Decimation (Turk) - Reign of Ungodly Creation

Artist: Decimation (Turk)
Release Title: Reign of Ungodly Creation
Year: 2014
Label: Comatose Music
Genre: Brutal/Technical Death Metal
Tracklisting:
1. Noncelestical Orisons Cataclised in the Passage of Ninib
2. Supreme Wisdom of Blasphemy in Reign of Ungodly Creation
3. Mystic Transformation in Encrypted Scrolls of a Grievous Sermon
4. Aberrant Ablution by Filthy Excrements of a Grotesque Crassamentum
5. Psalm Carnage in the Ghoulish Chapel of Gehenna
6. Ghoulish Requiem for a Macabre Dæmonarch
7. Prophetic Despise Under the Pendulum of a Sacrilegious Throne
8. Devilish Domain Vortex in the Gloom of Wicked Ziggurat
9. Veracity in Relics

Certainly taking their time between releases, Turkish brutal/technical death metal legends Decimation have continued to hone their skills in between releases with the now four-year gap between efforts resulting in a minor lineup shuffle along the way. Pruning vocalist Egemun Seyhan so guitarist/bassist Erkin Öztürk can now take over vocal duties in the power trio, the group’s third full-length is released December 9, 2014 on Comatose Music.

Like the majority of groups in this genre, there’s a strong reliance here on employing a tight, swirling series of riff-work with plenty of utterly frenzied and dynamic rhythms here, which are played at rather frantic speeds to the point of being blistering battering rams. The complexity of the riffing and bludgeoning rhythms featured here is where this generates the technical formation of their material, featuring enough challenging patterns that there’s plenty to enjoy for the sheer whirlwind of their playing ability alone while generating the kind of tightly-wound, blasting segments to offer an onslaught of brutality. That more brutal-accented part of their sound drives the music moreso than their technicality as this one really whips up that kind frenzied charge here as the dominant aspect of the music oftentimes at the expense of the rest of the track which seems to be the album’s main failing here. This is more concerned with hammering out brutal sections of the arrangements that it really doesn’t do much at all with the rest of the music here and turns it all into a blinding blur of squealing guitars and blasting drumming that is exceptionally competent in its approach yet doesn’t generate the kind of enthusiasm for itself that it really needed to stand out in the scene. This one really could’ve been given a little more change-up in the riffing approach here to at times distinguish what the actual rhythm at play here is really attempting as it’s mostly buried under the sea of blindingly-fast technical riff-work. On the whole, though, it’s the only real issue to be had here.

Though the album somewhat struggles with its identity as there’s little on display here beyond the lightning-fast and competently-played material, that in itself might be enough to make this appeal quite heavily to fans of the brutal or technical realms of death metal or fans looking for more music from that area of the world, while others should heed caution with this release.

Score: 78/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
http://www.comatosemusic.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=21_26&products_id=5023

Yayla - Pas.to.rale

Artist: Yayla
Release Title: Pas.to.rale
Year: 2017
Label: Merdümgiriz Records
Genre: Ambient Black Metal
Tracklisting:
1. Altars in Temple Sewers
2. Everyday Is Death for Us
3. Pandora
4. Funeral
5. Steadfast Chaos
6. Endless Regrets
7. Mantras of Separation
8. Rats
9. Pastorale
10. They Are Losing You from Me

Finally coming back to form, Turkish ambient black metallers Yayla are joining the continued and expanding ranks of work from mastermind Emir Toğrul as he continues to explore the psychotic madness with yet another one of his solo efforts. Abandoning the approach of the bands’ original works with the five-year layoff, the bands’ return effort and fifth overall was originally released February 5, 2017 on Merdümgiriz Records.

