Evil Never Dies - Ekpyrosis

Artist: Evil Never Dies
Release Title: Ekpyrosis
Year: 2017
Label: Via Nocturne
Genre: Old-School Thrash Metal
Tracklisting:
1. Holy Mountain
2. No Cure for War
3. Epitaphs
4. It's Alive
5. (This is) Country for Old Men
6. Land With No Future
7. Imagination
8. Ekpyrosis

One of the earliest thrash bands in the country, Italian thrashers Evil Never Dies initially emerged during the height of the genre back in the early 90s, but beyond a few demo tracks never did much until their first professional output coming from EP releases in the late 2000s. Now finally able to get their first true release ready, the groups’ debut effort was released February 28, 2017 on Via Nocturna.

As befitting their old-school style, the basic approach to be found here is straightforward and decidedly old-school flavored thrashing. This goes for fairly lively crunchy patterns in the riff-work and really keeps the pacing incredibly simplistic here, alternating between straight gallops and driving mid-tempo chugs that contain quite a solid diversity to the tracks. Given that these are generally accompanied by a thunderous rhythm section and plenty of intensity, there’s a wholly enjoyable attack to be featured here that gives this one a firm touch to the old-school days. Given that this one features such a strong and generally one-note style performance, it does tend to contain a few minute missteps. The biggest issue here is that the album is basically intense but derivative, containing plenty of tight and vicious riffing but doesn’t really go further with developing them, going instead for rather plain and predictable setups that are more vicious through the genre rather than anything else. It gives the album a rather depleted feel and doesn’t really offer up that much in terms of enhancing the overall feel of the album beyond offering up more of the same rhythms and patterns, which does hold this one down somewhat. As well, that remix at the end of the album is so unnecessary that it really just drags it the album down quite a bit.

With some rather damaging flaws here and some generally enjoyable if not-that-impressive positives, overall this one just seems to be quite a bland and overall unnecessary offering that just doesn’t bring much to the table here and leaves this one only for the most devout old-school thrash fanatic.

Score: 72/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
https://vianocturna.bandcamp.com/album/ekpyrosis

Bloody Blasphemy - Total Death Celebration

Artist: Bloody Blasphemy
Release Title: Total Death Celebration
Year: 2016
Label: Via Nocturne
Genre: Old-School Black Metal
Tracklisting:
1. Introduction
2. Summon the Beast
3. Free from the Pain of Salvation
4. From the Blood of the Christians
5. Des Feindes Tod
6. Total Death Celebration
7. Dawn of the Equinox
8. To the Eternal Fields of Infernal Blasphemy
9. (Un)heiliger Krieg
10. Resurrection of Darkness
11. Outroduction

Formed way back in 1999, Swiss black metallers Bloody Blasphemy have taken their time to hone and perfect their blackened, raw sound as the decade-plus gap from their demo releases until now has given them the chance to finally offer it in the fullest old-school sense. Fully unleashing their massive first offering, their debut full-length was originally released April 26, 2016 on Via Nocturne.

For the most part here, this one seems to dwell in the same rather typical air of the second-wave worshipping acts that are pouring out at the moment. Filled with ravenous tremolo-picked riffing and plenty of tight, constrained rhythms that offer forth plenty of raw, dripping rhythms that are granted wide berths here due to their blistering tempos that are found here. That keeps these relatively speed-driven bursts of tremolo-packed cold, darkened black metal bursts and as the dominant feature here does pack enough of a punch to really generate that kind of furious rhythm sections to back the album’s more melodic quotients. Those are much more straightforward in their structure and offer much more simplistic riff-work and less frenetic patterns as the stylish melodies are thrown into the fiery, cold rhythms and they’re quite enjoyable as a result, but manage to highlight the first minor flaw to this one. The album is so simplistic in its delivery anyway that it manages to highlight these sections as quite problematic anyway that it really does seem to just offer up more of the same in terms of being a tremolo-blasting throwback with quite wonky rhythm changes. This has a habit of simply switching on a dime into rather dynamic variations within the tracks almost without any kind of warning or build-up, and the result doesn’t mesh with their intentions of blazing along these well-tread patterns. A much cleaner series of change-overs would’ve made for more dynamic material here rather than the straightforward, simplistic manner done here, which also applies to the massive eleven-plus minute epic that feels it’s weight quite often throughout it’s running time. Otherwise, this one wasn’t that bad.

With some stronger writing, which is a possible recurrence that can come with experience since this is still considered a debut release regardless of the bands’ longevity, this could become quite a fun genre offering that will still have quite a lot of appeal to fans of raw, cold-style old-school black metal or the second-wave worshippers that fall in line with the bands’ stance as well.

Score: 84/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
https://vianocturna.bandcamp.com/album/total-death-celebration