I was in my mid teens, working as a dishwasher during the time. My coworkers were all in to the grunge thing and were neo-hippies to boot. We had a prep room where we would prep food and had a cd player in there to listen to music while we worked. I would often get ridiculed for my music and get the typical “Kill your mother, kill your father!” mocking when they walked in to the prep room while I was working. I would either turn it up louder or change it to something a little heavier, darker or evil sounding. I didn’t mind grunge so much, but disliked a lot of people that listened to it for their total lack of having an open mind. Most of them were in to it because it was the popular thing at the time.

During that time you had to already be an established band or release an album of epic proportion in order to survive. Even the ones that struggled or didn’t pull through during that era still live in our hearts. The bands on this list were the ones that survived by releasing truly amazing work and deserve the recognition. I know I’ve missed a load of albums that deserve to be on a list of this sort, but keep in mind it’s just “10 Metal Albums” and not a “Top 10″ list.

Flotsam And Jetsam: Cuatro. Released in 1992, Flotsam And Jetsam were a radio hit band and had already been on the scene for almost 10 years when Cuatro was released. Their fourth album and their fourth bass player, Cuatro took a slight step away from their the thrash metal roots. Often overlooked and forgotten about, Cuatro was and still is a great album.

Anthrax: The Sound Of White Noise: (1993) Anthrax’s first album with, in my opinion their best singer, John Bush previously of Armored Saint, The Sound Of White Noise had so many killer songs on it. Beginning with Potter’s Field, Only, Room For One More, Packaged Rebellion, the list goes on until the end.

Iron Maiden: Fear OF the Dark. Released in 1992, Fear Of The Dark is never considered one of Maiden’s best albums but it’s not their worst. Sure it may not be a classic like most of the 80’s albums, but it was one of their best of the 90’s and has plenty of great tunes on it. This was also Bruce Dickenson’s last album before his return to the band in 1999.

Death: Individual Thought Patterns. Death’s 3rd release in the 90’s came in 1993 with Individual Thought Patterns. I bigger, cleaner sounding album than any one before it. ITP was my first taste of exceptionally technical death metal. If there is one subgenre of a subgenre you could label Death as, it would be Progressive Death Metal. Chuck Schuldiner always raised the bar a little higher with each album, but Individual thought patterns took it up a few notches.

Carcass: Heartwork. In 1993 Carcass were criticized by a lot of long time fans as breaking away from the grindcore sound and heading in more of a death metal direction. You can actually hear that transition in Necrotism, but regardless of what specific sound direction Heartwork took, the sound was amazingly clean, fast and ferocious. Still quite underground and unrecognized by the outside world, their Heartwork video put them on the map all around the world.

Entombed: Wolverine Blues. Another album criticized by their fans due to a lesser death metal feel and more of a “Death N’ Roll” sound to it, Wolverine Blues was still a great album. It may not have been fast but it was still heavy as all hell and punchy enough to be a classic. The title track and others such as Hollowman, Full Of Hell and Out Of Hand, you can’t go wrong with this album.

Suffocation: Pierced From Within: Suffocation released their last album for a long time in 1995. Pierced from within was the best sounding album of their first 3. The production was cleaner and Roadrunner Records was taking off like a bat out of hell. Unfortunately this was almost the end of Suffocation as touring as a death metal band at this time was barely livable income. 9 years later the legacy would begin again.

Fear Factory: Soul Of A New Machine. Before Nu-Metal actually had a name there were bands like NIN and Fear Factory releasing albums in the early 90’s. I don’t think it was until Korn’s self titled release that people started to truly hate what was to become a monster mainstream metal genre. Soul Of A New Machine was just considered a new metal band with their first major label release. Not an album that catapulted them in to the nu-metal world like Demanufacture, but a great album.

Helmet: Meantime. Helmet’s 1992 release introduced a slightly different sound to the metal scene. Coming out of NYC, The post hardcore band still brought a slight hardcore sound to them with stop-and-go riffs that were heavy enough to be called metal and a sound that was still raw enough to keep them out of the mainstream. Most people can only name one song from Helmet, that being Unsung.

Sepultura: Chaos A.D. Another band that was raising the bar with every release was Sepultura. With a consistently small change of sound to each album, Sepultura released, arguably their best album with Chaos A.D. in 1993. This was also a turning point as we saw more down-tuning that ultimately lead to Roots, the worst album of the Cavalera, Sepultura era.

