ALBUM REVIEW: Exhumation, “Eleventh Formulae”

By: Thomas Gonzales

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 28/02/2020

Label: Pulverized Records

“Eleventh Formulae” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Mors Gloria Est
2. Inferno Dwellers
3. Formulae I: Malediction Bells
4. Grandeur Dawn
5. Vicious Ecstasy
6. Arcane Dance
7. Formulae II: Ironheart Rapture
8. Ominous Chants
9. Blood Trails
10. Perdition Spells
11. Formulae III: Eleventh Vessel

The Review:

Exhumation’s “Eleventh Formulae” is an album 6 years in the making. Formed in 2008, Exhumation follows their 2014 Sophomore release “Opus Death” with yet another blistering example of raw feral Death Metal. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Sevid Salasughi, there is a distinct personality to Exhumation’s style of music. It is reminiscent of classic 90s Death and Thrash Metal, but filled with enough blackened subgenre sensibilities to keep them from being swallowed in the ever-deep tar pit of bands by the same name.

Befitting of a group whose members go by the monikers Ghoul and Bones, the band’s lyrical focus is on themes of darkness and death, and when laid over the thrashing drum beats, and gnarled vocals, the musical atmosphere creates a sonic landscape of chaos. While the album isn’t particularly long, it succeeds instead as an exhaustive rise and fall of the pulse, relenting only for soft piano or spoken word interludes.

It’s these bizarre transitions that help to make “Eleventh Formulae” stand out. One moment the listener is caught in the very familiar tide of guitar riffs, and the next, they are being lulled by a melody that shouldn’t even exist in this sonosphere, before crashing back down into the cacophony. Unlike some of their peers who’ve adopted flashy guitar solos and extensive lead segments, Exhumation likes to keep things simple, relying on the songs as an unbroken piece with only an occasional flourish to raise the tension.

One track that stands out in particular, is the song “Inferno Dwellers”. Bones’ raspy vocals remind the listener of the early days of black metal, alongside the scratchy distorted guitar, and blast beats, it’s a refreshingly traditional return to form with only a few splashes of tremolo picking or growls to keep things interesting. Follow this up with “Malediction Bells”, and you may forget this isn’t a second wave Extreme Metal album.

For fans of early Morbid Angel, Obliteration, Repugnant & Putrid, “Eleventh Formulae” will be released on vinyl with 100 copies on Bone Vinyl (Pulverised Exclusive), 100 copies on Oxblood Vinyl (Cudgel Exclusive) and 300 copies on Black Vinyl, with cover artwork and additional illustrations by B. Mors, whom had also previously provided artwork on the “Opus Death” album. “Eleventh Formulae” showcases a slew of guest musicians such as S. Iblis of Possession, and T. Zama of the now-defunct Sewercide, which for fans of genre should serve as a reassurance that they're in for a good time.

“Eleventh Formulae” is available HERE

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

Interment - "Scent of the Buried" (Album Review)

By: Daniel Jackson

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 1/4/2016

Label: Pulverised Records /

Dark Descent Records (North America)

Scent of the Buried’ strikes an excellent balance between thrashing speed and grinding riffs, and pulling the reins in on the tempo as needed for the sake of variety.  Though it is very by-the-book, it’s done so well that you can’t even really call that a knock against it. Instead, it’d be more accurate to say that the album is proof that if you do a basic formula well enough, it’s more than enough to compete with flashier albums built on a flimsier foundation, stylistically.

‘Scent of the Buried’ CD//DD track listing:

1. Death And Decay

2. Sinister Incantation

3. Chalice Of Death

4. Repugnant Funeral

5. Scent Of The Buried

6. Rise Of The Dead

7. Unholy Upheaval

8. Dawn Of Blasphemy

9. Skullcrushing Carnage

10. Nailed To The Grave

Interment is:

Johan Jansson | Guitar,Vocals

Torbjörn Brynedal | Guitars

Allan Lundholm | Bass

Kennet Englund | Drums

The Review:

If there’s one thing there isn’t a shortage of in 2016 and it’s bands with that early 90s Stockholm/Sunlight Studio sound. A lot of its popularity comes from hardcore influenced bands seeking to use that sound to give their bands a new or different dimension (e.g. Trap Them, Black Breath, or NAILS), but there are plenty of newer bands seeking to relive a glory period they had no chance of being a part of the first time around, due to age or some other factor. For the most part, a lot of those efforts fall short of the mark, with style over substance being a frequent concern. Thankfully there are bands like Interment who are still around to remind everyone that a classic sound can be done the right way, though they have the added benefit of being a part of the first wave.

