Half the year is over and with that we can look back and see there has been a lot of great metal albums released so far. Will the next half be even better or has the best music of the year already been released? Time will tell! I found June being a bit slower after having a couple months seriously stacked with album of the year contenders. Still there were good albums released this month as well and here are some releases you should check out!
Album of the month
Panzerfaust – The Suns of Perdition I: War, Horrid War
Having never heard of the band before this promo dropped into my mailbox I didn’t know what to expect. Safe to say their album blew me away and has been the album I’ve listened to the most since it’s release. Released June 14th via Eisenwald. Read the review here
Runners-up
Organectomy – Existential Disconnect
Organectomy keeps on pushing brutal and slam metal forward. One of the best, if not the best, albums in the genre this year. Released June 21st via Unique Leader Records.
Golgata – Skam
With each album Golgata grows stronger. Skam is their best release yet and this hidden gem of the finest Swedish black metal craft should be hidden no longer. Released June 17th via Satanath Records. Read the review here
Enthroned – Cold Black Suns
It’s always a safe bet grabbing a new Enthroned album. Even with all the band member changes the heart and soul always remains intact and Enthroned is yet to release a bad album. Released June 7th via Season of Mist.
Kingdom – Rotting Carcass Arise upon the Burial Mound
Kingdom is another hidden gem from Poland and their vast death metal market. With their latest album they evolve their sound to new heights (or should I say underground lows?) and this was easily the best death metal album I head all month. Released June 6th via Godz ov War Productions.
Honorable mentions
Beheaded – Only Death Can Save You Memoriam – Requiem for Mankind Hate – Auric Gates of Veles Serpent of Gnosis – As I Drink from the Infinite Well of Inebriation Ingested – Call of the Void Vulvodynia – Mob Justice Temple Of Demigod – Onslaught Of The Ancient Gods Heilung – Futha Bestialord – Black Mass Wedding Ov Lustra – Tempestas The Odious – Vesica Piscis Birdflesh – Extreme Graveyard Tornado Flub – Flub Shinda Saibo No Katamari – Saibogu Yellow Eyes – Rare Field Ceiling Putrified J – The Deep End of Horror
It’s been close to three years now since the modern brutal techdeath classic Finitude from Unfathomable Ruination saw the light of day. It was time to check in with vocalist and fellow gamer Ben Wright for a talk!
I want to start by asking some of your metal history. How did you get into metal and what made you start doing vocals? Any specific band/vocalist that got you into it?
I first saw a band on TV that looked pretty crazy, there was 8 dudes jumping around bashing shit with masks on so I checked them out, bought a CD and was hooked. It was the vocals that got me first, after that I just kept discovering heavier and heavier bands, I then found a CD in a store with some skulls on it and thought that looked pretty rad and it turned out to be hammer smashed face, that blew my fucking mind and since then I knew I wanted to be in a band, Chris Barnes and John Gallagher were my main inspiration to start vocals, I tried my best to emulate them as a kid.
You were a part of the band Fleshrot for many years until the split-up. I noticed a couple of the members, including you, are current or ex-members of Unfathomable Ruination. Was that how you got into the band?
Me and Dan go way back, he played in some local bands that played with Fleshrot at times and we got speaking through that, he ended up being our guitarist for a short while and we stayed in touch, he randomly sent me a message one day asking if I wanted to jam with UR and the rest is history! To this day he regrets sending me that text! Haha!
Unfathomable Ruination has risen very fast in the ranks of death metal with every release receiving amazing reviews. How has this affected you as a band?
I’m not sure it has, really? Were still a bunch of drunk retards who like making loud noises together! I’d say if it was to have any affect I guess it has made us more and more hungry each time to up the anti, keep on progressing and writing heavier, more technical, and powerful music.
Finitude is in my personal opinion one of the best brutal techdeath albums made in years, how will you top that on your next release. What can we expect from it?
Thanks man! I was really proud of all of us for that album, I’m not sure how we’re going to top it!? We have for sure set the bar high for ourselves! It’s been a really organic process writing for the new album, the material we are churning out is ridiculous! I’m pretty sure you guys are gonna dig it.
How far in development of the upcoming album are you? Can we hope for a 2019 release?
We recently announced the artist who is creating the cover art, Eliran Kantor. The album is in full swing, many cogs are turning! You’ll have to stay tuned for further updates but I can say we are expecting a 2019 release, yes.
