Distillator – Summoning the Malicious

Distillator hails from the Netherlands and plays a straight-ahead brand of thrash metal that is likely to appeal to fans of Bay Area bands. “Summoning The Malicious” marks their second full-length, and is a potent, thrashing effort. Though there is no shortage of bands ripping off groups like Exodus, Metallica, and others from San Francisco, few of them can replicate the brilliant songwriting of those legends. Fortunately, this is where Distillator shines. “Summoning The Malicious” features incredible, memorable hooks, alongside tight riffing. The end result is a satisfying, albeit unoriginal, effort.

Most of the tracks on this release are fairly short, and tend to follow simplistic song structures. The band relies on breakneck riffing, played with a tone that rivals modern Exodus in its crunchiness. This monolithic tone is somehow unleashed by just one man, but this means Distillator’s bass player gets the spotlight on a regular basis. He best shows his skills in “Mechanized Existence”, where he even gets a solo, but has no shortage of solid bass lines throughout the remainder of the album. The real treat, as with any great thrash release, is the quality of the riffs. “Megalomania” has the album’s best such riff, as it takes Running Wild’s “Tortuga Bay”, and essentially turns it into a thrash song. On the title track, the band plays off a truly evil lead to create a darker, more sinister sound than anything else found on the record.

Two slight exceptions to the band’s formula are “Estates of the Realm” and “The King of Kings”. The former track is a mid-paced effort that brings the groove to thrash. While not as effective as a song like Warbringer’s “Remain Violent”, for example, it is most definitely not a watered down track. The razor-sharp guitar tone makes the chugging riffs effective, but the band’s vocalist isn’t quite strong enough to carry a tune like this, as he primarily employs a monotone shout (though all throughout the album, he isn’t afraid to go into a Schmier-styled screech). “The King of Kings” takes things one step further, by instead being a slower, more brooding track. The end result isn’t too bad, but as with all thrash bands, Distillator is best when playing at full speed. 

Overall, “Summoning The Malicious” is an upper-tier modern thrash release. Distillator has focused on crafting great songs first, and though they stay in a relatively safe space, they’re playing an already safe subgenre of metal. Compared to their peers, this band exceeds nearly all of the faceless thrash groups of the day, and falls just a tier below gods like Warbringer or Havok.

Be sure to check out and like Distillator on Facebook!

Highlights

"Mechanized Existence"

"Summoning The Malicious"

"Megalomania"

Final Rating

4.4/5 or 88%. 

Written by Scott

Interview with Sten from Ecocide!

This interview is with guitarist and singer Sten from the death metal group Ecocide. They hail from the Netherlands and put out a wicked debut record last year! Enjoy!

SFM: Hi guys! Let’s start by talking about your debut full-length record, “Eye of Wicked Sight”. The album was initially released independently. Did you receive a lot of label interest after it was released

Sten: Yes, after the release we got a lot of interest from labels who wanted to re-release the album on vinyl or CD. The Vinyl was done by Supreme Chaos Records and the Re-issue on CD was done by Disharmonic records.

SFM: When Disharmonic Records picked up the album, there was a new cover art. The art still reflects the title but is quite a bit different. Did the label insist on new artwork? Do you guys like the new art?

Sten: Well we came up with new artwork for the vinyl release because we thought that the new art would look cooler on vinyl. When Disharmonic contacted us we thought let’s use the new art and keep the old one as a sort of 1^st press artwork.

SFM: Even though there are a lot of bands playing old-school heavy metal these days (whether traditional or thrash or death metal), few of them nail the production like you guys did. “Eye of Wicked Sight” sounds like it’s straight from the early 90’s. How did you achieve this production sound? Are you guys happy with the end result?

Sten: Well we recorded with Fredde form Dirty bird studios and also known from bands like Massive Assault and Sledgehammer Nosejob. Fredde had done some great Dutch old school Death metal bands and we thought that this was the right guy for us ! We think the album turned out great !

SFM: Your lyrical approach is different from most death metal bands that go the gore or Satan route. What draws you to sci-fi oriented lyrics?

Sten: Well we are all interested in sci-fi stuff and we thought why not write some lyrics about it! It’s still gory and evil but with a different twist. I have also thought about writing some lyrics about other stuff but we will see about that in the future!

SFM: You have done a lot of gigs in the last couple of years. What are your favourite songs to play from the album? What songs are the fan favourites?

Sten: I love to play Crawling From The Crypt and Terror From Beyond because they are really fast heavy songs and the fans go crazy on those ones. I also think Planet Eater is one of the more popular songs amongst fans because it has this catchy , groovy tone to it and it’s also the first song on the record.

