overground scene

This year it was once again hard to decide which my 10 favourite albums are, as there were loads of great releases, some from all-time favourite bands to which I’ve been listening for more than 20 years. Some of the albums that came my way this past year I did not particularly enjoy, and I quickly gave up on them. These include the new offerings by Queensryche (although “Light years” is fabulous), Paganizer, Firespawn, Fulci and Sorcery. Another one is the debut album by Vltimas, a band that received considerable publicity in metal press. One of my close friends also recommended I should listen to this album, titled Something wicked marches in, but I did not particularly like it. I thought it is a standard modern extreme metal album, mixing death metal and post-Rebel extravaganza black metal. Execution-wise, the album is great, song-writing-wise, however, it did not appeal to me. The songs I kind of liked are “Total destroy” and “Truth and consequence”, both of which resembled Morbid Angel songs like “This means war” and “Nevermore”. I will not dwell any more on these albums, instead, I will move on to those to which I listened more carefully and enjoyed.

Exhorder was never a band I loved, although when I first listened to songs like “Exhorder” and “Death in vain” as a teenager I lost my mind. The new album is well produced, and contains well written songs. Consistent with the first two albums, this is a collection of super-heavy tunes. It is also consistent with the angry bro-metal attitude that never appealed to me. Nevertheless, the awesomeness of riffs and overall orchestration, as well as Kyle’s vocals, is undeniable. Also, listening to Exhorder with a super-clean production makes me realise that The Haunted were probably inspired by them. “Ripping flesh“, originally a demo song, is lush. Nile released a new album, the first since Dallas’s departure. No doubt Dallas’s devastating and catchy songwriting style and voice was big part of Nile’s sound, but Karl has always been the undisputed leader and the one who set the musical parameters in Nile. Overall, Vile Nilotic Rites sounds like a new chapter in the band’s career. More complex, with Kolias sounding more modern, and a bit busier with his fills, and, musically with some new sounds that you’d find in contemporary death bands. I definitely miss Dallas’s vocals, the new guy sounds to me quite generic. Nile is not one of my favourite bands (although their first two full-lengths, and more recently At the Gates of Sethu, I consider masterpieces), and the new album will not change my opinion. Yet, one cannot deny that this is absolutely devastating and well-played death metal. Blood Incantation is a band I paid attention to recently. Their new album, Hidden history of the human race, is really cool. It contains some nice compositions that draw on both the most brutal and most progressive traditions of death metal. Execution-wise, the band is proficient. The song structures are complex and it has long instrumental passages. The opening song, “Slave species of the gods”, starts with a riff reminiscent of Gorguts, and the first verse is like it came straight from Septic Flesh’s Temple of the lost race EP (seriously, it sounds so similar!), and then the riff on 2:53 reminds me of mid-1990s Monstrosity (specifically one of the breaks in “Devious instinct”). Early Septic Flesh influences can be heard throughout the album. So, overall good stuff. The vocals are way too monotonous for my taste though, and the vocal patterns resemble more reading from a text than adding to the overall musicality.

