s grave utterances. Imagine Autopsy at their most warped, and you’ll get the idea of where this band’s essence begins. The drums are nice and booming, which on the slower tracks like “Greenflies” adds clarity. But the Nuclear Death sound is not built on an easy digestion of its contents. Death metal this perverse is best delivered in the sonically obscure form the band use here. For me, this is the most sustained work of depravity they’d invent. Their debut Bride Of Insect is equally disturbing sound wise though less diverse, but the lyrics are slightly less warped. Slight future work emerged, the band moving even further underground following membership hassles. But for those of you who tire of the paradox of clearly produced, precise and sterile death metal, Nuclear Death is the clear antithesis. I’m not saying you’ll like them (it took many, many spins on my part before I “got” their approach) but I can’t imagine death metal more aptly deserving of unimpeachable entry into its particular genre.

Infester- To the Depths, In Degredation (1994)



Infester came from Seattle, Washington, leaving a trail of diseased slime wherever they went. No, I’m not being cruel to the band, rather the contrary, because this debut and only album from Infester is perhaps the most wonderfully sick album in death metal history, matched only by the acrid fumes of Goatlord, Nuclear Death and Autopsy. All of the members had also worked with Meat Shits, which may be where they honed their predilection for maximum disgust metal, but this record is far more musically substantial than that porn obsessed abortion of a band. Mostly leaning towards the slow, doomy, evil side of tempos, the band’s whole sonic picture is just full of dirt caked guitars and drumming that can actually approach random at times, often doing unexpected rolls and fills out of nowhere. And there’s a fairly consistent use of keyboards, which Mercyful Fate style, add density to the whole demented feel of the record. And then there are the vocals to consider which sound like a perverted demon arguing with an alcoholic, geriatric witch. Just perfect. This is one of the essentials, an almost deconstructed record, existing in its own world, purely for its own sake. If you dig it, great. If not, that’s fine too, because it wasn’t made for you. Take it on its own sick terms or forget you ever heard of it.



Impetigo- Horror of the Zombies (1992)



If you bought death metal fanzines in the late eighties/early nineties, Illinois’ Impetigo was all over the friggin' place. You'd think they were a lot more popular than they were because they had such a presence in the scene. Their debut album, 1990’s Ultimo Mondo Cannibale, was and is a fun blast, but Horror of the Zombies is a far more cohesive and strong record. Like Mortician, the band was horror obsessed, using movie samples and themes as grist for their song ideas. Musically speaking the band had no truck with the grinding sounds of many bands of their era, preferring to forge a very heavy, old school sound ala Autopsy or Nunslaughter. Thus, material like “I Work For the Streetcleaner” and “Wizard of Gore” come across as spontaneous and sloppy, yet amazingly heavy and impactful. The production captured perfectly the atmosphere of gloom, and the thick but hardly slick sound works great for the band's pretension free style. Good stuff from one of the scene's slightly forgotten elements, and by the way, their reunion and 2008 live album Live Total Zombie Gore Holocaust! is a whole lotta fun as well.

A Tribute To Poison-Germany's Unsung Death Metal Pioneers

Sons Of Evil (Demo, 1984)

Poison's first demo is absolute orgy of death metal noise at it's most primitive. It makes the embryonic early work of Sodom and Hellhammer sound like Mozart by comparison. There is some contention as to just how many tracks appeared on the original version. The Metal Archives site insists 13 tracks appeared in it's first release, but future versions reduced it to the four tracks listed on Rate Your Music.com. Suffice to say that in any case this is damn raw stuff, though not quite as awful sound wise as legend would have it. Essentially we have alternately very fast/doomy material, in generally terrible recording conditions, the drums far in the backdrop, vocals up front and too loud. But the riffs and songs (when the structures can be glimpsed) are not all that terrible, although I'm being kind when I say the vocals and discernible lyrics are crap. At this point only the sickest of the sick called themselves Poison fans, and even the most underground fanzines dismissed the band as total garbage. But metal never forgets, even when it possibly should, thus the band's cult remains among us.

Bestial Death (Demo, 1985)

I admit Germany's Poison are something of an obsession for me. Mainly because they were so reviled in their day, sometimes for the qaulity of their music, sometimes because they were playing some of the most over the top high-speed death metal anyone had every heard in the middle eighties. This demo is a huge improvement over their debut demo in just about every sense. And while it still sounds like a total non-studio basment job, everything is a lot clearer. Admittedly, things could be a lot more clever in a performance sense, but even here there's a greater desire to write quality material going on. And the tempos are more varied as well, the band handling evil mid-tempo grooves as well as high speed blasting. The old school metal feel that the riffs of "Satan Commands" and "Wake The Dead" possess cannot be denied, no matter how rough the sound may be. Now a slight warning is in order. The most recent download of I have of this seems to have MUCH better sound than the first, so I don't know if there's multiple rips floating around out there. Get the one from Lockjaw blog if you choose to download, because that's what I'm working from here.

