Parricide-Ill-Treat
(Mercenary, 2003)

I was somewhat expecting this band to be typical death metal, and to be honest I was right, but simply put this band rips. It’s whirlwind style death metal with lots of riffs, guttural vocals, and an extremely pounding production. It’s everything a death metal album should be and then some.

I could rattle off a list of comparisons, but for the most part I’d say they sound like a combination of Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, and Incantation. They have the blasting and break down riffs of Suffocation, the dark melodic melodies of Incantation at times, and guttural vocal roars similar to early Cannibal Corpse. Sure, you could probably compare Parricide to a few newer bands as well, but these guys are far better then most of them. They even plow through a brutal cover of Hammer Smashed Face, which leaves the new lineup of Corpse in the dust.

This is one hell of a great sounding album. It has a heavy guitar sound that really cuts through the mix. It’s almost to the point of having too much bass, but you need the bass in a death metal guitar sound to shake the speakers. The drums sound pretty good for the most part, yet I think the bass drums are a bit too clicky at times. It doesn’t take away from the overall sound of the record though, and like I said earlier this is one hell of a great sounding album.

This is easily one of the best bands I have ever heard from Poland. While many of the -earlier bands have begun spinning their wheels ie.Vader, it’s great to see some new bands putting Poland back on the map for brutal death metal.

Place of Skulls-With Vision
(Southern Lord, 2003)

It seems like lately I’ve been finding much more straight up rock music in my mailbox then I’m used to. Even more surprising is that I like pretty much all of it. I’m really picky with stoner rock and rock in general, so you can rest assured if a band impresses me in this genre they must be damn good. Saying Place of Skulls is just damn good would be selling them short though.

I’m not exactly the right person to ask for comparisons. To me pretty much every band that plays bluesy yet heavy music sounds a lot like Black Sabbath. These guys are no exception, but they have more going on then that. I’m reminded a bit of Saint Vitus as well, not really surprising though considering the bands share some members. You can expect somewhat dark bluesy riffing full of lots of bends, simple yet effective drum beats, and a great vocal performance from Place of Skulls.

The production is surprisingly pleasing to the ears. It’s possibly one of the most polished stoner rock/doom albums I’ve ever heard. It still sounds like a live band, but a lot of bands suffer from horrible guitar tone and just a lack of a powerful sounding production. These guys don’t have either problem. When the guitars pound on the low end, this is one hell of a heavy album. They keep things diverse though, you won’t be pounding into submission relentlessly. They like to groove, and they aren’t afraid to do just that over musically beating your face in.

The only thing I don’t really get into with this band is the name. Maybe I just don’t get it, but it seems like a silly name to me. Aside from that little and overly anal complaint on my part, this is one hell of a rock/doom record that fans of the genre need to pick up.

Primal Dawn-The Euthanasia Programme
(Independent, 2003)

I can usually look past bands being sloppy if they are fast and the music is chaotic, but when the music is slow the sloppiness really shows. Primal Dawn is definitely a sloppy band, especially the drumming. I’m not quite sure if it has anything to do with the production, but this isn’t very tight and this makes it a bit hard to listen to at times.

The bands style is basically mid-paced death metal, some riffs here and there remind me of Sepultura, but aside from that I don’t have many comparisons. But the comparisons aren’t that important, because I would have a hard time recommending this to anyone. It’s not terrible, yet at the same time it’s a bit hard to listen to due to the awful drum performance, and general lack of direction in the songs. Possibly with a better drummer this band would excel. The songs themselves aren’t all that bad. They just need to tighten up the sound quite a bit.

Primal Fear-Devil’s Ground
(Nuclear Blast/PHD, 2004)

I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw this in the mail. Not that I find this band funny, but they are just so over the top and unbelievably metal that you can’t help but have fun listening to this band. The opening song is called Metal Is Forever, so if you haven’t heard this band before that should give you an indication as to what this band is all about. Speedy power metal with soaring vocals and some of the catchiest metal riffing since Painkiller.

This is probably the bands best material since Chainbreaker. It’s pretty damn similar in sound and style, but they’ve moved a bit away from being a Judas Priest tribute band and have turned into a full-fledged power metal powerhouse. You still hear a lot of Priest, especially in the guitar playing, but it sounds like a cross between Judas Priest and the European power metal sound so this band is far from being a Judas Priest clone. It’s not really what you’d call original, but it’s well written and a very satisfying listen none the less.

