Arisen From the Crypt Monthly Special #1: Renegade - Total Armageddon

As decided by popular vote in the recent poll I put up on the page, once a month I will be doing a feature on one or more lesser-known releases that I consider to be underrated and worthy of being heard by more underground metal fans, or lost classics of various metal subgenres and scenes. You may have already discovered these bands, which is fine, my purpose here is to open up more underground music to the ears of fans who have not had the chance to hear these old-school gems. And now, for my first Arisen From the Crypt feature, I give you an old-school Australian thrash metal classic…



Renegade were one of the earliest Australian thrash metal bands, formed back in 1983, yes kidlets, that’s 2 years before the highly overrated (but still pretty good!) Mortal Sin and 3 years before the legendary Hobbs’ Angel of Death! Recently reissued through The Coffins Slave, “Total Armageddon” is the only LP these guys ever put out (in 1987, a great year for metal), and it’s a good ‘un!

The album opens up with the track “Necromancer” which gets right down to business with lightning fast riffs, pounding drums and mid-high range vocals, giving you an idea of what’s to come on the rest of the album.

Renegade had more of a traditional/speed metal sound than most other early Australian thrash bands. A straightforward 80’s heavy metal guitar tone with lots of distortion used for a “crunchy” effect. Straightforward drums that keep the pace going. Mid to high pitched vocals. The bass is there, but not very audible. The band obviously focused a lot more on energy rather than technical proficiency, which sits perfectly fine with me! The riffs are catchy as hell and the vocal lines fit in just fine so you’ll be air guitaring and singing along in no time.

My favourite song on here is the excellent third track “Black Ritual”. It’s just a solid and catchy 80’s metal song that any fan should enjoy. The demo version bonus track on the end of the reissue is a treat too, as are all the bonus tracks.

As far as 80’s thrash metal goes, these guys fit in the ranks of bands such as Onslaught (UK) and Destructor (USA), in other words; catchy, energetic, loud, fast and evil metal! If highly energetic, raw and ugly satanic speed metal is your thing, then I couldn’t recommend this band more.

4/5 Great old-school speed/thrash metal with some serious attitude.

BUY THE REISSUE

Innsmouth - She-Goat

Innsmouth are a 3-piece death metal band hailing from the Blue Mountains of Australia featuring former members of Grenade and Stone Wings. They released a demo entitled “The Departure of Shub-Niggurath” back in 2009 (which was great), then last year they put out their 7” EP “She-Goat”. After catching them live at Evil Invaders III a couple of weeks ago I knew I had to track down a copy of the 7” and I’m certainly glad I did.



Their style is a unique assault of old-school death metal with the odd touch of thrash and black metal. The highlight of their sound is definitely the rough guitar tone which sounds unlike any other band I’ve heard; it fits the dark “Lovecraftian” atmosphere perfectly. The drum sound is very organic with a blatant disregard for unnecessary blast beats, using them only when it fits the mood instead of abusing them like SO MANY death metal bands out there, and triggered drums. The bass is quite audible and allowed to shine through in certain parts of the songs, which is fantastic. The vocals are sinister and sound like a beast best left unmentioned!

Both tracks featured on this 7” are of the highest quality musicianship you could ask for in a band of this style. I couldn’t choose a favourite of the two as both are absolutely drenched in a deep and dark atmosphere fitting of the themes used.

Anybody into old-school death metal and the works of HP Lovecraft should definitely try and track down the cassette and 7”, they’re both solid underground metal releases that I couldn’t recommend more.

5/5

AVAILABLE AT: Abysmal Sounds and The Coffins Slave

Glory Hole Interview

Recently, a young band from Italy called Glory Hole contacted me to arrange an interview, so I fired back a few emails with Antropophager...



Wayde:
Greetings Antropophager, nice to meet you and thanks for emailing me to arrange this interview! Seeing as I haven't heard your band before, could you please give me a bit of background info on Glory Hole? Who's in the band? What style of metal do you play? Where are you from? And so on...

Antropophager:
We have been around since the middle of 2008, me and Poserripper decided to form a band for playing the kind of metal we worship that is thrash, death and evil metal. At the very beginning we recorded some songs that we putted on our first demo “Zombiecide”. In 2009 Sadistik Ciccino, who played with me in a short-life thrash metal band, joined the band and we started to play the first gigs. For a short period played the bass guitar also a friend of us, Sexviolence, a real pervert guy, but he left the band after 4-5 month, he dissappeared and we didn’t have any notice from him, don’t know where he is.
In 2009 we released a split with the belgian Hell Mentor and in 2010 we recorded our second demo “Impossible Creatures”.
We are from Vittorio Veneto in the north east of Italy and here in Veneto there are some cool bands of thrash, death and black metal but also a lot of shitty bands, especially from Treviso which is the city of posers.

Wayde:
How would you describe the sound of your band to someone who has never heard your music? What are your influences, and what do you listen to day-to-day?

Antropophager:
Well our music is totally inspired by the old school most evil and violent thrash metal and death metal, so if you like bands like Massacre, Sadistic Intent, Possessed, Necrovore or the early Massacra you’ll like also Glory Hole.
We listen always a ton of old school and underground death, thrash and black metal and also occult bands of NWOBHM, but it doesn’t influence our sound.

Wayde:
Are you or any of the other Glory Hole members involved in any other musical projects, metal or non-metal? Have you been in the past?

Antropophager:
Yes, in 2007 I formed a thrash metal band but in 2008 I split-up it because the other members, that are the other guitarist and the singer, were useless people and enormous posers so I waited that Poserripper learned to play the guitar and then we formed Glory Hole.
Now Poserripper and I have a side projects with a more obscure and obsessive sound but I can’t tell you more yet, however let's say that Glory Hole is absolutely the main band.



