The Smart Marks Album Review Thread

[B. Brian Brunzell 0]

This is a thread where you, fellow music fans, can post your reviews of new and/or your favourite albums. I figure it can be a great place to introduce the other TSMers to music that they've never heard, or haven't heard in quite some time. Anyway, have at it!

[Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye 0]

Retro post because this album still looks great to me

 

Goatwhore - Funeral Dirge For The Rotting Sun. Release date: August 26 2003

 

I couldn't wait so I got it now. The internet is a good thing sometimes.

 

 

when I first heard about this album's release I had to think long and hard about whether or not I could feasibly type on a computer with a keyboard that suddenly had the T,Y,F,G,H,V,B, keys very sticky. I finally had to breakdown and clean the damn thing because if I hadn't, I wouldn't be able to fill up several threads in this music folder with my Goatwhore fetish, easily off tracking everyone of them. And I just couldn't let that happen. I'm grim. Necro. Dedicated. You understand I'm sure. Anyway...

 

Goatwhore's website has a piece on the new album desccribing the direction of this they are taking things.

 

"Probing the pitch-black recesses of mind and soul in a disturbing, introspective examination of dark forces at work, and unleashing it all with a feral hookiness and atmospheric flare, the band steps beyond the bounds of mere black metal into a realm all its own"

 

This is no exaggeration on their part. This album cuts a huge swath across the realms of all things extreme in metal. The band has certainly matured with this release, truly spreading it's black wings. Interestingly, while the debut album (Eclipse Of Ages Into Black. one of the greatest album titles ever imo has it's roots firmly planted in an area of Death tinged Black Metal, this release goes in nearly opposite direction. This one has a very noticable increase in Death Metal, in pacing, riffs, and vocals. Of course, the Black Metal still dominates the majority of the album, but Goatwhore has(as mentioned above) gone deeper into the DM realms, even going so far as to pull a few new style (ie: ceph. carn. etc)GRIND riffs out of the cellar.

 

Mind you, there was always a..."grindy" edge to a lot of their riffs, but this is a far more pronounced edge to say the least. It is a truly nice fit along with the slower Dm pace of many of the songs, as well as a break from the all out BLACK THRASH ATTACK that is prevalent elsewhere.

 

Another thing to notice is that the production is WAY more out in front. This also seems to serve the new sound in somewhat backing away from the BM dominated sound of the first album. This thing just comes into the room and kicks your head in.

 

All the players are well represented here,

 

Ben Falgoust making throat drop makers everywhere very happy and showing that he still reigns very highly in the court of extreme vocals. The screams are still buffed with broken glass. The death growls(which are more prevalent here aswell) are still a tasty mix of Death puking and Black shredding which I love so much. '

 

Sammy Duet's riffs are still dirty as a newly sodomized christian whore while showing a great deal more range in scope(as referenced above). His riffs still snarling while aiding in your slow death, and then offering commentary while your limp corpse is being dragged back to hell. Kids, it doesn't come much better than this.

 

Bassist Pat Bruders even takes the helm a few times to welcome the bloodied listener to hell a few times with highly capable distoted bass rumbling sledgehammer.

 

Drummer Zak Nolan provides the backdrop of this album with intense blasting, and highly tasteful beats during the slow-midpaced areas of the songs. Never really taking the helm nor fading into the background. He truly comes up with a very strong statement on this album. Massively technical, while never swatting flies in a manner that would put him in company with mad grind drummers like Flo Mounier and their ilk. He uses many venerable styles from the past(This album has many regressions to old style black/death metal as on the first album. And I wouldn't have it any other way.) to accentuate the massive genre progression that these miscreants lead the way in already.

 

Look, this is FUCKING GOATWHORE. You know, to some extent, what you are going to get from them. But you cannot, in good conscience, call them any kind of copy cats because they display enough progression to have perfected their own genre by implementing new kinds of terror in their arsenal of retro black/death.

 

For any metal fan worth their salt, this album should reside very highly in any top 20 of the year list. It has anything a fan of extreme metal could ask for. But no synth. They don't appreciate that kind of thing in the swamp.

 

First album review I've ever done. It is basically for about 4 people here who might remotely care at all. I'm ok with that.

 

See you later, I have to go finish carving GOATWHORE into my forehead.

 

metaphor goddamnit

[Guest Blas]

Kreator: Live Kreation

Review by: Blas

 

German Thrash Gods Kreator started out as "Tormentor" in 1982. After releasing some demos they soon changed their name to Kreator in 1985 and they have been thrashing 'till dess ever since.

 

After a dissapointing but decent release in 2001, Kreator's next release "Live Kreation" hit in 2003. A 2-disc live album recorded during the Violent Revolution tour is one of those rare live albums that really capture how great the band is in person. Take notes Metallica, this band has been thrashin' almost as long as you guys have and they still sound as good as they did when they first started out!

 

The album with the most songs on this setlist is their previous effort "Violent Revolution", as I said, a decent album, but Kreator really makes these songs sound so much better live than they do on album so there isn't much to complain about with song selection. Although, I'd rather have them play older songs, who the fuck wouldn't?

 

The guitars DOMINATE the sound on this album, the bass is good, and Ventor absolutely kills on drums. One of the best thrash drummers around. Kreator plays this show like it's going to be their last with lots of energy for a band that's been playing for over 20 years. Mille's vocals are better than ever. It's great to hear him scream classics like "Tormentor" and "Flag of Hate" over the killer guitar tone. It really gives the older songs a new sound; keeping the thrash while adding more fullness and tone.

 

This live album has 24 tracks. 24 fucken tracks! That's more than most live albums I've ever seen. There are only a few tracks that lag, "Renewal" and "Leave This World Behind" being the ones that stick out, but those are mid-90s songs so I'll let that slide, plus the good songs more than make up for them. The "Violent Revolution" songs are played so well, so fucken killer, that you almost forget that they were off an album that was recorded in 2001. There's also classics like "Pleasure To Kill", "Riot of Violence", "Under The Guillotine" and the aforementioned "Flag of Hate" and "Tormentor".

 

"Flag of Hate" goes right into "Tormentor" and those killer 7 minutes and 19 seconds close this album. I highly recommend this as it gives you a good feeling of Kreator's career. I had the pleasure of seeing this band last year in San Francisco and I tell ya, they didn't headline but they blew the other bands away like a San Franfaggot in a tree full of dicks.

 

Pick this album up now if you love thrash metal, and THRASH TILL DESS!!

 

I give this album 9 mispronounced "R's" out of 10.

 

Originaly Posted at Global Domination