Written in Blood: Hard Music For a Hard World — June 1996

SKREW
Shadow Of Doubt
Metal Blade

The band Skrew released Shadow Of Doubt back in April. Skrew founding member Adam Grossman was a member of the now defunct band Angkor Wat (check out When Obscenity Becomes the Norm… Awake – a true classic). By Angkor Wat’s second album (and last), Corpus Christi, two original members were out, leaving all duties to the remaining three. After Corpus Christi what remained of Angkor Wat (Danny Lohner and Adam Grossman), became Skrew. Their first album incorporated many outside musicians, leaving the rest to the two founding members. Danny and Adam have since parted ways, leaving Adam at the helm. Skrew has been in a state of transition since the beginning, though it seems Adam is striving for the stability of a solid lineup. The current lineup features six members, most notably Bobby Gustafson (of Overkill fame) on guitar. The song writing seems more structured and focused this time around, while the band continues on with their fusion of industrial and metal. Skrew is currently on tour with Sacred Reich in Europe. They will be back in the U.S. in a month to do a second U.S. tour. If it’s up to Skrew, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for them to play Salt Lake. Only myself and about ten other people bothered to show up the last time they came around.

Perpetua
Irrational
Pavement

The band Perpetua, even though from Brazil, will for the most part escape the Sepultura comparisons… but let’s do it anyway, it pisses people off. Lyrically, Perpetua writes about oppression, deception, ignorance, racism, fear, – huh, sounds like Sepultura to me. Actually, other than the lyrics, the comparisons fall a little short. Perpetua is a bit heavier and a little less technical (though the boys from Sepaltura are no technical madmen themselves). There also doesn’t seem to be the influence of Brazilian music either. Overall, I like this band.

Malevolent Creation
Joe Black
Pavement

Malevolent Creation’s Joe Black is a mixture of newer material, techno/remixes, old demo stuff from 1990, and a cover of Slayer‘s “Raining Blood.” If for no other reason, I like this band because of the last time they played in Salt Lake. It was about a year ago that Malevolent came here to play with Forbidden. To make a long story short, the venue was changed at the last minute, and Malevolent ended up playing in what appeared to be someone’s garage. Forbidden didn’t show, and the night was quite a fiasco, but Malevolent played anyway. That night showed a lot about what this band is made of. The new material is right on. The techno/remix stuff is a little hokey in parts, but is still good. The demo stuff shows these boys rocked even in the formative years. Check it out.

Carcass
Swansong
Earache

What do you do when a giant falls? …. You get out of the way dumb-ass! Or, in the case of the band Carcass, you check them out. That’s right, we have lost another great metal band. Unfortunately, this past year we’ve seen the demise of the three greatest metal bands (in my opinion) of all time. Those three being Coroner, Death, and now Carcass. Apparently, Carcass was signed by Sony, recorded Swansong, and was then dropped because the recording wasn’t commercial enough… DUH. The band’s name IS Carcass. I just think the geniuses at Sony could have figured that out a little sooner. Anyway, I guess the band was just sick of getting screwed, so they packed it in. Early recordings of Carcass, such as Symphonies of Sickness and Reek of Putrefaction, were extremely raw. The lyrics were grotesque to say the least, most dealing with some body part liquidizing, eroding, collapsing, seeping, emulsifying, or just plain being smashed, stripped, or crushed. Later recordings found the band abandoning the medical terminology influence, and writing more to fit the mainstream. Along with the lyrics, the music became more refined. If you like Swansong, I strongly urge you to get a hold of Heartwork by the band. Swansong will be out on June 4.

Edge of Sanity
Crimson
Black Mark Productions

Bathory
Blood On Ice
Black Mark Productions

Fleshcrawl
Bloodsoul
Black Mark Productions

Necrophobic
Spawned By Evil
Black Mark Productions

I’m going to kill many birds with one stone in this review. Black Mark Productions scours the earth in search of the blackest of black metal. Here’s their latest offerings. 1. Edge Of Sanity, Crimson — Edge Of Sanity’s (Sweden, I think), Crimson, has only one song. That song just happens to be forty minutes long. These guys are great. The music is surprisingly complex, alternating from clean guitar passages to 110 mph, grinding assaults. 2. Bathory, Blood On Ice – Quorthon is one person in no need of an introduction in black metal circles around the world. Quorthon has unearthed tracks of his band Bathory, from recording sessions that took place around ’88-’89. BLOOD ON ICE, Quorthon’s eleventh release was out on May 28. 3. Fleshcrawl, Bloodsoul — Germany’s Fleshcrawl released their third album, Bloodsoul. The album was co-produced by Peter Tagtgren (Hipocrisy), who also appeared as a guest vocalist in spots. The final product is very full sounding. This band has two brothers on guitar — Mike and Stefan Hanus (Imagine what these boys went through growing up). 4. Necrophobic, Spawned By Evil — It says in the bio that the main factor standing in the way of Necrophobic’s success, is the fact that they just haven’t recorded enough material over the years. So what do they do? They put out an album with only four songs, three of which are covers. —Forgach

Read more Written in Blood by John Forgach from the SLUG Archives:
Written in Blood: Hard Music For a Hard World
Written in Blood: Hard Music For a Hard World