MACHINE HEAD:

• Burn My Eyes (1994) While nothing terribly new or original, this CD gets top marks in my book. The band sounds like Testament on steroids. Good powerful thrash with excellent production (Colin Richardson of Bolt Thrower fame does the producing), the sound is huge, bass heavy and clear. Every instrument is clear in the mix. But most of all, the riffs are amazing, I don't think there are any bad riffs on the whole album. A friend mentioned that the album should be called "60 Minutes of Great Riffs", and I agree totally. An amazing album, go pick it up right now.
• Old White (1995, EP) The song Old from their previous album, two live songs and a demo from their last album. The two live songs have decent production, one of them is a new song, but it's not very original. For collectors only.
• Old Yellow (1995, EP) The song Old (again), two songs off their last album remixed, and a demo song from their last album. The remixes are decent, but nothing spectacular (or particularly brutal), they are remixed as more ambient pieces as opposed to hammering techno pieces.
• The More Things Change... (1997) Well, the production is still there, but the riffs aren't quite as good as on "Burn My Eyes". However, this album is still better than most of the stuff that's currently out there. The sound is pretty much the same as on the first album, except the vocals are a bit more varied, including some more alternative style lyrics. Don't get me wrong, this is still a good album, but it's just not as good as the first one.
• Take My Scars (1997, EP) Holds the title track, a Nirvana cover, and two demo songs from the "Change..." album. Nothing terribly exciting that isn't already available on the album, since the demos sound very similar to the final recordings.
• The Burning Red (1999) An uneven ride. We've seen it before, a more "trendy" band releases an album, all the old school death guys scream it's the worst piece of trash they've ever heard, all the wannabe metalheads say it's brilliant, and I end up somewhere in between. The bands style has expanded even more, incorporating some raped lyrics, some dance beats, and more Korn'ish oddities. They've definitely drifted from pure metal to an area already exploited by Korn and Deftones. Not that that is bad necessarily. However, the result is either really heavy or else dull. The first track on the album hammers away at you with incredible force, I'm sitting here going "ya, this rocks", and then the next song hits, and the riffs never seem to go anywhere, and the whole composition seems too derived. So I guess my critique is some of the songs are great, others sound unoriginal. The production is great, very heavy and thick guitar sound, pounding mid paced drums, and a mixture of vocal styles from super angry to very mellow singing during several ballads on the album. I don't know how to place this one, that first song is just so good, and even the more mellow songs that end the album are good ambient pieces, but the brilliance just isn't as bright as it used to be. A good effort, but there's better stuff out there.
• Year Of The Dragon (2000) An EP containing "The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears" the album version, "Desire To Fire", "The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears" and "From This Day", all live tracks, and a new demo track, "New Resistance". The live tracks are good quality, clear and bass heavy. The new track really is not impressive, it's sort of an alternative, hip hop rap song, which is devoid of originality, good riffs, or pretty much anything else good. I really hope this band leaves its rap oriented new direction behind and return to their roots. Evolution is good, but there's so many better ways to evolve.
• Supercharger (2001) Well, that's two strikes for the band. Their previous album had an abundance of lighter songs, and this follow-up, while heavier overall, is just as disappointing. First, a good chunk of the vocals are sung instead of yelled, and even when yelling happens it's all street talk like "ya!" and "come-on" and "who-ah!", just one step above "yahhh boooooooyyyy!" The band has become a nu-metal posterboy, along with rapped segments and references to street gangs and repressive parents. And while a few nu-metal bands come across as genuine (like Slipknot or Deftones), this music just comes off as me-too. Maybe 12 year old boys who wear baggy pants will be into this, but it doesn't do it for me. Sorry guys, I know three strikes and you're out but I think I'll just leave the fold a little early. Good luck with the new style.
