Encephalopathy - Promo EP 2011 [EP] (2011, Self-released)

It seems like everybody and their grandmothers play in a slam band these days. Obviously this leads to a very large quantity of immensely mediocre bands, but every so often you stumble upon a shining gem... Encephalopathy is one such gem. Their tendency towards devastatingly heavy and crushing slam riffs combined with the inhuman pus-dripping vocal efforts of band frontman Matze makes for some effin' great slamming brutal death metal.

With chugs-a-plenty Encephalopathy is like an unstoppable train of low- and mid-tempoed brutal death metal. But as with any train it's just railroaded in one direction. The German three-man abomination against nature has very little variety on their three track demo, and while the few gore-soaked tracks are like little bits of chocolaty goodness they've limited themselves to a small niche of death metal by doing little more than the mandatory in regards of guitars, drumming and vocals.

It's not fair to say that they're completely unvaried. They don't fall in every stereotypical pit of slam, like ultra-slow breakdowns with below guttural growls, and every so often they sneak in a little blast beat or two. When listening to this demo EP you won't get bored and while Encephalopathy never reach lightspeed their sense of flow is remarkably good. Their compositions are truly a worthwhile listen. Only thing is that with the lack of speed also comes a certain lack of intensity which means most of their material sort of lacks a climax.
The lack of variety means I can only give them 7/10 guitars, but I will definitely be on the lookout for new material.

Tracklist:
1. Fetus Throatfuck
2. Cut Her Lips Off
3. The Sad Story About a Rotten Head in my Fridge

ENCEPHALOPATHY official site
Download and listen for yourself right HERE

Sapanakith - Promo [Demo] (2011, Self-released)

To most outsiders all brutal death metal bands sound completely alike. Even to seasoned fans of the genre it can be difficult to distinguish between the hordes of bands. Some differentiate themselves by having a certain style, and especially the South American scene has a certain sound to it that makes it fairly easy to recognize.

Sapanakith, a brutal three-man death band, hail from Laos in Asia. While they don't stand much out from the crowd they do what they do well. Their style is pretty close to many of the South Asian bands of the genre, which ultimately borrow many of their characteristics from the South American scene. To describe Sapanakith's sound I'll have to say they went for the all-in-one bargain which apparently contains pig squeels, saucepan snares, chuggy riffs and blast beats. While this is mostly tantamount to boredom the Laos trio have somehow managed to find just the right amount of each so that it doesn't become boring. Then again with just two tracks and a cover song on the demo it doesn't leave much room for experimentation or... Well anything really.

I've noticed a tendency among brutal death metal bands of releasing very short demos. I understand new bands want their material spread around as fast as possible, but honestly, how about putting just a little more work into it and making 4 or 5 songs? Since brutal death metal by nature is kinda brief a 2 or 3 song demo is almost over before it even began and the same goes for Sapanakith's 2011 demo. Just when you're getting into it and feeling the vibe it's over. You kinda get the feeling that Sapanakith don't really get to prove themselves. Another problem with short demos is that it doesn't really leave much to talk about...

As mentioned earlier the band play straight up brutal death metal with a few slamming parts once in a while. They're nothing special, but they play the genre better than many other bands. One thing: Their sound is great. Everything is perfectly balanced and completely audible, and that's a huge plus considering the amount of bands with a muddy, unintelligible sound. 7/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Demerit Sanction
2. Immoral Corrupted Tyrants
3. Womb Full of Scabs (Disgorge Cover)

SAPANAKITH official site
Download the demo and listen for yourself HERE

Dissolution - Plague of Violence [Full length] (2010, Self-released)

Mostly a release has to grab my attention immediately for me to stay interested. First impressions are always immensely important.
The first 5 seconds of Thrash Hammer, the first song, I was afraid Dissolution's Plague of Violence wouldn't be as evil as it looked. Immediately thereafter my face was destroyed by an explosion of thrashing riffs and completely inhuman vocals.
Other than the obvious early thrash influences Dissolution's style features some minor death and black metal tendencies. One might even say they're much like Morbid Saint or early Kreator, though their particular style isn't quite as chaotic as Kreator's earlier albums.
Often you see unknown bands having maybe only one or two selling points, such as awesome riffs but shitty everything else, but the horrendous torrents of filth-laden vocals lain by singer and bassist Brett McKersey goes great with the well-defined thrash riffing and 80's soloing of the band's two guitarists Courtney Marr and Jake Skinner aswell as drummer Mike Tobin's flood of D- and blastbeats.

Let's get one thing straight: Dissolution's first album is completely straight forward fist-to-the-face-in-a-mosh-pit thrash metal. Like a muscle car overtaking on the inside they speed their way through the rush hour of mediocrity with their blistering solos and mostly fast-paced thrash fucking metal. I could've gone without the boring acoustic piece "Evil Belle", but I will admit that it does make the insane speed and ferocity of the next song "Necrowitch" even more ripping. The New Zealandean four-man monster will tear you a new one with an unrelenting sense of pace. This review is a bit shorter than what I usually do, but when there's little to complain about it just gets that way... 9/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Thrash Hammer
2. Two Fires
3. Plague of Violence
4. Winters Dawn
5. Evil Belle
6. Necrowitch
7. Vermin Song
8. Bi Polar
9. The Purging

DISSOLUTION official facebook
Download the album "Plague of Violence" for free and experience for yourself HERE

Rise of Malice - Coronation of Liar / Rise of Malice [Demo] (2010 / 2012, Self-released / War Productions)

To me it's always interesting to see and hear the way a band progresses and evolves between releases. Some bands develop a completely new style between albums while some stay with what they know.

