Swedish death metal super-group (I hate that title) Bloodbath has made a statement that due to Mikael Akerfeldt and Matin Axenrot being occupied with Opeth, there will be no appearances with Bloodbath at this summer’s European metal festivals.

“Unfortunately, we’ve to announce that BLOODBATH must pass this summer’s festival season. Mike [Mikael Åkerfeldt] and Axe [Martin 'Axe' Axenrot] have both confirmed they’re too occupied with OPETH and cannot commit to any live shows with BLOODBATH until 2010, the earliest. Recruiting live replacements for Mike and Axe has been considered, but is right now not going to be possible for technical aspects and neither appropriate for obvious reasons.

I’m still fairly new to Bloodbath, but I don’t think I would want to see them without Mikael Akerfeldt anyway. Which reminds me, as much as I love The Fathomless Mastery…it never gets enough rotation time in my iPod.

Post from: Metal Martyr

Metalhammer.de’s top 10 Death Metal Songs

1. Cannibal Corpse – ‘Hammer Smashed Face’ from Tomb Of The Mutilated
2. Arch Enemy – ‘We Will Rise’ (from Anthems Of Rebellion
3. Death – ‘Crystal Mountain’ from Symbolic
4. Amon Amarth – ‘Pursuit Of Vikings’ from Fate Of Norns
5. Vader – ‘Carnal’ from Black To The Blind 
6. Sepultura – ‘Arise’ from Arise 
7. Carcass – ‘Heartwork’ from Heartwork 
8. In Flames – ‘Only For The Weak’ from Clayman 
9. Kataklysm – ‘In Shadows And Dust’ from Shadows & Dust 
10. Behemoth – ‘Christians To The Lions’ from Thelema.6

And now for mine…and this wasn’t easy by any means.

Metal Martyr’s Top 10 (Favorite) Death Metal Songs

1. Death – Zero Tolerance from Symbolic. This is one of Death’s best records and was a great follow up to Individual Thought Patterns.
2. Carcass – Carneous Cacofinny from Necrotism: Descanting The Insalubrious. Sadly most people only know of the album Heartwork, which is a great album but so is Necrotism’ and Swan Song.
3. Morbid Angel – God Of Emptiness from Covenant. I’ve always loved David Vincent’s voice. While this song is not “brutally fast”, it’s a slow, heavy and evil sounding song that would probably give small children nightmares if played before bedtime.
4. Entombed – Hollowman from the Hollowman Ep and Wolverine Blues
5. Grave - …And Here I Die Satisfied from the Ep of the same name.
6. Malevolent Creation – Self Important Freak from Joe Black.
7. Cannibal Corpse – Stripped Raped & Strangled from The Bleeding. Typical Cannibal Corpse lyrics, but the guitar is what got me hooked.
8. Suffocation – Breeding The Spawn from Pierced From Within.
9. Bloodbath – Death Delirium from Resurrection Trough Carnage.
10. Obituary – The End Complete from The End Complete.

I could probably keep on going with this list all day. How can you narrow a list like this down to 10? It really had me looking back in to my collection and remembering a lot of great death metal songs, especially ones that never got enough credit or play. So what would you top ten look like?

Post from: Metal Martyr

Metal Martyr Top 10 Favorite Albums of 2008

1. Kataklysm: Prevail –
2. Gojira: The Way Of All Flesh
3. Opeth: Watershed
4. Firewind: The Premonition
5. In Flames: A Sense Of Purpose
6. Arsis: We Are The Nightmare
7. Soulfly: Conquer
8. Testament: The Formation Of Damnation
9. Amon Amarth: Twilight Of The Thunder God
10. Bloodbath: The Masterless Fathomry

Metal Martyr Biggest Disappointment

• Slipknot: All Hope Is Gone (Just not as good as I thought it would be)

Biggest Surprise Of 2008

• Metallica: Death Magnetic

(While it has it’s flaws, this turned out a lot better than I anticipated and is a thousand time more listenable than St. Anger)

Acquired Tastes (albums that took more than two listens to really get in to)

• Withered: Folie Circuluire
• The Funeral Pyre: Wounds
• Neuraxis: The Thin Line Between

Here is a list of other album that I thought were great and deserve a big mention in no particular order. I suppose I could have made it a favorite top 20 if I wanted to.