Metal never died during the grunge era and it was never mainstream. Hair metal/glam rock was sort of mainstream, but the metal we love with the ferocity, controversy and darkness was still well underground. If anything Grunge did us a favor by decimating glam and weeding out the bands that weren’t quite good enough to make it. Sadly there were some bands that were good enough but fell to the mass-marketing of grunge. No big label wanted to sign another metal band when grunge was the money maker. Lucky for a lot of metal bands there was still the independent labels like Roadrunner, Metal Blade and Nuclear Blast that knew that grunge was only a fad and believed in their metal bands and fans. Every genre has it’s fads and trends, but sooner or later they die or fade away and the true warriors and torch bearers of that genre keep marching strong. The rest end up on VH1 classics…

(all images: Amazon.com)

Post from: Metal Martyr

Continuing to celebrate Earaches 20 year plus existence we bring you the next installment of the Earache Classic series with The Wake Up And Smell The Carcass CD & DVD!

The CD compiles 17 rarities from different eras of the band’s career, including 5 killer extras from the ‘Swansong’ period, Radio One Session tracks, some recorded for the highly revered John Peel and rare EP cuts as well as extensive liner notes detailing the history of one of extreme metal’s most important bands.

The accompanying DVD contains 2 complete live sets including one from the legendary Gods Of Grind tour filmed at the Astoria, and taking in 17 classics from the period 1989-1992 in all. Also featuring 5 promo videos this all adds up to the complete Carcass package with 39 tracks crammed in on to these two discs!

Here are the track listings from the same page.

Tracklisting CD:
01. Edge of Darkness*
02. Emotional Flatline*
03. Ever Increasing Circles*
04. Blood Splattered Banner*
05. I Told You Soon (Corporate Rock Really Does Suck)*
06. Buried Dreams**
07. No Love Lost**
08. Rot ‘n’ Roll**
09. Edge of Darkness**
10. This Is Your Life***
11. Rot ‘n’ Roll***
12. Tools of the Trade****
13. Pyosisfied (Still Rotten to the Gore)****
14. Hepatic Tissue Fermentation II****
15. Genital Grinder II (from ‘Pathological’ compilation)
16. Hepatic Tissue Fermentation (from ‘Pathological’ compilation)
17. Exhume to Consume (from ‘Grindcrusher’ compilation)
* ‘Swansong’ album bonus tracks
** Radio One Rock Show session 06/11/94
*** ‘Heartwork EP’ B-sides
**** ‘Tools of the Trade’ EP tracks

Tracklisting DVD:
Live at London Astoria 18.04.92 (Gods of Grind Tour)
01. Inpropagation
02. Corporal Jigsore Quandary
03. Reek of Putrefaction
04. Pedigree Butchery
05. Incarnated Solvent Abuse
06. Carneous Cacoffiny
07. Lavaging Expectorate of Lysergide Composition
08. Exhume to Consume
09. Tools of the Trade
10. Ruptured in Purulence
Live at Nottingham Rock City 14.11.89 (Grindcrusher Tour)
01. Genital Grinder II
02. Exhume to Consume
03. Excoriating Abdominal Emanation
04. Ruptured in Purulence
05. Empathological Necroticism
06. Embryonic Necropsy and Devourment
07. Reek of Putrefaction
Promo videos:
01. Heartwork
02. Corporal Jigsore Quandary
03. Keep on Rotting in the Free World
04. Incarnated Solvent Abuse
05. No Love Lost

If you live in Europe you can order the CD/DVD at Earache’s European Webstore. I still need to order Necrotism, Reek and Symphonies before this one comes out to complete the collection.

(Image: Earache Webstore)

Post from: Metal Martyr

With that said, let me introduce Hemoptysis out of Tempe, Arizona. Formed in 2007 by frontman and guitarist Masaki Murashita and drummer Travis Thune, Hemoptysis (the medical term for coughing up blood) mixes a sound of old school thrash and death metal with a modern feel to it. Hemoptysis self produced Ep, Who Needs A Shepherd?, was recorded by Steve Conley from F5.

Hemoptysis’ EP Who needs a Shepherd opens with Shadow of Death, which kind of runs with a Megadeth like sound and a descending/ascending chord progression. Masaki’s almost Jeff Walker sounding vocals bark out what seems to be politically driven lyrics and I can’t help but note that the track title “Shadow Of Death” is similar to Megadeth’s track of the same name but different spelling from The System Has Failed, along with one line “They Can’t Die Dead Enough”, which if you recall “Die Dead Enough” is also a song title from the same album. I’m not saying that they are copying but rather show Megadeth as a great influence. Masaki stated Megadeth as one of their many influences, so it’s not too surprising. The song closes with a few great solo’s alternating between Masaki and former lead guitarist Brian Bieganski.

Who Needs A Shepherd?, the second track on the EP also opens with a Megadeth-esque sound but then rolls in to an early Metallica sounding riff and slightly exploding solo before the vocals kick in. The title of the song can pretty much tell you that it’s and anti-religious song, talking of some of the hypocritical thinking that sometimes goes on with Christianity.

