domingo, 30 de mayo de 2021

Bolt Thrower - Mercenary (1998) Reissue [2014]


Plans for a follow-up to Those Once Loyal were scrapped in June 2008 after the band were dissatisfied with the material they had written. In a statement, they said that they would not release any album unless they were convinced it was at least on par with its predecessor, and as result any plans to record were "postponed indefinitely."

Despite this, they continued to play selected tours and one-off shows until the unexpected death of drummer Martin Kearns in 2015, after which the band was put on hiatus. On September 14th, 2016, the first anniversary of Kearns' death, the surviving members of Bolt Thrower announced on their official website that the band is no more.

The band took its name from a weapon in the popular tabletop strategy game Warhammer Fantasy Battles. The lyrics and artwork of their second and third albums were based on Warhammer Fantasy Battles, as well as its futuristic companion Warhammer 40,000 with much of the art actually being provided by the game's publisher, Games Workshop.

Jo Bench is generally considered to be among the earliest female members of an extreme metal band.

Mercenary is the sixth album by the British death metal band Bolt Thrower. It was recorded at Chapel Studios, Lincoln, England, December 1997 to January 1998. The album was produced by Bolt Thrower and Ewan Davis. It was released on Metal Blade Records in 1998.

The cover painting is titled "Contact - Wait Out", which is also the first track on the next album, Honour - Valour - Pride.

"Powder Burns" is a continuation of the song "Embers" from The IVth Crusade, and leads into "The Killchain" on Those Once Loyal.

 



-Tracklist:

Side A
1. Zeroed     05:45
2. Laid to Waste     04:40
3. Return from Chaos     05:04
4. Mercenary     05:53



Side B
5. To the Last...     05:25
6. Powder Burns     04:45
7. Behind Enemy Lines     05:18
8. No Guts, No Glory     04:07
9. Sixth Chapter     05:42


46:39


-Line up:

Jo Bench : Bass
Karl Willetts : Vocals
Baz Thomson : Guitars (lead, rhythm)
Alex Thomas : Drums
Gavin Ward : Guitars (rhythm).




Recorded and mixed at Chapel Studios (Lincoln, England), December. 1997 - January 1998.
Produced by Bolt Thrower.

Limited to 500 copies worldwide on black vinyl - it comes with a poster (reproducing the album's cover) *[this poster is wrong] and a sticker reporting:
"COLLECTOR'S EDITION
180 gram
black vinyl
+ giant poster
Vinyl Re-issue"

Printed lyrics on the inner sleeve.

 

 






sábado, 22 de mayo de 2021

Enoid - My Hate For This World (2008)

 

 Formed in 1996 as Pest, then changed into Organ Trails. In 2005, the band became Enoid.

 


 

 -Tracklist:

 1. Dernière pensée     06:09
2. Souffrances     03:51
3. Vivir Aqui     04:22
4. Infernal     02:03
5. The Darkening of My Soul     04:33
6. My Hate for This World     05:11


26:09

 

-Line up:

Bornyhake : Drums, Guitars, Vocals.

 



 Label: Wulfrune Worxxx.

 

 








 


martes, 18 de mayo de 2021

Sepultura - Chaos A.D. (1993)

 

 Chaos A.D. is the fifth studio album by Brazilian Thrash Metal band Sepultura, released on October 19, 1993 by Roadrunner Records. The production was in charge of Andy Wallace and was recorded at Rockfield studios, United Kingdom. Although the album is considered thrash metal, it saw a stylistic departure from the band's earlier style, by incorporating a new groove metal sound. The sound of this album, in contrast to the band's previous works, is darker and heavier, although critics consider that Chaos A.D. it is one of the most important and influential records of all time. This sudden change in style caused a division of opinions among the followers of the band, while some thought that with their new sound they had sold out, others praised the new proposal. 

Chaos A.D. is also Sepultura's only album on Epic Records, who handled its release for North American distribution, as well as the first album to feature Paulo Jr. on bass after having played with the band in a live capacity for several years.

