Enthroned "Towards The Skullthrone Of Satan" (Blackend 1997)

Sometimes destiny is weird, or even bad because a band like Enthroned deserved more attention…for sure. After the very good debut, they release in 1997 this excellent “Towards The Skullthrone Of Satan” that is definitely faster and more evil than the album before. 

The production is quite raw but exalts the guitar sound, always brutal, cold and truly evil. The drums are fast and raw in the snare-bass drum sound. “The Ultimate Horde Fights” is on blast beats with the screamed vocals typical by Sabathan. 

Well, the main Enthroned characteristic is to mix in a perfect way obscure guitar lines with fast tempo, so we can find more “mid paced” parts where the true satanic soul is expressed through bestial, malevolent lead guitars lines. “Ha Shaitan” is great and check out the satanic melody from the guitars, especially during the mid paced part. The hyper speed restart part in this song is something unbelievable…

“Evil Church” is my favourite one here. A track to worship, admire, love…rarely Enthroned expressed themselves in these levels. The track is perfectly balanced between obscure melodies and black metal massacres. The refrain is a piece of history of this genre. A small gem. “The Antichrist Summons The Black flame” and “The Forest Of Nathrath” are again a perfect mixture of black metal assault parts with lots of tempo changes and dark melodies. Fucking great. 

Listen to the great black melodies to “Throne To Purgatory” or to the gloomy beginning of “When The Horny Flames…”, this one with excellent solos breaks. Really, this is the very first, in my opinion, Enthroned great work. I believe it’s better than the debut, especially for the guitar song writing and for the burden of fury and Satanism. 

efore I bought this one, I hadn't heard much of Enthroned, and I know now that separated tracks from different albums are not really representative, at least for Enthroned. What's the difference? I have really thought that Enthroned is just another copy of Marduk plus guitar solos. But Enthroned is much more than just "berserk" drums and quickly "spitted" growl (satan, satan, satan and so on). Actually, so fast drums are rather often than usual, because in every song there are few slower moments. Also, lyrics are much more thoughtfully written. But what makes Enthroned so original is that the album is full of electronical intros/outros, sometimes you may heard acoustics or woman (I guess, "Hertogenwald") singing, keyboards are also common. This makes "Towrads the Skullthrone of Satan" various and different.

However, if you look for speed and blasphemy, don't worry - Enthroned is still based on style that swedish BM is known of. One thing that is not good in Enthroned are the vocals - but they are at leasts not annoying, like those in Absu (actually, Proscriptor sounds very similar to Sabathan). Each track sounds different, there are no "genious" ones and no bad ones, just good BM with in very interesting style. "Dusk of Forgotten Darkness", "Evil Church" and "Hertogenwald" would be the best on the album, but every one is really worth listening.

An album to admire in black metal. Back to the roots of evil with Enthroned. 

Maniac Butcher "Masakr" Negative Existence (2010)

It's been a good past year for comeback albums by some of black metal's greats. We have had excellent releases by both Beherit and Profanatica. Now we have the return of Maniac Butcher!, a band that I feel has put out nothing but quality releases during their entire career. So needless to say when news of this album came my way, I rushed to order this album "Masakr" release in august 2010 by Negative Existence label, limited in 500 copies in Gatefold LP 

Masakr opens up with some quick atmospherics before the brutality commences. For those of you not in the know, Maniac Butcher play straight forward, no frills black metal in the tradition of second wave Norwegian bands. Traces of early Gorgoroth, Mayhem, and early Immortal can be found all over Masakr, there are no keyboards or female vocals at all on this, or any Maniac Butcher release. The line up in this record are 

Vlad Blasphemer (R.I.P. 2015): Guitars, Songwriting

Barbarud Hrom: Vocals, Lyrics

Infernal Vlad: Guitars

Lord Obst: Bass

Coroner: Drums in studio

Lets start with the production, it's very abyss studio sounding to me. I'm more accustomed to the complete raw degradation of albums like Invaze and Barbarians, so I find this clean more polished production very detrimental. The drums in particular sound way too punchy, and mechanical. I like how everything sounds the same on the drum kit. 

The track list in album is: 
Side A:
1. Desatero krutých zim přežitých v teple žhnoucí záře slávy minulé
2. Projížďka hvozdem hlubokým za oučelem sčítání stavůch vlkůch a vlkodlakůch
3. Rozhodnutí nezvratné všecken mír rozhodně rozvracející

Side B:
4. Bezbožné rouhání zpovědní před tažení vojnového započetím
5. Masakr krvavý pro plnění zájmůch vyšších i řezničení nadbytečné pro kojení pudůch nízkých
6. Zakončení ouděsné bezpočtům krutou jistotu slibující, však mne bezpočet slibných nejistot skýtající

The other down side to this album is the actual drumming of Coroner. It is very dull and sterile, to say the least. There are almost no drum fills at all and I just feel that his performance could have been stepped up significantly. The guitar tone is razor sharp, and sounds huge thanks in part to the clear production. The production also favors the bass tones too, there is a lot of bass presence on Masakr. 