Throughout the rest of the album you hear a lot of Megadeth influence in the guitar work and song structure and maybe that’s what I really dig about it. I wouldn’t call them a Megadeth clone as a lot of people call Trivium, Metallica clones, but you can definitely hear it in there, which isn’t a bad thing. What I dig about Who Needs A Shepard? is the traditional metal sound that’s not over the top and redundant. The band is currently rounded out with guitarist Jack Fliegler and bass player Sunao Arai.

The rhythms and solos throughout the album are tight and for being a self produce EP, it sounds really good and everything is mixed well. Hemoptysis is currently writing new material for a full length album and will be opening for Warbringer on June 6th at UB’s in Mesa, Arizona. I’m looking forward to hear what else the band has to offer. Here is a live video of the band performing at UB’s on February 26th, 2009.

You can find Hemoptysis Who Needs A Shepard Ep on Amazon and CDBaby and iTunes, where you can sample the track before you buy.

(Image: Amazon.com)

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Toxic Holocaust

• 03/27/09 San Francisco, CA United States Rasputins FREE 7 pm in-store show
• 03/27/09 Richmond, CA United States Burnt Ramen evening show
• 03/28/09 Anaheim, CA United States The Grove w/ Carcass as part of the California Metalfest
• 04/03/09 Salt Lake City, UT United States Club Vegas
• 04/04/09 Colorado Springs, CO United States Black Sheep
• 04/09/09 Columbus, OH United States Ravari Room

Toxic Holocaust With Napalm Death, Kataklysm, Coliseum and Trap Them

• 04/10/09 Allentown, PA United States Crocodile Rock
• 04/11/09 New York, NY United States Blender Theatre @ Gramercy
• 04/12/09 Springfield, VA United States Jaxx
• 04/13/09 Cincinnati, OH United States The Madhatter
• 04/14/09 Detroit, MI United States Majestic Theater
• 04/15/09 Sudbury, ON Canada Serbian Hall
• 04/17/09 Worcester, MA United States Palladium (part of New England Metal & Hardcore Fest)
• 04/18/09 Syracuse, NY United States Lost Horizon
• 04/19/09 Sayreville, NJ United States Starland Ballroom
• 04/20/09 Virginia Beach, VA United States Peppermint Beach Club
• 04/21/09 Wilmington, NC United States Soapbox Laundrolounge
• 04/22/09 Spartanburg, SC United States Ground Zero
• 04/23/09 Atlanta, GA United States Masquerade
• 04/24/09 Raleigh, NC United States Volume 11 Tavern
• 04/26/09 Austin, TX United States Emo’s
• 04/27/09 Houston, TX United States Meridian
• 04/28/09 San Antonio, TX United States White Rabbit 
• 04/29/09 Fort Worth, TX United States Ridglea Theater
• 04/30/09 Albuquerque, NM United States Sunshine Theater
• 05/01/09 Tempe, AZ United States The Clubhouse
• 05/02/09 San Diego, CA United States Soma
• 05/03/09 Los Angeles, CA United States Key Club
• 05/04/09 San Francisco, CA United States Grand Ballroom
• 05/05/09 Portland, OR United States Hawthorne Theatre
• 05/06/09 Seattle, WA United States Studio Seven
• 05/08/09 Colorado Springs, CO United States Black Sheep
• 05/09/09 Denver, CO United States Marquis Theater
• 05/10/09 Lubbock, TX United States Tequila Jungle
• 05/11/09 Tulsa, OK United States The Marquee
• 05/12/09 St. Louis, MO United States Fubar
• 05/13/09 Chicago, IL United States House of Blues
• 05/14/09 Cleveland, OH United States Peabody’s
• 05/15/09  Toronto, ON Canada Opera House
• 05/16/09 Ottawa, ON Canada Babylon 
• 05/17/09 Montreal, QC Canada Les Foufounes Electrique
• 05/18/09 Quebec City, QC Canada L’Imperial

Image: Amazon.com

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

Carcass US Tour Dates and Support

• 3/13  The Trocadero – Philadelphia, PA
• 3/14  Peabody’s – Cleveland, OH (w/ Abigail Williams)
• 3/15  The Pearl Room – Mokena, IL (w/ The Black Dahlia Murder)
• 3/16  Majestic Theater – Detroit, MI (w/ The Black Dahlia Murder)
• 3/17 Headliner’s  – Louisville, KY
• 3/18  Pops – St. Louis – Sauget, IL
• 3/20  Flytrap – Tulsa, OK
• 3/21  Ridglea Theater – Ft. Worth, TX (w/ Suffocation)
• 3/22  Meridian – Houston, TX
• 3/24  Gothic Theatre – Denver, CO
• 3/25  Sunshine Theatre – Albuquerque, NM
• 3/26  The Grand Ballroom – San Francisco, CA (The Faceless, Toxic Holocaust)
• 3/27  The Marquee Theatre – Phoenix, AZ (w/ Suffocation)
• 3/28  The Grove – Anaheim, CA (California Metal Fest w/ Suffocation, EXODUS, The Faceless etc.)

