Shepherd-The Coldest Day
(Exile on Mainstream Records, 2004)

If I’m not mistaken, this is a re-release of this now defunct bands last album. Chances are you may not have heard the name Shepherd before, doom completists excluded. Basically what this band brings is a sludgy combination of doom and stoner rock. They have riffs that are slow and brooding, but they have also have parts that kick up the tempo just a bit and have a much more rock feel to them. So while many bands are just a rehash of Black Sabbath, these guys interject a little bit of originality. They still owe a lot to Sabbath, but what doom band doesn’t?

The singer has a very versatile voice I find. He mainly sings in a fairly low voice for this style, but pulls off a number of screams quite often throughout the entire disc. I find a lot of times the vocalists are what kills doom bands, but thankfully this guy has his shit together and isn’t souring the affair with, well, sour notes I guess. He somewhat reminds me of a less theatrical King Diamond actually.
I would say that there is almost a hardcore influence happening quite often as well. They have riffs that are very upbeat and offer a very drastic rhythmic variant to the usual plodding doom riffing. I also like how the band manages to keep the song lengths fairly short. I think the longest track is only 5 minutes so these songs won’t test your sitting power.

I’m starting to think that Wino is on every doom album ever made. Well, that’s a stretch but he appears here with vocals on one song and guest guitar on two or three songs from the album. I didn’t really notice anything different about those songs, but Wino fanatics I’m sure will be able to find his stamp on these songs.

It’s a shame that these guys have called it a day, but I’m sure that this is an album that doom fans will talk about for years to come.

Annihilator-All for You
(AFM Records, 2004)

I’d be lying if I said that I was very familiar with Annihilator’s back catalog. But that doesn’t stop me from enjoying this varied, and well written metal record. The band touches on many different facets of the metal genre here, even exploring a bit outside of the metal genre at times.

The opening track is somewhat a cross between straight ahead almost industrial influenced riffing with flurries of clean vocals accenting the more heavy vocal style. There are some parts that almost even funky, but still undeniably heavy. Wrap the song off with a memorable chorus and excellent guitar solo and this cd starts off very strong. Each consecutive track brings something new to the table. The second track, Dr. Psycho, has some very cool low volume twin guitar leads, which build into one of the fastest songs on the album. The next track, Demon Dance, has a very cool groove based rhythm, which somewhat reminds me of something Nevermore would do. But shortly thereafter explodes into thrash style riffing, with some very odd vocals. I somewhat think that the album stumbles a bit during the more ballad like songs. They just don’t fit in with the heavy songs. It’s a fairly drastic difference really. They are good songs in their own right, just might possibly not in the context of the flow of the album.

The lyrics are fairly cool, but some of them are just a bit too cheesy for me. The stand out track for cheesiness is Dr, Psycho. What if the doctor was evil, and very, very mean? This is an album you’ll mainly listen to for the music. The vocals are excellent, but the lyrics just don’t appeal to me very much.

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m not very familar with Annihilator, so I’m not very sure how this stacks up against the back catalog. It is however a very good metal album that only stumbles a few times through out it’s duration, and when it does, it picks itself back up very quickly.

Burmese/Fistula-Split CD
(Crucial Blast, 2004)

Burmese kicks this split cd off with what I could only call harsh noise. There is definitely instrumentation, but it sounds like it was played through a static filter. There are doomy moments that lead into utter chaos of feedback, static and god knows what else. A few tracks are a bit more grindcore in nature, with blasting and harsh vocal shouts, and even what sounds like a few notes rings through. It’s definitely a bit hard on the ears, but they are definitely creating some interesting music(?) that pushes the boundaries of what we can expect from music.

Fistula is a lot more musical in the conventional sense of the word. Their opening track is plodding doom with samples of people smoking pot and what sounds like bombs being used, along with a lot of coughing. It should give you an idea what to expect from the band. The rest of the songs are a bit more upbeat fusing a bit of doom, stoner rock and even hardcore. The band utilizes harsh screams which serve as a nice contrast to the straight forward guitar riffs. The production is fairly lo-fi, but the band manages to keep things together although I’m sure there was a green haze covering the ceiling of the room they recorded in. Fans of everything from Rue to Acid Bath should find something appealing within the Fistula sound.

I’d say that Fistula was easier for me to get into, but that’s mainly because I’ve never really been a big fan of noise bands. I definitely found myself liking what Burmese had to offer, but the style is still a little too out there for me. Maybe one day I’ll get it...