• Through The Ashes Of Empires (2004) So my original plan was not to buy this album, the band had produced 2 very subpar albums (and a number of eps, also subpar), and I had lost hope that we'd ever see something cool from the group again. Well, after a few good reviews, I happened on a site that was playing this album from beginning to end streaming on the net, and thought, what the hell, I can turn it off the moment I hear any "yoyoyoyo-booooooooeeeeyyy" influences. Well, what I got instead was probably Machine Head's best album since their classic debut "Burn My Eyes". From the opening power chord, followed quickly by military style drumming, and then to Robert Flynn screaming "Hear me now!", Yes, Robert, we hear you, and you guys don't suck any more, congrats. You have won back a listener. The songs still have a few more "singing" areas than I normally like, but overall, the thunderous guitar sound is back, the screams are back, the angry riffs and natural harmonics, fast spurts of double bass, damn it's nice to hear this stuff. Just about every song is intense as shit, and pretty darn memorable as well. Maybe getting kicked off their label for a bit did them some good and put them back in the frame of mind to do some real damage. If you gave up on this band like I had, it's time to give them another chance. Highly recommended.
• The Blackening (2007) This will actually be a pretty short review, because this album is so good, I see no reason to pick at it to death. "The Blackening", like their last one, has many of the elements that made their first album so classic. An excellent mix of angry songs, fantastic riffs, tons and tons of aggression (with just a few quiet melodic bits for variety). These are classic songs that are very memorable, powerful, and epic in length, the opener and closer of the album is well over 10 minutes. It's tough to keep a 10min song from becoming boring, but the band keeps the repetition to a minimum while giving the listener strong themes that you can latch on to. Colin Richardson again does production, so you can imagine how good this sounds. I do have one tiny issue, although it's a stupid one. It's just that the band did produce those 2 really bad albums in the middle of their career, bringing rap and hiphop elements into the music. I'm happy they stopped doing it, but there will always be a little part of me that asks whether this sort of album is truly genuine, or are they only producing albums like these because they tried to sellout and failed at doing so? But I'll do my best to quiet those voices, and just enjoy this album for what it is, an excellent metal album with great riffs, excellent songs and excellent sound. Machine Head have produced their answer to Metallica's "Master Of Puppets" or "And Justice For All". A must buy.
• Unto The Locust (2011) I really like "The Blackening", maybe not as much as some reviewers who hail the album as one of the greatest albums of all time, but there's no question it is a powerful and epic piece of metal. So of course, what do you do to follow it up? The band immediate says they don't want to make a "Blackening" Part 2, although in the end, this album is similar in a lot of ways. Long songs, 7 normal studio tracks. The opener 'I Am Hell (Sonata in C#)' is great, starts off very quiet and builds and builds and builds, getting heavier then faster, then explodes into a fantastic song. The next track 'Be Still And Know' is a nice solid song. The title track 'Locust' is good, although not necessarily the best track on the album, so if you heard that song first (since it was the first single), expect much better material to follow. 'This Is The End' another solid song with good fast parts and heavy middle riffs. Not a big fan of the beginning to 'Darkness Within', with its almost poppy beginning verses, although it grows into something much better later in the song as the whole band comes in. 'Pearls Before The Swine' ends with a fantastic riff in the same vein as the ending to 'The Frontlines'. 'Who We Are' starts with children singing, which is a bit strange, but then goes into a nice big thick metal anthem for the ages. Lots of variety here, fast song, big heavy songs, acoustic guitar, screaming, singing, and thankfully no rapping :) There's a digipack version of the CD with 3 extra tracks, 'The Sentinel' (originally from Judas Priest) has great energy too it, a really nice cover tune for the band. 'Witch Hunt' from Rush is quite an odd cover, then again, the band has done odd covers before (like 'Message In A Bottle' from The Police), as a big rush fan, it's neat hearing a very different version of the song, much heavier, the odd rhythms of the original song translate well to the heavier form of metal. And last, an all acoustic 'Darkness Within'. With this album, I really feel that Machine Head has taken over where Metallica's "...And Justice For All" ended, the band is by far the best example of taking old school thrash and bringing it to the modern audience. Highly recommended, this album will make all "Blackening" fans happy.
• Bloodstone & Diamonds (2014) Another super solid album. Lots of heavy parts, lots of quiet parts, thrashy stuff, guitar squawks, all of the things we've come to expect from the band. Talk about a long album, this is 12 songs and many of the songs are 7-8 minutes long. Many of the songs are soon to be classics, with lots of juicy riffs. I also feel Robb's singing has gone up a notch with this release, a good example is the song "Game Over", where his lyrical delivery transcends "I'm yelling because that's what a metal vocalist does" to sounding truly pissed off. If you've dug the bands last few albums, you will love this one as well, so go pick it up.
