Death Dealer – War Master

Death Dealer is the current project of legendary axeman Ross The Boss (ex-Manowar), but it also features some other big-time names in the heavy/power/speed metal world. In particular, Sean Peck, from the band Cage, is on vocals. For those unfamiliar with that band (as I was before hearing Death Dealer), Peck is a guy with incredible talent and range, but he tends to focus on delivering that over-the-top style of metal pioneered by Rob Halford on Painkiller. In fact, the band as a whole spends much of “War Master” doing just that. While there are slower songs, such as the ballad, “Children of Flames”, there are many more balls-to-the-wall speed metal classics. The band’s title track, “Death Dealer”, is the most potent example, as it delivers screamed vocals, rapid-fire double bass drumming, and plenty of shred. Despite the great guitar players on this record, it is actually not as guitar-driven as I expected. “Wraiths on the Wind”, for example, has a great riff in the chorus, as well as some wicked guitar solos, but it is Peck’s vocals (particularly in the pre-chorus) that make this song so convincing. Even though his singing is always in overdrive, there’s a lot of character in his voice, and that makes choruses like “Liberty or Death”, and of course, “Death Dealer, especially potent.

The strength of “War Master” is definitely its songwriting. Most of these songs will grow on your after just a couple of listens. The aforementioned “Children of Flames” will bring back the glory of Agent Steel’s “Chosen To Stay”, with its brilliant, somber atmosphere that is highlighted by Peck’s screams in the chorus. This is all topped off with one of the best solos of the record, where Ross The Boss shows that speed isn’t necessarily a pre-requisite for a great guitar solo. Another highlight, the album's title track, is similar to “Death Dealer” in that Cage’s wild vocals drive a powerful chorus. Ultimately, however, there are still a couple of weaker tracks that drag things down by the end of the record. Even though this album is a similar length to “Painkiller”, Death Dealer would really benefit from cutting out a couple tracks simply because it’s difficult to keep up this level of intensity for such a long period of time. Nevertheless, this is definitely a great driving album, and is fun to throw on anytime you want something completely ridiculous to listen to. 

Be sure to check out and like Death Dealer on Facebook!

Highlights

"Death Dealer"

"Warmaster"

"Children of Flames"

Final Rating

4.0/5 or 80%. 

Written by Scott 

The Outer Limits – World Metal Domination

For every original new thrash band out there, there are seemingly at least 10 unoriginal ones. It’s possible that by this point, most of the ground one could cover in thrash has already been tread. There are a ton of Exodus and Slayer clones, but every week a new band pops up that worships an underground favourite from the 80’s. In this case, The Outer Limits have found the second coming of Russ Anderson (Forbidden) to sing for them. This guy sounds more like Anderson than the original himself. It’s actually pretty incredible, and is something you definitely need to hear, even if you’re not a huge Forbidden fan.

Once you get past this similarity, you can delve into the music, which is not as Forbidden-esque. It’s still very much Bay Area-influenced, but The Outer Limits don’t blow you away with technicality, and instead would be more similar to bands like Defiance and early Testament. The title track of the band shows a pretty catchy chorus atop some relatively unique rhythms for thrash. Across the next 7 tracks, the band does not ever reach the heights of this song again, but they do just enough to mix things up to keep it interesting. “The Holocaust of Dreams”, for example, gets crushingly heavy mid-way through when it slows down for some Metallica-inspired chugging. It isn’t long, however, before things speed up again and return to thrashing brutality.

The production on “World Metal Domination” should appeal to both fans of the new-school and those who don’t like a lot of newer stuff. The guitars sound good, but the main great feature on this record is that the drums aren’t completely overproduced. They’re punchy, but not to the point that the snare overtakes everything. This allows for the drumming to stand out when needed (see the double bass kicking in after the solo on "The Holocaust of Dreams"), but not to the point where you won’t hear the riffs. The bass guitar is pretty thick sounding, and cuts through the mix well. The only time where you can really fault the production is when this vocalist hits one of his crazy Russ Anderson-imitation screams, but even then, that isn’t so much the production as much as it is the sheer insanity of his voice that causes some pain on the ears. 

Overall, “World Metal Domination” is pretty impressive. Forbidden is one band that hasn’t been ripped off a lot, so the vocals on this record are a nice change from the Tom Araya worship that goes on in other bands. In addition, the songwriting is really impressive. I can’t say that many of these tracks will be stuck in your head when the album is over, but the songs tend to be immediately recognizable once they start on subsequent listens. Everything comes together well on this album, and it’s hard to imagine any fan of thrash not trying to emulate some of those falsetto screams as they listen to this record.

Be sure to check out and like The Outer Limits on Facebook!

Highlights

"The Outer Limits"

"Bonded By Metal"

"World Metal Domination"

Final Rating

4.2/5 or 84%. 

Written by Scott 

Vilifier Interview

I recently flew out to Australia in my private jet to interview N.B. of the Aussie death metal savages, Vilifier. If you like your death metal ugly, heavy and dark, than do yourself a favor and hit up Crawling Chaos Productions to get your hands on Vilifier's "Ritual Obscuration" EP. 