SFM: This year in particular, you’ve had some great support slots including opening for Gorguts and Malevolent Creation. Are you guys trying to get on a major death metal tour, or looking to play some summer festivals next year?

Sten: We would love to do a cool Death Metal tour with band’s like that and we would also love to play on festivals like Partysan, Stonehenge and Neurotic Deathfest 

SFM: Are you guys working on new material? If so, when can we expect a new Ecocide album, and will it sound similar to the debut?

Sten: Yes we are working on new stuff only it has been hard for me to come up with new things because I had some problems with my personal life and I didn’t feel that well most of this year. But we are working very hard on some new songs now and we hope to release it by the end of this year or in the beginning of 2015. I think it will be a bit similar to “Eye” but I think I will keep some of the  lyrics more down to earth this time haha!

SFM: Do you think that death metal needs to continue to evolve to be interesting, or can bands simply come up with similar sounding fans to keep fans happy?

Sten: Well I like experimental stuff and bands can always change their sound but there is nothing wrong with some good old school death metal. A lot of bands put different things in their music but it’s still old school death metal and it’s still great music.

SFM: A lot of new death metal bands really favour Incantation’s sound. You guys seem to be more rooted in Floridian death metal (Massacre, Nocturnus, Death). Do you think there are too few bands playing the Floridian style of death metal?  

Sten: Yes, But I think that’s also the reason why we are so different form other Old school Death Metal bands.  You have a few Florida style Death metal bands out there like Skeletal Remains, Morfin and Gruesome. The reason we play it is because we love bands like Death/Massacre and Obituary but we also try to involve some of our own ideas.

SFM: Any last words for the fans out there?

Sten: We Love you all! Thanks for the support and stay tuned for the new album! 

Be sure to check out and like Ecocide on Facebook!

Ecocide – Eye of Wicked Sight

When it comes to old-school death metal, Sinister is one of the names most associated with the Netherlands, and rightfully so. In modern day, however, there’s a new band from the same country playing an equally brutal and convincing form of death metal. Ecocide has only been around a few years, and they put out their first album, “Eye of Wicked Sight”, in 2013. Everything from the album cover/title, to the song titles, to the music, and even the production sounds like it is a long lost OSDM gem from 1992. Ecocide has this sound down perfectly, and it is remarkable that this release isn’t making more waves amongst the metal community.

The first astonishing aspect about “Eye of Wicked Sight” is the production. It’s almost unbelievable how well the band managed to capture the essence of the early 90’s. Nothing about this release is brickwalled, yet all of the instruments are insanely heavy. This style of production can get a bit clicky when the bass drums get going, but it also makes everything sound incredibly tight. Each riff and beat is precisely on point. Speaking of riffs, they tend to be pretty standard for the sound, but sometimes they show a bit of specific influence. The opening riff to the title track, for example, is pure Death worship. This riff would fit right in on “Leprosy” and “Spiritual Healing”. Most of this album is incredibly fast, but Ecocide isn’t afraid to throw in some doomier moments, such as the one that appears in “Unknown Disease”. There are also plenty of more mid-paced riffs as well (the aforementioned track is a great example of these as well). With that said, death metal is about providing some neck-snappingly good moments and Ecocide does plenty of that. One great example is “Terror From Beyond”, which because delivers the most brutal assault of the record. The riffs fly in your face at a mile a minute, and there’s not a single moment to catch your breath. Even when it does get “slower”, it is still incredibly pummeling. Not for the faint of heart, this song delivers the fury that death metal is all about. As you might imagine, the songwriting is also pretty on point. The haunting words “Crawling From The Crypt” leave a lasting impact, made better only by Sten’s incredible growls. His voice is deep, but understandable. A good comparison would be to Massacre’s Kam Lee, but Sten is certainly not unique amongst the death metal world. 

Ecocide has put together an impressive collection of old-school death metal tracks with “Eye of Wicked Sight”. As someone who isn’t big on the Inclonetation going on in the death metal scene, Ecocide is a refreshing change of pace that reminds the death metal scene that there were other great bands from the late 80’s and early 90’s. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think Ecocide was one of them. If you love old-school death metal, Ecocide is mandatory listening!

Be sure to check out and like Ecocide on Facebook!

Highlights

"Eye of Wicked Sight"

"Terror From Beyond"

"Crawling From The Crypt"

Final Rating

4.3/5 or 86%. 

Written by Scott