Undergang "Aldrig i livet"

    Spewing gruesome old school corpse rotting death metal for close to twelve years now, Undergang continues to push the musical slaughter fest moving forward with the release of their fifth full-length album, “Aldrig i livet.” This group of old school death metal worshipping maniacs from Denmark does not look to appease mainstream metal critics by writing more progressive sounding instrumental pieces. If anything these guys would probably take those same mainstream metal critics and bury them alive in an abandoned cemetery out in the middle of nowhere. 

    Teaming up with Dark Descent Records and Me Saco Un Ojo Records for the release of the new, Undergang looks to build off of the insidious momentum from their 2017 release, “Misantropologi.” I think Undergang’s approach to death metal definitely taps into that old school Scandinavian death metal world that places emphasis on chainsaw like guitar riffs and monstrous inhuman sounding death growls. Also, I find their style to be very reminiscent to that of horror themed death metal bands like Impetigo, Mortician and Exhumed. Over the years I have always acknowledged Undergang’s efforts to produce their own putrid sounding death metal, but at the same time I feel as if they stick to a very repetitive formula, which sometimes is all you need if you can effectively write extremely engaging and brutal pieces of music. The ten tracks on this new album are written and recorded in such a manner that you can forget the fact that they are not reinventing the wheel, because they are truly offering their own unique take on gruesome sounding old school death metal.  

    The album is constant cannibalistic feast of sickening sounding old school death metal guitar riffs. Right when that opening track, “Præfluidum,” kicks into high gear the band unleashes a violent sounding thunderstorm of distorted devastation. One area that I believe Undergrang excels in on this entire album is the production and presentation of the vocals. The vocals always seem to inject a massive amount of vile disgust into the musical landscape, keeping you fully immersed in a turbulent sea of endless death metal carnage. 

    As the album progresses you notice Undergang is consistently able to maintain a certain bombastic and ravenous drive that is achieved by the bands unforgiving extreme metal mentality. On tracks like, “Indtorrent” and “Menneskeæder” the band completely decimates everything in their path with a surge of pestilent sounding aggression. The riffs once again are utterly cataclysmic in terms of building a repulsive and terrifying old school sounding atmosphere. You feel suffocated by the overall brutality that seeps through the speakers and comes into your ears causing you to become possessed by the agonizing compositions that this band is able to construct. Towards the end of the album there seems to be no mercy shown by Undergang as the music gets even more sadistic sounding with tracks like, “Aldrig i livet” and “Rødt dødt kød.” 

    Overall there is not much to complain, or critique for that matter about this new album from Undergang. Yes, extreme metal music has witnessed a fair amount of bands that tend to write music in a similar vein, although I think Undergang demonstrates solid musicianship and precise execution throughout the album to where you can appreciate the overall artistic vision. The album definitely does not disappoint if you are a fan of death metal and I highly recommend people check it out if they want to hear some behemoth sized death metal arrangements soaked in the blood of a thousand corpses. This sure as hell beats listening to a progressive metalcore band that incorporates flute and saxophone parts in their sound…shit, those bands would piss their pants if they heard music like this!

Check out the video for “Menneskeæder” below (Album comes out December 4th, 2020): 

Undergang Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/undergangktdm

Dark Descent Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/DarkDescentRecords/

 

Invincible Force "Decomposed Sacramentum"

    Adding to an already monumental year for the world of extreme music, Invincible Force unleashes a sadistic assault of ear shattering blast beats and skull splitting riffs. Their sophomore full-length release, “Decomposed Sacramentum,” is a cyclone of sinister creativity that conveys a vicious and destructive nature. 

    These Chilean extreme metal musicians definitely want to contribute their brand of savage sounding music to what has already been such a strong year for extreme metal music. Invincible Force released their debut full-length album, “Satan Rebellion Metal,” back in 2015 and now five years later are looking to continue their diabolical extreme metal conquest. The band’s name is taken from a Destruction song, so you definitely hear that raw thrash style in their music. However, what I find stands out the most about this album is the relentless old school death metal attitude that drives the music mercilessly forward. If you like the first two Morbid Angel albums along with any band that was putting out pulverizing extreme metal around the late 80’s/early 90’s, then you are really going to want to check this album out. 

    The album contains nine tracks of pure hellish sounding extreme metal, all of which somehow never lose that intense and ferocious metal mindset. “Doomed by the Vision,” opens the album with a haunting introduction section that instantly explodes into a bombastic slaughter fest of blast beats, demonic vocals and leviathan sized guitar riffs. Instead of trying to grab listeners with overly complex compositions, the band focuses on maintaining a certain of level of aggression that heightens the song’s overall apocalyptic theme. On the next track, “Perpetual Black Mass,” the band throws down an unholy attack of straight forward brutality and keeps you hooked until the final note. 