I’ve been listening to Sacred Reich since my early teenage years, and The American way (1990) quickly established itself as one of my favourite thrash albums. I was looking forward to their return. I have always respected them, and loved Phil’s vocals. The latter have lost their power, which is understandable, but they have matured and at times handle melodies more expertly than in the past (hear, for example, the post-chorus bit on “Death valley”) and constitute the most appealing, for me, aspect of the album. Awakening feels like a summary of the band’s career; there are fast songs reminiscent of Ignorance (1987) (“Divide and conquer”, “Manifest reality”), slower groovier songs reminiscent of Independent (1993) (i.e. “Something to believe”), and mid tempo and more punkier songs reminiscent of Heal (1996) (i.e. “Death valley”, “Revolution”) and The American way (i.e. “Awakening”, “Killing machine”). In my opinion, the band’s affinity to Black Sabbath becomes evident on this album more than in older albums, such as in the verse vocal melodies on songs like “Death valley” and “Salvation”. As someone who always preferred Heal and The American way to Ignorance, I found this album very appealing. Xentrix released a new album 23 years after the disappointing Scourge (1996). Once again, the band’s original leader, Chris Astley, is missing from the line-up. Because of that my expectations were low. The new singer has a great voice, I would say more powerful and effective than Astley’s, but also uncannily reminiscent of him. On first hearing, the song structures, melodies, choruses, and so on, did not impress me, or even convinced me that I am listening to Xentrix. I just thought it it is a decent album of American/Metallica-sounding thrash. After a couple of listens, however, the album started growing on me. A song like “The truth lies buried” is among the best the band has ever written, and would fit nicely among the little gems of Kin (1992). “The one you fear” is another stand-out song with great melodies, vocal patterns, and riffs. “Let the world burn” is another great up-tempo tune with awesome sections and a catchy chorus (The observant Xentrix fan will notice that the verse singing patterns are reminiscent of “Bad blood” from Shattered existence). “The red mist descends” is another stand-out song, with a classic Xentrix vibe, especially on the vocal delivery of the chorus. Overall, I quite liked Bury the pain, but I felt that it also lacked the dynamism and adventurous spirit of their early releases. Exhumed‘s new album, Horror, is one of the most easy-listening albums the band has released, if not the most easy-listening. Most songs are fast grindcore delights that cut right to the chase, without long instrumental bits and intros. The frequent and more blatant references to Carcass are not there. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot. The band is clearly undergoing a period of creative resurgence, and I don’t know if that has something to do with Ross Sewage’s return or Harvey’s association with Matt Olivo. I need to pay attention to their previous album. A new band I listened to is Grave Altar, and their debut that came out this year is titled Morbid spell. It is a very enjoyable album of 1980s extreme metal, a time when different extreme metal genres hadn’t crystallised yet into thrash, death, and black metal. Morbid spell is a relentless skunk beat attack, and it sounds like a hybrid of early Slayer, Sodom, and Venom (the vocals at times sound like a more shouty Cronos). The lyrics are about Satan and destruction, and if you like this type of lyrics they are quite awesome. The vocal patterns are a bit repetitive, but very catchy and the choruses are great. Strigoi, Gregor Mackintosh’s new band, released its debut album titled Abandon all hope. It sounds a lot like Vallenfyre’s second album, with some new elements, namely the more melodic blackened strokes on songs like “Plague nation” and the symphonic touches on the homonymous song. Overall, it is raw grind-death fury (“Throne of disgrace”, “Nocturnal vermin”, “Parasite”, “Scorn of the father”), crust madness with a touch of melody (“Seven crowns”), and heavy doominess (in the style pretty much invented by Mackintosh in the first Paradise Lost album). This is an album with lots to offer and will definitely grow on me with time. Memoriam‘s third album marks a slight departure from the style of the previous two releases of the band. The production is more polished, but I prefer the sound of the previous albums (Russ Russell is one of my least favourite record producers). “Shell shock” is so far the song that resembles Bolt Thrower the most by Memoriam, and I don’t think its position as the opening track is coincidental; as much I’d prefer thinking that a band like Memoriam would not care about what idiots on the internet say, I wouldn’t be surprised this was done to satisfy said idiots. I consider some of the songwriting amazing (e.g. “Undefeated”, “Refuse to be led”, “Fixed bayonets” and “The veteran”) and in some other cases lack-luster (“Austerity kills” and “Requiem for mankind”). Overall, it is by far my least favourite offering by Memoriam, but I still like it loads. When I put on Zenith, Enforcer‘s new album, I was quite surprised to be confronted with a very tame version of the band. From beyond (2015) is a perfect album from start to finish, maybe their best one. Not that From Beyond did not have more radio friendly songs; the homonymous song was exactly that, but I think with this one they took it a few steps further. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this one a lot, it’s spent many hours in my mp3 player. “Zenith of the black sun”, “The end of a universe”, “Sail on”, “One thousand years of darkness” are all beautifully crafted songs. There are only two songs that I don’t like. One is the ballad, titled “Regrets”, which reminds me of 70s soft porn. The other one is “Ode to death”, which sounds to me like a failed attempt to copy Manowar.

Below are my top 10 picks for 2019. As I said earlier, loads of great albums came out this year (some of which I didn’t have time to listen to properly, like the new Midnight Priest and Angel Witch which sound very impressive), so it was quite hard choosing only ten. The following are all albums that I couldn’t stop listening to. These are also the albums, at least the first five in the list, that I think will eventually occupy a special place in my heart and in the respective discographies of these bands.

