Featured Band: Holodomor

Holodomor was a man-made famine that violently took the lives of  millions of people in Ukrainia back in 1932. Also known as the "terror famine", Holodomor has often been compared to the Holocaust in terms of its violent extent and severity.

Based on the above concept, one can easily imagine that a band which goes with the name Holodomor won't be singing about no happy stuff. This extreme death/thrash/crust outfit from the UK puts its name on the map with its EP Temoignages de la Gnose Terrestre. What you'll get by listening to this recording is 5 tracks of unholy, heretical deathly modern thrash with some subtle post crustcore touches. Clearly going out like an extreme metal band, but with the extra modernity and straighforwardness that fans of metallic hardcore will surely appreciate, this is a band to keep an eye out for. Their songs need a bit of getting used to, but in our book this is a good thing, and Holodomor will reward you by wanting to listen to this self-released EP again and again.

Listen to the song below if you feel like being treated with some vile thrash riffs, harsh death/crust vox and unholy oldschool blastbeats that will crush your head like it ain't no thing! Negative metallic mayhem, here we go!

www.facebook.com/Holodomor

www.holodomor.co.uk

Review: DEUS OTIOSUS "Murderer" (American Line/FDA Records)

It is just great to see death metal bands taking their music seriously. Any bunch of deathcore kids who wanna have fun can learn to play brutal and fast after some years of listening to Relapse bands and practicing; but the bands that ultimately stand out from the pack are the ones which have something more worthwhile, the ones with members who live and breathe real Death Metal all their lives. I'm talking about bands that can creep into your subconscious mind and make a nasty home in it. And Deus Otiosus is such a band.

There is a big difference between just banging out some solid DM tunes with the right ingredients (death growls, heavy riffs, double bass drums etc), and making a piece of real unearthly, sick, and disgustingly dark music.  While Deus Otisius do have all the right ingredients for sure, they fall into the latter category of true deathsters, and have offered the world a true old school DM masterpiece.

Their brand of DM goes way back to the roots of old school death metal. That means really brutal, with a thick wall of sound created by the the solid guitar riffage, 100% DM vocals and a crazy drummer blasting out necro beats in the background. What I mean by 'necro' is that the beats are not hyper fast, more like an exchange of mid tempo/fast parts, but coupled with a punishing and selective use of the double bass. If you want references of what this albums sounds, then I'd have to drop in some names like early Death, Apshyx, Sinister, Bolt Thrower, maybe even rocking stuff like Entombed and Dismember. At times, these guys seem to black/thrash it a little bit in the old school style like Possessed, Celtic Frost etc. And that, my friends, is where the real inferno is at.

While Deus Otisius plays straight out DM, they manage to create a ghastly atmosphere without the use of long interludes, keyboards, or any other extras. They manage to collectively use their instruments, lyrics and layout in such a way as to create a real deathly atmosphere that drives your mind into hellish images, cold cemetaries and ghouls running amuck. Some of the riffs have an epic feel to to them and create a war/battlefield atmposhere, hence the Bolt Thrower influence I mentioned earlier. These are some of the parts that really start growing on you after you give this record a few listens.

To sum it up, I'll leave you with a line that the band itself used in order to promote the album: "twisted death metal with the reek of the damned". This is what it is!

PROS: Total old school feel, great vox, some truly epic guitar riffs, nice production, high level of brutality.

CONS: None, but strictly for DM fans

LOWDOWN: A true DM album for those who worship the roots of this music.

Featured Band: Denial Fiend - Deathly Thrashed into a Horror Holocaust

Simply put, Denial Fiend is a bunch of crazy fuckers who destroy the world with their awesomely evil death/thrash metal. I mean we all listen to a lot of metal and hardcore and whatnot, but every now and then we find a band that really stands apart due to its heaviness/originality, and Denial Fiend seem to have both of these factors in check. Also, if you are sick and tired of hearing a certain Municipal Waste come up whenever the term "thrash" is mentioned, maybe it is a good idea to start supporting these fellows here.

Denial Fiend packs a ton of energy and has that extreme death thrash sound that was forsaken somewhere in the annals of extreme music history. They have the excessive double bass drum use and the sick guitar riffs, but they also manage to keep it extreme, catchy and fun. Because we should let it be known that when we say thrash, we mean something heavy and extreme and not just sped up punk with stupid lyrics and no shock value. So remove the beer/party thrash punk from your mind and get into the real, original, evil thrash about death and destruction!

http://www.facebook.com/denialfiendband

We should also mention that the song posted above from new album Horror Holocaust features Denial Fiend's new singer, who is no other than the legendary Accused's Blaine Cook. For an even heavier, more guttural Denial Fiend, check the band's older album They Rise.