AZARATH: "Blasphemers' Maledictions"

When I think of the contemporary Polish metal scene, I’m instantly reminded of a myriad of extreme and rather polished blackened death metal groups, so Azarath’s approach on their fifth album Blasphemers’ Maledictions did not took me by surprise. When I say polished, I do not mean the music here is soft and sweet, not at all, as Blasphemers’ Maledictions is one of the most violent and aggressive death metal records I’ve heard lately.

The constant violence - which basically means a lot of blast beats and tremolo-picked riffing in ultimate tempos - turns out to be the album’s downside as well. While the pummeling does convince and one can notice the rising throbbing of his heart as soon as ”Supreme Reign of Tiamat” kicks in with its suffocating war, 45 minutes of it is a tad too long time, and towards the end the listener is more likely just exhausted and no longer impressed. The band does include some melodic, almost epic solos in their music, like on ”Firebreath of Blasphemy and Scorn” and ”Under the Will of the Lord” which is very welcome. More than just a couple of spins are recommended to be given to this album before any final judgements, as the chaotic compositions seem to become more catchy on every go.

What comes to the album’s musicianship, well, everything is top-notch as can be expected. Precise, strong drumming, tight and sharp guitar lines and good vocal delivery that ranges between higher pitches and lower growls. You may know what I usually think of this carefully executed music, but in this case the band is enough heavy and crushing so that the unsurprising nature of the music does not matter. I’d consider Blasphemers’ Maledictions among the better blackened death metal records of recent times, and it is definitely recommended to the proper fans of the style - I’m certain this will appeal to those.

3 / 5

NOMAD: "Transmigration of Consciousness"

A fast glance at the intricate artwork adorning the cover of Nomad’s Transmigration of Consciousness already reveals that the band does not fall to the most common sub categories of death metal. Not that they are mindblowingly experimental or anything here, but the focus seems to be more on the atmosphere and the flowing of tracks rather than punching death metal.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a heavy load of death metal murkiness right here that grooves and crushes not unlike Gojira, and there’s also faster blast beat bursts of energy more reminiscent of black metal as also the screams go a tad higher during those sections. But the underlying motif of Transmigration of Consciousness seems to be the ambiance, becoming evident when taking a look at the tracklist alone in which brief ambient tracks precede every single metal track. While one might think that some ambient crap is mood-killing among all the blasting, I think they belong very well to the whole, and all the songs flow seamlessly together.

On paper, the concept of highly atmospheric and rather melodic (expect a nice slew of solos) death metal sounds fantastic and also in practice Transmigration of Consciousness succeeds for the most part. Hate me or not but I still think there’s a lack of truly brilliant songs: the album sounds massive and authentic yet there’s still something lacking in the composition department that would deliver the goose bumps. All around, I enjoy Transmigration of Consciousness, but the riffs simply aren’t anything out of the ordinary to lure me for repeated listens.

2.5 / 5

IPERYT: "No State of Grace"

Industrial black metal can be done magnificently, just think of some The Axis of Perdition and Blut Aus Nord releases, but most often it seems to fall into ultimate mediocrity. Iperyt’s second full-length No State of Grace is an inconveniently clear case of the latter category, presenting eleven tracks of ultra fast and rather bland industrial black / death metal.

The main glitch here is how the band tries to be extreme and shocking. This comes evident already via reading the songtitles like ”Scars Are Sexy” and, delving into the music, the aspect of pretentiousness comes apparent in e.g. the exaggerated drum machine speeds. Combine the 3000 bpm audio software beats to slower and remote riffs and ”let’s fuck the life from behind” (straight quote) lyrics, and I’m quite embarassed overall.

I hate to go all the way ranting an album like this, but the truth is that there’s little content on No State of Grace that would deserve the attention of even industrial metal fans. The first track, self-titled one, culminates to some nice, almost epic melodies, but that’s pretty much all I can get out of No State of Grace. Unless the bands starts to focus more on the actual content instead of the mere extreme and ’oh so violent’ attitude it has, I hold no further interest in the band. Technically, there’s no limitations for potential as the band does keep the songs together well enough, but there’s just got to be something more than that’s just trying to horrify the listener - and then even fail at it!

1 / 5

MASTIPHAL: "Parvzya"

Considering how modern black/death metal fusion Mastiphal plays on their second full-length Parvzya, it comes as a surprise that the band embarked on its journey back in 1991 already (though under a different name), releasing the debut album 1995 and hence belonging to the first Polish black metal groups. I am not familiar with that record, but at least on Parvzya there’s a slight lack of originality, the album being quite a basic slew of tracks which fluctuate between modern Watain esque discordance and more old school and death metal influenced heaviness.

While Parvzya evokes an aura of convincing darkness, not every second is pure splendor. The songs are executed smoothly with either rapid speeds or with good grooves, not to forget those epic solos, but only rarely do the songs rise to truly memorable riffing. ”May He Rot in Hell” and ”Under the Sign of the Morning Star” could be noteworthy mentions here, being some of the album’s highlights, but around the middle of the album, Parvzya starts to repeat its common blasting a tad too much.

As a usual complainer of polished productions, I could mention the drum sound that would have worked better with a filthier sound instead of this professional and sterile precision they call a standard for drums on extreme metal albums nowadays. Perhaps I’m supposed to just get used to this Necromorbus studio sound that dominates on every other new release I hear today, ha. Luckily the other instrumentation works nicely (guitars varying from downtuned murkiness to the more common black metal tremolo menace), as does Flauros’ evil spewing.

In the end, what’s left of Parvzya is a few captivating tracks and an overall good atmosphere. Tight playing and clear sound, these both maybe to an excessive level. There’s no way of calling Parvzya a true masterpiece but the whole has its moments of brilliance, hence rating the album in the scale of one to five is a tough decision, but I’m settling to a moderate score. If modern and extreme is your thing in particular, you may add a half star or even more, because Parvzya clearly isn’t the worst effort in this style.

2.5 / 5

BLOODWRITTEN: "Thrashin' Fury"

In both good and bad, Bloodwritten’s third full-length Thrashin’ Fury is general blackened thrash metal to the bone. While the fusion of the two genres go usually vice versa (thrashened black metal), Bloodwritten doesn’t deliver anything outstandingly unique here: this is basically evil thrash metal with high-pitched black metal screams.

Bloodwritten plays with precise timing and professionality: palm-muted riffs plus drums with good accentuated hits go well hand in hand, sounding always tight and ass-kicking. Give this all a modern, tight production treatment and you get a package of pretty well done metal. But this also makes me feel that Thrashin’ Fury is missing something daring: right now the album doesn’t venture pretty much anywhere, it stays true to its old school values from the first seconds to the last.

”Zombie Survival” belongs to one of the standout moments on the album as it brings a slight change in tempo after the three rampages before it, bringing some slower menacing atmosphere to the whole. Towards the end of the album, I’m feeling that the music doesn’t work as effectively as it did in the first half, and no surprise there, remembering the simple musical style that easily falls to stagnation after a couple of tracks.

Nonetheless, Thrashin’ Fury leaves a positive taste to my mouth afterwards. Pretty much nothing innovative is to be found from the record, but hey, that’s the way it goes with old school attitude. Speaking of which, I wouldn’t have minded if the production was a bit rawer - that could have given the music a little punch more.

3 / 5