#NowPlaying #TheMetalDogIsNowPlaying
#Death
The Sound of Perseverance - Reissue
Spirit Crusher

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#Death #ChuckSchuldener #TomHunting #DeathMetal #Metal90s #AmericanDeathMetal #BostonMetal #ThrashMetal #BPMetal #NWOBHM

Barbarous – Initium Mors Review

By Angry Metal Guy

By: Nameless_n00b_603

Death metal boasts a lush buffet of subgenres. From mind-flaying technicality to chilling dissonance to wanton mirth, there’s something for everyone. Unmoved by how much the genre has evolved, some folks just want the straightforward, grass-fed variety that defined American death metal in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. And what bloodsport that was—Cannibal Corpse hammer-smashed listeners to paste, Deicide seared anti-religious sentiment into their collective hide, and Morbid Angel infected them with tainted melody. Barbarous slides comfortably into the fray, wielding debut Initium Mors, but does it pack enough punch to survive the melee?1

Inspiration plays an immediate role in Barbarous’s sound. Though they hail from Oakland, California, it’s the Tampa Bay scene that casts the longest shadow. Cannibal Corpse’s influence is undeniable, providing the blueprint for punishing grooves and six-string savagery (“The Tomb Spawn,” “Conscious Decomposition”). Vocalist Travis LaBerge retches and roars somewhere between Deicide’s Glen Benton and Hate Eternal’s Eric Rutan,2 while the music also harkens to early Deicide at times (compare “By Lead or Steel” with “Serpents of the Light”). There are additional influences, too, including Necrot and Skeletal Remains, two bands heavily influenced by Death and Morbid Angel, proving all roads lead to Tampa.3 This isn’t to say that Barbarous doesn’t flex their own brand of muscular death metal. The title track does a fabulous job of baking Slaughter of the Soul-esque melody into the chorus while staying true to the Floridian Sound Machine’s jackhammering boogie.4 I see flashes of a distinct identity in Initium Mors, but more refinement would serve Barbarous to forge their own path out from the shadows of giants.

Throughout Initium Mors, Barbarous pounds and pummels with neck-snapping fury and brawny chugs. Any track would effortlessly slot into a respectable workout playlist, with “By Lead or Steel” and “Tools of the Trade” being my choice cuts. Opener “Injection of the Exhumed” storms out the gates with a phlegm-rattling gut punch buoyed by aggressive riffing and blast beats, followed by a Slayer-laced wail. And that’s just the first twenty seconds. Hostile grooves and pulverizing paces drive the momentum across Initium Mors’s fleeting runtime, never surrendering a moment to catch your breath. Barbarous’s unflinching imperative is to carve listeners to the root, evidenced by the album’s razor-sharp guitar-playing (“Tools of the Trade,” “Conscious Decomposition”) courtesy of Zach Weed and Thomas Belfiore. Solos set fire to tracks when they kick in, whether it’s via soulful swagger (“By Lead or Steel”) or finger-blistering fury (“Coup de Grace”). Either way, they’re unfailingly fun. Travis Zupo’s dynamic drumming bludgeons with teeth-rattling thunder (“Conscious Decomposition”) while LaBerge stays the course with calculated, vomitous barks. The only underseasoned component is Zach Jakes’s bass guitar, which is a commentary on audibility rather than skill. Listening for bass in Initium Mors reminds me of Tantalus—the more I crank the volume to hear what that sweet bottom end is doing, the murkier the wall of sound becomes.5 Considering the meaty through-line that bass provides in many a death metal casserole, elevating its heft would push Barbarous’s recipe to gloriously heinous heights.