Interment released three demos from 1991 to 1994, which in retrospect offer a similarly high level of quality to the bigger bands of the era. Johan Jansson and Kennet Englund moved on to bands like Uncanny, Dellamorte, Centinex, and Demonical. Once Interment was resurrected in 2007, the band started life anew through a series of compilations and split releases and releasing a well-received full length album in 2010, ‘Into the Crypts of Blasphemy’. Bringing us to 2016 and ‘Scent of the Buried’.

From a stylistic standpoint, the album doesn’t really offer anything you haven’t heard before. It’s completely indebted and dedicated to the Stockholm sound of the early 90s (though the band’s home of Avesta is roughly two hours drive from Stockholm itself). The album was even recorded in the famed Sunlight Studio itself with Tomas Skogsberg at the helm. With all of the ancillary details in order, all that’s left is for the music to come through, which it absolutely does. ‘Scent of the Buried’ strikes an excellent balance between thrashing speed and grinding riffs, and pulling the reins in on the tempo as needed for the sake of variety.

With as much of this particular death metal style as there is right now, it’d be a real shame if this album got lost in the shuffle. It sounds massive, and it’s absolutely a top-tier example of the genre, with its only real drawback being that it comes out at a time when the market is flooded with similar, though inferior bands. Though ‘Scent Of The Buried’ is very by-the-book, it’s done so well that you can’t even really call that a knock against it. Instead, it’d be more accurate to say that the album is proof that if you do a basic formula well enough, it’s more than enough to compete with flashier albums built on a flimsier foundation, stylistically.

You can pick up a digital copy here and a CD copy here and eventually here in North America. 

Band info: Facebook

Bastard Grave - ‘What Lies Beyond’ (Album Review)

By: Richard Maw

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 30/10/2015

Label: Pulverised Records

From the opening of ‘From The Depths’, you know exactly what you are getting; feral death with a punk sensibility. This continues right the way through the album, I am pleased to say. Each song fits nicely with all the others.  No melodies here; straight forward Entombed/Dismember/Grave worship- chainsaw guitars, meaty but rough and ready drums and that bass sound you love are all present and correct.  For fans of all the bands noted along with Entrails and any other sons of Northern darkness you care to name. Ripping stuff!

‘What Lies Beyond’ CD//DD track listing:

1. From The Depths
2. Doomed To Stay
3. Awaiting Rebirth
4. Stalker
5. Path To Extinction
6. Bastard Grave
7. Reborn In Filth
8. River Of Death
9. Misery
10. Profana Vesperam

The Review:

Interested in Swedish death metal? Excellent. Want to hear some more Swedish death metal? Fortunate then, that we have here some Swedish death metal. No melodies here; straight forward Entombed/Dismember/Grave worship- chainsaw guitars, meaty but rough and ready drums and that bass sound you love are all present and correct.

From the opening of ‘From The Depths’, you know exactly what you are getting; feral death with a punk sensibility. This continues right the way through the album, I am pleased to say. Each song fits nicely with all the others. There are some quicker than others, some which use slightly different rhythms, but basically you know where you stand throughout. The song lengths are not as short as you might expect; both the aforementioned opener and the closing of ‘Profana Vesperam’ are over five and six minutes respectively. Tracks such as ‘Stalker’ provide a more predictable short sharp shock and the quality of the album lies in its familiarity. It is genre based and executed flawlessly.

For fans of all the bands noted along with Entrails and any other sons of Northern darkness you care to name. Ripping stuff!