Much like with the vast majority of the bands’ previous efforts, the overwhelming sense of this one is still right up-front with the overbearing ambient elements. Fueled by the dark, desolate guitars droning on endlessly throughout the soundscape here alongside the rampaging drum-work that’s utterly nightmarish, there’s such a strong and overall impactful amount of churning tremolo rhythms to drive this one along rather nicely. This atmospheric black metal-laced background is complimented nicely by the ever-present synths that adds a further dimension to the work throughout here, generating the kind of atmospheric evocations of madness typified by the droning riff-work as well as providing the melodic outlines for the stylish interludes that break up the aural assault featured elsewhere. It’s a strong and dynamic approach that results in finely-crafted, unrelenting assaults of melodic turmoil and madness with outbursts of furious black metal energies, and that serves this one well for the most part while pointing out one minor aspect of this that is a minor drawback. The album’s insistence on providing as many interludes as it does here is enough to interrupt the flow of the album’s descent into madness that was so engaging and coordinated that it feels somewhat like another band broke into the recording and placed them there as they’re stylistically out-of-place with the slower relaxing moods in place of the charging aggression and ambient workouts that were so proficient. Still, that’s not nearly enough to worry too much about this one.

Managing to work out quite a solid and impressive series of elements together with plenty of enjoyable features, this is an extremely strong and dynamic offering that continues to offer up Emir as one of the finest musicians in extreme metal and makes this a worthwhile offering for any fan of his other acts, the genre as a whole or the band’s past efforts.

Score: 92/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
https://yayla.bandcamp.com/album/pas-to-rale

Viranesir - Supports Flag Burning and Female Raping

Artist: Viranesir
Release Title: Supports Flag Burning and Female Raping
Year: 2017
Label: Merdümgiriz
Genre: Avant-Garde Black Metal/Synthpunk
Tracklisting:
1. I Only Like Meat When I Know the Animal Suffered Thoroughly
2. Metal Is Full of Faggots
3. NSBM = Nigger Sucking Bi Metal
4. Burning the Flag of USA
5. Christians Oppose Abortion Because They Like to Fuck Orphans
6. I Support Isis, Nazism and Child Rape
7. Instagram Orospusu / Fat Bitch
8. 666 - Köylü Orospu
9. 666 - Gülsene Orospu
10. 666 - Gerzek Orospu

Jumping headlong into controversy, Turkish experimental black metallers Viranesir have taken more than a fair share of attempted censorship in their quest to break down the barriers of artistic expression and freedom by willfully inviting any act or topic into their influences. The second full solo album by the band after Emir Toğrul became the sole member, the projects’ tenth full-length effort was originally released January 5, 2017 on the band-owned Merdümgiriz label.

Due to the willingness to involve a slew of influences into the mix, the album is a chaotic and certainly jarring mixture of extreme metal that ranges through a wide mix of elements. Though based mainly in the realm of chaotic black metal, resulting in a solid backbone of frenetic tremolo riffing firing off utterly blistering blasts of chaotic noise against relentless walls of distortion and vehement, violent vocals that forms a solid part of the majority of the album. Suitably plotting alongside the ravenous work is absolutely maddening ambient-tinged keyboards and synths that add a dissonant, haunting atmosphere to the savagery and relentless energy elsewhere throughout the album and making for quite a striking opposition. This approach enables for a truly overwhelming attack that consistently maneuvers from shattering black metal to haunting synths that add a truly nightmarish vibe to the album as a whole. If the album has a failing at all, it’s the utterly low-budget recording as the production never allows the material to generate its full impact as the haze-riddled guitars and triggered drumming is all swept into a nearly-indecipherable blur of noise that really does a disservice to the music as the ripping riff-work and constant tempo-shifts just wash themselves out. This isn’t a detrimental factor, though, and can certainly help this out just as easily as strike it down.

Another top-notch highlight from one of the scenes’ most impressive figures, this continues Toğrul’s run of consistent, high-quality releases in the field and certainly makes for a highly enjoyable and worthwhile effort to look into for fans of his previous works or any adventurous extreme metal aficionado looking for something else beyond the norm.