• Catharsis (2018)
  

• Condemn the Rising (1995, Demo)
• Demo '98 (1998, Demo) Four songs off of their upcoming release, "Dead To The World". Malamor combines a more traditional Morbid Angel-like death metal approach with a powerful slam / groove oriented vibe. But it's the riffs that really make this demo. They're brutal, aggressive, and surprisingly original, not in an experimental kind of way, it's just the rhythms and chord progressions are really well thought out and performed. The sound quality is good, clear with lots of bass. If this demo is any indication of what the new album is like, I'd have to say the new album will be well worth owning.
• Dead To The World (2004) It's hard to believe, but yes, it's been 7 years since the band recorded this material, and now it's finally released. I sure hope they don't wait another 7 years, because I'd love to hear this band do a new cd with modern production. It includes the 4 songs from the demo, and 4 other songs recorded at the same time (all really good), see my demo review for details. Then we have 1 new track from 2004, which actually sounds pretty similar in production to the demo, except the guitars have a slightly more entombed crunch to them. Then a cover of Death's 'Suicide Machine' from 1999 which is actually pretty fun, since they change some parts of the song to have a more Malamor groove to them instead of following the song perfectly. Productionwise, this cd is a little soft, you'll have to pump up the volume a bit to get a better impact, but the sound is otherwise good. This is a must buy for the first 8 tracks, again, I hope they follow this up soon with a whole new album of super killer material.
  

• The Ten Commandments (1991) Sounds like a cross between Retribution and any slayer album except the riffs aren't as good. But decent for a first album, other great death metal bands have certainly had weaker first releases then this. Good production, sounds a little like Suffocation's "Effigy of the Forgotten" sound-wise.
• Retribution (1992) An excellent album. Lots of bass, lots of double kicks, really strong and well written riffs. The production is a bit fuzzy.
• Stillborn (1993) Although I really don't like the production on this album, the songs are still well written (especially the first three tunes), and have some very inventive riffs. The drumming is great, but I wish they sounded a bit more menacing.
• Eternal (1995) A strong album with excellent riffs, much better production than their last album, and some of the best and fastest drumming I've ever heard. Alas, the drummer has left the band and joined Suffocation, but during a show in Montreal, I was speaking to Phil (the guitar player) and he said that he needed a faster drummer. If the drummer has left the band, I can only assume it's because Phil has found a faster one.
• Joe Black (1996) A mixed bag of music, three new tracks, three remixes, three demo songs, and a cover of Slayer's Raining Blood. The three new tracks are really good (especially the title track), the production and the musicians are the same as on "Eternal". The remixes suck, but the demos are sort of interesting. It's not too expensive, I'd suggest getting it for at least the first three songs.
• In Cold Blood (1997) This year seems to be a good year for metal. "In Cold Blood" has all the good things we've come to expect from Malevolent Creation, such as hyper-fast blastbeats, brutal tremolo picking, and lots of chunk, but it adds amazing production to the list. The sound is much heavier and lower than previous albums, and crystal clear. The riffs are still great as well. It's the Malevolent we all remember, except more aggressive (yes, it is possible). There's no excuse for not owning this album.
• The Fine Art Of Murder (1998) This album united all the elements. Rob Barrett and Brett Hoffman, who were famous for their performances on "Retribution" (possibly the bands best album), had returned to the band. And super-drummer Dave Culross had jumped in at the last minute to record the drum tracks. So now, all that was left was to see what they came up with. The material on this album is not bad, but it just didn't live up to my expectations. Several songs are fucking killer (usually the faster songs, the first track 'To Die Is At Hand' is amazing), but about half the songs on the album too slow and not heavy enough (if you go for slow, you have to be heavy to retain the aggression), and the riffs are too simple with lots of quarter notes being tremolo picked. The production is clear, but the guitar tone has way too much bass with no high end at all, and so sounds muffled. The drum production is amazing though, each hit is completely clear and in your face (hey, it's Dave), although I think a few more fills here and there would have been good to break up the usual blasting. I think all in all, I found this album to be a little lackluster, not as intense or brutal as the band usually is. Mind you, this is, I repeat, not a bad album, there are moments where it's fantastic, but after their killer last album, and after all the hopes that the new lineup brought, it's just missing something. Check it out, try a variety of the songs and see what you think.