Production and mastering are a mixed bag, presenting opportunities and highlights. The album is LOUD, and while that’s generally how I like to listen to death metal, a more spacious mix would have improved the overarching balance. For an album brimming with balls-out belligerence, such an oppressive production creates an exhausting listen despite the twenty-nine-minute runtime. Still, there’s plenty to praise. Guitars and drums are front and center, so it’s easy to appreciate their intricacies and chops. LaBerge’s vocals are also conspicuously comprehensible,6 which is refreshing for extreme gutturals. While I initially noted his gurgles as monotonous, over repeated listens, I’ve come to appreciate LaBerge’s nimble work as he juggles spewing growls and coherence.

Initium Mors is a triumphant debut and should appease death metal aficionados without qualification. Barbarous is loud, ugly, and here to melt your face in just under half an hour. There’s a lot to like on Initium Mors, even if it’s not breaking any molds. If Barbarous can give the mix a bit more room and firmly establish an identity that transcends their influences, their next release could be an absolute banger. For now, Initium Mors is a solid addition to the annals of meat ‘n’ taters death metal, leaving Barbarous to unapologetically smash skulls and shatter eardrums while delivering a veritable smörgåsbord of protein and spuds.7 Bon appétit!

Rating: Good!
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s CBR MP3
Label: Creator-Destructor Records
Website: barbarousband.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: August 1st, 2025

#2025 #30 #AmericanDeathMetal #AtTheGates #Aug25 #Barbarous #CannibalCorpse #Death #Deicide #FloridaDeathMetal #HateEternal #InitiumMors #MorbidAngel #Necrot #Review #Reviews #SkeletalRemains #SlaughterOfTheSoul

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#BraveWords–WhereMusicLives
DECEASED Announce Double-Disc Set, March Of The Cadavers, Coming In August

https://bravewords.com/news/deceased-announce-double-disc-set-march-of-the-cadavers-coming-in-august/

#Deceased #MarchOfTheCadavers #40YearsOfDeathMetal #HellsHeadbangers #DeathMetal #August29 #DoubleCDRelease #AmericanDeathMetal #DeathMetalFromTheGrave #MetalAnniversary

Inhuman Condition – Mind Trap Review

By Tyme

Inhuman Condition has been repping 90s-era Floridian death metal since 2020. Comprised of former Massacre members Jeramie Kling, Taylor Nordberg, and Terry Butler, Inhuman Condition‘s debut, Rat°God, was the best thing Massacre never recorded post From Beyond, garnering a 3.5 from our overlord and hater of over raters, Steel. Presumably rushed was 2022’s sophomore effort, Fearsick, which saw Inhuman Condition take a step backward despite sporting additional guitar appearances from Rick Rozz himself. With a freshly gory, revamped logo by Mark Riddick adorning yet another beautiful cover by Dan Goldsworthy,1 Inhuman Condition returns with its third offering, Mind Trap. Will this outing see Inhuman Condition walk a path of redemption and assume its own identity, or will it stumble again and continue suffering Massacre‘s curse of ever-diminishing relevance?

Eschewing technicality and bouts of blistering speed, Inhuman Condition remain flagbearers of groovily mid-paced, thrashy death metal. Having simmered for a few years, however, Mind Trap feels fully cooked, more akin to Rat°God than Fearsick as Inhuman Condition further distance themselves from overt Massacre clone-ialism. Suffused with a renewed sense of immediacy, Nordberg’s re-energized guitar work features plenty of Rozz dives into the whammy pool (“Severely Lifeless,” “GodShip”), as well as serpentine solos and a multitude of chuggy-chunk riffs (“Chaos Engine,” “Obscurer”). His Royal Bassist, Terry Butler, continues to lay down a fat-bottomed low end that adds weight to Nordberg’s muscular machinations and hangs meatily on the hooks of Kling’s pounderous drumming, whose vocals, too, hit that brutal yet discernible sweet spot. For Inhuman Condition, simple is as simple does, and though Mind Trap adheres smashingly to the groovy, cavemanic formula perpetuated by the likes of Six Feet Under and Jungle Rot, it’s got the legs to outrun the pack.

