Metal Hammer (UK)

Resurrecti­ons

Unearthing the latest metal reissues

- DOM LAWSON

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.

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