SFM - Greetings! Now for those reading this that don't know who you are (I'm gonna guess that's most of 'em) can you educate them on everything Vilifier. Where ya from? What sound can they expect? Who are your major influences?

NB - Gday mate, Where to start.... In a nutshell Vilifier started one night in 2007 under an old queenslander house after one too many beers and bongs, Incantation on the stereo and a direct lack of musical ability. At this stage the culprits involved were myself N.B (Lustration) Witchripper (ex Lustration, Demonreich maniac!) and Helveticunt (Abysm, Kingdom Of Decay). This was nothing more than an excuse to channel the ancient ones through alcoholic and narcotic ritual with feedback and distortion acting as the beacons towards the void, Turn the clock forward 4 years later and we are all in the same state again and have at our disposal a new drummer called Masokist (Blasmer, Ex Chemical Cascades) as Witchripper was off chasing women or something if my mind recalls correctly, At this time we had a ritual chamber/rehearsal room we shared with Lustration so we had access to recording gear (a broken 4 track) and equipment so with about 4 rehearsals we came up with 4 songs, 3 of them appeared on Rehearsal MMXI, recorded mainly to document the levels of our deprivation at the time until STI inquired about the project and after hearing the demo tracks signed the contract in blood to release the ancients unto the earth once more. That year we also recorded the two tracks that appeared on the split with Lustration.

Fast forward another year, I was then living in another state (Sydney) but the horde was kept alive by Masokist with the help of S.K (ex demonreich), J.Godkiller (ex demonreich, ex Lustration) and A.K (Abysm, Kingdom Of Decay) this lineup appeared on the Live Onslaught MMXII tape and is a recording of our set from Evil Invaders III where we played alongside Inquisition, Vomitor, Hobbs Angel Of Death, Assaulter and a heap of other death dealers and doom bringers from around Aus, This lineup minus A.K recorded the Ritual Obscuration release that was set to be released by STI until the closure of the label as I'm sure most people are aware of, this is where Wayde came to the rescue and on his label "Crawling Chaos Productions" released the first run of CDs for us, the new pressing was done by "Forgotten Wisdom Productions" in a much larger pressing but we are still in debt to Wayde for putting his money where his mouth is and releasing our shit!

Influences, in the beginning it was utter inebriation, incantation, goat molestor and my early stages of delving into the occult, these days it's less about a sound, and more about tapping that primal sound hidden deep within our subconscious and a call to arms for the guardians of the void.

SFM - Your most recent release is the demo "Ritual Obscuration," which is killer by the way, but what took the band 2 years to release proper, non-live recordings of these wicked tracks?

NB - Laziness for a start I guess, main reason was not having a stable lineup as we don't really have any full time members in the group, it's basically whoever is available and keen gets a spot, also recordings, bar budget 4track recordings haven't been a priority for us until recently as it is still a purely selfish affair the band. Ritual Obscuration for the most part was recorded whilst I was MIA down south, so I only laid vocals down on my return to Brisbane almost 2 years ago....

SFM - When I think of the Australian underground, I typically think of many of the bands who've been emulating their forefathers in Bestial Warlust, playing as punishing and fast as possible, but you guys have slowed things down a bit. Was it your intentions to sort of steer away from what a lot of the scene has been doing, or were you guys just really drunk listening to diSEMBOWELMENT one night? Both? 

NB - You hit the nail on the head right there mate, past and current members do have an attachment to Bestial Warlust in some regard, but I tire easily of playing those kind of riffs as it doesn't hold my attention or give me the same feeling as a diSEMBOWELMENT style riff does, sound wise I guess we do have a similar sound to the current Brisbane death metal scene (Impetuous Ritual, Grave Upheaval, Dungeons of Blood etc..) but it's far from what we aimed for, a nice surprise really haha... If at the time I could play guitar faster I would imagine the material being different and more savage, but I was playing guitar for 2 months before recording the demo... 

SFM - What do you want live viewers of the band to take away from the ideal Vilfiier live experience? Should they feel violated? Ripped off? Or should they not feel anything due to alcohol poisoning? 

NB - All 3 would be ideal. In essence, the live show consists of stupid amounts of alcohol, incense burning in offering to the skulls adorning the stage in effigy of the forgotten spirits, a wall of feedback and thunder of the ancients awakening all coming together in a crescendo to bring upon the end times. 

SFM - How did the partnership with Crawling Chaos come about? Did Wayde have to bribe you to agree to release "Ritual Obscuration?" 

NB - Drunken handjob I do believe. Nah, as mentioned earlier, our old label got closed down by the Gestapo, and Wayde was looking for a first release, and as our komrade in Germany had done all the layouts already, it was perfect timing. Hail to Wayde Martin... Never stop the madness! 

SFM - Is there any new material being conjured up for a future release yet? If so, when could fans expect some new, putrid offerings?

NB - Working on some new tracks for a split and a new EP, other than that nothing else is planned at this stage. 

SFM - Well, that's the end of the interview, thank you for your time. Do you have any words for your fans, old and new?

NB - Buy us a beer ya kunts! For those chasing the EP, hit up Forgotten Wisdom Productions in France, also soon we will have shirts available. Contact vilifiercult@gmail.com for info. 

