Terminate - Thirst for the Obscene [EP] (2012, Self-released)

Formed in 2010, Terminate (a name that weirdly enough isn't already taken) formed with a massive inspiration from the mostly well-respected Swedish death metal scene. I must say that the first thing I thought when I started listening to "Thirst for the Obscene" was that I had been mistaken in their origins, because Terminate sound nothing like your garden variety US death metal band. Instead they sound almost exactly like a Swedish death metal band, complete with Sunlight guitar tone, thrashy riffs, d-beats and rotten solos. Hell, even the logo looks Swedish.

When you mimick a certain sound like that you better make sure you're up for the task and are able to write some gruesome, neckbreaking death metal, and terminate obviously are. Only very rarely do they slow down on this their second release, and when they do it's only to induce massive outbreaks of headbanging with riffs that border on the grisly and macabre. Who needs to rest anyway!

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I wish unknown bands would stop putting a slew of cover songs on their demos and EPs... It takes away focus from their own material, and there's absolutely no reason when your music is as solid as that of Terminate! The American band did a terrific job in making Slaughter's INCINERATOR their own. Though I don't feel the muddy guitar sound quite fits the chuggy riffs of Incinerator, I sorta prefer John Porada's vocals to those of Slaughter's singer Terry Sadler.

What can I say, everything just comes together in a putrid mass of charred remains and death metal, and I for one am not going to complain. Completely solid death metal with a Swedish touch all around. 8/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Thirst for the Obscene
2. Numb
3. Drown in Flames
4. Blind Leading the Blind
5. Incinerator (Slaughter Cover)
6. The Usurper (Celtic Frost Cover)

TERMINATE official site

Extrakt - Stuck in the Trash [Demo] (2012, Self-released)

In 2010 yet another thrash band was created in Sweden. That band was Extrakt, and their brand of blackened thrash metal was first incarnated in March 2012 on their first demo "Stuck in the Trash". The terrific trio created a short, straight to the point thrash demo with nothing more than three ripping tracks, entitled appropriately "Bitch", "Extraktified" and "Stuck in the Trash".

Being a young band, I was told that Extrakt were mostly beginners. But judging from the sound of their first demo "Stuck in the Trash" they're better than some bands consisting of seasoned musicians. Their style bears a certain tinge of early Sodom and Fear of Tomorrow and Terror Squad era Artillery and as such features some of the elements that made early European thrash metal stand out. True, nowadays the world is flooded by second- or third-grade blackened thrash metal with little appeal, but Extrakt's recipe for simple thrash is really effective in creating hugely enjoyable metal which is easy to imagine in a dark and energetic live setting.

Though the first song "Bitch" consists mostly of a repeated chorus, it has a realyl awesome thrashy riff right before a solo that just reeks early 80's thrash metal, and the other two songs "Stuck in the Trash" and "Extraktified" are fully up to par with many other excellent thrash demos. The young band has an excellent ear for riffing and thusly never become tedious or monotonous to listen to. 8/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Bitch
2. Extraktified
3. Stuck in the Trash

EXTRAKT official site

Wacken Open Air 2012 Battle Report

This years Wacken Open Air, the 23rd of its kind, is over and hangovers are upon us. While WOA 2012 is by far the muddiest and most wet festival I have ever had the pleasure of attending, it wasn't all bad.
Many fans feel that the quality of Wacken's line up has been steadily declining for years, but this year's festival featured several great metal acts (mixed in with the horde of talentless german gimick-bands ofcourse) such as Overkill, Testament, Six Feet Under, Kamelot, Saxon, Machinehead and others.

Sadly I was forced to skip Overkill because of a very sudden and beyond extreme rain storm. Suffice it to say, I couldn't have been any more wet if I had jumped in a pool fully clothed. Overkill was one of the bands I had been looking most forward to, and I can't imagine them putting on a bad show.
Kamelot, who played right before Overkill and right before and during the torrent of rain, I witnessed however. Having seen Kamelot fronted by Roy Khan only two years prior I had to see (and HEAR) their new frontman Tommy Karevik in action. I was immensely surprised and pleased by his performance, which indeed was more or less an exact copy of Khan's previous Wacken performance with Kamelot, but vocally Karevik was superior to the efforts of Khan in 2010. Armed with a solid setlist, a well-balanced sound and a stage routine that was pretty much exactly the same as last time Kamelot gave a great performance worth withstanding the weather for.

Another outstanding Wacken performance was that of the stoner metal band Red Fang. I was somewhat worried that their show wouldn't meet my previous expectations as I have friends who saw their show at Roskilde Festival 2012 who described it as not up to par. But as I entered the tent that is the split stage "WET" and "Headbangers" I was blown away by a warm and mighty show. Only two albums into their carreer it leaves little room for a varied setlist, but the songs they played seemed well-picked and were more than appropriate for the crowd's state of mind.

The last positive show I would like to highlight is Testament. Playing on Saturday means that some of the crowd is already hung over and tired from the previous days of partying, but that didn't bother Testament and their completely awesome show didn't leave much room for sitting down and feeling sorry for yourself. The power of Testament simply demands vicious headbanging. Musically it sounded like everyone was in their prime. Especially Chuck Billy's unique singing, which range from old school thrashy vocals to more groovy roaring vocals, was nothing but spot on, which meant they could easily play both the really old stuff and a couple of songs from their brand new album The Dark Roots of Earth.