Awakening of the Dead (Demo, 1986)

I'm not so sure about this release's entry on Rate Your Music.com as an album. As far as I always knew it was the band's third (non-live) demo. At any rate, it's mostly composed of earlier material, some of the songs being delivered in shorter, longer or live treatments. It marks the first appearance of "Yog Sothoth," perhaps the band's best song ever, and an excellent run through of "Wake The Dead." The live stuff present is pretty poorly recorded, but that only accounts for two tracks, the rest of the stuff being presented with the booming, echoing vocals and thick as mud guitars the band were becoming renown for possessing. Next up for the band was their pinnacle, the Into The Abyss demo, which would go onto be pressed on vinyl years later. The cult endures...if you're a serious death metal fan, especially of the early stuff, this primordial ooze is highly worthwhile.

Into the Abyss (Demo, 1987)

For years Poison was reviled as being perhaps the world's worst recorded death metal band. As early as 1984 these uncouth gentlemen were putting out demo tapes that sounded, as one reviewer put it in Blackthorn magazine, "like a washing machine out of order." The sound quality on their tapes made early Death demos sound like Dark Side Of The Moon by comparison. But by the time of this EP, they'd tightened up their sound, written some very heavy and mildly involved material, and gotten their singer Uli to adopt a raw but pleasing death growl. The material is similar to early Morbid Angel, though not quite as unique. However the whole thing has that "obscure" elder death metal sound down pat, which immediately makes this recording right up my alley. Fans of really heavy thrash metal verging into full on death will surely eat this one up.

Nokturnel- Nothing But Hatred (1993)

I just scored a copy of this rare CD, one of the many issued by the very, very disreputable JL America label. This label generally issued some pretty poor quality stuff, but this and the debut CD by New York state death metal institution Morpheus Descends are exceptions to that rule. Musically we're not in groundbreaking waters here, but the band did have something of a sound of their own. The vocals, which vary between harsh rasps and deeper growls remind me a lot of Carcass, and at times, the riffs do as well. Morbid Angel is probably the main touchstone for the band, but songs like "No Second Chance" have enough good ideas flowing through them that they stand up quite well on their own. And come on...they're from home state and even have a cynical homage on this CD to boot titled "Welcome To New Jersey." The production is remarkably strong to, the band being blessed with a producer who recognized the band had a good bass player, and boosted him up in the mix. JL is now out of business, and the prospect of reissues is highly unlikely. So if you find a copy of this, Mortuary's BLACKENED IMAGES, Morpheus Descends' RITUAL OF INFINITY, or Deteriorate's ROTTING IN HELL, you gotta do what you can to grab them. You may never see them again.

King Fowley (Deceased) and Tom Stevens (Nokturnel)

A Classic Death Metal Tome: Only Death Is Real By Thomas Gabriel Fischer

The history of Hellhammer and the first stirrings of Celtic Frost, revealed by the man behind it all. A beautiful, completist work that all metal fans should check out!

http://www.amazon.com/Only-Death-Real-Illustrated-Hellhammer/dp/0979616395/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291246384&sr=8-1-spell

Demigod- The Slumber of Sullen Eyes (1992)



This debut album from Finnish obscurity Demigod has slowly been building a sizable rep over the years since it’s rather under the radar release. As it was only available in the US as an import didn’t help it back in the day, but this is one of those albums that internet mongers like me simply won’t shut up about. And there’s good reason indeed for its slow ascent into recognition, as it’s simply one of the best European records of its time, and possibly the best Finnish death metal album ever made. Now if you’re not aware of how big Finland’s extreme metal scene is, that may sound like faint praise. But no, it’s a scene full of idiosyncratic and excellent bands, and Demigod stamped their own chapter in its history with this brilliant album. Opening up with a total classic in “As I Behold I Despise,” the band’s ability to wield both heads down aggression as well as a flowing, compositional approach ala Morbid Angel is inescapable. The consistent quality of the song writing belies this being the band’s first album, as the material here moves from melancholy melodies to savage riffing with an amazing sense of ease and fluidity. And I don’t often mention this as being a meaningful thing, but the sleeve illustration is amazing as well. This one is an essential listen for any death metal fan. It simply shows what musical heights the genre is capable of hitting, and that’s worth hearing no matter what direction your tastes run in.