Score: 87/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
http://www.merdumgiriz.org/Supports.html

Axxen Conners - Nowhere to Escape Sins EP

Artist: Axxen Conners
Release Title: Nowhere to Escape Sins EP
Year: 2016
Label: Self-Released/Independent
Genre: Melodic/Progressive Death Metal
Tracklisting:
1. Behind the Walls of the Primal Existence
2. Creator Became Absolute
3. Cursed Messiah for a Doomed Society

Formed just in 2015, Turkish death metal duo Axxen Conners have come together quite quickly with the intent of meshing their stylistic progressive and melodic influences into a charging death metal unit exploring these elements. Quickly wasting no time to getting their first work out, the groups’ debut EP was originally self-released August 14, 2016.

For the most part, the album demonstrates a great deal of influence from both the melodic and progressive realms that carry a large weight throughout here. The riff-work here is a great variation of the two, with the main patterns utilizing challenging, twisted groove-styled rhythms full of melodic accents, which is basically the entire gamut of material here as the music is simply differentiated through either a mid-tempo chug or a swirling up-tempo charge that utilizes more melodic tendencies. Given that there’s not a whole lot else going on throughout here as the material is straightforward and doesn’t really vary or differentiate itself from these elements here with only three tracks to gather their style, so however well-performed this material actually is, the fact that there’s so few material here is what really holds this back.

Without a whole lot of material to really get into here that doesn’t really offer much variation anyway, there’s quite a few flaws here that do bring down the film’s positives enough that this one really seems to appeal only to those that appreciate the simplistic nature of the material more than the actual quality of what’s on display.

Score: 65/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
https://axxenconners.bandcamp.com/album/nowhere-to-escape-sins-ep

Carnophage - Monument

Artist: Carnophage
Release Title: Monument
Year: 2016
Label: Unique Leader Records
Genre: Brutal/Technical Death Metal
Tracklisting:
1. Incandescent
2. Second Genesis
3. Resistance Against Mind Clouding Heresy
4. Same Old Circle
5. Unbroken Fortitude
6. At the Backside of Our Civilization
7. Ode to Corruption
8. Sparks of the Experiment
9. Inertia and Failure

Taking their sound to it’s fullest, Turkish brutal/technical death metallers Carnophage have worked their chaotic brand of controlled musicianship as they keep honing their wildly technical brand of death metal into new heights of extremity. After six years between releases that sees founding guitarist Berkan Başoğlu being replaced by Serhat Kaya, the groups’ second full-length album was released September 23, 2016 on Unique Leader Records.

From the onset here this one really seems to dwell quite heavily in the realm of introducing a strong blend of technicality and brutality together into their music. Taking a more methodical mid-tempo approach to the material by introducing the predominant chugging-style riffing for the most part here while still employing a strong series of tightly-wound and generally controlled patterns that employ the brutal aspects of the music quite nicely. As this fine sense of brutality is matched by elements featuring a charging technicality here with a far more pronounced array of technically-challenging riff-work that manage to vary their tempos and aggression throughout here for a much more pummeling burst throughout the album. That mixture is wholly appealing and quite impactful at times, yet does run into the minor issue of being unable to really offer the deep, churning grooves that would’ve made for a much heavier impact. The album is full of tightly-wound, generally impactful rhythms and riffing throughout here that’s quite well adept at this style, but it doesn’t generate the kind of heaviness needed to really pack the kind of punch of other bands in this style as the album varies only with the tempos of the material present here. There’s never any real sense of dynamics in the recording that gives the material a heavy, thumping burst here with it’s relatively clean production that does capture everything nicely but it comes off too well and really does need more of a mixture here to really work. Beyond this, there’s not a whole lot here that works against it.

Though there’s a bit of a messy situation here with the album not really offering the kind of production that brings out the dynamic sound qualities the music requires, the rest of this is a blistering affair of charging brutality-laced technical death metal that should be quite at home with any fanatic of either style or the genre in particular.

