Resurrections
Unearthing the latest metal reissues
This month offers an embarrassment of metallic riches for reissue fans. ICED EARTH ’s legendary Enter The Realm (Century Media) [7] demo from 1989 has been dusted off, lovingly remastered and plonked onto vinyl for the first time. When it comes to balls-out and timeless American metal, the likes of Colors and epic anthem Iced Earth were a jolting shot-in-the-arm 30 years ago and nothing much has changed.
With members of Akercocke, Fen and To-Mera in their ranks, SKALDIC CURSE were never likely to lack imagination. The British miscreants’ third album, Devourer (Apocalyptic Witchcraft) [8], is finally getting a full release, six years after it first slithered across the online ether, and it’s a jaw-dropping and wonderfully wild trip through all manner of perverse and progressive black metal landscapes.
OR IGIN mainman Paul Ryan has painstakingly re-recorded his earliest death metal efforts for Abiogenesis – A Coming Into Existence (Agonia) [7], playing everything himself, the clever sod. Twenty-nine minutes of face-ripping extremity, it lacks the turbohairdryer effect of more recent Origin records, but you can hear immense potential of Ryan’s nascent insanity loud and clear. INCANTAT ION ’s Upon The Throne Of Apocalypse (Relapse) [8] has lost none of its grotesque power; songs like Nocturnal Dominium decimated the competition back in ’95, and John McEntee’s crew still make most death metal bands sound half-arsed. If you like your brutality warped, grubby and deeply fucked up, this welcome re-release is essential listening. Although not quite as devastating as last year’s Carnage, Swedish death-yobs LIK’s debut, Mass Funeral Evocation (Metal Blade) [7] is more than worthy of a second glance; with HM-2 pedals on full and hooks wielded like chainsaws, heads-down ragers like Skin Necrosis and Death Orgasmic are old-school in spirit but powered by a very modern sense of precision. And if you’re exhausted after all that blasting and devilry, FROM THE BO GS OF AUGHISKA’s self-titled debut (Apocalyptic Witchcraft) [7] is re-emerging, sounding very much like a soundtrack to mankind’s now seemingly inevitable descent into Hell. Harrowing more than ambient, it’s no kind of blissful comedown but you’ll succumb nonetheless.