You recently went on tour with Aborted, Cryptopsy and Ingested. How was it?
Insane. The shows were packed and it was great to tour the UK again as we hadn’t done that since the Malignancy tour a few years back, Ingested are old friends of ours so it’s always a pleasure hanging with those guys, it was amazing to watch Aborted, they really are a spectacle live, the stage show, the tightness, the props, it was awesome! The Cryptopsy guys were top blokes and great fun to party with.
Do you have any tours planned for 2019?
There a couple of ideas being thrown around at the moment, nothing set in stone currently. We are focussing most of our efforts on the album. We do have a few shows in and around Europe throughout the year, Brutal Assault & Kaltenbach etc.
As I know you like to hit the gym, what bands do you usually spin to get you doing that extra rep? Any special album even?
For me, anything with a good groove/rythm. I find that super techy or fast stuff kicks me out of sync! My last session I was spinning “Suffokate – return to despair” its got a perfect pace to it! And the new Whitechapel track, Brimstone gets me PUUUMPED!!
As a fellow gamer, what’s your favorite game of all time?
Wow that’s a ridiculously hard question!! I’d have to say if I was forced to choose, for its nostalgic value, and the fact it’s on my favourite console and my favourite movie series, Star Wars – Rogue Squadron on the N64. I’ll never forget the pure excitement as a kid flying an X wing around destroying tie fighters!!
Cheers for your time Ben! Any parting words?
No worries bro! Stay tuned for the new album, its going to be immense!! Add me up on Steam if ya wanna get owned on PUBG! Benrot138
Here we are, another year is coming to an end and what a year it has been! I got married to my wonderful supporting wife, turned 30, started supporting events in my hometown to help the local scene while we had a lot of awesome games and albums released too! New for this year is that I am doing a top 50 instead of top 40, now with a top 5 in order then I split the other 45 albums into two tiers (in no order). This way you get more of a read on what I enjoyed the most instead of just a long list. Obviously this list is personal and I am sure to have missed out on an album or two during the year (some of them I mention in my “five albums I missed” section). I have linked the reviews, if there is any, on the album titles. There will also be a best of list coming from Kristian Person, my partner in crime since a couple months back driving The Metal Gamer forward. One thing worth noting is that to be eligible for this list the album needs to be a new full-length release, so no EP’s nor re-releases. So lets recap the year!
During the few years I’ve been running The Metal Gamer this has been the best year for death metal with veterans like Monstrosity, Unleashed and At the Gates as well as younger blood such as Corpsessed and Lik putting out killer releases. Technical death metal did also have a fantastic year and I even had to leave out albums from Arsis, Revocation, Psycroptic, Inferi and Alkaloid due to this year having so much great tech-death it wasn’t easy to pick. Deathcore had an off year in my opinion but at the same time I think last year was that genres best in many years. However The Breathing Process, Ingested, Within Destruction for example did release great material you shouldn’t miss. Brutal death metal may or may not have had a good year, in all honesty I haven’t listened to a lot of the albums that’s been released within that genre this year. From those I heard it was either hit or miss, with Serocs being one of the few hits. With that said, if you’re a label that specialize in brutal death metal (or in a band) then feel free to send promos my way, I would love to hear more what the genre has to offer! Just like BDM I didn’t get a chance to listen to much of the atmospheric metal side either but with class releases from the likes of Ennui, Sojourner, Raven Throne and totalselfhatred I can’t really complain there, I got my fill.
Black metal had an interesting year for me. Necrophobic showed me just why they are one of the best bands I know of, both live and with their latest release Mark of the Necrogram. Immortal surprised me with a comeback that just about missed my top five, even though I was very hesitant on the release to begin with. Behemoth was another band I was debating adding in my top five, it wasn’t as good as The Satanist (hard to do though) but even with the hate it received from some people I can’t stop playing it every now and then. On the other spectrum my biggest disappointment is Eonian by Dimmu Borgir, I just can’t get into it even after several spins… Biggest surprises for me this year were Serocs, Ennui, Sadistik Forest and 1914. 1914 just about made the list as I only found out about them a week before I wrote this (note this was written a week before being published). Without any further ado here is The Metal Gamer Best of 2018 by Jimmy Barendt!