Mind Trap‘s thirty-one-minute runtime whisks you along faster than an In-N-Out Burger drive-thru and is full of bite-size death metal bits, most of them sirloin, but some filet mignon. One such morsel, lyrically penned by Cannibal Corpse‘s Paul Mazurkiewicz,2 and an album highlight, “Face for Later” is a viscerally speedy and satisfying death metal romp with up-tempo riffs, crazed solo work, and a chorus that will earworm its way in and haunt your corrupted brain. Also of note are the grower, not show-er riffs and quirky tempos of “The Betterment Plan,” which improved for me with repeated listens, and the mildly atmospheric “Recollections of the Future,” sporting a “King Con”-ic intro and guest vocals from Jonas Kjellgren (Carnal Forge, Scar Symmetry). Intact since inception, this stalwart lineup has defied its Massacred beginnings through sustained continuity. Mind Trap reflects an Inhuman Condition stepping further into their own, and more importantly, back in a positive direction.

Inhuman Condition once again took up arms and recorded at Smoke & Mirrors Productions, with Kling’s mix and Nordberg’s master suffusing Mind Trap in a rich warmth that gives every meaty riff, beefy bass line, and brawny beat the space needed to thrive. Yet, even excellent production cannot overcome limp songwriting, and not all the tracks on Mind Trap stand out. With its doomy, Sabbathian trilled intro and straightforwardly speedy and boring midsection, “Mind | Tool | Weapon” did nothing to rouse my fist to pump or my head to bob. Then, the awkward riffs and sloppy guitar runs of “Science of Discontent” came across as amateurish and were not only a poor way to conclude the album but also an example of the material’s inferiority.

Unlike Gruesome, who are happy to release quality albums that mimic their influences, Inhuman Condition continues to stitch a unique niche in the tapestry of OSDM and, in doing so, leave their Massacre ties further behind. Mind Trap is a fun, not too serious, attention-deficit-friendly death metal album that further exemplifies Inhuman Conditions growing coalescence. Among this trio’s other projects, of which Obituary (Butler), Deicide (Nordberg), and Goregäng (Nordberg and Kling) are just a few, it seems these guys genuinely enjoy playing together as Inhuman Condition. Mind Trap‘s got plenty to sink your teeth into, and I’m sure songs like “Face for Later” and “Obscurer” will go over well in a live setting. I was glad to hear Inhuman Condition returned to form here, and I would recommend you give Mind Trap a few spins this summer yourself.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 11 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: High Roller Records (Europe)
Websites: Bandcamp | InhumanCondition.com | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: June 27th, 2025

#2025 #30 #AmericanDeathMetal #DeathMetal #HighRollerRecords #InhumanCondition #Jun25 #JungleRot #Massacre #MindTrap #Review #SixFeetUnder

Blood Monolith – The Calling of Fire Review

By Tyme

Shortly after exiting Vastum in 2023, Shelby Lermo (Nails, Ulthar) moved cross country to Northern Virginia and enlisted the talents of guitarist Tommy Wall (Undeath) to partner in writing music for a new project, the goal being to ‘create something even uglier, weirder, and more aggressive’ than Vastum. To that end, Lermo also recruited Genocide Pact bassist Nolan and Brain Tourniquet drummer Aidan Tydings-Lynch to round out the lineup for his new-kids-on-the-death-metal-block band Blood Monolith and its Profound Lore Records debut, The Calling of Fire. Birthed of such heady death metal ancestry as they are, I didn’t figure talent would be an issue. Still, I was curious about how Blood Monolith planned to separate itself from the great works of its members’ main gigs and to stand out in a genre full of dense competition. Complete with very cool cover art courtesy of Rudimentary Peni‘s1 Nick Blinko, we’ll see if The Calling of Fire‘s death metal is a towering inferno or a fizzling flame.