FFO: Entombed, Dismember, Black Breath, Swedish Death Metal, etc!

Band info: bandcamp | facebook

Majestic Downfall - '...When Dead' (Album Review)

By: Richard Maw

Album Type: Full-Length

Date Released: 06/07/2015

Label: Pulverised Records

“The guitar riffs and melodies throughout the record are excellent. There are clean sections here and there throughout the album and the band makes good use of dynamics. The sound is suitably expansive and the overall effect is of a band striving to produce the most epic and expansive record that they can, while maintaining a common thread throughout.

‘...When Dead’ CD//DD track listing:

1). …When Dead

2). Escape My Thought

3). The Brick, the Concrete

4). Doors

5). The Rain of the Dead

Majestic Downfall is:

Alfonso Sanchez | drums

Jacobo Cordova | vocal, guitars, bass, keyboards, drums

The Review:

Upon reading that Jacob Cordova of Zombiefication was involved in this, I had to hear it. I am glad I did. It is dark, doomy, deathly in places and thoroughly downbeat. The doom laden intro is the shortest thing on here- by many, many minutes- as what follows is a winding path through the pathways of doom/death. “Escape My Thought” is a master-class in melancholy. Elegaic guitar lines mix with some much faster sections as the ghost of early Paradise Lost is conjured up.  At 15 minutes plus, there is a lot to take in- dynamics shift the sound, riffs come in and out and over it all, Cordova's very meaty growl pins the track together. This is indeed majestic stuff- it shifts through the gears effortlessly and has a certain atmosphere to it- cold, damp and dark- that I never thought would have come out of Mexico.

“The Brick, The Concrete” clocking in at over 11 minutes (second shortest song!) is a down tempo trudge through an urban dystopia of greyness. There are time shifts to ring the changes and that sense of melody in some of the guitar passages that lightens the sound to make the track ebb and flow with surprising grace (a hard trick to pull off when writing and playing doom). The track retains a kind of marching feel throughout- almost perpetual forward motion- which I really like. It has a kind of kinetic energy that is sometimes missing from the genre (and blast sections of course).

“Doors” starts very weightily indeed- with rolling blasts coming at you while the guitar adds more melody than you expect. The opening verse section has a rather ghostly effect that then evaporates (it returns later, though) into guttural noise before the doom returns. The track is arguably the darkest on the record (which is saying something).  “The Rain of The Dead” is a closing eleven and a half minutes of downcast misery. The guitar riffs and melodies throughout the record are excellent and they continue that on this one. There are clean sections here and there throughout the album and the band makes good use of dynamics. The sound is suitably expansive and the overall effect is of a band striving to produce the most epic and expansive record that they can, while maintaining a common thread throughout. Much of the album verges on funeral doom, but there should be enough deathly elements (check out the riff just after the five minute mark in the closing track) and even classic rock to keep a variety of listeners interested.

I find it remarkable that Cordova can produce the level of quality on display here so soon after the last Zombiefication album; which in itself was superb. Metal needs more people like him- creative, ambitious and talented. More power to him and to this record. Absolutely recommended.

‘…When Dead’ is available here

Band info: Facebook



Bone Gnawer - 'Cannibal Crematorium' (Album Review)

By Theron Moore

Album Type: Full-Length

Date Released: 10/07/2015

Label: Pulverised Records

“Cannibal Crematorium” is an exercise in true metal and Kam Lee delivers a workshop in how death metal vocals should sound like at any age.  Take heed, take notice.  Bone Gnawer is the best thing to happen to music this year.