Behemoth – I Loved You at Your Darkest Lik – Carnage Bloodbath – The Arrow of Satan is Drawn Unleashed – The Hunt for White Christ Funeral Mist – Hekatomb The Breathing Process – Samsara Immortal – Northern Chaos Gods Amorphis – Queen of Time Gorod – Aethra Monstrosity – The Passage of Existence Corpsessed – Impetus of Death Harakiri For The Sky – Arson Serocs – The Phobos/Deimos Suite Sojourner – The Shadowed Road Aborted – TerrorVision Wombbath – The Great Desolation 1914 – The Blind Leading the Blind Sadistik Forest – Morbid Majesties Vanhelgd – Deimos Sanktuarium Abysmal Torment – The Misanthrope
Tier 3 (26-50)
Stilla – Synviljor Sargeist – Unbound Ingested – The Level Above Human Nekrokraft – Servants Totalselfhatred – Solitude Inferi – Revenant Paara – Riitti Deicide – Overtures of Blasphemy Svavelvinter – Mörkrets Tid Gluttony – Cult of the Unborn Avslut – Deceptis Skinless – Savagery Ennui – End of the Circle Raven Throne – I miortvym snicca zolak Krisiun – Scourge of the Enthroned Infuriate – Infuriate Enblood – Cast to Exile Bloodtruth – Martyrium Watain – Trident Wolf Eclipse Imperialist – Cipher Skeletonwitch – Devouring Radiant Light Within Destruction – Deathwish Carnation – Chapel of Abhorrence Crawl – Rituals Wolfheart – Constellation of the Black Light
Album of the year: Necrophobic – Mark of the Necrogram Deathcore album of the year: The Breathing Process – Samsara Technical death metal album of the year: Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name Death metal album of the year: At the Gates – To Drink From the Night Itself Brutal death metal album of the year: Serocs – The Phobos/Deimos Suite Atmospheric black metal album of the year: Sojourner – The Shadowed Road Black metal album of the year: Immortal – Northern Chaos Gods Debut album of the year: Imperialist – Cipher Song of the year: Necrophobic – Tsar Bomba Best concert I went to in 2018: Necrophobic, Blood of Serpents and Coffin Creep (Plan B, Malmö, November 2nd) Five albums I missed but need to listen to: Sigh – Heir to Despair Svartidaudi – Revelations Of The Red Sword Obscura – Diluvium Between the Buried and Me – Automata I + Automata II Møl – Jord Biggest disappointment: Dimmu Borgir – Eonian Most anticipated album of 2019: Malevolent Creation – The 13th Beast
Klysma is inviting you to a slamming deathcore party with all their friends and what a party it is! This houseparty goes hard from the start and never stops until you’re completely wasted. When you got friends over like Scordatura, Devour the Fetus and Obsolete Incarnation you’re bound to have a one of a kind, fun, loving and cuddly bash. Add the fact that the members of Klysma can also be heard in bands like Human Barbecue, Putrified J, Human Vivisection and Brutal Sphincter then you know this is no joke.
Let me tell you a not so very secret secret. You know what makes a metal gamer like me go extra hard? When you add some gaming sample in the music! Guess what? Kylsma did just that on the ending of “A Thousand Rotting Corpses” where you can hear music from a Kirby level, that’s right people it’s Kirby slam time! Now that’s fucking brutal! I am not going to lie I’ve heard this kind of music a bunch of times before but Klysma with friends make a rather varied effort on the genre with a lot of sick tunes for the sick minds out there. It’s pure fun and sometimes that’s more than enough. If you just want to check out a couple of tracks to see what Klysma is all about I suggest “Viral Sickness”, “Burning the Dead” and “A Thousand Rotting Corpses”.
Great production, variation to the slaughter, perfect length for this type of music and a lot of fun. It might not end on my albums of the year list but this is definitely worth checking out for fans of early Ingested, Stillbirth and Purefilth!
Written by J.B.