Nervosa – Victim of Yourself

Outside of a few obvious exceptions, it seems pretty rare to find a female-fronted thrash band, and even rarer to find a thrash group composed of all females. Nervosa, a new band out of Brazil, fits both categories, and much more importantly, they deliver some intense thrash metal. “Victim of Yourself” is their debut record, and it is an exercise in extreme thrash. Everything from the vocals to the crunchy guitars,  to the pounding, military-esque rhythms present in the some of the songs (“Twisted Values”) creates a brutal experience. Over the course of the entire record, there is pretty much no letting up once the thrash starts. With that said, there is some variety to Nervosa’s sound: it isn’t simply playing as fast as possible. There is definitely a lot of influence from Sepultura as Nervosa manages to use a lot of uniquely timed riffs. They make good use of rests in the music alongside more typical thrash riffs. Another way the band stands out is in its use of blast beats. A good comparison would be Warbringer: both bands use blast beats, but it doesn’t become a focus of the music like it does in death or black metal. In fact, Nervosa uses it in a bit of a mechanical way, to increase the heaviness of the music rather than the speed. 

As one might expect, Nervosa’s Brazilian heritage means that their singer has quite a bit of snarl in her voice. Fans of other German or Brazilian thrash bands will know what to expect, and will definitely appreciate the brutality that bassist/vocalist Fernanda Lira delivers. Her rasps are a good match for the music, which is raw and unfiltered. “Victim of Yourself” delivers riff after riff to the point where it is almost overkill. The songwriting tends to follow this lead. There are standout tracks on “Victim of Yourself”, and none of the other songs will be disappointing, but there’s so much material on this record that the band could benefit from more simplistic song structures. This is best displayed on the very catchy “Morbid Courage”, which is the highlight because of its infectious chorus. Overall, however, you’ll never find a dull moment on this album, and if you dig any kind of more extreme thrash, “Victim of Yourself” will deliver what you’re looking for.

Be sure to check out and like Nervosa on Facebook!

Highlights

"Twisted Values"

"Morbid Courage"

"Death"

Final Rating

3.6/5 or 72%. 

Written by Scott  

Harlott – Origin

While Australia definitely has its fair share of thrash bands, there aren’t too many that have really caught my interest beyond a couple of initial listens. It is safe to say that Melbourne’s Harlott changed all of that with their debut record, “Origin”. Be forewarned: this album does absolutely nothing innovative, but thrash has never been about reinventing the wheel. Instead, “Origin” delivers some of the more impressive riffs and songs that thrash has seen this year. Songs is a key word there, as there are quite a few tracks on “Origin” that stand out beyond the typical monotonous blur of extremely fast and aggressive thrash. The title track is just one of many standouts, highlighted it’s catchy chorus that shows vocalist Andrew Hudson displaying some very rare hints of melody in his performance. Instead, he often spends much of his time spouting out words at rapid fire pace, such as on “Effortless Struggle”, and especially on “Ballistic”. This latter track is the band’s finest moment. It does an impressive job matching up to Slayer’s “Necrophobic” and the end of “Postmortem” in terms of the sheer speed of the vocal delivery. If you crave hyper-fast thrash like Fastkill, this track will definitely appeal to you.

These first three songs do a great job setting the tone for the entire record. While the songwriting is impressive, what makes “Origin” special is how tight the rhythm playing is. There are a lot of thrash bands out there that play at unreal speeds, but they can often be quite sloppy (such as many early Brazilian bands). Even the tightest of thrash bands often avoid the speeds that Harlott maintains on “Origin”. The rhythms are so technically proficient and complex that my picking hand tires just thinking about how to play them. Of course, this precision requires that the drumming be equally impressive, and it truly is. The machine gun rhythms that Harlott play on this album are greatly accented by the production. The guitar tone is incredibly crunchy during chunkier riffs, while it manages to be piercing throughout tremolo-picked sections (see the chorus of “Heirophobia” for a great example of both sounds). Surprisingly, the drums are dialed back a bit in the mix, which is effective at these speeds. Often times bands that play this fast get old quickly because of the loudness and pingy snare sound, but this isn’t the case on “Origin”.

If one were to really nitpick this album, it is possible to find a flaw. For one thing, even at 40 minutes, “Origin” would benefit from being a bit shorter. This style of thrash can be hard to digest for even short periods of time. Even though the songwriting is pretty consistent throughout, it wouldn’t be hard to cut a few of the 12 tracks to get things to a more manageable length. Nonetheless, there isn’t a boring moment on this album, and for a first effort, it is extremely promising. This is a record that’s going to appeal to pretty much all thrash fans, and even though it is by a newer band, it doesn’t feel like one of those “new wave of thrash” records, as everything from the album art, to the lyrics, and even the sound is a bit more serious than many of Harlott’s contemporaries. Either way, it is hard to imagine any fans of thrash not enjoying this record.

Be sure to check out and like Harlott on Facebook!

Highlights

"Origin"

"Ballistic"

"Export Life"

"Heirophobia"

Final Rating

4.6/5 or 92%. 

Written by Scott