• Unearth: The March
• Cavalera Conspiracy: Inflikted
• All That Remains: Overcome
• Children Of Bodom: Blooddrunk
• Torche: Meanderthal
• Trivium: Shogun
• War Of Ages: Arise & Conquer
• The Sword: Gods Of The Earth
• Byzantine: Oblivion Beckons
• Light This City: Stormchaser

Most Hated of 2008

• Century: Black Ocean

Image Source: Amazon.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

Now this isn’t the worse T-shirt we have ever seen, nor is the artwork really all that good, but the depiction is obviously enough to upset people and the company that was printing the first round has stopped production due to the owners morals. Sure it is only a T-shirt, but it still offends people and especially Christians. That’s probably what it was meant to do in the first place. That’s what any T-shirt that has a sacrilegious image on it is meant to do.

One ‘former’ Bloodbath fan even commented that he is no longer a fan because of this shirt. So he was a fan before, but obviously never read any of the lyrics to a Bloodbath song. Check out a few lyrics to Mock The Cross below:

In the womb
A sea of vomit
Nurturing the false prophet
His mouth of blasphemy
Spreading forth the creed of the infidels

His spit on the flaking emblem of Solomon
A schism of confusion weaken the trinity
Foresee the death of the holy alliance
The withering corpse of Christ

Here is a bit from Iesous (also from The Fathomless Mastrery with a blasphemous T-shirt):

Stigma
Fury
Throw him
Bound and gagged upon the soil
The red sun
Burning
Burning
Tear the soul of gods only son

Let’s look at the lyrics to Weak Aside from the Unblessing The Purity Ep:

Our name has seen the future
Headshot target now on god
Pointblank crimson dawn
Spew forth tomorrow’s spawn

Now let’s reach back to 2004’s  Bastard Son Of God from Nightmares Made Flesh:

He is hater of the rotten Earth
He is the nova that will drape the sky in woe
We drink from his poisoned water
He is lord of those who dwell bound in sickness
Spitting vomit in the face of faith
Cleansing us who must atone for being weak
We drink from his poisoned water
He is the shadow cast upon those defiled

So this dude was a fan until they put words into graphics? C’mon now, that’s so naive. It’s death metal with anti-religious overtones. If you can’t figure that out then you might want to find a different style of music to listen to. I don;t care what kind of music I listen to, if I dig what the sound is then I look into the sound and try to understand what they are (singing) about. You may not always agree with it, but don’t be so stupid as to act like you didn’t know they went against or were singing about something you didn’t believe in.

Now if anyone knows the band Skrewdriver, then it’s like listening to them and then getting all offended when you see one of their T-shirts with a racist remark or white power propaganda on it. Or liking Slayer until you see the Circle Of Lies T-shirt or Deicide before seeing the cover of Once Upon The Cross. Don’t be so naive.

Post from: Metal Martyr

I actually downloaded this on iTunes last Saturday night and kind of forgot about it during the week. What I love about Bloodbath is the balls out (yeah I said it twice), brutality with production quality and melodic arrangements that sound absolutely gut-wrenching yet very well put together and melodic without going overboard with crazy noodling on the guitar as if it’s some stupid talent contest…”Look what I can do…”. Plus as I said there is just something about Akerfeldt vocals that sound horridly awesome. The solos are killer too. You can’t ask for much more in a death metal record than this, I don;t care what anyone says!

If you love the brutal, heavy vocals of Opeth and have never listened to Bloodbath before, I beg you…listen to Bloodbath and bring some tissues to clean yourself up with afterwards, if you know what I mean. (coughorgasmiscough!)

Bloodbath The Fathomless Master is probably THE best death metal album of 2008.