1. New Model Army – From here

NMA’s new album is a masterpiece and my favourite album of the year. Initially, I opined that it was the best since Love of hopeless causes (1993), but now I think Winter is better. For more than two decades NMA has been, in my opinion, a bit inconsistent, with great albums like Carnival (2005), Between dog and wolf (2013), and Winter (2016), but also with a few albums I didn’t enjoy much [Strange brotherhood (1998), High (2008), and especially Today is a good day (2011)]. Winter already marked a return to the band’s roots, and that shift persists on From here. There are loads of the more simple and straightforward instrumentation around a bass-line and a mid-tempo beat that could be found in the band’s classic period. Sonically, it is quite sub-tonal, which I suppose accommodates Sullivan’s vocals which have become deeper and harsher. Many of the songs are very minimalistic, structured around a simple chord progression, or a bass-line. Most of the songs are small miracles, like “Never arriving”, “The weather” [a song straight out of the Impurity (1990) era], “Passing through”, “The end of days”, “Where I am”, “From here”. Listening to this album feels like being in the wilderness, around a fire, listening to someone narrating a tale with some really profound, meaningful message. Lyrically, the album is as usual chilling. Sullivan is an amazing human being and songwriter, and I love him. I hadn’t seen NMA live since 2006 in Athens, so seeing them live earlier in December was a very emotional experience (they played seven amazing songs off the new album).

2. Nocturnus A.D. – Paradox

Paradox is my second favourite album of the year, but pretty close to my first choice. The return of Nocturnus was a delicious surprise. The fact that they released an awesome album, however, came as no surprise, as After Death released some unbelievable music over the first decade of the 21st century. It was also great to see that the band did not use any existing material from their After Death period. Using existing material would make sense, since there are some great ideas there which have gone under the radar on account of nobody giving a shit. Nevertheless, Paradox picks up where After Death’s 2006 demo (Secret lords of the chamber below) left off (the song “The antechamber” actually has a section that is a bit reminiscent of “The star chamber of Isis” off this demo). The main difference is that Paradox is even more consciously drawing upon The Key (1990), made apparent through the awesome cover art that directly references Seagrave’s classic painting. Paradox offered me everything that I expected from a good death metal album. The musical narratives are complex yet coherent, the choruses are catchy, the riffs remind people like myself why death metal once became our favourite genre. Looking at the band members it shouldn’t be surprising why this album sounds the way it does; a bunch of old geezers who look like they’re trapped in the late 1980s. I am not particularly interested in the lyrical thematology, but the lyrics are well-written and cool to listen to. If I had to pick my four favourite songs I would say “Bandar sign”, “Apotheosis”, “Aeon of the ancient ones”, “Paleolithic“. And what an epic instrumental closing is “Number 9”!

3. Subhumans – Crisis point

UK’s Subhumans released a new small gem titled Crisis point. It’s been 12 years since the brilliant Internal riot. That was a remarkable comeback, that I like almost as much as I do The day the country died (1983). The new album is a bit less ambitious I would say, more straight to the point, a bit more melodic perhaps, but full of energetic songs in the classic Subhumans style, beautiful lyrics, catchy choruses, and flawless musicianship. The song structures are mostly straightforward, following the verse-chorus-verse pattern. The orchestrations however are very well thought, and the different instruments add their own interesting layer to the composition. The drums come up with interesting patterns that move between classic punk and ska, the bass often takes on a lead role and contributes melodic lines. If I had to choose favourite songs I would say the following: “Strange land“, “Thought is free”, “Poison“, “99%”, and “Terrorist in waiting”. As a side-note, I think it is worth noting that although I understand the sentiment, I don’t agree with the premise of the 99% discourse. The 1% might be extremely wealthy individuals around the globe, but the 99% is a very mixed bag, people who don’t really share the same destiny in any shape or form. This statistic includes homeless people but also university lecturers, hospitality workers but also software engineers working at a bank. So, I don’t think it is is a helpful discourse; I think it obscures the complex ways in which inequality and privilege work.

4. Opprobrium – The fallen entities

The last output by Opprobrium was the misguided Mandatory evac (2008), an album full of great songs, but an abysmal production (basically it sounds like the recording of a rehearsal using an mp3 recorder). The band’s new album is an awesome one, properly produced, but musically, in my opinion, not as awesome as Discerning forces (2000) which is one of my all-time favourite thrash albums. It took me several listens to start appreciating this album. At first listen, the riffs felt uninspired and the compositions overall laboured. However, with subsequent listens I started enjoying more and more the unassuming character of the compositions, the ferocity of Francis’s classic vocals and singing patterns, and the overall feel of the album. It is a known fact that extreme metal flows through the veins of the Howard brothers. If anything, the Howard brothers know how to write great hooks. “Dark days, dark nights” is a catchy heavy and slow opener. “Creations that affect” is probably my favourite on this album, with a super-heavy intro which eventually builds up to a furious explosion, followed by a Sepultur-esque riff, another slow crawling session [that could have been in Death’s Spiritual healing (1990) album] and another awesome trilly riff slightly reminiscent of the fast riff on Black Sabbath’s “Shaking off the chains”. “Wicked mysterious events” is another highlight, with beautiful melodies and an explosive middle-section. Another song that stands out is “Turmoil under the sun”, which showcases the band’s great ability to compose songs with many time signatures. The riffs on this one are rabid. “In danger” is another small masterpiece, a relentless roller-coaster of riffs, accelerations and hooks. A beautiful album.