Wayde:
What's the metal scene like in Vittorio Veneto? You mentioned earlier that there are a lot of cool bands? What are some that I should keep an ear out for? Do you play many shows over there, if so, what are some bands have you shared the stage with?

Antropophager:
Yes but the cool bands are not exactly from Vittorio Veneto, but in towns near to us. Here in our city the metal scene doesn’t exist! There are a few useless bands with 15 years old people that play cover of gay power metal or nu metal or shits like these, no one a part from us listen to thrash or death metal and so we are the only real metal band here.

Luckily, a few kilometres from here there are some cool bands and cool guys, really into the real thrash, death and the black metal, that are Lethal Death, Blasphemic Forces and Assaltator for the thrash metal, Eternal Sex and War for the black metal and Imposer and Blasphemous Noise Torment for the death metal.
And if you watch in a larger point of view, in the whole north east scene, you can put also bands like Flamethrower, Death Squad, Sacrificator or Oath.

About the gigs, our goal is not to play frequently, but to play with the bands we respect, so bands of posers or rockstars are not welcome to play with us. Let’s say that we played gigs with the most of the bands I mentioned before.

Wayde:
If I'm correct, so far you guys have four releases out, three of which are demos and one split. What can you tell me about each release? Are you working towards putting out more material? Where can fans purchase your music? Is it available through any distributors or labels, or only through direct contact with the band?

Antropophager:
At the beginning, when we released the “Zombiecide” demo, we wanted to distribute it mainly to our friends because it had a raw quality and we were without drummer and bassist, but some people from foreign countries appreciated the songs and we printed some more copies. One of the guy who asked us a copy was Moshrat, who play in the belgian thrash-punk metal band Hell Mentor and then we decided to record a split demo together, in which there is our first version of Mass Slaughter, a songs we better recorded in the “Impossible Creatures” demo. For this demo we went on a little studio in Pordenone and I think we got a great guitar sound but I’m not completely satisfied of the vocals, that are without reverb and echoes. Impossible Creatures is our ultimate real release, because “Infestation of Worms/Death by Deformity” is simply a promo version of two new songs we recorded to send to a label, we don’t think to distribute it. We are obviously working on new songs and, even if is not official, probably we’ll record a full-length.
If anyone wants a copy of a demo can contact us via myspace and ask directly with us, we don’t have distributors or labels for now.

Wayde:
What are some funny and/or memorable experiences you guys have had in your time as a band so far? Any stories worth sharing with us?

Antropophager:
Mm actually we are not the kind of band that like to party and have fun with other people, a part from some trusted friends, so we haven’t any particular anecdote to tell.However, I can say that as a band we had our most funny experiences on seeing ridiculous metalheads at the gigs and ridiculous bands on the stage, grotesquely trying in every way to make people believe they are metal, but they are simply posers.

Wayde:
Ah, I see, so you're the kind of band who prefers to get down to business then get out of there?

So now that you guys have your new demo out, what's next? Any plans for shows/tours? What about merchandise and/or promotion? And so on?

Antropophager:
Yes, it’s been a long time since we last played a gig, about 3 months, and the last time was horrible, the local was a shit and the owner was worse, so we would like to play soon a cool gig to take revenge! We are not used to play often, but this pause has mainly served for arranging some new songs we’ll put on our next release, we have three new songs ready and two new songs to prepare.

I don’t know if we’ll release a new demo with the re-recording of the “Infestation of Worms/Death by Deformity” promo or if we will go directly to release a full-length, but we hope to release something as soon as possible.

We’re looking for a studio were to record the songs, building a personal rehearsal room, and preparing new stuff so we are definitely busy now.

About the merchandise, everyone who is interested can always ask a copy of the demo or a shirt with the “Zombiecide” cover on the front.

Wayde:
It's good to see ya keeping busy! I'd like to thank you for e-mailing me to request this interview and wish you guys the best of luck in the future, I look forward to hearing the demos you mailed me! Are there any last words you would like to say to myself or anyone reading this?

Antropophager:
Thanks to you man! I want only to say to support the underground bands that play old school thrash, death, black and speed metal, and spit against posers, someone could think that what I’m saying is a cliché but this is the metal how we intend it, and how it is supposed to be.

Horrid - Horrid

Does early Possessed and Sarcofago worship sound like your thing? What about early Swedish “grooving” death metal a la Entombeds’ first two albums? And how about that Sadistic Intent? If you said yes to all three of these questions, then I have something special for you…



Horrid are a 4-piece from California who proclaim themselves “Blackened Deathrash”, personally I see them as more of a straight death metal band, but hey, who am I to decide! Formed in 2006, these maniacs unleashed their debut demo “Blackened Deathrash” in 2007, followed with their EP “Worship of Death/Invokers of Satan”. And now, in 2011 they have self-released their self-titled full length album.

Heavy and evil sounding guitar riffs? Check. Blast beats? Check. Audible basslines? Check. Some of the most sinister vocals I’ve heard from a “new” band in a long time? Check! If you played me this CD and told me it was released back in 1993 I would believe you. This is black thrashing metal of death, played the ancient way.

I’m not sure what else there is to say about “Horrid”, as the album really speaks for itself. The production is perfect, the sound is classic 90’s extreme metal and, hell, even the artwork is amazing and reeks of OSDM worship!

I really don’t think there is an overall “stand-out” among the songs here, as each one is equally as great as the last. So if you like one song, you’ll enjoy the full album. Basically, expect a mix of old-school South American bestiality, a bit of grooving Swedeath, and a bit of Sadistic Intent and early Possessed. What more could you ask for?!

5/5

BUY IT directly from the band.