Speedy and straightforward, The Calling of Fire relies more on velocitous brute force than dissonant atmospherics to make its point, which is one more weighty than weird. “Trepanation Worm” kicks the door down right from the start with a battery of blast beats, an arsenal of rapid-fire riffs and trilly runs, and Lermo’s menacing death roars holding sway over it all. What that opener brings to bear is precisely what you can expect from the rest of Blood Monolith‘s debut. Comparatively speaking, there are vigorous nods to the past ala Cannibal Corpse (“The Owl In Daylight,” “Slaughter Garden”) alongside odes that recognize a newer generation and give me Hyperdontial vibes (“Pyroklesis”). Laid against the success of this assembly’s day jobs, Lermo’s quest to unite his death metal Avengers and outdo Vastum may have found the man going too hard, as once The Calling of Fire settles into what it does, there’s little else on the plate.

If one were to look up the definition of onslaught in some comparative death metal dictionary, a picture of Blood Monolith‘s The Calling of Fire may very well be pictured. In just under twenty-eight minutes, Blood Monolith invades your house, bashes your brains in with a cudgel, eats the desserts from the fridge, then kicks the dog and retreats before the cops can show up. Nearly void of desert oases, thirst-weary listeners can take respite in the occasional obscure film sound-bite and the two-punch combo “Apparatus” and “Cleansing.” The former’s intro—twenty-two seconds long—teems with a get-to-sleep-fast-app ambiance, while the latter’s outro—all forty-two seconds of it—repeats that synth-driven sleep-fast theme with low-volume guitar squeals and some static thrown in for diversity. Outside of these short-lived moments are riffs upon riffs upon solos upon blast beats upon guttural growls such that the whole begins to melt into a homogenous haze.

Blood Monolith‘s spotlight shines brightest on Tidings-Lynch’s excellent drumming and Lermo’s ghastly growls, who also spits a bevy of phlegmy hawks-sans-the-tuahs across The Calling of Fire for fun. While this might sound like a strength, it’s a flaw, and The Calling of Fire‘s loud mix is to blame. It is problematic because compression sucks a lot of the life from Lermo’s and Wall’s—what I believe to be intricate and technical—guitar work and renders nearly all of Nathan’s low-end contributions unnoticeable. There are moments of guitar goodness, whether it be the Kerry King-like soloing in ” Prayer to Crom” or the brief mid-paced passages of “Viscera Vobiscum,” that I swear, grab a cadence and some guitar lines from Bloodbath‘s “Soul Evisceration.” But even these moments aren’t enough to pull the overall effect out of the muck.

Lermo’s attempt to be uglier, weirder, and more aggressive than Vastum succeeds on aggression but little else. At first blush, The Calling of Fire feels like an in-your-face, full-on, balls-out death metal crusher; however, pushing play the fourth, fifth, and sixth time found me blurring everything together. There’s promise here, don’t get me wrong, and while I may be chastised for underrating Blood Monolith‘s debut, I stand behind my score. While it’s not entirely unworthy of your time, it’s also not landing on your year-end list, and certainly not mine. We’ll have to wait and see how hot the fire of Blood Monolith‘s next adventure burns.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: Profound Lore Records
Website: Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: May 16th, 2025

#25 #2025 #AmericanDeathMetal #BloodMonolith #CannibalCorpse #DeathMetal #Hyperdontia #May25 #ProfoundLoreRecords #Review #Reviews #TheCallingOfFire

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#Deicide
In the Minds of Evil
In the Minds of Evil

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#7albumsToKnowMe huh?

Here ya go (orderless):
1. Speakerbox/ The Love Below - Outkast #hiphop #rhythmandblues
2. Doomsday Machine - Arch Enemy #swedishdeathmetal
3. The Black Album - Jay Z #hiphop
4. Confessions - Usher #rhythmandblues
5. The Dethalbum - Dethklok #funny #americandeathmetal
6. Tales from the Thousand Lakes - Amorphis #doommetal
7. In Search of Truth - Evergrey #xfiles #powermetal

Cheers!