• Manifestation (2000, BestOf) A 2 cd set, the first contains 16 tracks from their previous releases (some good songs, many songs I never liked and don't know why the band would put them on this album. Also of note, no tracks from "Stillborn" appear on "Manifestation", probably since the band isn't terribly fond of that album). The second CD contains 15 minutes of live music (4 tracks) and 15 minutes of live video footage in quicktime format (4 songs) from their show in Los Angeles last year. I was actually at this show, it was good then, it's good now, although the mix only gets a 7 on 10, it needs a bit more bass. I also make a brief 2 second appearance in the crowd if you look carefully. Speaking of the crowd, I do wish they had gotten into the music a bit more, but you still get to watch 15 minutes of reasonably high quality compressed video footage of the band thrashing about. If you haven't gotten anything from the band before, I'd suggest investing instead in Eternal, Retribution and In Cold Blood, I just think several great songs are missing from this compilation, and several not so great songs made it on, so the first cd won't get much play in my stereo. But if you're a fan, you'll probably enjoy the half hour of live material.
• Envenomed (2000) Pretty much a repeat of Fine Art Of Murder, but with better riffs. The songs tend to be faster this time, and while no particular songs tend to leap out as a complete master piece, they are high quality all the way through. Again, sound wise, the production sucks big time, they need Scott Burns back (from "In Cold Blood"), the guitar tone sound really thin, no bass at all. Fastest drums on the planet with Dave Culross again (well, flo's faster, but Dave is a close second, and has a much louder snare). If you want some straight ahead death metal with few frills but solid riffs, check this out, or the new hateplow. A definitely improvement over their last effort, hope they choose to get an outside producer next time around.
• Envenomed II (2000) Not being a huge fan of the original album, I wasn't sure if the 3 bonus tracks was enough reason to get the album again. But, ah, what the hell. The first bonus track is a Dark Angel cover, and has much better production than the album itself (more bass and not as nasaly sounding). The next two songs are re-recordings of songs from the band's earlier demos (again, with the better production). Both are good songs. As far as whether you should buy this album or not, let me put it this way. The band's "Joe Black" EP has 3 extra songs from the "Eternal" sessions, and those are so good that you really have to buy the album. While these extra songs are good as well, I don't feel my life has changed in any substantial way from hearing them. So my advice is if you don't have Envenomed yet, buy this version, since the production on the 3 bonus songs is better than the album IMO. But otherwise, this is not a must buy.
  
• The Will To Kill (2002) Ah, finally!!!! After a 2 album hiatus the old Malevolent Creation is back! As well as great songs, the production is finally back up to par. While the distortion is not quite as razor sharp as "In Cold Blood", the bass has returned to the mix, the guitar is clear with plenty of high and low end, overall the production is similar in sound to the newest Hate Plow CD (which is a good thing). Speaking of which, Kyle (of Hate Plow) has replaced Brett Hoffman on vocals, so it looks like guitarist / founder Phil Fasciana is consolidating the two bands into one tight unit, which is fine by me, better to have one kick ass band than split your efforts over two. As well as Brett getting kicked out, Dave Culross is no longer drumming for the band, but newcommer Justin DiPinto does a great job, blasting with the best of them. The standard Malevolent Creation song style is here, a little more song driven than the simplified blast fest of Hate Plow. The album, as well as the fast parts, has some really excellent low chunky riffs, for example, 'Divide and Conquer' is just sickeningly heavy, really slow thick guitar stuff with fast double bass underneath. What more do ya need? Also of note a couple of solos from James Murphy, nice to see him back and doing what he loves to do. Overall, an excellent album.