Label: Ghastly Music For fans of: Stillbirth and Purefilth Release date: September 7th, 2018 Favorite song: A Thousand Rotting Corpses Score: 3.5/5 Very good
Let me start with saying I really enjoy Carnal Decay. Last years full-length release You Owe You Pay from them didn’t make my top lists but in all honesty the album has only grown on me and I still spin it from time to time. It’s easy to headbang to, a user friendly brutal death metal, with some slam to it, album if you can call it that which is sometimes more than enough. When Push Comes to Shove follow the bands head-on approach with three murderous songs that are just as heavy as their previous releases. The opener and title track “When Push Comes to Show” is a slower but brutal track that’s insanely catchy. Of course there are a few breakdowns and tempo-changes that eventually ends in a faster finisher. Perfect start to get you going. Next track is a lot faster from the get go and here Carnal Decay brings a friend with them as Igor Fil from Katalepsy does some sick guest vocals. “We All Bleed Red” ends these short but intense ten minutes. It instantly becomes a Carnal Decay favorite of mine as it shows the band on form with some of their nastiest riffs and breakdowns.
I have to say Carnal Decay sure got a way to even make even the easier breakdowns and tempo-changes get you hooked up, it’s an art really that gets you in the groove with ease. The music does exactly what it intends to do, no bullshit just pummeling metal and they aren’t sorry for it. They know what they are all about and deliver it. If you want a quick fix to your brutality and slam addiction then When Push Comes to Show is just about perfect.
Label: Rising Nemesis Records
For fans of: Acranius and Ingested
Release date: July 20th, 2018
Favorite song: We All Bleed Red
Score: 4/5
When I saw Inhuman Remnants got the vocalist from Somnium Nox (fantastic atmospheric black metal) on bass I got interested straight away. Besides that horror themed death metal is always something I can get behind and when it’s well executed it makes me get goosebumps. While Inhuman Remains EP is a short one that offers basically a nine and a half minute long track (I count it like that since it’s an intro, a song then and outro on the three tracks) it’s atmospheric and does give some chills down my spine at times. I can imagine a full-length album on this sort of music will do really well and once the EP (I am tempted to call it a single to be honest) is over I do want more of the same formula. One does wonder how many times the quote “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” can be used in metal though. Oh well it fits and isn’t just put in there for the sake of it so why not right?
The slow starts and mid-paced heavy music gives me some Black Tongue or Falsifier vibes and Inhuman Remnants usually keeps on the mid-paced range but have some spikes here and there where they go off to eventually get into a wicked breakdown almost newer Ingested slam style. It fits the theme they got going on and along with the sick vocals that’s around the deathcore area Solipsis became a short but sweet experience. Bring me a full-length album!
Label: Eschatonic Records
For fans of: Ingested and Falsifier
Release date: June 1st, 2018
Favorite song: II. Solipsis
Score: 3.5/5
Lets talk some about what I think of Ingested. The UK band almost single-handedly acted as a sort of gateway to slam, together with Disentomb. When The Architect of Extinction came out in 2014 it blew my mind and I was sold on the whole slam scene, even though some say *cough* the slam police *cough* it’s more deathcore than slam (or slamming deathcore) I don’t care I liked it and it opened up a new genre for me. Granted I am not a diehard fan and my knowledge of the scene bar said bands and some others like Devourment, Pathology, Abominable Putridity and Katalepsy is very limited. With that in mind I was surprised with The Level Above Human and the direction Ingested went with it.
“Sovereign” starts off hard, really hard, and I am here thinking “damn this is going to be one of my favorite albums of the year”. The album has some good highs but also lows for me though. The production quality is almost too clear and while some tracks like “Sovereign”, “Invidious”, “Better off Dead” are of top notch Ingested quality and are in some ways a development from the bands past release. Mainly since they flirt with heavy hitters from brutal death metal like Dying Fetus and others creating a, perhaps, less slam sound but more of a death metal fused together with slam. Then you have “Last Rites”, a song that switches tempo well and is by far their most technical and well written track to date. Songs like that can make me see this as an evolution of their sound and slam in general, The Level Above Human will surely bring in more fans to the fray due to this. While “the slam police” will surely say this isn’t true slam but slamming deathcore/brutal death metal or whatever I can understand why Ingested takes this road, just like Thy Art is Murder with their latest release took more inspiration from death metal to change it up some. It’s bound to happen to some of the bigger bands in such underground or even hated scenes from the general metal community.
