Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genres: Death Metal, Thrash
Label: Independent

This CD arrived in my mailbox rather unexpected, but I was somewhat excited to check it out. Mexican death metal is usually pretty good, and when mixed with thrash, it’s even better. Hellsing prove this theory, and have become my second favorite band from Mexico.
The overall sound is a very clean thrash, in the vein of newer Trivium, Avenged Sevenfold, or Bullet For My Valentine, but don’t let that discourage you. I know some metalheads would cringe at those comparisons, but when faced with the excellent growls of Jose Luis your idea should change. These guys are the real deal, holding up a ‘true’ metal (whatever that means) flag for the world to unite under.
Opening track “The Rival” opens up with a simple, thrashy intro but quickly turns into a very fistpumping death metal track that strongly reminds me of Canadian thrashers Titans Eve and Trivium, with a bit of 3 Inches of Blood and Cannibal Corpse. Some really awesome solos are in this song, so get your air guitar ready.
The second track, the title track to the EP, is a short song, not even a full minute long. It’s a nice quiet instrumental that leads you into “The Dark Side of the Moon”, a NWOBHM/thrash riff infested slow piece. Iron Maiden meets Entombed? Something like that. Again, solos. These guys know how to do them right; little mini songs that help the main song out. Great stuff.
Bonus track “Razor” is a faster, more evil-sounding vocal track with a fucking killer solo section at 1:28 that doesn’t let up until 2:48, where it goes into the main riff. This thing gallops along like Maiden but just slays with it’s shredding thrashtastic guitar work. Definitely my favorite song on the EP.
The second bonus track, and last song, “The Final Hour” starts off HUGE, reminding me of thrash infected gothic metal. Don’t let that trick you though, as Jose comes in and throws down a vocal that turns this song into a totally melodic Swedeath homage to bands like Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, and Soilwork. Second favorite track on the EP for sure.
If you’re into deaththrash, check out Hellsing MX. These guys are really good at what they are doing, and deserve at least a look at.
7.5 out of 10.

Hellsing MX on Facebook.

Genre: Death Fuckin’ Metal

Label: Dark Descent Records

Beware, mortals.. for now we step back through time and darkness into the archaic age of old school swedish death metal, and into the grasp of the entity known as Entrails! Originally formed in 1991, Entrails disbanded without releasing anything, but was exhumed in 2008 by guitarist Jimmy Lundqvist. Two demos were released, and the debut album “Tales From The Morgue” finally took shape in 2010, nearly two decades after the inception of the band. Now, with the sophmore effort “The Tomb Awaits” pending release on Dark Descent Records, I had the opportunity to give it a listen in advance.

“The Tomb Awaits” opens with the title track, a soft, beautiful, reflective classical guitar instrumental. It reminds me of “Lamentation” off of God Macabre’s classic Swedeath monolith “The Winterlong”, and I very much appreciated it both as a standalone song and an atmospheric prelude.

But Being a Swedeath junkie, I was not at all surprised when after scarcely a minute of soft acoustic serenading, Entrails turned around and punched me in my goddamn face with about a ton of ripping HM-2 guitar tone. “Unleashed Wrath” is instantly remniscent of the mighty “Left Hand Path”, and segways into one of the stronger tracks on the album, “Crawling Death”, featuring an ominously simple piano intro and nefariously catchy chant of “CRAWLING DEATH!”. This 3 punch combo knocked me on my ass and left me waiting for a weaker track, but Entrails just never let up. It makes me wonder why they ever broke up in the first place.

The riffs! Man, these guys have cool riffs out the ass, all ripped from the amplifier with that absolutely timeless Swedish guitar sound! Every song on this disc has at least a couple riffs that you can’t help but bang your head to (Entrails and their label will be receiving a bill from my chiropractor along with my preorder for a hard copy of the album). From the epic intro of “Undead” to the diabolical tremolo picking of “Total Death”, I was never bored with the visceral Swedish filth assaulting my eardrums.

The leads too, are thoroughly badass, just as much so as the riffs that make up the meat of the songs. Never wanking or shredding overly much, Entrails instead opt for a more melodic, creative approach to guitar solos that contrasts with the surrounding ultraviolence in a way that is very pleasing to the ear, and conjures up the ghost of old school Dismember.