Image: Nuclear Blast

Post from: Metal Martyr

Carcass have announced a handful of U.S. Tour dates and calling it Exhumed To Consume II. So if you missed it the first time because they skipped your city, check the list below and see if they are hitting a town near you this time. The following announcement (After the fold w/dates) from Jeff Walker was posted in a myspace bulletin:

“Well, I’m pleased to announce that CARCASS is gonna settle it’s unresolved scores in the U.S.! There was some slight whimpers of discontent that we didn’t hit some cities such as Chicago and Denver last time round – places that were always hot spots of enthusiasm for us. So we’re coming back in March to finish off our unsettled business! We seemed to have had a profound influence on your economy and gas prices have gotten cheaper haha! That doesn’t mean we’re not gonna come through and provide some value for your buck with some old (and new) school friends and comrades such as SUFFOCATION, SAMAEL, BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, EXODUS, SUICIDE SILENCE etc.- check out locally as for who is on the bill where! And hey, I couldn’t think of anywhere better to be on my 40th birthday than the Sunshine Theatre in Albuquerque, New Mexico! We promise this will be the last time we darken your shores (I said that with my fingers crossed behind my back)!”

Carcass US Tour Dates and Support

• 03/13/09  The Trocadero – Philadelphia, PA
• 03/14/09  Peabody’s – Cleveland, OH (w/ ABIGAIL WILLIAMS)
• 03/15/09  The Pearl Room – Mokena, IL (w/ THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER)
• 03/16/09  Majestic Theater – Detroit, MI (w/ THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER)
• 03/17/09 Headliner’s  – Louisville, KY
• 03/21/09  Ridglea Theater – Ft. Worth, TX (w/ SUFFOCATION)
• 03/22/09  Meridian – Houston, TX
• 03/24/09  Gothic Theatre – Denver, CO
• 03/25/09  Sunshine Theatre – Albuquerque, NM
• 03/26/09  The Grand Ballroom – San Francisco, CA (THE FACELESS, TOXIC HOLOCAUST)
• 03/27/09  The Marquee Theatre – Phoenix, AZ (w/ SUFFOCATION)
• 03/28/09  The Grove – Anaheim, CA (California Metal Fest w/ SUFFOCATION, EXODUS, THE FACELESS etc.)

Image: Nuclear Blast Media Lounge

Post from: Metal Martyr

Image: Front Gate Tickets

On a side note, the Ridglea Theater has Psycroptic spelled “Psychotropic” and for a minute I wondered if I was reading their name wrong all this time.

Post from: Metal Martyr

Metal Martyr Best Live Shows Of 2008

1. Carcass Reunion: This was like a dream come true. I didn’t think I would ever get to see Carcass play live after becoming a fan in 1993. Hopefully we will see more of this in the future in the U.S.
2. Hatebreed: One of the most energetic shows from a crowd I have seen down here. Beside being dry-humped by some over enthusiastic, sweaty dude behind me, I had a great time and it was a very memorable show.
3. Opeth: Sold out show, amazing show. I wish they had played some more acoustic stuff…or I wish I had stuck around for the second hour of their set to catch any acoustic stuff they may have played.
4. Firewind: Powerful live show. Guitars and vocals that just make the show. I wasn’t really a fan of this band before they went on stage but I was eager to see them live for some reason. When they took the stage I immediately though it was kind of cheesy…for about 20 seconds. After that it was total amazement.
5. The Sword: I think they sound just as good, if not better live. Guitar driven metal that is simplistic and catchy enough to keep everything interesting.
6. Early Man: A great, thrashy show.
7. Suffocation: Caught them on the Carcass reunion. The death metal and deathcore bands of today could learn a thing or two from these guys…like writing your song so you can play them live.
8. Machinehead: This is the second time I’ve seen Machinhead, but the first time in over 10 years. They still know how to rock the stage and were really cool during signings.
9. Slipknot: I’ve waited 8 years to see these guys live. A lot of people say they don’t put out the energy like they used to but I think they put on a better show than what they used to from the videos I’ve seen. Jumping around onstage is cool and everything…but I want to hear quality music too.
10. All That Remains: Twice this year I’ve seen ATR and neither time have I been disappointed. Phil knows how to work the stage and Oli’s nimble fingers make for some beautiful solos.

There is my top ten. Here are a few other mentions

Loudest Live Show

• Torche (opened for The Sword)

Strangest Live Act

• The Monotonix – Starts out kind of fun and wacky and then just goes overboard and stupid really quickly.

Pissed That I Missed Shows (Shows that came around and I wanted to see but missed for one reason or another)

• Kataklysm
• In Flames, Gojira

Image ©MetalMartyr.com 2008

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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