Change or no change you have your mid-tempo slams, Jason Evans on form (as always), angry hard hitting metal with that Ingested stamp on it. It’s a rather big change from The Architect of Extinction, less deathcore, more brutal death metal added to the mix, less monotone and it’s definitely got more technical aspects to it than any of their older releases. I should be all over this because of those elements but I can’t help but to say I personally liked The Architect of Extinction a lot more than I did with The Level Above Human, maybe even because of the more straight forward and monotone approach even. I can not deny however that this is probably the right step for the band to take in order to leap forward. Ingested are not afraid to change it up and I respect them for that and while some were scared that they would lose their slam when joining Unique Leader Records this was definitely not case. They simply evolved and while I may not be completely down with this change as of yet (give me time guys) I am sure many will.
Label: Unique Leader Records
For fans of: Acrania and Cerebral Bore
Release date: April 27th, 2018
Favorite song: Sovereign
Score: 3/5
Released the same day as Firespawn’s The Reprobate I had to make a tough choice which to review first. Since I’d review deathcore albums for half the week I thought it was time for some death metal then. That said it doesn’t necessarily mean I like this any less! It’s actually only been a year since Shadow of Intent dropped their debut album Primordial, the Halo (video game) themed melodic deathcore sound was perfect for me to have as one of the first review on The Metal Gamer. I didn’t have it in my top 20 of the year but that was honestly a miss, Primordial mainly missed out simply due to me forgetting how great it was and took in some albums on my list that I reviewed closer in time to when I was making the list. Oh well I guess that happens to a lot of people. So does Reclaimer live up to one of last years best releases?
They got the epic entry down with We Descend… orchestral setting joined with Ben Duerr’s growls from hell (or space in this case), sweet guitar plays and roaring drums. The orchestral elements are a lot more present on Reclaimer than on Primordial, which is great in my opinion as it adds more depth to the music. It also feels closer to the Halo series due to it, more of an epic battle kind of feeling. The use of clean vocals I was a bit scared how it would turn out but already when the single The Horror Within came out I knew there was nothing to worry about. He nails it! What else is new on Reclaimer? Oh Shadow of Intent managed to get some really class acts to feature on Reclaimer. Or how about Jason Evans (Ingested) and Dickie Allen (Infant Annihilator) joining their evil vile forces on The Catacombs? Aleksandr Shikolai (aka Alex Terrible from Slaughter to Prevail) continues to remain an active presence having featured in quite a few albums so far. He does a great job just as well here on The Gathering of All. Then we also have a vocalist from a band I recently started getting into Tom Barber from Lorna Shore on The Prophet’s Beckoning.
While I see those three songs as highlights on Reclaimer, Shadow of Intent pushes their sound even further even if those songs wouldn’t be on the album. Songs such as The Horror Within, The Forsaken Effigy and The Great Schism (instrumental song with sweet guitar, piano solos) are more than great examples of that. Primordial was a great debut, Reclaimer is, only one year later, even better and really shows the talent Shadow of Intent got. To be able to develop so much as a band in such a short amount of time is nothing short but greatness in the making. Who knows how far these guys can go? Maybe it’s time to bring Shadow of Intent into the discussion who can be crowned as the new deathcore kings soon? All hail the king Shadow of Intent. The best deathcore band to have spawned these past years.
April 28th was a wicked day for music, one of the best death metal and deathcore releases of the year out on the same day. Shadow of Intent’s sophomore album Reclaimer is out now as an independent release. A must have for any deathcore fan.
Portugals very own Analepsy have been on many brutal death metal fans minds since their debut EP Dehumanization by Supremacy came out in 2015 like a hurricane and destroyed any competition in its path. Follow up the EP Analepsy has finally given us their first full-length Atrocities from Beyond. Continuing their path to extinction Analepsy are more than ready to devourer their competitors in the brutal death metal slam scene. I have to say this is one of the best debut full-length albums I’ve heard within the genre. Even with the change of a vocalist from Ricardo Proenca to Diogo Santana getting both guitar and vocal duty they still keep it brutal and it’s like nothing has changed in the band.
Analepsy are producing some of their best tracks on this album. Rifts to Abhorrence, Witness of Extinction and Atrocity Deeds are instant brutal death metal classics that will put Analepsy on the map for even more metalheads out there. Analepsy deserves all the praise they get and they are here to stay folks. The share brutality, shredding and gnarly vocals mixed in a blender is a sweet symphony of destruction. Atrocities from Beyond is a perfect debut album in many ways and Analepsy has really paved their way to the top now.
Atrocities from Beyond is out now by Rising Nemesis Records (who by the way keep releasing great stuff).
The Metal Gamer 