Originally published in ‘zine issue #17, 1997
Anal Cunt 40 More Reasons to Hate Us
(Earache)
You’re not going to believe this, but it’s not bad. Same of the “hardcore” and atonal parts are OK, and it’s funny in places. I would’ve enjoyed this better if Seth had taken more than five minutes coming up with the song titles, though.
(by Editor) ■
Asphyx God Cries
(Century Media)
Original Asphyxers Theo and Bob have joined forces to bring us this LP. Not bad! In places it sounds like The Rack-era Asphyx and in places it sounds more modern.
(by Editor) ■
Carcass Swansong
(Earache)
I promised my pal at Earache I’d be fair, so having said that, Swansong sounds like an album that Carcass couldn’t wait to get over with so they could break up. It’s a pure hard rock record, and on its own merits is solid. It’s not bad, and it’s their worst.
(by Editor) ■
Cathedral Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)
(Earache)
Here is another Cathedral EP in a long list of their releases. It’s got the title track with a new intro, some new songs, and a couple covers. Total ’70s rock hell. I can’t get into this at all, and I loved the last LP as my annoyed friends can attest.
(by Editor) ■
Godflesh Songs of Love and Hate
(Earache)
Among the new LP’s many strong points are the severe songs, the pounding production, the vicious vocals, and the damaging drums, which feature a live drummer as well as the traditional machine. It’s sort of like a cross between Selfless and Streetcleaner.
(by Editor) ■
Gorefest Soul Survivor
(Nuclear Blast America)
It makes me wonder if the band who released the godly False album had to actually sit down and make a calculated effort to suck this bad. Take a good look: Gorefest is taking a swan dive into Celtic Frost’s cold lake. Avoid this like the plague.
(by J.R. Hayes) ■
Grave Hating Life
(Century Media)
I guess everyone sells out sooner or later and I’m really sick of it. It find this record boring as hell. What happened to the fast, extreme, heavy, morbid Grave? Hating Life has trend written all over it. Fuck.
(by Grave) ■
Iced Earth The Dark Saga
(Century Media)
This album’s sound will bring you back to the heyday of mid-‘80s melodic power metal, with strong melodies and dramatic vocals. The downside is the overdone acoustic guitars which ruined the songs of any identity whatsoever. A strong, if flawed, effort.
(by R. Mason) ■
Kreator Scenarios of Violence
(Noise)
Now here’s a compilation that isn’t too cool, ’cause there isn’t a wide variety of songs from all the LPs. There are two unreleased tracks, and it sounds like these are alternate recordings of all the songs.
M.O.D. Dictated Aggression
(Megaforce)
Billy Milano has managed to put together a solid, if not original, album of crossover, with more than a few songs having some really good lyrics (the last thing I expect from an M.O.D. record). This album might just change your mind about M.O.D. Try it out.
(by R. Mason) ■
Moonspell Irreligious
(Century Media)
Gothic melodies, lavish arrangements, and stunning musicianship converge to produce one of the most worthwhile metal LPs these ears have heard in quite a while, though it takes several listens to come to terms with the vocalist’s low-register singing style.
(by R. Mason) ■
Napalm Death Greed Killing and Diatribes
(Earache)
[First] we have the Greed Killing mini-LP, which has exclusive tracks, LP tracks (see below), and a live track from the last album. This is what Smashing Pumpkins would sound like if they played grindcore, except that it’s really good. The same goes for Napalm Death’s Diatribes, the new full-length, which comes across really good live, but unlike the mini-LP, not all the blasts are convincing on this album, though the new approach is interesting to hear (as with the above release), especially the drum ideas and dissonant guitar chords. It grew on me a lot with repeated listens, though. Note: the Diatribes digipack is available in ltd. ed., which contains the LP and has a space to house the mini-LP.
(by Editor) ■
Napalm Death Utopia Banished
(Earache)
The 1996 reissue of the underrated album of the same name. The cool thing is that it features six grinding bonus tracks which I assume are B-sides and so on. No lyrics for the bonuses unfortunately, but you can’t have everything.
(by Editor) ■
Scorn Logghi Barogghi
(Earache)
Oh boy, this is really bad. How could the Human Tornado have released an album that was worse than Gyral? It’s not quite as minimalistic as that LP but is short on good ideas. How can you go in quality?
(by Editor) ■
