Ignivomous – Death Transmutation

Something about modern Death Metal just rubs me the wrong way. Death Metal is NOT meant to sound polished and clean, it’s supposed to be ugly, dirty and evil. There’s nothing worse than seeing a bunch of emo-kids chugging along on their ridiculously down-tuned guitars and claiming to be re-inventing the wheel for “Death Metal”. Every now and then, though, a band will rise up from the ashes of Old-School-Death-Metal (OSDM) and just kick my arse so hard I don’t know what hit it. Ignivomous is one such band.

Featuring past and present members of prominent Australian bands such as Destroyer 666, Abominator, Destruktor, Earth and Urgrund among others, and formed in 2006, these boys play Death Metal via the old-school Swedish and New York scenes (among other, less obvious influences, of course).

I don’t even know where to start with describing this album. Everything about it just REEKS of pure old-school aggression and darkness. The riffs, the vocals, the drums, the low-end, the compositions, the lyrics, it’s ALL there and it’s ALL great! I can’t stress how crushingly heavy every single song on this record is. Anybody into OSDM needs to hear this album as soon as humanly possible.

All I can say is, Ignivomous have brought back my faith in Death Metal. All hail the old-school!

5/5

www.myspace.com/ignivmousmetal

Destruktor - Nailed

What we have here, is the long-awaited full-length album by Australian War Metal horde Destruktor. Something I spent a LOT of time anticipating!

These boys play a mix of Black, Death and Thrash Metal. Over the years they have combined the mixture in different ways, starting off with a more straight-forward Black Metal approach on their first demo, then going for a bestial Black Thrash assault on the Brutal Desecration EP, then a more Death Thrash sound on the Nuclear Storm EP. Nailed, however, goes in a very Death Metal direction, whilst still keeping strong Black and Thrash Metal influences, it is clear that the old-school Death Metal sound is now the most dominant influence.

The album kicks off with a slow, brooding intro that kicks into a smasher of evil Death-thrashing awesomeness that is the song “Embrace the Fire” which hastily sets the mood for the rest of the album. Every song on this album is a relentless blasting assault on your ear-pussy that simply crushes and forces it’s way into your head. The songs are generally mid-length, catchy, fast and evil. There is a bit of overkill when it comes to blast beats, but it seems to work here, it just fits with the mood.

My personal favourite tracks would have to be Violence Unseen and Meccademon. It’s hard to choose a stand-out, though, as every track is killer. This album is not for the faint hearted, it is old-school, heavy, evil and has riffs that kill! This is Australian Metal played the way it should be played.

5/5

www.myspace.com/666destruktor

Some Australian Metal recommendations!

Alright so I'm back! Gonna try and update this thing a bit more now.
To start off with, I'm gonna recommend some cool new-ish Australian releases/bands, then soon I'll be back to posting a review or two a week, hopefully!

Destruktor - Nailed



Took these boys a while to finally get around to putting out a full length. They unleashed this beast of an album on the world in late September 2009, and HOLY FUCK it was worth the wait! I have a backpatch of this album for a reason, instant classic.

Ignivomous - Death Transmutation



Now this band is a bloody gem and a half! Straight up Old School Death Metal that worships at the altar of Incantation. Hell.Fucking.YEAH!

Stormbane - Tortured in the Arms of Salvation



Judging by the name, it's pretty obvious where Stormbane draw a lot of their influence from. Their interesting blend of Dissection and Destroyer 666 worship is very cool indeed. Watch out for these guys!

Vomitor - Devils Poison



God damn I was anticipating this release for a while. It did NOT disappoint! Bloody great straight up Deathrash, played the old school way!

Cemetery Urn - The Conquered Are Burned



Fast, demonic, intense, bestial. Old School Death Metal played in the most chaotic way possible!

Rampage - The Rampage Begins...



Straight up Bay Area Thrash from my local area! Great fun!

Darker Half - Duality



Melodic yet thrashy Power Metal in the vein of Dungeon/Lord. Excellent stuff.

And that just about wraps up my return post! I highly recommend each and every one of these albums to ANY Heavy Metal fan! Check them out, enjoy, maybe leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Cheers! Vagabond.