• Warcult (2004) After a return to glory on their last album, the band slips a little bit backwards again with "Warcult", several listens and the tunes just aren't really sticking with me. Also, the production is a little muffled again. And the guitar tone, well, lets say it's a fine line between buzzsaw and nasally, and this swings too far to the nasally area. Overall it's not a bad album, there's still some good riffs here and there, but it lacks that magical spark that makes it worth more than a listen or two. This album also is the return of drummer Dave Culross, who's amazing as usual, but speed can't help "ok" songs. Kinda disappointing I'm afraid, try before you buy.
• Conquering South America (2004, Live) 15 song live concert from the band on their "Will To Kill" Tour. First off, productionwise, there's basically no bass to be found in any of these songs, and the sound is very dry with no reverb of any kind, which sort of takes it out of the "professional" live recording category and plops it into the "Very clear bootleg" category, so consider yourself warned. Also, the crowd is mixed very, very low, so when Kyle yells something like "lets fucking hear it!" and you can't actually hear anything from the crowd. Anyways, despite these two big problems, I still have to admit I really enjoyed this concert a lot, probably because they play a lot of songs off "Eternal" and "Retribution", my favorite two Malevolent Creation albums. In fact, these two albums make up for more than 50% of the songs on this cd. A few more of their classics from their other albums may have been good as well, a few from Stillborn would have been awesome (the band's most underrated album, IMO). And you just gotta love when the band plays a really fast song, and then the vocalist yells "ok, these next two songs are dedicated to those of you who like fast songs." Wasn't that last one a fast song? Guess not. So plenty of great songs, including 'Eve Of The Apocalypse', 'Blood Brothers', Slaughter Of Innocence', 'Monster', 'Alliance Or War', 'Infernal Desire' and 'Living Terror'. I don't know, I just seem to dig this album from a "so raw it's fun" perspective, and I suppose if it had perfect production it would have nothing to make it any different than a studio album, so I'll give it the thumbs up.
• Doomsday X (2007) Eek! My god this production is bad. A lot of ups and downs with this band, and unfortunately, Malevolent Creation celebrates their 10th album with a down. I just don't understand how someone can release an album that sounds this muffled. Easily the worst mix the band has ever had, with almost no bass and almost no high end from the guitars. Songwise, the band fairs better. A few songs are a bit derivative, like 'Culture Of Doubt' almost perfectly copies the main riff from their song 'Alliance Or War', and 'Bio-Terror' has exactly the same song structure and similar sounding riffs to 'Tasteful Agony'. Faster songs like 'Hollowed' and 'Unleash Hell' are impressive. Despite its derivative nature, 'Bio-Terror' starts with some nice doublebass and a good long scream. The first single 'Deliver My Enemy' is probably the best song on the album. I don't know. A few of these songs are good, but a few are filler, and the production is bad. I'll leave the call to you. But the band has certainly produced better work.
• Live At The Whisky A Go Go (2008, Live) Another bootleg from the band, this time from 1999 at the Whisky in LA. The main reason I bought this was because I actually attended this show (see the concert review section for the review). As I mentionned in my concert review, they mostly play stuff off of "Fine Art Of Murder" and "Retribution", and a few from "Eternal". The sound quality is decent for a bootleg, not quite as top heavy as their "Conquering South America" live album was, it's slightly more muffled but you can still hear all the instruments fine. This album also contains many of the same songs from that other live bootleg, so expect a lot of overlap. I'd have to say this will only be loved by die hard Malevolent fans, but if you're one of 'em, you'll find plenty to enjoy on this CD.
• Invidious Dominion (2010) Thankfully, the bad production from their last album is nowhere to be found. Not that the production is as great as their "In Cold Blood" album (which to me is the pinnacle of the band's sound), but at least it's not muffled anymore, and has some power to it (A little more bass guitar in the mix would have been good). Songwise, it's soso. I just haven't been impressed with their tunes for awhile now. There just aren't enough riffs that really grab my attention, it's all stuff that sounds pretty similar to stuff they've done before. The overall vibe of the album is great, but they need those little hooks that make you look up from whatever you're doing and go "That's cool". The only thing that I really liked are the vocals, they seem to have some of the bite back from the band's earlier material. Again, I have to give this album another soso review, worth checking out, but I doubt I'll be listening to it much in the future.