 The song "Kaiowas" is an ethnic acoustic theme was recorded live, amid the ruins of the medieval Chepstow Castle and that became quite a spectacle in live performances, incorporating huge sections of percussion and inviting other bands to play the song together. Jello Biafra, vocalist of Dead Kennedys collaborated on "Biotech Is Godzilla," while Biohazard's Evan Seinfield made an appearance on "Slave New World." In addition, the song "The Hunt" is a covered song by the British group New Model Army. For its part, "Manifest" talks about the Carandiru massacre, a riot in the Carandiru prison in São Paulo, Brazil, in which 111 prisoners died.

Gloria Cavalera, Max's wife, was the manager of the group and was in charge of all the planning, the release process and various matters related to the promotion. The recording studio, in addition to having a reception and control room also it was equipped with pool tables and other features, including a piano used by the Queen band for the single "Bohemian Rhapsody" from the album A Night at the Opera.

 The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), having sold more than 500,000 units in the United States. United and reached position 32 on the Billboard 200 chart.

 

 

 
RR 9000-2
 
 
-Tracklist:
 
01. Refuse/Resist     03:19
02. Territory     04:47
03. Slave New World     02:54
04. Amen     04:27
05. Kaiowas     03:43       instrumental
06. Propaganda     03:32
07. Biotech Is Godzilla     01:52
08. Nomad     04:58
09. We Who Are Not as Others     03:42
10. Manifest     04:46
11. The Hunt (New Model Army cover)     03:59
12. Clenched Fist     04:57
 
46:56
 

-Line up:

Paulo Jr. : Bass, Floor tom
Andreas Kisser : Guitars (lead, 12-string acoustic), Viola caipira, Lyrics (tracks 2, 8)
Igor Cavalera : Drums, Percussion
Max Cavalera : Vocals, Guitars (rhythm, acoustic), Lyrics (tracks 1, 3-6, 9, 10, 12)


 





Label: Roadrunner Records.

 Recorded at Rockfield Studios, S. Wales, England.
"Kaiowas" recorded at Chepstow Castle, S. Wales, England.
Mixed at The Wool Hall Recording Studios, Bath, England.
Mastered at Sterling Sound, New York, NY. 

Cover illustration by Michael R. Whelan.

Track 12 contains "Clenched Fist" (0:00-4:57), silence (4:58-5:59), laughter & screams (6:00-8:00)

 

 



 


 





 

sábado, 15 de mayo de 2021

Endstille - Verführer (2009)

 

 Endstille was founded in 2000 by L. Wachtfels (guitar), Mayhemic Destructor (drums), Iblis (voice) and Cruor (bass). L. Wachtfels and Mayhemic Destructor have previously performed with the band Tauthr, Iblis and Cruor in Octoria. The CD version of the album Navigator (2005) was initially released in an edition of 3000 copies, which even before its official publication, the first edition of August, was sold out, because Crepusculo Records had sent the CD in advance, and in some Germany stores. In August, more than 2000 copies were released. Since the band with the sales of their albums abroad was not happy, they closed a deal with Regain Records. 

 In spring 2006, Endstille embarked on a highly successful European tour headlined by Dark Funeral and Naglfar, and supported by Finnish death metal band Amoral.

 In 2009, founding member Iblis was forced to leave Endstille; Zingultus (Nagelfar, Graupel, Graven...) replaced him.

 Endstille dissociates itself from right-wing political beliefs, stating that black metal "is in its principle unpolitical."

 

 

 -Tracklist:

1. ...of Disorder     03:48
2. Hate Me... God?     06:11
3. Depressive/Abstract/Banished/Despised     04:17
4. Ursprung     07:14
5. Monotonusⁿ     04:46
6. Symptoms     06:31
7. Suffer in Silence     04:30
8. Dead     04:32
9. Endstille (Verführer)     04:58

46:47 

 

-Line up:

 • Iblis : Vocals
 • Lars Wachtfels : Guitars (lead)
 • Mayhemic Destructor : Drums
 • Cruor : Bass.

 



 Label: Regain Records.

 The cover shows the German emperor Wilhelm II. in his working clothes. There is also an alternative cover.

Recorded, mixed and mastered at JAKs Hell in January - March 2009.

 

 




miércoles, 12 de mayo de 2021

Balmog + Maniac -l- 2016.02.27 A Tiradoura, Cangas do Morrazo (Esp)







Balmog was founded in 2003 in Soutomaior (Pontevedra, Galicia) with the idea of creating a decrepit, misanthropic and raw Black Metal project with Death as a banner very much in the style of the old Nordic bands of the early / mid 90's.