Cenotaph- The Gloom Reflections of Our Hidden Sorrows (1992)

Despite this being quite an underground death metal album, I really can't even guess at how many times I've played it. I was lucky enough to purchase it shortly after it came out and ever since then it's ranked among my favorites. It is not only brutally heavy in a dense, claustrophobic sense, but it also carries a doomy, unsettling feel boosted by a low budget but perfectly appropriate sound job. Cenotaph was one of Mexico's first true death metal outfits, and along with Shub Niggurath and Mortuary, one of the best. The band would move into a more melodic, almost black metal direction later on, but this album is pure, molten death metal, full of occult vibe and depressive atmosphere. That's not to say it lacks aggression, because it's brutal indeed. It's simply that its morbid tone is its most memorable component. The songs swing from speedy, dense sections to creeping, slithering doom, not unlike early Incantation, but gloomier. Daniel Corchado, who would also briefly perform with Incantation and later lead The Chasm, makes a great name for himself here with both his writing and his deep, spectral vocals. Mexico's finest death metal album? Possibly, although Shub Niggurath's Evilness and Darkness Prevails would be a close second, surely. Either way, this is essential for all death metal fans, especially those with any sort of affection for cult classics.

Sadistic Intent- Resurrection (1994)

These Californian death metallers have been around for a god damn long time now, their roots stretching back into the late eighties. But you wouldn’t guess that from their output, which has been spotty to say the least. But the quality of their stuff is surely there in spades, and this lengthy EP of material captures that quality perfectly. The band’s sound is certainly in league with post Morbid Angel theories, but also exudes the sort of dark and shadowy sound that many bands of this ilk try and fail to capture. Thus even though the drums sometimes thrash away at grinding speeds, the black hue of the material never fades. “Asphyxiation” balances lingering doom of a very Sabbath sort with high speed dark death, and highlights bassist Jay Cortez’s rumbling voice (a bit like that of Ross Dolan of Immolation, a good thing). And while “Conflict Within” lashes out with thrash velocity galore, the hammer hard riffs and crawling passages in “Dark Predictions” reveal this band’s scope. Likewise a pronounced Slayer (but far bleaker) influence enters the house with “Condemned In Misery,” while the fact the album opens and closes with instrumental tracks of considerable atmospheric presence just amplifies this band’s skills. A really great death metal record, it actually smokes a lot of stuff from much higher profile acts. Great band indeed, as is their website. I just wish they’d record more stuff, man.

Goatlord- Reflections of the Solstice (1991)

This record has the unsavory rep of being one the uglier, doomier and most underground releases of the great early nineties death metal scene. I saw one vinyl copy for sale at one store, and never saw another, finally getting myself a downloaded copy today. What we have here is really thick, syrupy metal that's low on thrills but big on density and evil atmosphere. The songs are almost all slow in pace, kinda like early Cianide records with less imaginative riffs, or perhaps Autopsy slowed down to almost sickening paces. When the songs do hit a mid-tempo jog, the drum limitations of the tinny drum sound is revealed all too clearly. BUT...somehow it all works. I mean, this is really maximum sloth metal, with basic riffs and the kind of feel that finds itself right in line with Hellhammer and/or early Asphyx. The vocals are tortured moans/retches ala Slaughter or early Voivod, not really full on death-grunts, which suits this kind of lo-tech metal perfectly. I've been trying to get a hold of this for some time, and I'm very glad I did. Innovative? No. Professional? Not Really. Wicked underground metal sick and overflowing with genuine old school vibes? FUCK yeah!

Acrostichon- Engraved In Black (1993)

I’m not sure what caused this, but most of the death metal bands of Dutch origin that I’ve heard generally possess a thick, bass-drenched and powerful sound that many of their European colleagues lack. Whatever the story (easily accessed marijuana and prostitutes may be part of the reason…) it’s plenty fine with me. Acrostichon are one of the less well known of the nation’s exports, having made this debut album on a small indie label and never really making a presence for themselves in scene. More’s the pity to us fans, as this lot sound much like an unholy cross between the guttural ambience of Autopsy and the sharp riffing of Bolt Thrower. The guitars are distorted at the just about perfect level of overkill, while bassist/vocalist Corinne bellows and roars like a werewolf undergoing surgery sans anesthesia. Nice too are the band’s arrangements, which handedly swing from blast beats to thrash to straight ahead chugging sections. “Immolation Of The Agnostic” is primo stuff especially, although “Relics” proves they can make with the heads down grindcore as well as anyone. A minor classic of European death metal, sure, but it’s still a lot better than many releases I’ve heard from those who are considered the genre’s godheads.