Image Source: PeacevilleRecords.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

On CD

• Beneath The Massacre: Dystopia on Prosthetic Records. (I just reviewed this yesterday. Some good stuff if you like a lot of melodic, treble string work in your death metal.)
• Carcass: Reek Of Putrefaction CD/DVD. (As I said yesterday, if you’re a Carcass fan then you will want to add this to your collection.)
• Cradle Of Filth: Godspeed On The Devil’s Thunder on Roadrunner. (If you read the title slower it says “God’s Peed On The Devil’s Thunder”)
• Burning The Masses: Mind Control on Mediaskare
• Machine Head: The Blackening Special Edition (I hate late release special editions, but this one seems like a must-have)
• Hatebreed: For The Lions on Koch. (All Covers album)
• Enslaved: Vertabrae on NUclear Blast
• Bloodbath: The Fathomless Mastery on Peaceville. (A must-have if you’re a fan of Bloodbath or Opeth.)
• Abigail Williams: In The Shadows Of A Thousand Suns. (Is that even possible?)

On DVD

• Mushroomhead Vol. 2 (This is an awesome DVD with a lot of tour and backstage footage)

Post from: Metal Martyr

IGN.Com

• Frank Mullen – Suffocation
• Lars Göran Petrov – Entombed
• Paul Pavlovich – Assük
• David Vincent – Morbid Angel
• Mikael Akerfeldt – Opeth/ Bloodbath
• Antti Boman – Demilich
• John Tardy – Obituary
• Martin Van Duren – Hail Of Bullets
• Chuck Schuldiner – Death
• Thomas Lindburg – At The Gates

Check out my picks after the fold…

• Frank Mullen of Suffocation – Suffocation are one of the earlier pioneers of NYC Death Metal. While I haven’t heard much of the earlier stuff I really dig their last self titled effort on Relapse Records and I think the modern generation would probably dig this one as well. The production is much better and vocals have more clarity to them. This band kills live too!
• Lars Göran Petrov Of Entombed – Another very more clarified death metal voice, I’d have to pick Wolverine Blues as my Favorite, and the Hollowman EP comes in a close second. With all the other “deathcore” and death metal out there these days, this is one of the staple bands out of the overlooked death metal scene.
• David Vincent of Morbid Angel – I was fan as soon as I heard the doom ridden, creepiness of God Of Emptiness. The entire Covenant album is awesome as well as Blessed Are The Sick, Alters Of Madness and Domination. Domination doesn’t get as much credit as it should.
• Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth/Bloodbath – Even though I have only come to really know Opeth and Bloodbath in the past 6 or 8 months, I can’t get past the sound the Mikael’s voice. First you wouldn’t expect such a vicious sound to come from the same pipes that sing the beautiful melodies that you hear in the softer Opeth songs. I only have 2 Opeth CDs, but Blackwater Park is an amazing album and Bloodbath’s Resurrection Through Carnage and the recent Unblessing The Purity EP are about as brutal as they come. I need to get the new Fathomless Mastery CD. Maybe the merch table at tonight’s Opeth show will have it.
• John Tardy of Obituary – John Tardy had a different sound to his voice than most of the death metal vocalists when they came in to the scene. A unique range with clarity and the more they progressed the better he sounded…to me anyway. It wasn’t a low guttural voice that had to be done with mic directly to mouth in an inaudible tone. He has a voice that stands out and makes it look and sound effortless. Ever tried to imitate his voice? The End Complete is my pick as well but World Demise is a great album too.
• Chuck Schuldiner of Death – Chuck was another unique voice like John Tardy. Not only could Chuck sing with a different range of most Death Metal vocalists, he could rip on guitar as well. My album pick would be Symbolic but if you want a good mix check out Fate: The Best Of Death. Death had a melodic yet brutal sound to them with speed and breakdowns that were hard to top.
• Jeff Walker of Carcass – Once more a unique voice…at the time. Now every other deathcore band tried to sound like Jeff, but they have no friggin’ clue who he is or the legacy of Carcass. As you can see, clarity in vocals is a big thing for me. I like to understand what they are saying. It makes it much easier to sing along when you know the words. Carcass’s Heartwork is a great metal album as well as the slightly slower and often under-rated Swansong.
• Chris Barnes Of Six Feet Under/ ex-Cannibal Corspe – Okay, this is the exception to the clarity thing. Some songs you can catch a lot of the words from Chris Barnes and some not so much. Chris just has that deep guttural voice that sounds grim and evil. Six Feet Under’s Debut album, Haunted is a great example of Chris’s voice as it most Cannibal Corpse’s early albums but mostly The Bleeding in my opinion.
• Maurizio Iacono of Kataklysm – Maurizio has a great death metal voice. Deep, clear and powerful. Their latest release, Prevail, is a great example of Maurizio’s voice. If I said that all the others sounded as good I would be lying because I have yet to explore much more of Kataklysm’s work.