The production pretty much sounds identical to everything the band has released so far, but considering every album has sounded like a million bucks it’s not a bad thing. For a power metal band these guys have always had an unbelievably heavy guitar tone. Without it the band would pretty much lose all of it’s muscle, so to see the guitar tone hasn’t changed at all is a good thing. I’m not a huge fan of the snare sound that the band has, but that’s a minor complaint. I’m starting to miss natural sounding snares, triggers are fine for bass drums but you need a natural snare sound.

This new album really isn’t anything new for Primal Fear, it’s well written catchy power metal and I wouldn’t want to have anything else from this band. They stick to what they are good at and what their fans want to hear. Don’t expect them to stray from the metal path anytime soon.

Punishment-Broken But Not Dead
(Thorp, 2003)

As good as Punishment may be, Broken But Not Dead is really held back by a horrible sounding production. It reminds me somewhat of a straight from the mixing board live recording. The band is tight though, which still shines through the muddy and far from incredible production.

You want some comparisons? Here you go: Madball, Hatebreed, and Sworn Enemy. Picture a combination of those three bands and you have Punishment. They aren't really adding anything new to any of the formulas, but they definitely do the formulas justice. The main thing that is different is that Punishment have a lot more death metal influence to their sound. The usually hardcore screams break away to death growls every now and then, and it's an amazing transition. So basically it's a combination of really heavy hardcore punk with some mid-paced death metal style riffing.

Like I said earlier this album definitely suffers from a lackluster production. It's somewhat strange sounding. You can hear everything perfectly fine, but it's just a fairly thin sounding production. The guitar sound is heavy, but when not accompanied by double bass drums it sounds thin. The drums are also pretty buried and thin sounding at times to. It would definitely be a good live recording, but I'd like to hear them with a heavier more polished production.

If you are into Hatebreed, Madball or Sworn Enemy you should be able to get into this no problem. These guys are actually heavier then those bands, so if you like it heavy you can't go wrong with Punishment. If you have ever wanted to hear some death metal riffs on a hardcore punk album, you'll want to check this out also.

Putrid Pile-Collection of Butchery
(United Guttural, 2003)

So Putrid Pile is a one-man band, but they sure as hell don’t sound like it. This is quality death metal that doesn’t fall to any of the shortcomings that usually come with one-man bands.

For fans of US style brutality, Putrid Pile will have your homicidal rage boiling over in no time. Think a combination of Dying Fetus, Mortician, and Cannibal Corpse and you’ll start to understand the Putrid Pile sound. You’ll be beaten and bruised by heavy riffing, beyond guttural vocals, and enough swirling blastbeats to make your head spin quicker then Reagan in the Exorcist.

For a very underground release this has a very balanced and heavy sounding production. It has just enough grit to make it sound like a death metal album, yet it’s still very clear and lets everything be heard.

Supposedly the main guy behind this band is trying to put together a full band and start playing some shows. If he gets it together, this band will be ready to take the underground by storm. The band is already a great deal better then most bands you hear this day, and with a human drummer these guys will be one of the best new bands the underground has seen in a long time.

Putrified-The Putrid Remains
(Sevared, 2003)

I was a big fan of this bands debut MCD, but this is even better! It's pretty much better in every single way too, they really seemed to have progressed a lot as a band. The band is playing with more energy, the songwrtiing is better, even the production is better. This is an all around great death metal album.

If you've been into death metal for awhile, these guys will probably remind you of the mid 90's era death metal scene. There was never a shortage a bands and even the bands that sounded like other bands still kicked ass and brought out amazing albums. Putrified would have fit into this time period perfectly.

With the better production of this cd you can really hear the vocals this time around. On the MCD they were fairly buried but from what you could hear the singer has an amazing growl. Well, you can hear it perfectly clear on this cd and holy shit is this guys voice low. It's one of the best growls I have heard in quite sometime. It has a bit of the Chris Barnes sound to it, but this guy is better then he ever was.

I've always thought that these guys were very Florida influenced. They have tons of blasting, yet they still have the straight forward thrash tempo riffs that really make the songs memorable and more energetic. I also hear a lot of Incantation in these guys. They are more straight forward and less evil, but the influence is definintely there. They also remind me of Tomb of the Mutilated era Cannibal Corpse as well. That's definitely not a bad thing though, that is easily my favorite CC album of all time.