5. Possessed – Revelations of oblivion

Seven churches (1985) has a song titled “The exorcist”, based on the book/film of the same title, Beyond the gates (1986) has a song titled “The heretic”, which is the title of the sequel of The exorcist (the actual lyrics, however, are based on the film Evil Dead), and Possessed’s comeback album has a song titled “Dominion”, based on the prequel of The exorcist. What a display of awesomeness the new Possessed album is. Let me start with the obvious disclaimer that this album is an awkward album, given that the sole original member is Becerra, who’s musical contribution to the original band was minimal, mainly consisting in the musicality of his vocal performance. This means that musically the new album does not include the original song-writing team, and is co-written by people who have either consciously tried to conform to a compositional formula not created by them, or who, as fans/musicians of old Possessed, have embodied this formula. Having said that, each song is an instant classic, with personal favourites the three last songs on the album, namely the monumental “Ritual”, “Word“, and “Graven”. The beginning of the latter is, in my mind, already a classic. Becerra’s performance is simply stellar; amazing vocal patterns and delivery, which resemble more his Beyond the gates period, in the sense that he does not abstain from singing melodies from time to time. His style is instantly recognisable, and the rhyming of verses like “six-wrist-crucifix-styx-fist” are classic Possessed (and, of course, lets not forget a couple of instances of “hell-bell-fell”). The beginning of “Omen“, another small masterpiece, is a clear throwback to the brilliant “Fallen angel” off Seven churches. The production is clear and powerful, and everyone’s performances are great. At this point it is also worth pointing out the tragedy of music fans who will rally around this admittedly perfect album, but they would ignore the music that these same composers were involved in the past. In other words, do yourselves a favour and listen to Engrave‘s debut album.

6. Bad Religion – The age of unreason

I immediately loved Bad Religion’s new album, and for weeks I kept listening to the first half of the album on repeat. It is fast, it has catchy and inventive melodies, great playing and good lyrics; in other words, it is classic Bad Religion of the early 1990s. The new drummer, Jamie Miller, is doing a great job, is a bit less flashy compared to Wackerman, and overall more fitting to the band’s sound, in my opinion. I love his playing, his fills are very catchy. The first seven songs of the album are amongst the best songs the band has ever written. I cannot single out any songs because they’re all amazing. The second half of the album is, in my opinion, a bit less impressive. Starting from “Candidate”, a slow song reminiscent of the late 90s era of the band, the quality drops. The next song, “Faces of grief”, reminded me of the two short, sharp, non-melodic numbers from New maps of hell (“52 seconds”, “Murder”) which sound filler to me. The rest of the songs are quite awesome though, making up an amazing album overall. The cover is not really my favourite. The band laments the supposed death of reason, however, in my opinion, the Greco-Latin pedestal should not be sacred; challenging it should not be lamented. It actually deserves to be critiqued for many of the developments made in its name, including slavery/racism and capitalism.

7. Blind Guardian Twilight Orchestra – Legacy of the dark lands

Legacy of the dark lands contains songs composed by two of my all-time favourite musicians, Hansi Kursch and Andre Olbrich. The music on this album sounds like a film score, at times, and a musical, at others. For more than 20 years now the band has been incorporating classical orchestrations in their songs. Moreover, Blind Guardian has not been your average metal band, at least since Somewhere far beyond (1992). Compositions are usually complex, and although there are still choruses, the verse structures, vocal patterns and guitar solos do not adhere to the heavy or power metal canon. In Legacy, the songs are fantastic; classic Blind Guardian masterpieces, but the instrumentation is not metal. As such, a big part of what I love about Blind Guardian is missing, namely the awesome rhythm guitars, the riffs, the solos, and the drums. This album is also a reminder that Hansi’s and Andre’s songwriting and the former’s vocals are, in effect, what makes Blind Guardian one of the best bands in the world. I have not paid any attention to the lyrics, and I have literally deleted from the mp3 folder all the interludes with the voice actors between songs. Fantasy literature is not my thing. Without the story and the funny voices to distract me, I enjoy a different type of storytelling which consists in the soundscapes created by the music and the vocals. The song “Harvester of souls” uses the music written for the homonymous song off Beyond the black mirror (2015). Lets see, now that the duo got all the orchestral stuff out of their system, maybe the next proper Blind Guardian album will be full-on power metal masterpiece. Favourite songs: “War feeds war“, “Dark cloud’s rising”, “Point of no return” and “The great ordeal”.

