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Morbid greetings and welcome to my brand new specialty segment for Funeral Rain zine! I’ve wanted to do this for a while, and I just recieved the okay from the powers that be at FRR (aka General Blaspheme). So without further ado, allow me to present Conjuration of the Sepulchral: Buried Treasues of Old School Death Metal!

Do you like bands like Morbid Angel and Autopsy? Do you like that crunchy vintage HM-2 guitar sound? Do you like raw, ancient death metal all but lost to antiquity, condemned to the catacombs of the early 90′s? If you answered yes to any of the above, then this is for you! Here I will unearth and discuss unrecognized  and underappreciated gems of the archaic death metal underground of the late 80′s and early 90′s. I love this stuff, and I’m quite excited to have a platform to force it down our readers’ throats!

To celebrate my debut, the first band I’d like to bring to your attention are one of my all time favorites, the mighty Timeghoul. Formed in Missouri in 1987, these guys really got the shaft in terms of recognition, especially since they were one of the most innovative bands in the history of death metal. They played an epic, avant garde, brand of sci-fi/fantasy themed death unlike anything else I have ever heard. Progressive, technical, and utterly old school all at once, I cannot think of another band like Timeghoul.

Their two demos, 1992′s Tumultuous Travelings and 1994′s Panaramic Twilight (pictured above), display epic scale songwriting (not just long songs, these are textured, memorable compositions), and an aural motif of cosmic horror precisely defined through eery leads and muddy rhythms from the murky depths of the galaxy. The music alternates between calculated death metal violence and slow, atmospheric ungulation that will send a chill down your spine. Any of the 6 songs split 4 and 2 between the pair of demos can hold itself up as a masterpiece, and yet, they all sound like pieces of a whole, even though the demos were release two years apart.

Perhaps the most unique thing about Timeghoul is their sparing use of clean vocals. Now, before you make any judgements, I must stress how goddamn creepy said clean vocals are. They’re a gregorian chant sung by forlorn zombie cosmonauts damned to wander among dying stars for eternity. I hope that makes sense, because that is really what they sound like.

If I’ve piqued your curiosity and you’d like to explore Timeghoul for yourself, I would recommend starting with Panaramic Twilight. Because it contains only two ten minute songs as opposed to four six minute songs, one might assume it is less accessible than Tumultuous Travelings, but I assure you the opposite is true. Panaramic contains two pieces of absolute genius, and its strong sense of melody (though I will note this is definitely not melodic death metal) makes it much easier for a listener to dissect than many foggy old demos.

Before I go, I must reiterate my belief that Timeghoul deserved fame and success more than almost any of the death metal giants. They were truly ahead of their time, and this wonderful, bizarre music should not be allowed to fade into obscurity. Both Timeghoul demos can be legally downloaded for free here.

Check back every Friday for more Conjuration of the Sepulchral!

Genre: Melodic Death Metal

Label: Independent
If At The Gates had Phil Bozeman on vocals, a more free wheelin’ lead guitarist and (believe it or not) better lyrics, then they’d be Beyond The Red Horizon. If that didn’t snag your attention and set your imagination lose in a metal-candy store, then stop reading at the end of this sentence, since the rest of this review is going to be me gushing all over Into The Cosmic Realm.

This five track EP weighs a ton! Twenty minutes and forty-five seconds? No way. As many times as you’ll be starting it over and over again, it’s easily break the hour mark! I honestly couldn’t get enough of the ethereal imagery and pan-dimensional soundscapes that these four young lads conjured up!

Vocalist Nathan Mote has some of the most balanced vocals I’ve heard in a while. His barbaric growls (which sound JUST like the aforementioned Whitechapel vocalist‘s without any of the post-production tampering) are on par with his shrieking and each seem to compliment each other without either one overpowering the other. Which seems to be quite the pitfall nowadays in this genre. But let’s not forget about Jason Borton, bringing up the rhythm section. I swear on a stack of pancakes that this guy was born doing blast beats and probably even had his first snare as a zygote! Borton is a machine! It’s not very often that you can isolate a drum track and still hear a great melody! Color me beyond impressed…

Vlad’s guitar work is, once again, in tip-top from. His leads sound terrific. Organically growing and receding with the natural ebb and flow of the melody, when suddenly; SOLO AHOY!!! An acid rock inspired wah-wah fest springs up and Vlad’s fingers go into overdrive, shredding up and dishing out lightning fast riffs that lay waste to the listener! But backing him up, we’ve got Colin St.Claire on bass. Laying down thick yet speedy lines that boom, bounce and bludgeon your ear drums. The occasional solo is thrown in too (my favorite is towards the beginning of Storms Within), just to let you know that the talent is band wide.