The Greek black metal act Rise of Malice, originally created by Satwe, Norlander and Storfeth in 2009, are now two demos into their career of blasting black metal. 2010's demo "Coronation of Liar" features 4 original songs aswell as a Darkthrone cover; The 4 tracks are a manifestation of 90's black metal worship, sounding very akin to Norwegian legends like Darkthrone, Gorgoroth and at times even Immortal. Vocals, drums and guitars all come together in a greater unity to nourish the incredibly cold atmosphere that many bands of the genre have come to embrace. The vocals are a classic display of the trademark distorted raw screams, and the guitars present wholesome tremolo-ridden riffs that are mostly very catchy aswell as giving the impression that the music is not something that the band just does as a hobby.
Rise of Malice's first demo is an overall magnificent interpretation of the classic black metal bands, and while they aren't trying to hide who they're taking inspiration from they still manage to give their own personal touch.

Narrowly avoiding the stereotypical lyrics about satan it seems Rise of Malice have gone for more interesting and esoterical themes, which is more commonly seen with depressive and often non-Scandinavian black metal bands. I've found that this tendency to abandon the now-cliché topics of satanism and anti-christianity in black metal is on the rise in more reasent years.

When Silent Echoes, the first track of the second demo, 2012's Rise of Malice, toned in on my speakers I thought for a moment that the Greek band had taken a turn toward depressive black metal like Xasthur, Wedard or Nortt. But as soon as the intro track faded into the second track, the mystically magnificent "Forest of Mist", those ideas were blasted to hell by a torrent of guitars, drums and vocals.
What hit me first thing was the more progressive riffs. With their self-titled demo Rise of Malice have developed a more destinct riff-sound aswell as moved into turf more unorthodox. The progression from Coronation of Liar to Rise of Malice, while subtle, is noticable. Their newfound more untraditional niche of black metal has also brought a rawer sound with it.
I was surprised to find that their sound has changed from their old material to the new. I already mentioned the rawer sound, but the general balance between instruments isn't quite the same anymore. The drums sound like they've been downplayed a little, though certain fills are marginally louder than the rest. The vocals also seem to have been altered and made less distorted.
The second demo offers 4 new tracks written by Rise of Malice and another cover, this time of Immortal's Withstand the Fall of Time. The 4 new tracks, while much the same as the 4 on Coronation of Liar, still show a certain amount of musical evolution within the band. It sounds more like the band has found their own sound on the self-titled demo.

Over all I guess you could say that the first demo is more catchy and easy to approach while the second is a tad bit more esoterical. If you are one of those people who think black metal can't be about great riffing, then Rise of Malice may very well be the band that changes your mind. 8/10 guitars.

Tracklist (Coronation of Liar):
1. There is no God
2. Voice of Profligate
3. Coronation of Liar
4. Chalice of Blood
5. Unholy Black Metal (Darkthrone Cover)

Tracklist (Rise of Malice):
1. Silent Echoes
2. The Forest of Mist
3. Bones to Dust
4. Bloodshed
5. Withstand the Fall of Time (Immortal Cover)

RISE OF MALICE official site
War Productions official site

Postscrypt - Foreplay to Auralgasm [Promo] (2011, Self-released)

The listener will find Postscrypt lurking in their own dark fantasies in the abandoned tenebrous parts of the mind. In this ungodly place the band experiments with a great variety of elements, ranging from blast-beats, Type O Negative-ish vocals, symphonic instrumentation, throaty screams and clearly gothic parts. However, none of these tendencies are dominant and thus makes it hard to justily classify their particular style.

Each individual effort of the bandmembers are genuinely okay in their own rights, but together I get the feeling that Postscrypt are not sure where they're going musically as a collective. Different impressions make for a spacey sound, and while I don't normally mind I think it's somewhat misplaced in this instance.
The quartet have their moments. I was not completely bored at all times, but I wasn't excited at any time either. I feel that though their flow is solid the band never really reach their climax. It's like they're building up an atmosphere and building expectations only to then let the song "fall into itself" again. I never really came to look forward to the chorus or any particular place in one of the five songs on the promo. The music just kind of... Flows along like a small, quiet river and probably serves better as background music.

All in all I'd say that Foreplay to Auralgasm is an honest although ultimately uninteresting effort, at least to me. Their repetoire seems to be limited to mellow and low-tempoed metal with little going on other than the occassional good riff or interesting (and excentric, to say the least) vocal effort. I'll hand them one thing - Their music made me think of such acts as The Sisters of Mercy, Type O Negative and one particular Katatonia song once in a while, but generally their music just feels like a watered down version of something else. 5/10 guitars.

Note: The picture shown is NOT the actual coverart.

Tracklist:
1. Creme de Carnage
2. Ballerina
3. Apocalypse
4. Rosethorn Propaganda
5. Closing the Black Chapter

POSTSCRYPT official site