Japanische Kampfhorspiele-hardcore aus der ersten welt
(Bastardized Recordings, 2004)

Seemingly this band came out of nowhere, but fuck am I ever glad that they have shown up. This band is one of the best bands I have ever heard within the death metal/grindcore genre. Seriously, this lays waste to almost every thing that I’ve heard in years. The band is absolutely raging, but also has a varied attack and isn’t afraid to explore tempos not usually found within grindcore.

The main core of the bands sound is ripping blast beats, guttural roars, mixed with hardcore parts with shrieking vocals. But you’ll find a lot of interesting tempos in between and some very technical riffing as well. Little pieces of dissonance shine through from time to time as well, and you really don’t know what to expect from track to track. They don’t just blast for a minute and then move on to the next song. These are carefully constructed songs that are perfectly structured and waste no time with filler. I find a lot of the time I’ll just find myself saying damn that’s a cool riff. These guys just have a knack for writing incredibly original and cool sounding riffs. Even the riffs that would seem somewhat standard for grindcore are given that extra something to make them unique. Whether it’s a bit of technicality added or just a pause, they’ll add little things to make even the most common sounds original.

The lyrics are all in German so unfortunately I have no idea what they touch upon. I wouldn’t automatically assume they are political, I would more so say that they are probably more personal. They don’t seem to be a very political band, but I could definitely be wrong.

This is simply put an utterly devastating album. The slower sections are just as cool as the blasting, and this is one of the most original albums that the grindcore genre has seen in a very long time. Fans of grind that have lost some faith in the genre, definitely need to get this album.

Beaten Back to Pure-The Burning South
(Dark Reign Records, 2004)

Beaten Back to Pure kick off The Burning South with a sound that could only be described as rocked out sludge. The riffing is incredibly heavy, and sludgy, yet played at a more upbeat tempo. Hints of melody, dissonance, and even hardcore breaks the din of the usual heaviness. I would say that fans of Acid Bath or Iron Monkey would be able to get into this band, but they don’t really sound very much like either band. They have something fairly unique going on here.

The band covers a lot of ground, and has a pretty firm grasp on dynamics. They aren’t afraid to roll back on the distortion from time to time and create a few lulls that give the band that opportunity to build back into the heavy parts. They even have a few bluesy sounding riffs and leads, which don’t sound out of place at all. You might assume that these guys are constantly playing bruising riffs with growling vocals, but the amount of quiet parts might be a bit surprising at first. That’s not to say that this isn’t a heavy record, because it definitely is.

I have one big problem with the production, and that is that the vocals are much too low in the mix. Especially during the clean vocal parts. I’m not sure what happened exactly, but you almost have to strain to hear him at times, while others the vocals break through just enough. Musically the album sounds phenomenal. The guitar tone has a lot of muscle, and manages to stay away from being overly fuzzed out. The drums have a very natural ring to them, and the bass isn't quite loud enough, but it’s in there thickening up the mix.

I was almost expecting this to be a bit typical, but this is one of the best albums in this style that I have heard since the last Acid Bath record. It’s not quite as varied, but there are definitely similarities between the two releases. Hopefully this album will get Beaten Back to Pure a lot more attention, because with an album this good they truly deserve it.

UDO-Thunderball
(AFM Records, 2004)

There definitely is no confusing Udo’s voice. His voice is one of those voices that you just know when you hear it, and that my friends is how careers are built. This latest album is actually a lot more German power metal sounding then I was expecting. I guess I shouldn’t judge him by the old Accept albums, but maybe I was expecting something a bit more rock based. Am I glad this is more power metal based? Definitely.

The songwriting is very solid on this album. The riffing is energetic, melodic and very memorable. The opening track has everything a solid power metal song should have. Energetic playing, a memorable chorus, and a jaw dropping lead break. It’s what you’ve come to expect from many bands, but this is on par with any of the heavy hitters of the genre any day of the week. There definitely is a rock feel from time to time, but it’s still in a power metal context. The rock just starts to show when the band slows down. If you need a concrete reference musically the band sounds a bit like Primal Fear or Sinner, but the vocals are pure UDO and that’s what makes this album so unique.

This guy has been slugging it out for years, so you have to have a lot of respect for someone who has stayed with metal for so many years. Thankfully over the years he hasn’t become a parady of himself. He still releases high quality music and this album is no different. Fans of heavy metal already know that this is a mandatory purchase so I don’t need to tell you do I?