Some of the less positive experiences, other than the oceans of mud (seriously, I have never ever seen so much mud in one place before), were the cancelling of Electric Wizard's show, who I had looked very much forward to seeing, and the performance of Six Feet Under. As I stood and waited for Electric Wizard at the WET and Headbangers stage, which was at the same time as Six Feet Under's set, we were informed that Electric Wizard was "stuck in traffic" and wouldn't be playing WOA 2012. Even as my disappointment was extreme, I realized I could instead go see Six Feet Under, of which I'm also a fan. When I arrived the show was already in full swing, but their performance was in all aspects really boring and uneventful. Even the setlist was incredibly predictable, and though the new lineup of Six Feet Under is comprised of highly talented musicians, Six Feet Under's music doesn't really leave much room for them to show their musical prowess.

In closing Wacken Open Air 2012 was a wet year, which made it really hard at times to fully enjoy the music and the festival. I know I saw fewer bands than in my previous years due to the mud making it bothersome to get around. The metal market was as always worth a visit or five, and the food was equally alright. I wish for next year that they will bring in more extreme metal bands, as these always seem to be left out, making room for shitty brass-band covers of metal songs, medieval covers of metal songs, german covers of metal songs and other gimicky german bands that none but the germans (who are indeed numerous on the festival for obvious reasons) will enjoy.

Outliar - Provoked to Anger [Full length] (2012, Self-released)

Let's get things straight. Outliar, a four-man band from North Carolina, play groove metal with an emphasis on GROOVE. When the subject falls on groove metal you can't go without the grand old bands of the genre like Pantera, Anthrax, Sepultura, Exhorder and the like. Groove metal, though it didn't really come around until the early 90's, is still massively popular today with bands such as Lamb of God, Machine Head, Soulfly and DevilDriver being some of the most popular bands of the genre, and Outliar takes a little bit from every aspect of the genre.

Groove metal is more or less thrash metal played at a slower pace, making it very listener-friendly and easy to go nuts to, and this American band make it very easy to enjoy their groovy tunes. However it feels like they've listened a bit too much to the classics, meaning that they pretty much follow the trends of modern groove metal. While this has a tendency to make Provoked to Anger a rather predictable album it also means that it's very easy to enjoy listening to because they follow the trends so well. The debut album features all the givens of the genre, which means everything from semi-progressive heavy riffs that pump you up, to almost power ballad-ish tracks like Another Surrender.

Like I mentioned earlier they borrow elements from more or less every well-known band of the genre, but some times one small part shines through; Like in A Loss of Sincerity where the vocals once in a while take on the aspects of Randy Blythe from Lamb of God, especially when vocalist Jason Ford lets out a groaning "You'll have to walk alone". At other times Low-era Testament comes to mind in terms of structure and riffing, but facts are that Outliar do their thing with convincing power. Provoked to Anger will satiate the listeners thirst for both brutal thrash riffs like the one in Faceless Enemy and crushing songwriting like Rod of the Shepherd, while yet leaving room to more melodic pieces. 8/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. The Procession
2. It's Time to Bleed
3. Faceless Enemy
4. Coffin Text
5. Another Surrender
6. A Loss of Sincerity
7. Rod of the Shepherd
8. Dozer
9. Vendetta

OUTLIAR official site

Seeds of Iblis - Jihad Against Islam [EP] (2011, Legion of Death Productions)

The Iraqi (yes, you heard me, IRAQI) black metal band Seeds of Iblis is one of very few bands around the world who dares critisize Islam in their lyrics. Considering how much shit many NSBM bands got, and in the light of the controversy surrounding Taake's lyric about "killing the Mohammedans" and the Muhammad-case from Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper I find it quite remarkable that a band such as Seeds of Iblis are dealing with that very subject in their lyrics.
Black metal has always been about Satan and other personifications of evil, but black metal has almost exclusively dealt with Christianity and only rarely in the case of some NSBM bands have they made an exception and dealt with Judaism or Islam. I guess a band like Seeds of Iblis can get around much of the controversy because they are FROM an Islamic country and was likely raised with it as their religion.

Seeds of Iblis isn't just an anti-Islamic band. Well, actually they are. With highly blasphemic song titles like Inverted Hilal, No Islam and especially Sex with Muhammad's Corpse they really aren't about anything else. But in regards to their music, the quintet offers some incredibly gritty black metal with surprizingly precise drumming. Among the more interesting tracks are In the Name of Iblis, which features near-constant blast beats, drowned-out guitars and most of all a vocal-track that alternates between roaring black metal vocals and what I assume is some sort of muslim prayer. It works surprizingly well in the same manner as depressive and atmospheric black metal with the grim soundscapes and atmospheres.

I would be lying if I said Seeds of Iblis would interest me if it wasn't for their theme. Well, one thing is their choice of theme, another thing is that two of the four band members are FEMALE! Women aren't exactly the predominant sex in metal as it is, but I don't think I can recall a single black metal band with even one female member.
Seeds of Iblis, while their main strongpoints are the fact that they deal with unusual subjects in their lyrics, also delivers in terms of black metal. They may not have outstanding riffs like Satyricon or Darkthrone, they may not have the artillery-like drums of Marduk and 1349, they may not have the characteristic vocals of Legion, Varg Vikernes or Gaahl, but with what little they have they make it work as minimalistic black metal tunes enjoyable to fans of depressive black metal. 7/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Inverted Hilal
2. No Islam
3. Sex with Muhammad's Corpse
4. In the Name of Iblis