Score: 83/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
http://carnophageturkey.bigcartel.com/

Blliigghhtted - Kosmokampf

Artist; Blliigghhtted
Release Title: Kosmokampf
Year: 2015
Label: Merdümgiriz
Genre: Experimental Black Metal
Tracklisting:
1. Laughing Siblings
2. In Absu's Absent Presence
3. And Tiamat's Present Absence
4. Nephesous

Following their successful second release, Turkish avant-garde/experimental black metal horde Blliigghhtted continue their impressive feats with the third release of the calendar year that captures the improvements made on that last release. Considering their successive productive output, this is quite an achievement as their third overall effort is released December 24, 2015 on Merdümgiriz.

Managing to bridge a deep vein from the esoteric to the chaotic, this here is mostly presented as a sort of nightmarish slough through a wide berth of influences that still retains a mainly black metal aesthetic. With a progressive edge to the material that allows them all to last over the ten minute mark, it manages to tack on discordant, jagged rhythms alongside the nominal swirling tremolo patterns for a seemingly jarring experience long before this one tends to play its trump card along the way in the form of the disparate and seemingly haunting vocals. There’s so little about them that sound human and their low, deep and indecipherable howl borders on the edge of madness as if this is a journey through the labyrinth of the mind of a person tormented with Satanic demons for centuries. It’s perfectly coordinated with the howling racket in the background as the chaotic pounding is synced to complete perfection, and when mixed with the album’s churning progressive edge that runs wild throughout the album it really makes for a really chaotic experience. This is mainly hinted at being the album’s weakest part as well with the utterly discordant and jarring material usually found here would be so extreme that it turns off the listener at it’s first listen. This is so far from conventions and traditional black metal aesthetics that it really might not be an immersive experience as it’s maddening feel could be a detriment instead of drawing them in which is about the only thing really wrong here.

This is quite an appealing and intriguing album that’s got plenty to like about it with its adherence to chaos and inherent madness that really does sink or swim on the tolerance for that kind of aesthetic which instead makes this one seem wholly appropriate for fans of the bands’ previous works and the sublime extremity present only.

Score: 88/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
https://blliigghhtted.bandcamp.com/album/kosmoskampf

Blliigghhtted - Into the Cunt of the Witch

Artist: Blliigghhtted
Release Title: Into the Cunt of the Witch
Year: 2016
Label: Merdümgiriz
Genre: Experimental Black Metal
Tracklisting:
1. Black Flame I: Life Is a Prison
2. Black Flame II: Keep Your Light from Me
3. Black Flame III: Death Is Life
4. Illusion I: Religion
5. Illusion II: Pleasure, Pain and Pedophilia
6. Illusion III: Suicide Is Painless
7. Death I: Unknown, Unknowable, Uncertain
8. Death II: Ejaculating into Darkness
9. Death III: Black Flame Is Refusal
10. Suicide I: Chaos Everywhere
11. Suicide II: Naked Life
12. Suicide III: Certainty Is Illusion

The fourth full-length from Turkish avant-garde black metallers Blliigghhtted offers a highly enjoyable and entertaining variety of chaos and discordance that’s quite scattered but still remains fully coherent. With it’s black metal baseline here, this one tends to feature that generally appealing as the fiery tremolo-picked rhythms and stylish melodies firmly place the band within the genre, and it’s only upon dealing with the bands’ other influences that it really becomes apparent how it all works together. Mixing in ambient soundscapes underneath the main rhythms to create a discordant feel against those more traditional elements, there’s a definite sense of experimentation present as it pushes against the most singularly-defined variation of black metal aesthetics since they’re just so weird-sounding against the fiery tremolo rhythms. That does make for quite a varied and highly enjoyable time here as this experimentation is quite appreciated since it’s just putting slightly off-kilter arrangements within the framework of solid black metal that doesn’t really differ too much from nominal chaotic-influenced groups. The fact that the album does seem to lose steam with the four different sections running through varied elements so that it’s quite hard to make out what each one really means overall since there’s little point in doing so at that stage since it ties nothing together with the different sections featured. That’s the only thing really holds this one back.