Overall: Beyond The Red Horizon is the premier melodic death metal entity in Pacific Northwest! There. I said it. It can’t be unsaid. That’s it and that’s all.

10/10

Beyond The Red Horizon On Facebook

Genres: Doom, Hardcore, Sludge
Label: Anthropic Records

Philadelphia’s own Anthropic Records lets another free compilation CD out of it’s doors, and it’s chock full of Philly’s greatest doomsayers and sludge masters.
It features tracks from Bubonic Bear (“Throat Cancer Mountain”, 8), Wormrider (“Heroic Brew”, 7), The Green Evening Requiem (“Debilitation Tide”, 9), Ladder Devils (“Pyramid”, 8), Distress Signal (“Untitled”, 7), Thee Nosebleeds (“Fenderhead”, 7), Deathbeds (“Danny Husk”, 9), Vulcan (“Stranger in Black”, 7), and Dirt Worshipper (“The Absence of Color and Light”, 9).
In all, it’s pretty fucking sweet, and a good way to wreck your eardrums. If you’re into doom and sludge, it’s perfect, especially since it has a nice hardcore edge to some of the songs to throw in some variety.
8 out of 10.

Genre: Black Metal

Label: Agonia Records

I went through a period a couple years ago where I was really into DSBM, or depressive/suicidal black metal. Forgotten Tomb are one of the bigger names of the genre, but they never really clicked for me. Mainly because their music isn’t depressing, which as you have no doubt determined is a key attribute of DSBM.

“Under Saturn Retrogade” is no different, and maybe even worse; I’m not sure about the latter because I’m not intimately  familiar with their discography.

This album sounds like Satyricon’s “Now, Diabolical”, the music being mainly watered down, catchy black metal. Whether the band genuinely thought they were writing depressing black metal or not, I cannot say, but there are cliche power chord riffs and half assed vocals as far as the eye can see. How exactly is this DSBM again?

Unfortunately, Forgotten Tomb don’t stop there, oh no sir. They push themselves even further away from black metal with the inclusion of clean vocals sprinkled throughout the album. This is not necessarily a bad choice, some bands (Lurker of Chalice) do it well, but the execution is awful and sounds like the kind of “emotional” singing you hear in nu-metal and post grunge crap.

I’m going to wrap this up quickly, as I don’t have much else to say about this album besides how it’s not depressing or black metal or good, but I will say something positive. The  last 3 songs on the album, all of which feature prominent acoustic guitars, flow together pleasantly, and I think they sound like something of a trilogy. They suck less ass than the rest of the album.

Overall, I wouldn’t say this isn’t worth listening to unless you’re already a fan of the band. I can’t recommend this to fans of DSBM because it fails as an attempt at DSBM, and I can’t recommend it to fans of black metal because it fails as an attempt at black metal. For a truly superior Depressive Suicidal listening experience, go pick up Thy Light’s “Suici.depression” or ”Soundtrack to a Suicide – Opus II” by Nocturnal Depression.

I rate this 4/10, all 4 points coming from the final 3 songs.

Forgotten Tomb on Myspace

Genre: Heavy Metal

Label: Heavy Artillery Records

I’ve been sitting on this one for a little too long I think. Don’t ask me why because I can’t answer that one for you. There’s nothing wrong with Powerkiller at all. In fact, it’s great! It’s got everything I love about the golden age of NWOBHM tightly packed inside it’s seven scorching tracks: Twin guitars, soaring and shedding like some kind of mutant eagle/Turbo Ginsu hybrid! The drums are as frantic as to be expected for the genre, but Derrick Kroll brings something extra to the kit with his intense energy (it’s there on the album, it was there live!) and innovative flourishes.

But let’s talk about Karl Warkentin vocals for a second… at times, say in Creature Of Sin, they’re about as metal as you can get! But for the rest of the album, they sway back and forth between good-ish and ear gougingly annoying. But hey, Karl’s still better than 90% of the new breed of vocalist’s of this genre. Unfortunately, the bass is another thing I’m gonna gripe about. Where the hell is it? I happen to know that Sam Martz can play, I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Grrrrr to basslessness.

Overall: One or two little gripes aren’t gonna waste this album at all. Evil Survives is one of the most entertaining and metalgasmic bands on Heavy Artillery Records (except Spellcaster, of course)! And if you needed any proof of this fact, Powerkiller is around forty-seven minutes worth of Exhibit A!

8.5/10

Evil Survives On MySpace

Evil Survives On Facebook