Barbarud Hrom's vocals are excellent as usual, his angry overly aggressive tone is right upfront and in your face...as it should be. The songs also seem a little more varied on Masakr. Mixed in to the brutal black metal we are treated to thrash styled riffs that would not seem out of place on a Kreator or Sodom album. The effect is crushing and very dynamic in it's chaotic delivery. 

So how does Masakr stand up to older Maniac Butcher releases? Quite good actually, this is not their best work but is an excellent starting point for those who want to get into Maniac Butcher. It's not a perfect album but when your in need of a true black metal fix Masakr will definitely feed your appetite.

This is a few link of album´s song "Masakr". 

Anyway the last full-lenght album of Czech masters are amazing and brutal blasphemous because is a legacy of one member who past R.I.P. in 2015: master Vlad Blasphemer. 

Mortuary Drape "All The Witches Dance" Unisound (1995)

El primer full-lenght de una de las bandas italianas de culto de estilo Black/Death Metal los MORTUARY DRAPE una horda fundada desde las catacumbas en el año 1986. Una obra para la colección de todos los fanáticos del subgénero, estilo y de sonidos diferentes en una agrupación. Este trabajo fue muy bien logrado debido a la creatividad compositiva de los integrantes de la agrupación.

La banda tiene un sonido particular en cuanto a la estructura de todas las canciones como por ejemplo iniciar con rifs agudos de Black Metal, para luego sonar con delays de guitarra y rasgueos que se escuchan en el Death Metal e incluso en el Heavy Metal, eso si la voz nunca pierde la esencia maligna a la hora de escuchar las estrofas de cada una de las piezas. Esto la hace única en su estilo ya que no recordarás a ninguna otra banda que suene como ella ni siquiera de manera similar.

El sonido del grupo se baso en la excelente combinación de sonidos empleadas por los guitarristas Maniac Of Sacrifice y Old Necromancer, quienes poseen la suficiente creatividad para envolverte con los sonidos de dicho instrumento. Se acompañaron en este trabajo por el bajista Diabolic Obssession y por el vocalista-baterista nombrado Wildness Perversion. Con este cuarteto de geniales instrumentistas se dio forma a lo que hoy se conoce como uno de los mayores emblemas del Black Metal.

La banda se nombra como Occult Black Metal que es una definición bastante acertada en la descripción de la agrupación sobretodo por lo mencionado en cuanto a su estilo con los instrumentos pero también deberíamos mencionar la letra repleta de odas a los rituales y ceremonias paganas o de otra índole. “My soul/ Primordial” que es el intro y la pieza inicial de este álbum es una clara demostración de que la banda esta muy bien ensamblada y con identidad propia con las guitarras así como las vociferaciones en cada palabra de sus textos.

El track list del disco es el siguiente:

My Soul

Primordial

Astral Bewitchment

Funeral Chant

Larve

Tregenda (Dance in Shroud)

13th Way

Chain

Medium Mortem

Occult Abyss

Pero la que sin duda se lleva la notoriedad es la pieza titulada “Astral Bewitchment” que debido a los buenos rifs oscuros y melódicos se puede apreciar una composición majestuosa de esta banda con su estilo. Bien ecualizadas las guitarras se pueden apreciar las notas de cada una de ellas durante todos los 5:48 de duración de la pieza.

Otra composición de la oscuridad es la titulada “Funeral Chant” que como su nombre lo indica es una pieza muy depresiva y un himno a la muerte podría decirse, pero sin caer en el estilo de Depressive Black Metal, ya que el tratamiento de las guitarras es diferente en cuanto a la ecualización y los rifs de cada nota, sin duda unos de los tracks sorprendentes porque te permite conocer otro tipo de estilo.

Para finalizar la demostración de buenas piezas de este trabajo, les dejo la titulada “Tregenda(Dance In Shroud)” uno de sus himnos de toda la discografía de Mortuary Drape que es infaltable en las recopilaciones que han llevado a cabo.Una pieza de ocultismo, magia negra y culto a lo siniestro.  Que la disfruten porque esto es un “himno de la oscuridad” para nosotros los fans del estilo.

La label orgullosamente mexicana Azermedoth Records la reeditó en el 2009 junto a su aclamado Ep “Into The Drape” que eran piezas que se habían descatalogado porr un largo tiempo casi 14 años para ser exactos. Una edición de lujo que nos permitió recordar las viejas glorias que esta banda tenía elaborado.

Links del disco "All The Witches Dance" de Mortuary Drape.

Full album