If you are into brutal death metal, you'll want to pick up this cd. This band really deserves to get it's name out there, especially with the lack of quality death metal from the bigger labels these days. Check these guys out, you won't be disappointed.

Pro-Pain-Fistful of Hate
(Candlelight USA, 2004)

It’s literally been years since I last heard this band and they really haven’t changed all that much over the years. The band has always played a mid tempo combination of metal and hardcore similar to Biohazard or possibly even Crowbar. They definitely seem to have their formula down to a science these days and the only really new aspect of the bands song is the odd melodic chorus. It does actually add a lot to the bands sound and serves as a nice contrast to the usual gruff vocals though.

This is definitely a band for those of you who like bands with groove. For the most part almost every riff is midpaced and features a groove in one way or another. It almost gives the band a New York hardcore like sound at times, but most of the riffing is pure metal somewhat along the lines of what you’d hear from a slower thrash band. You do hear the odd modern influence creeping in from time to time, but those moments are few and far between. If that worries you at all, you don’t need to. Pro-Pain have not turned into Korn, and never will.

One aspect of the band that I have grown a bit tired of is the lyrical approach. When I was younger and angry at every last thing in the world I dug the tough guy lyrical approach. I’d say it works for this band and I couldn’t really see them with a different lyrical approach. It’s just not something I’m into these days.

While I’ve missed the last few albums, I’ll definitely say that this is the best sounding album by the band that I have ever heard. The guitar sound is phenomenal, and really works for the simple nature of some of the guitar lines. When you are playing stuff in the lower register you need a powerful guitar sound, or well, it just sounds stupid I guess. This is an all around amazing sounding album, which is perfectly mixed, and sounds awesome loud.

It would be too easy to say that Pro-Pain haven’t progressed over the years. They haven’t changed drastically, but they definitely have fine tuned the sound and added little things over the years. The new melodic approach for some choruses is a welcome addition if you ask me and these are some of the best songs the band has ever written.

Psychotogen-The Calculus of Evil
(Crash, 2003)

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this, but when I read that this band had former members of Pessimist I definitely came more interested in finding out what they're about. It turns out that these guys are all about technical death metal, but do it in a way that is still accessible. It's heavy as all hell, and really doesn't sound like anyone. That's quite a feat these days in death metal. Heavy pounding passages give way to slow brooding acoustic riffs and then right back into an all out death metal assault. The riffing is simply put, very cool. These aren't typical death metal riffs at all. They have hints of things you've heard before but the band always throws something a little bit different in.

Just like most technical death metal bands, these guys have some pretty strong guitar heroics happening. Thankfully they don't make the riffing overly complicated. They do however have tons of guitar solos though, and these guys are damned good at what they do. This is one of the few bands that have the perfect balance between straight ahead pummeling and technical wizardry.

My main problem with this album? The production is pretty awful. It's one of the muddiest recordings I've heard in a long time. It doesn't necessarily hurt the bands material because you can still hear everything well enough. Some little nuances would stand out better with a clearer sound, and I think the guitar solos would have benefited from a less muddy and more rounding mix. They stand out a bit too much. It's a very underground sounding album, which wouldn't be a bad thing with a band with a more raw sound, but it's definitely not the ideal production for a band of this style.

The biggest surprise on this cd comes in the form of a cover of All Guns Blazing. Granted, the song doesn't really fit the bands sound, it's still a fun way to end a very above average cd. It's definitely not for everyone, but fan of the more technical side of death metal should be able to get into this pretty easily. If you need a comparison, think of maybe a cross between Cynic and Dying Fetus at times.

Pyrexia-Cruelty Beyond Submission
(Rex, 2004)

I’ve heard so many people say great things about this bands earlier albums, and while I’ve never really had the chance to check them out this album is sort of a sampler. It features three new songs as well as three tracks from each of their past albums. First impressions, these guys remind me quite a bit of Suffocation. Albeit a bit more stripped down and not quite as powerful. The earlier stuff is much more straight ahead death metal, but I hear a lot of thrash and hardcore influence in the three newer tracks.

I’ll be honest I was expecting more from these guys. Maybe I’m just a bit burnt out on this style of death metal right now, but it really doesn’t leave much of an impression on me. If you already own the older Pyrexia albums, you could pick this up for the three new tracks, or you could just wait for the full-length in which these songs will be on to come out to pick that up.