Honorable Mentions

• Jörgen Santöm formerly of Grave
• Tim King Formerly Of Oppressor
• Johnny Hedlund of Unleashed

Check out IGN.Com list here.

Image ©MetalMartyr.Com 2008

Post from: Metal Martyr

I mentioned the other day that you can get a few free downloads from Peaceville records by subscribing to their newsletter. Below are the links to each bands download. All you have to do is type in a valid email address and the download is yours! You can also get a free Peaceville 20 year sampler with every order from Peaceville.

Free Bloodbath Download from The Fathomless Mastery

Free Darkthrone Download from Dark Thrones And Black Flags

Free Opeth Download from The Roundhouse Tapes

Image source: Peaceville Records

Post from: Metal Martyr

Recorded and produced by the band themselves at Necrohell II studios, Norway, ‘Dark Thrones & Black Flags’ is an exercise in pushing the conventions of the narrow perception of what should make black metal, becoming more timeless and faithful to its spirit than most could ever wish for in the process.

Available in three formats: a regular edition in super jewel case, a vinyl edition, and a special edition, in a Slipcased super jewel case package with exclusive new video footage featuring Darkthrone in the studio – ‘F*cking Around’ Version 1 & ‘F*cking Around’ Version 2

Following the brilliant and brutal Unblessing The Purity, Sweden’s finest exponents of Death Metal return with their latest studio opus, The Fathomless Mastery.

Featuring Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt and Martin ‘Axe’ Axenrot, Katatonia’s Anders Nyström and Jonas Renkse, and Per ‘Sodomizer’ Eriksson (ex-21 Lucifers, ex-Genocrush Ferox), the band’s current line-up represents the elite of the Swedish Metal scene.

‘A slab of storming, top-quality death metal’ – Zero Tolerance
Available as CD or Vinyl. Initial CD copies will be in digibook format.

Preorder Darkthrone: Dark Thrones & Black Flags Here

Preorder Bloodbath: The Fathomless Master Here

Image Sources: Amazon.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

Bloodbath

The next chapter of this brutal saga arrives on October 6^th 2008 with the release of the new studio album, The Fathomless Mastery.

The Fathomless Mastery mini-site is now online at www.peaceville.com/bloodbath/thefathomlessmastery .

The site will feature a different track from the album each week in the run up to the release with Iesous being added today. Check back next Friday for the next track. The site also contains info on the album, downloads, a free mp3 of the track  ‘Mock The Cross’ to anyone who signs up to the mailing list and also gives you the chance to pre-order the album.

Hints of what The Fathomless Mastery may possess were provided by Unblessing The Purity, the mini-album released earlier this year on Peaceville Records. Described by Metal Hammer as ‘a near-flawless celebration of Swedish brutality’ and by Zero Tolerance as ‘a slab of storming, top-quality death metal’, the mini-album has set the bar high.

‘Unblessing The Purity’ also featured the return of Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt on vocal duties and arrival of Per ‘Sodomizer’ Eriksson (ex-21 Lucifers, ex-Genocrush Ferox) on guitar, joining Katatonia’s Anders Nyström and Jonas Renkse and Martin “Axe” Axenrot, also from Opeth.

This line-up has once again reunited for The Fathomless Mastery which they have described as representing ‘nothing but hateful brutality.’ Promising their ‘most crushing production yet’ few would dare to argue with the band’s claim that…‘Bloodbath is here to slay, Bloodbath is here to stay!’

Post from: Metal Martyr