Written in Blood: September 1998

MASTER
Faith Is In Season
Pavement

I’m writing all my stuff this month sitting in a Memphis air­port, waiting for a plane. I’m head­ed back to Salt Lake after spending a week in Delaware. I saved up all of my SLUG work for my vacation thinking I would have plenty of time to get it done. Well, I spent way too much time exploring the vistas of the back of my eyelids and too much time drinking “real” beer that I didn’t get as much done as I wanted. Let’s see what we have first. This band Master pretty much blows. The music is simple and the lyrics are juvenile at best. Next… 

Earth Crisis
Breed The Killers
Roadrunner

Drastic times call for drastic mea­sures. It is this ideology that the band Earth Crisis eats (literally), sleeps, breathes and lives. Earth Crisis’s music deals with a militant­ like revolution of ideas that the band feels is necessary to sweep across the world. This revolution, according to Earth Crisis, will make each person “accountable” for their actions and also accountable for how their lives adversely affect the earth. I can’t claim to know much if anything about the straight-edge movement, but I’m pretty sure there is a deep­er meaning behind this than the “beat up the guy on the street because he’s smoking” approach (as witnessed here in Salt Lake). Wiping away the ills of society is nothing new from the Earth Crisis camp, something that is new is the band’s jump from Victory Records to Roadrunner Records. Where Victory is mainly geared towards hardcore, Roadrunner has always been known for its roster of metal. In more ways than one, this was totally appropriate. For as long as I have followed Earth Crisis (since ’94’s Destroy The Machines) this band has incorporated a heavier, more technical, more metal sound with each album. Breed The Killers is the result of a finely tuned, precision, musical attack. Crisis are the sol­diers, Breed The Killers is the weapon, and YOU are the tar­get.

DEATH
The Sound Of Perseverance
Nuclear Blast

New Death!!! The Sound of Perseverance is the album. This news is huge and this release should be in every metal lover’s CD player. I spent months reeling in pain after hear­ing Chuck Schuldiner (founding member, vocals/guitar) parted ways with the 1995 line­-up of Death after the release of Symbolic. Chuck’s plans after the disbanding of Death were to form the band Control Denied, a band that would follow an even more melodic approach than anything Chuck had done before. If I remember correctly, Warrel Dane (Nevermore/Sanctuary) was picked to sing on the album. The time didn’t feel right for a release so Chuck packed up Shannon Hamm (guitar) Scott Clendenin (bass) — both from Control Denied — scooped up drumming wizard Richard Cristy and formed the latest incarnation of Death. Although it would have seemed inconceivable that the music of Death’s could possibly improve after Symbolic, it hap­pened much to my amazement. Chuck tried out some new vocal sounds and the band’s music has evolved to new levels of musical mastery. Chuck’s solos are even getting harder to distinguish from the solos of the talent he brings in to burn up the fretboard. This is a must have.

Exhibit Eight
Black Fly

Remember these guys? I told you about them back in ’96 when they released their first CD. If there was reason to ‘take notice of E8 back then, then there is really reason to take notice now. Our progressive metal friends from Tempe, Arizona are still together and have used their practice time wisely since the last time I heard from them. E8 has developed a sound that is both unique and entices this listener into raw thoughts that Exhibit Eight may just be ready to take their music global. I’m not sure what the availability of this two song CD will be, but be on the lookout for Exhibit Eight.

Pungent Stench
Praise The Names Of The Musical Assassins

Welcome to the twisted, some­times misunderstood, often cen­sored world of Pungent Stench. This band from Vienna, Austria has pushed the limits and helped to establish the very concept of what has been labeled as extreme. Most of the Pungent Stench album covers met resistance from the law and ultimately had to be altered in some way to secure distribution. Praise the Names Of The Musical Assassins was compiled by the members of Pungent Stench and is an overview of the band’s career via unreleased and hard to find material. As with many of the grindcore bands of the time, the band’s early material took more of a raw, instinctual feel. Later material by Pungent Stench fully shows the band’s rhythmic capabilities. All of the band’s material, newer and older, had a humorous side and was probably never meant to be taken totally seriously.

The Quiet Room
Introspect
Metal Blade

I reviewed this album back in ’97 when The Quiet Room was on Dominion Records. Now Introspect is being released by Metal Blade. Everything still applies, so read it again… punk. I want to make sure I get across how incredi­bly good this release is. Only maybe one in one hundred CDs that I get impresses me as much as Introspect by The Quiet Room. Introspect is a progressive metal monster. This Denver-based six-piece display a semi-ful of technical ability, individual mas­tery of their instruments, a true understanding of song composi­tion, and the ability to tie it all together into a unique musical offering. One of the aspects of this disc that I enjoyed the most (other than the serious gun-slinging guitar solos) was the fact that this band knows the importance of keeping it heavy. I’ve seen many good bands of this caliber put too much emphasis on being dark and moody in an attempt to be artsy, and then the emo­tions that were to be conveyed are lost in all of the boob’n. This isn’t the case with The Quiet Room. I think the disc should have been titled, Introspect (…I’m Going to Whack You in ‘Yo Damn Head With a Crushing Guitar Riff or Two). —Forgach

Read more Written in Blood by John Forgach:
Written in Blood: July 1998
Written in Blood: June 1998

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