8. Entombed A.D. – Bowels of earth

Entombed A.D. released another awesome album in the style of Dead dawn (2016), that is, groovy death metal with sprinkles of classic era Entombed. Having said that, Bowels of earth is quite more up-tempo than the last two releases by the band, with only two slow songs. Some of the riffs and mid-song instrumental sections are reminiscent of the Left hand path – Clandestine era of the band. Although these atmospheric interludes are great, this approach is used across many songs, ending up being slightly predictable. The album opener is a classic in the vein of Clandestine (1991) and the same goes for “Fit for a king” and “Through the eyes of the gods” (the verse riff on this one, specifically the shift from power-chord strumming to tremolo picking, is also reminiscent of Dismember). “Hell is my home”, a song tapping into the more thrashy side of the band, has a distinct Mourning star (2001) and Inferno (2003) quality, and the verse vocal pattern sounds almost identical to “Young and dead”. The slow, crawling closing song in the form of the magnificent “To eternal night”, is epic and melancholic, and provides a fitting ending to the album, similar to “Night for day” from Inferno. Overall, the album is another worthy addition to the band’s legacy, and as good as the better albums that the band released after Nicke’s departure.

9. Diamond Head – The coffin train

The coffin train spent a lot of hours in my mp3 player. Comparing it to their masterpiece from 2016, I would say that this is a simpler album, a bit darker, and much more built around Rasmus’s voice; Tatler is much less prominent, riff-fests of the style of “Shout at the devil” or “Wizard sleeve” are missing, although the album has its fair share of catchy riffs. “Until we burn” and “Coffin train” are the two obvious masterpieces for me. The former brings to mind the more atmospheric feel of Canterbury (1983), and the latter is an epic song starting slow and hypnotic, slowly building up to an explosion of emotions. Other songs are awesome as well, like “Belly of the beast” and “Death by design”, the two more up-tempo songs on the album reminiscent of the early years of the band. “Shades of black” and “Serrated love” are two other well-crafted tunes, with beautiful orchestrations and choruses. The production is very clinical and everything sounds great. Rasmus’s delivery this time around sounds a bit more popy than before, but still quite impressive. The only song I do not particularly like is “The sleeper”, and, although this is a very enjoyable album, it also shows signs of repetition.

10. Disastrous Murmur – Santo subito

I was so young and naive when I bought Disastrous Murmur’s debut, around 23 years ago, that I actually thought I was buying a Disharmonic Orchestra album. I encountered it in a stack of records and first noticed the sticker on the top right hand corner which said ‘former members of Disharmonic Orchestra’. I didn’t bother reading it properly, nor tried to decipher the band logo, I just got drawn in by the marvelous cover and bought it. I only discovered my error in the train on my way home. When I listened to it I was not disappointed though; it is a masterpiece. Anyway, Disastrous Murmur returned after 13 years with a new album in their familiar style of sick death metal. The new album is a good mix of the more melodic path the band went down starting with …and hungry are the lost (2001) and their earlier more brutal era. It is mainly comprised of fast songs, with simple song structures and thrashy riffs, interspersed with blastbeats. Although I didn’t find the album particularly varied, so consistent with their past output, the songs are very interesting, catchy and with some great ideas (such as keyboards and melodic female vocals). In some cases the vocals – one of the highlights of the album, for sure – are more reminiscent of their classic masterpiece, Rhapsodies in red (1992). “Stop talking – start dying” is one of my favourites on the album. “The evil one” is a dark and perverse electro-death tune reminiscent of Pungent Stench’s cover of “Why can the bodies fly”. “Faith, fist, fire” is a catchy punky tune. Generally, most songs are underpinned by a punk attitude. “666 modified microwave possession” is another one of my favourite songs, one of the most complex songs on the album, melodic, with a heavy, trilly main riff, and a bizarre, haunting ending. “Menschenfresser” is another great tune with a very infectious main riff and beat. All of the songs are catchy. I have not read the lyrics, but I think this might be a good thing.

2019 Playlist