‘Cannibal Crematorium’ CD//DD//LP track listing:

1.Anthropophagist Inferno

2.Modern Day Cannibal (Featuring Sly Goregnome of FONDLECORPSE)

3.Chainsaw Carnage (Featuring Adam Scott & Tom Knizer of CARDIAC ARREST)

4.Horrors In The House Of Human Remains (Featuring Matt Witchclan of DEADMAN’S BLOOD & WITCHCLAN)

5.Chawed, Mauled & Gnawed (Featuring Noel Kemper of GRUESOME STUFF RELISH & ALTAR OF GIALLO)

6.Il Sesso Bizzarro Di Cannibali (Featuring Miss Desideria Gabreiella Annuziata)

7.Chrome Skull (Featuring Vincent Crowley of ACHERON)

8.Below A Murder Of Carrion Crows (Featuring Patrick Bruss of CRYPTICUS)

9.Carnivore Beneath (Featuring Dave Ingram of DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN, BENEDICTION)

10.Untold Story: Human Pork Bun (Featuring Mark Riddick of FETID ZOMBIE)

11.Cannibal Crematorium (Featuring Dany Dead of DEAD)

Bone Gnawer is

Kam Lee | Vocals

Ronnie Bjornstrom | Guitars, Bass

Morgan Lie | Drums

 The Review:

​“Anthropophagist Inferno” sets the tone of the record with its horror movie-soundtrack intro.  It unsettles you.  It makes you squirm uncomfortably listening to it.  You’ve got ten more tracks to go.  Old school death metal at its finest.  No fucking around.  No pulling punches and it’s not for the weak or posers.  It’s brutal.

​

Bone Gnawer’s vocalist Kam Lee is the real deal.  He is a legend in the world of death metal.  I took notice of him when he did the record “From Beyond” when he was with Massacre.  That was greatness.  “Cannibal Crematorium” matches that pinnacle of perfection and that’s huge praise.  Bone Gnawer holds its own with Massacre. What gives this record an extra boost of unique sound and certain fury are the guest stars that appear on each track:

​We’re talking eleven tracks of pure old school death metal with Kam Lee in top form.  You’d think after all these years he’d slow down or show signs of maybe a weakened vocal but he kills it with every song.  I don’t think I’ve ever heard him this strong before and he’s doing things vocally that have to be heard to be believed.  After hearing “Cannibal Crematorium” I have to see them live and I need this band to put out record #2 ASAP.  Amazing is an understatement.

There’s not a bum tune anywhere and the stand out tracks are “Modern Day Cannibal,” “Chainsaw Carnage” and “Untold Story:  Human Pork Bun” if not for the title alone. “Cannibal Crematorium” is an exercise in true metal and Kam Lee delivers a workshop in how death metal vocals should sound like at any age.  Take heed, take notice.  Bone Gnawer is the best thing to happen to music this year.

‘Cannibal Crematorium’ is available here

Band info: Bandcamp | Facebook

Associated bands: The Grotesquery | Broken Gravestones | Taedeat | Auberon | Massacre

Wombbath - 'Downfall Rising' (Album Review)

 By Theron Moore

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 07/08/2015

Label: Pulverised Records/
Dark Descent Records

“Downfall Rising” is a heavy, heavy as fuck comeback which succeeds on every level from production to vocals to the music itself and how it all comes together on record.

‘Downfall Rising’ CD//DD track Listing:

1. Intro

2. Under Apokalypsens Svarta Vingar

3. Underneath The Rotten Soil

4. I Am The Abyss

5. Fall Of The Weak

6. Putrid And Bound (By The Seed Of Satan)

7. Paid In Blood

8. Abandoned Furthermore

The Review:

​

Formed in 1990, Wombbath soon disbanded around 1994 following the release of their EP entitled ‘Lavatory’, now they are back after a 22 year hiatus with “Downfall Rising” which is released on Pulverised Records/Dark Descent Records.  According to their bio the band had a huge Death influence, especially with the “Spiritual Healing” and “Leprosy” records.  Whilst I  agree with that reference, what got my attention wasn’t the Death influence but how much of a sound they shared with fellow swedes Necrophobic.  I wish more bands had this thick, brick wall, guitar sound.  “Downfall Rising” was mixed by the band's drummerJeramie Kling (The Absence, Infernaeon, etc) and mastered by James Murphy (Disincarnate, ex-Death, ex-Testament, ex-Obituary, etc) at SafeHouse Production, USA.

