Dead Element - Industry of War (2005)

 

Cost: $2.00

Took a chance with this disc since it looked like it was somewhere on the modern metal spectrum (I was hoping thrash), and even though I didn't have particularly high expectations, this was a disappointment.  The opener and a few other tracks are standard groove metal.  Nothing interesting for me, but kind of what I expected.

Then I was a bit surprised because instead of doing the straightforward Pantera/Machine Head aggro thing, several songs have clean vocals and go down more of a '90s heavy alternative rock path.  Several tracks also have simple electronica intros which give off a vaguely industrial vibe, so there are similarities to, I don't know, Stabbing Westward or something like that?  There are even a couple sections of forced guttural vocals. This EP ends up being about half groove metal and half rock, but regardless of genre, the variety of vocal styles and musical influences failed to make this any more interesting for me. So metal fans should just be warned that the 1:22 long "Dizzy" (groove metal, but with one of their "better" aggressive riffs) and a very short heavy break that pops up in the hidden track (which seems to be some parody anti-corporate punk rock song, possibly a cover?) are about as good as this gets.

Dischord - Siege of Darkness (2007)

 

 Cost: $2.00

This has some decent moments, but often feels uneven.  The first few tracks are a mix of classic and modern thrash influences, although they feel rather disjointed because of the overly extreme vocals (there are standard gutturals too, but the vocalist obviously has a great love of higher raspy DM screams).  Other than them sounding kind of silly and clipped during the more rapid fire deliveries, I have no problems with the actual vocals themselves, they just seem largely out of place.  The vox work far better with the greatly increased death metal influences of the last two songs, which are unfortunately both overly long tracks at the end of the disc, well after ear fatigue set in.  There are even some occasional progressive thrash touches, like the solo section in "AK-47" and the acoustic guitar in "Angels' Inferno."  

 

This doesn't quite suffer from the same sort of generic mediocrity many of my other bargain bin finds do, though even with some raging riffage here I won't deny I wasn't particularly impressed overall.  Not a bad score for 2 bucks; just be warned it's not the straightforward classic thrash listen the hype sticker and some reviews would have you believe.

Wrath of the Weak - Wrath of the Weak (2006)

  

Cost: $1.00 

This CD is often compared to Velvet Cacoon, both in praise and criticism.  The guitar sound and overall atmospheric black metal approach are certainly similar to Genevieve, though this is a bit more minimalist.  The raspy reptilian vocals are so sparse, it's nearly an instrumental album.   The album is quite monotonous when trying to listen to it actively, but I found it worked far better as atmospheric background music to zone out to.  In this sense, as BM muzak it's not bad, but other than the cheap price and my intial interest in checking it out, I can't really point out any real benefit to picking this for the task over, say, well done ambient or dungeon synth.  Speaking of which, there is a short ambient interlude track, and then the final track ends with about 15 minutes of guitar feedback and noise (seems rather counterproductive to any trancelike state the preceding BM monotony put you in!).  Aside from these sections, while this creates similar atmospheres as more droning and purely ambient forms of music, they aren't actually incorporated as musical influences.

Bloody Terror - Shadow of Death (2014)

 

Cost: $1.00

I was expecting much worse from the generic band name, album title, and "logo."  The core of this is black metal, but the lead guitar stands out as being extremely prominent and unusually proficient for this style, with lots of shreddy soloing.  There's plenty of keyboard usage, which ranges from somewhat cheap sounding gothic metal-esque flourishes to more subdued synths reminiscent of mid '90s atmospheric BM.  Together with the guitarwork, the keys often give the music a very strong neoclassical feel.  Going even further, the final instrumental bonus track dispenses with the black metal entirely and is pure prog./power metal.

 

Initially I found the flashier guitarwork quite appealing, as it's a genuine difference from your typical Nordic BM clone.  Nothing really stuck out as being terribly memorable, though--without the guitar and keyboard flourishes, I don't think there's much of note in the underlying music.  Musically, it is literally a  power/neoclassical metal guitarist dropped into a black metal band, although it avoids being the terrible genre mashup trainwreck that may sound like. 

Agiel - Dark Pantheons (2014)

 Cost: $1.00

The band's full length (over a decade before this) was brutal, fairly technical DM with the distinction of having some minimal keyboard use.  Here, they've redone a couple of songs with full blown Emperor/Dimmu BM symphonics and multilayered vocals.  The new arrangements seem slightly more black metal-orientated, and while the underlying music under the effects is death, it doesn't always seem like it with everything else going on.  The vocals are still mostly gutturals but they're very toned down compared to the debut album.   The synths, vocals, drums, and leads are all pretty high in the mix and all fight for space, making parts seem overly chaotic (and not in a good way) and messy.

Fleshgod Apocalypse comes up a lot in other reviews of this.  It's inevitable, since ultimately they're both DM with some kind of symphonic element.  It's also not entirely inaccurate (especially when Agiel decide to blast), although I feel this has more of a black feel and comes off as more subdued. At times this somewhat brought to mind a weird alternate universe version of Cradle of Filth, where they still retained all the death metal elements from The Principle Of Evil... in the later, more symphonic material.

Baby Stab Horror - Manifesto Infernale (CD-R, 2006)

 

 Cost: $1.00

Admittedly the band name was so curiously stupid (it might work for a brutal DM or grind band, but not this), I was almost counting on this being some sort of odd fluke that was really good.   The bulk of the influence in the music seems to come from the early Nuclear Blast albums of Dimmu Borgir, and although they're nowhere near as symphonic sounding as DB, there are some limited attempts.  This is described as black/thrash, which I have mixed feelings about.  In a strict literal sense I do hear some '90s Slayer (unfortunately both less desirable Diabolus type stuff as well as decent Seasons in the Abyss influences) in the riffage, but absolutely none of the music has any of the '80s sound you'd typically associate with that tag.   Besides, the black metal influences are the primary ones, so this doesn't seem any significantly thrashier than say, an album like Spiritual Black Dimensions. 

Oddly, they completely shift gears on the closer "Sentinel," which sheds much of the black metal and seems more like a raspy-vocalled tribute to the Gothenburg melodic death scene.  The solo section and harmonized twin guitar parts are probably the most compelling music on the entire CD, although a guest guitarist is credited for a solo.  I personally think it's a shame, as I think I would have found a CD full of "Sentinel" style stuff to be more interesting.

Ancestor / Unlight Domain - split CD (2008)

 

 Cost: $1.00

I must admit I tend to gravitate (often irrationally) towards metal from more "exotic" locales, even though  the novelty in that is mostly long gone.  With modern technology, someone from the most obscure place can make an awesome Sodom or Hellhammer sounding recording, although of course it unfortunately almost always goes the other way, and trends merely extend to every far corner of the world.

This is an OK but mostly unremarkable split of two Cuban black metal bands.  Both are Nordic-influenced BM in line with the majority of the Latin American modern BM scene since the late '90s (I associate this style with a lot of smaller Brazilian bands that appropriately, often released split CDs).  Ancestor seem to have better guitarwork and riff ideas, although the drumming is really monotonous (I'm thinking it might be triggered or an electronic kit).  Unlight Domain put their own typewriter drums up high in the mix, which doesn't do them any favors.  Initially I thought they were even more monotonous sounding than Ancestor, but there are some tempo variations in the last few tracks that make them a lot more listenable.

This doesn't reach bottom of the barrel for black metal, and considering the dollar price, it's pretty decent.  But I'll say it again and again--this is a ridiculously oversaturated genre, and neither band is all that remarkable.