The first half sets the stage for this one nicely. Opener ‘Black Flame I: Life Is a Prison’ takes thumping tremolo riff-work and pounding drumming through urgent, frantic patterns with discordant rhythms storming along through the highly explosive swirling tremolo patterns firing off through the finale for a fine and enjoyable opener. ‘Black Flame II: Keep Your Light from Me’ uses thunderous, rumbling patterns and plenty of discordant tremolo riff-work firing along through the frantic, chaotic blasts of furious patterns clanking along to the stuttering rhythms before the abrupt end in the final half for a rather dynamic offering. ‘Black Flame III: Death Is Life’ bleeds through with the furious, frantic drumming and frenetic riffing carrying the explosive atmospheres along through the series of chaotic rhythms blazing along throughout the furious riff-work and chaotic blistering drumming in the finale for a highly enjoyable and engaging effort. ‘Illusion I: Religion’ uses screeching riffing and rather simplistic, plodding drumming throughout the early rhythms before turning into a frenzied series of blasting, pounding drumming alongside the frenetic swirling riff-work leading into the abrupt end in the final half for an explosive and enjoyable effort. ‘Illusion II: Pleasure, Pain and Pedophilia’ bleeds through the frantic, frenzied riffing and blistering drumming with a series of swarming tremolo riffing carrying on alongside the frenetic tempo as the chaotic swarm of blasting rhythms carries on into the finale for the album’s highlight as a singular track. ‘Illusion III: Suicide Is Painless’ uses swirling tremolo riffing with plenty of tight, mid-paced blasting and a darkened atmosphere as the churning death-metal styled grooves give way to more of a chaotic blast of fiery classic tremolo-styled riffing and pummeling drumming that carry on through the final half for another solid highlight.

The second half is certainly just as fun and lively as the first half. ‘Death I: Unknown, Unknowable, Uncertain’ features swirling tremolo patterns and frantic, chaotic drumming blasting along throughout the frenetic thumping drumming leading into the finale for a short, disposable interlude that does setup the following track ‘Death II: Ejaculating into Darkness’ as the swirling, plodding rhythms and rather fine mid-tempo industrial collages continue on throughout into the later half where the blasting drumming and frenetic, chaotic patterns charge on through the blistering tempos in the final half for another strong singular effort. ‘Death III: Black Flame Is Refusal’ takes a swirling mid-tempo tremolo riff through a stilted series of plodding tempos against the plodding drumming as the frenzied, chaotic blasting carries along into the strong series of chaotic rhythms in the finale for a strong effort overall. ‘Suicide I: Chaos Everywhere’ leads a tortured scream into a series of plodding mid-tempo riffing with plodding tremolo riffing alongside the frantic blasting drumming that settles into a wholly chaotic series of blinding drumming bristling along through the tremolo riffing in the final half for a highly scathing effort. ‘Suicide II: Naked Life’ takes frantic swirling tremolo patterns and plenty of blasting drumming along through the pummeling tempos filled with scorching patterns and furious, frenzied riff-work with plenty of dynamic tremolo patterns along throughout the series of blistering tremolo patterns into the finale for a wholly enjoyable effort. Lastly, ‘Suicide III: Certainty Is Illusion’ uses a plodding sound-collage intro with plenty of stylish drumming and thumping mid-tempo tremolo riffing that extends outward into the series of swirling atmospheric breaks all throughout the extended mid-section and carrying on through the discordant riffing in the final half for an extended and overlong lasting impression.

Though there’s some misfires here and there along with the overall brevity of this effort, there’s still overall plenty to like and enjoy about this releases as it still features a lot of the trademark rhythms and elements present that it should appeal to those who enjoy and appreciate this chaotic breed of black metal or extreme metal in general.

Score: 85/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
https://blliigghhtted.bandcamp.com/album/into-the-cunt-of-the-witch