    Throughout the entire album Invincible Force demonstrates that they are determined to offer listeners solid recordings that present sacrilegious themes with enough unholy malice to scare your local priest. The production on each track perfectly captures the band’s raw and venomous sound, as well as the tight bond between these musicians who all sound like they are very proficient players. Songs like, “The Shadow Over Canaan,” “Illusion of Truth,” and “Abufihamat,” are unbelievably impactful in terms of instrumental creativity. The guitar parts create an atmosphere of ritualistic damnation and the vocals add to the already satanic landscape by echoing over the chaos with a profound presentation. 

    I think that the last song I want to mention is, “Hopeless Mortality,” which I thought contained some of the most tormenting sounding guitar parts on the entire release. The song was definitely the perfect choice to have as the final track off of the album and really encapsulated the band’s unforgiving extreme creative vision.

    In the end, Invincible Force does not disappoint with, “Decomposed Sacramentum,” especially if you are looking for a band that plays with a tremendous amount of raw old school extreme metal passion. A lot of bands will tell you that they are old school sounding thrash, black and death metal bands, however, most of those bands fail to capture the true essence and need to think more about how their music sounds rather than their promo descriptions. Invincible Force is definitely a force to be reckoned with in the metal world and one that will hopefully be leading the charge into the future with more devastating releases. 

Check out the song "Perpetual Black Mass" below (Album is out October 22, 2020 through Dark Descent Records):

Invincible Force Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/Invincible666Force/

Dark Descent Website:

https://www.darkdescentrecords.com/

Ghoulgotha "The Deathmass Cloak"

    Slow crushing riffs that echo through mountains of distortion is one way to describe San Diego’s Ghoulgotha. This death doom trio constructs some loud ominous sounding musical compositions for their debut full-length album, “The Deathmass Cloak.”
    Set for release on January 13, 2015 through Dark Descent Records, the album will offer fans of slower extreme music ten tracks of original death doom music. The band’s sound is very unique, and blends death metal style riffs and vocals with more doom metal like compositions. Some of the bands that Ghoulgotha reminds me of are Dismember, Amorphis, Paradise Lost and a bit of Obituary. All ten songs on this album are consistent and maintain a heavy edge. However, I must admit that the death doom formula becomes tiring towards the end. Riffs begin to drag on and the drums seem lost in the endless void of growls and distortion.
    Still, one cannot complain too much as the overall sound is brutal and there are some songs on this album that display creative death doom dynamics. After the intro track, “Solar Awakening,” the band cranks up the volume and unleashes a heavy slab of chord crushing riffs. The band’s drummer pounds away at his kit and provides a strong backbone. “Gazing into the Melted Night” and “A Neck for the Nameless Noose,” are unapologetic thunderous sounding pieces of music. The vocals narrate by growling along to the riffs and compliment the heavy musical atmosphere. Ghoulgotha also messes around with some unique guitar effects to create haunting intros like the one heard on, “Saturnal Rites.” Another interesting example of musical experimentation that I found when listening to this album was the quick switches between slow death doom and fast paced old school death metal. The band can be hammering out a slow jam, and without warning, turn up the intensity meter by throwing in some wicked sounding blast beats.
    Songs like, "Arteries Unblest" and “Citadels of Heathen Flesh,” are brutal both lyrically and musical, so you get the best of both worlds. The band delivers a massive devastating sound that leaves no one safe in its path of destruction. As the drums pound along to the rhythm, the guitar screams out in agony over the noisy chaos. The longest song on the album, “Levitate Within the Curse,” is Ghoulgotha’s most creative track. There are a variety of different compositions and timings to keep a listener’s attention hooked the whole way through. Long songs can be scary to some metal fans, especially crust punk/grindcore fans, but this song is not too repetitious and attention challenging. There is this one part that sounds like something out of the X-Files, which was interesting and added a slight science fiction theme to the track.
    Although this genre of music is not my absolute favorite, Ghoulgotha’s, “The Deathmass Cloak,” is what I would consider solid death doom music. Personally I usually just prefer death metal or doom metal, but blending the two sub-genres in an interesting and not completely repetitive way can also work for me. I think a majority of your die hard death doom fans will find this album to their liking. However, crust punk/grindcore fans might need Ritalin if they listen to this album...