Though this stuff is obviously very traditional (you won’t hear any hyperblasts or extended sweep picking), it still sounds fresh and exciting to me, and it would be a grave mistake to disregard Entrails as a simple retro nostalgia band. If anyone has a right to be playing Left Hand Path death nowadays, it’s these guys, 20 year scene veterans who obviously hold a LOT of pent up creativity. Thoroughly Swedish and thoroughly Death metal, I think “The Tomb Awaits” could have been classic if it had been released in the early 90′s golden era of death metal. Buy this album if you like Entombed, Grave, Unleashed, Dismember, Carnage, and God Macabre. Fuck, just buy this album if you like death metal. A round of applause for Entrails. 8.5/10!

I’d like to introduce this edition of Conjuration of the Sepulchral by apologizing to the many avid readers who I’m sure have been left crushed and without direction by this column’s absence. Real life has been getting in the way of my illustrious career as a metal sage, but I’ve thought long and hard about my priorities and realized that shit’s overrated. Now back to the death metal.

This week we will be sampling a fine Swedish vintage with a very un-Swedish flavor. Gorement from Nyköping, Sweden. I have never seen them discussed in any magazine like Terrorizer, Zero Tolerance, or Metal Maniacs, or any larger metal site like blabbermouth or metal-rules.net, but they maintain a dedicated cult following among die-hard old school death metal fans. And for good reason; their only album, the magnum opus “The Ending Quest”, is a masterpiece of atypical melanchoic death metal.

Their style is hard to describe; Swedeath cliches are eschewed. No HM-2 pedal Left Hand Path Guitar tone, no d-beat drumming. A very strong sense of melody is present, but so are monolithic grooving death riffs. Hyperblasting madness flows seamlessly into gossamer melodies that evoke soltitude inspire contemplation. To me, the entire approach of Gorement conveys an ancient, inhuman sense of esoteric knowing and despair. It could perhaps be described as the reminiscing of an ancient entity that has seen the rise and fall of  countless gods and nations, and knows that all things good things come to an end. Check it out here, and buy Gorement’s “Darkness of the Dead” compilation or the vinyl re-issue of “The Ending Quest” from Necroharmonic Records.

Finnish death metal outfit Corpsessed has signed with Dark Descent Records for the CD release of their self-titled debut EP. Scheduled for an early 2011 release, the EP features six tracks of bludgeoning old-school death in the vein of Entombed, Incantation, Deicide, Immolation and Grave. Select tracks from the EP have been posted on the band’s official MySpace site, while more information on Corpsessed can be found on their Facebook page.

Corpsessed was spawned from putrescent slime in 2007, after the dissolution of an earlier project Skullfucker. Vocalist Niko Matilainen (Skullfucker), guitarist Matti Mäkelä (Tyranny, Wormphlegm) and drummer Jussi-Pekka Manner (Skullfucker, Pohjoinen Kuri) were joined by guitarist Jyri Lustig (Cardinals Folly) and the (de)composing of morbid death metal tunes began at the rotting houses of the Järvenpää delta-area.

The group’s original bass player Mikko Mäkelä disappeared in unknown circumstances, but was replaced in 2009 by Mikko Pöllä (Azure).

Look for Corpsessed‘s debut EP out soon on Dark Decent Records (CD only), with vinyl treatment coming courtesy of French label Ostra Records.

Genres: Brutal Death Metal, Medical Death Metal
Labels: Willowtip, Tankcrimes

I bought The Last Gasp based solely on the cover, and I’m so glad I did.
First I ordered it from Tankcrimes on 12” vinyl, which is a gorgeous piece of art in itself (the Impaled logo and the title on the cover are foiled!), and then I found the CD at HMV finally last night (no foil on it though). The cover that inspired this purchasing is both disgusting and awe inspiring for me.
Just like the music contained within.
This is the kind of death metal that a lot of fans of the genre are going to want to hear. Fast, catchy riffs that are sometimes heavy (“All Gut, No Glory”) or sometimes just brutally face kicking (“You Are The Dead”) with solos that are little mini-songs in themselves, and even have their own titles (“Debris All That You Can Be”, “The Obesity Epidemic”, etc.). I think these guys have definitely listened to their classics like Entombed, Death, Carcass, and the like, but also tons of punk seems to have been a steady diet of at least one of the members. It’s got a little bit of that feel. Add in the fact that members and ex-members were part of Exhumed, Engorged, Hoarfrost, Ghoul, and more, it’s like a death metal orgasm, covered in cow parts.
Lyrically, these guys are very medical, using text book terminology to sicken as well as make you laugh, complete with a band photo with the caption “The Thanatologists of St. Julien’s”, a modified prescription Rx logo (Rxxx) and other fun bits.
Get a copy!
9 out of 10.

Impaled on MySpace.