​Although “Downfall Rising” is hailed as a straight forward death metal record it also treads into blackish metal territory perhaps best highlighted on track four “I Am The Abyss.”  I like it, it works, it broadens the band’s sound in a way that takes them away from being one dimensional and opens them up wider, gives them more musical space to explore which we hear in track five, “Fall Of TheWeak.”  It’s speedy, growly death metal that isn’t afraid to plod and grind with a heavy crushing groove when called for and that’s to be said of the entire record as well.  

​

The band does a good job knowing when to play fast and when to slow it down which might be stating the obvious, however, not a lot of bands actually have a grasp on how to do this or when to do this.  Putting a record together isn’t an easy task, especially trying to get the band’s sound translated just the right way and Wombbath have done it quite well.

​

“Downfall Rising” is a heavy, heavy as fuck comeback which succeeds on every level from production to vocals to the music itself and how it all comes together on record.  Had I not known about their hiatus it never would’ve dawned on me that Wombbath had been out of the game for the last 22 years?  Would I buy it?  Hell yes and I’d put it next to both Necrophobic and Death, in terms of overall quality.  Buy this record.

‘Downfall Rising’ is available here

Band info: Facebook

Associated Bands: Skineater | Ashcloud

Bombs of Hades - Through The Dark Past (Album Review)

Album Type :  Full Length

Date Released :  27/1/2014

Label : Pulverised Records

Through The Dark Past, album track lisiting :

1. Necronomicus Kanth (The Hounds Of Hell)
2. Twisted Decay
3. Slaughter The Dead
4. Disrespect Their Bones
5. Coffin
6. Carnivores
7. Prologue (The Ecstacy Of Blood)
8. Into The Eternal Pit Of Fire
9. The Day Man Lost
10. Confessor
11. Ice Cold Grave
12. Clean Your Head
13. Until Death (Hanged By The Neck)
14. Inside Teradome
15. Burn
16. I'll Be Your Sister
17. Mangled Dehumanization
18. Crossturner
19. Evil Dead
20. Kill! Kill! Kill!
21. Epilog

Bio :

Slightly more than a decade of the band's existence, Swedish Death-Crust council BOMBS OF HADES consecrate the unhallowed celebration with their darkest chronicle "Through The Dark Past"!

Archiving right from the "Carnivores" 7-inch vinyl EP up till the "No Life" 10-inch vinyl split with Sweden's Mordbrand, this is the indeed the most exhaustive BOMBS OF HADES compilation to date and fans of both vinyl / non-vinyl collectors will appreciate this all-inclusive deluxe package of the band's every other EP, single, split, cover song and bonus track, etc.

To complete this grotesque communion, four brand new tracks were written and recorded exclusively to further anchor this release down as every BOMBS OF HADES fans' must-have collection.

The Band :

Butch Ekman | Bass

Magnus Forsberg | Drums

P-O Söderback | Guitars

Jonas Stålhammer | Guitars, Vocals

Review :

With twenty one tracks on offer, this will not be a track by track review...

As the title suggests, this compilation takes in ten years of crusty death from these reliable Swedes. Yes, there are cover versions (Master, Motorhead...).Yes, the production is inconsistent and yes this is all hugely enjoyable. Crust punk meets death metal in a manner that even Bolt Thrower would be proud of.

This is fast and vicious stuff taking in all the band's EPs, split appearances and so on. The crust vibe is ever present- the songs are straightforward and technicality does not come into it too much, but then again why should it? The band is all about the visceral thrill of punk and metal- as evidenced by their cover choices. That is not to say that this is amateurish- it isn't and the band play tight and effectively at all speeds.

The best of the material here is up there with anyone else in the genre- it is that good. If you have any interest in Nihilist, Discharge, Motorhead, Bolt Thrower, Doom and so on; take a chance on this compilation... you might find yourself buying up the band's back catalogue. A perfect introduction and curio for newbies and old fans alike.

Words by : Richard Maw

You can buy it here

For more information :

https://www.facebook.com/bombsofhades

http://www.bombsofhades.com/