 






 

 






Thrash/Speed Metal from Madrid formed in 2011.

Split up briefly in 2018, but got reactivated as a solo project by Eduardo later that year.







  

 

 


sábado, 8 de mayo de 2021

Venom - At War With Satan (1984) CASS [1986]


At War with Satan is their third album released in April 1984. It is a concept album that tells the story of a war between Heaven and Hell which the latter side wins. It was touted as Venom's crossover into mainstream music, but failed to do so. Shortly after it went on sale, the HMV record chain withdrew the album from its shelves because of its anti-Christian content.

The inspiration for writing a track filling out an entire side of the record, according to Venom's bass guitarist and vocalist Cronos, came from Rush's 2112 album. "At War with Satan" is centred on a character named Abaddon (which is also the alias of Tony Bray, Venom's drummer), who is the guardian to the gates of Hell. Cronos started writing, in his school days, a story about "how Hell revolts and takes over the heavens and throws God into Hell", a story later fleshed out as "At War with Satan". The title track's imagery and storyline largely evokes the Book of Revelation and John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (1667–1674), filtered through a postmodern horror movie and pulp aesthetic.

With side A taken by the epic title track, side B offers the "three-minute scorchers" for which the band is best known. The metal journalist Malcolm Dome said that songs such as "Cry Wolf" showed how much Venom had matured in their songwriting without losing their edge. According to the AllMusic reviewer Eduardo Rivadavia, the album's last track, "Aaaaaarrghh", is "possibly the funniest song ever recorded".

At War with Satan's packaging resembled the leatherbound sleeve of a bookcover. A hundred-page The Book of Armageddon with the entire story of At War with Satan was supposed to be published alongside the album, but it never happened. The Swiss independent distributor Disctrade tried to interest Venom in H. R. Giger's painting Satan I (1977) to no avail. It later became the cover art of Celtic Frost's second album, To Mega Therion (1985).

By the time At War with Satan went on sale, Venom had reached a crossroads in their career. Critics felt that their third album should have propelled them into the heavy metal mainstream, something which failed to materialize. Venom were also being threatened by thrash metal upstarts such as Metallica, who two months before At War with Satan's release were the opening act for Venom's Seven Dates of Hell tour (Roughly a year later Venom also took Slayer and Exodus on their North American Combat Tour). This was Metallica's first European tour, which included concerts in Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium and the Aardschok Festival in the Netherlands.

The record was well received by major music magazines. "Proof positive that Venom are the best heavy metal band in the world", said Melody Maker's Neil Jeffries of the album. "It will definitely go down in Heavy Metal history as the ultimate headbang," claimed a Sounds reviewer of the title track. At War with Satan's entry on the "Where to Start with" section of the Kerrang! site says that this was the "last truly great record the Geordie three would make". Some criticism, though, was directed toward the album's production values, viewed as subpar.

The title track's merits divided critics. In the opinion of About.com's Chad Bowar, "At War with Satan" is at the same time "highly ambitious" and "bloated", but the song was "so over-the-top and so dramatic that it somehow worked" and made the album "an overlooked metal gem". The Allmusic review's tone was harsher: this concept piece was an "ill-advised anomaly", much of it "decidedly crap".

The rise of metal's popularity in the 1980s was paralleled by the political power gained by conservative organisations such as the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). The Christian campaign against the "offensive" content of rock music carried out by certain political groups in America eventually crossed over to the United Kingdom. Venom became one of its early victims: HMV stopped selling At War with Satan in fear of legal action because of Britain's obscenity laws. The PMRC later included the title track of 
Venom's following album Possessed in their "Filthy Fifteen" list.

 


 -Tracklist:

A1. At War With Satan
B1. Rip Ride
B2. Genocide
B3. Cry Wolf
B4. Stand Up And Be Counted
B5. Women Leather And Hell
B6. Aaaaaarrghh!

 

 -Line up:

Cronos : Vocals, Bass
Mantas : Guitars
Abaddon : Drums.

 


 

 Label: PDI – 50.1034, Victoria Ediciones Musicales, S.A. – VMC-181

 Recorded at Impulse Studios, UK.
Mastered at Utopia Studios, London, UK.
Production & cover design by Venom.