• Australian Onslaught (2010, Live CD)
• Australian Onslaught (2010, Live DVD)
• Dead Man's Path (2015) Intense album with a better second half. First the good, the sound on this album is the best the band has had in years, it's got a great scooped sound, and really thick, not sure if they did tons of overdubs or what but the guitar sound has a lot of weight to it, like a guitar army. Then the vocals, the drums, everything just has some extra intensity and anger to it. Now the bad stuff, the first half of the album is kinda filler material. Lots of so-so riffs repeated again and again in a pretty standard "Verse Chorus, Verse Chorus" structure. The good stuff begins with track 5, 'Blood of the Fallen', which has a nice fast tremolo picked beginning, and a nice breakdown in the middle with a super heavy riff. Followed quickly by 'Resistance Is Victory', which is super fast all the way through. The album closer is another fast one, 'Face Your Fear', which has some really classic riffs (although one of them is a little reminiscent of Krisiun's 'Endless Madness Descends') and a great ending that will surely get lots of audience participation at live shows. Perfect way to close an album. So in short, the first half doesn't grab me, but the second half is excellent and makes the album worth it.
• The 13th Beast (2019) Malevolent Creation are at it again. First off, this album has the best production of all their modern albums. A really great mix of low and high end, very reminiscent of "In Cold Blood" (their best sounding album IMO). But how are the songs? The answer is decent. While their earlier albums had a lot of 10/10s, and their more recent albums have been a bit of a mixed bag, this album is all solid 8s. I, of course, wish there were more songs with those "fuck ya" moments, but I am overall impressed with the consistency this album achieves. If you're a fan of the band, there's plenty to love here, and it's highly enjoyable, so I'd say grab a copy.

• Malefic Throne (2022, EP) A death metal super group consisting of guitarist Gene Palubicki (Angelcorpse), vocalist/bassist Steve Tucker (Morbid Angel), and drummer John Longstreth (Origin, ex-Angelcorpse). The result is basically a combination of Angelcorpse and Krisiun. The double bass and blasting on this one is pretty insane even for John's standards, I'm pretty sure this shows him going faster than he's ever gone before, really showcasing that heel-toe technique. Tucker does his usual growling, and Gene pretty much does fast tremolo picking the whole time, along with some sick solos reminiscent of Morbid Angel. The sound quality is a little rough, it sounds like some of Angel Corpse's early albums without a ton of bass, but what it lacks in bass power is makes up for in ferocity and in nostalgia for that late 80s death metal sound. Its like getting to hear Morbid Angel's first album all over again, but totally different songs at speeds that the 1980s couldn't even dream of. Overall a really fun EP, looking forward to their upcoming full length.
  

• Eaten Out From Within (1993, Demo)
• Rehearsal Demo Tape (1994, Demo)
• Rehearsal Demo Tape (New Members) (1996, Demo)
• Ignorance Is Bliss (1997, Demo)
• Promo CD (1998, Promo)
• Intrauterine Cannibalism (1999) Basically this is the new benchmark for gargly, belching death. No, that's not quite right, I'm looking for that sound a person would make if they vomited their lower intestine. Well, you get the picture. This music isn't gurgly in the same way Disgorge is, in fact this vocalist is slightly (but not by much) higher than Matti Way, it's more like the entire band gurgles. Very thick production, lots of overdubs, usually I'd take away some points for having so much low end with very little high end, but in this case, it sorta becomes it's own style, so I'll just say go with it. Otherwise, lots of blasting, time signatures change very frequently, low chugging riffs mixed with spastic bursts of tremolo picking. You know the drill. Worth a listen.
• Motivated By Hunger (2000, EP) Noisy grindcore band from New York. The violent spirit of this band is unquestionable, the music is blindingly fast, the lyrics are low and completely unintelligible. I don't think a band can get much more garbled and extreme then this band does. And when you listen closely, you'll see the riffs are pretty cool too, sort of like Deeds Of Flesh but a little more straight forward, the only thing this band needs to work on is production quality. The sound has too much bass compared to the high end, but it sorta works, maybe they might consider adding some high end with their next release, like Nasum who in my opinion have this nice bassy but still razor sharp sound. Otherwise, a fine release. 5 new tracks, and one bonus live track.
• Ignorance Is Bliss "The Malignancy Demos" (2001, EP)
• Frailty of the Human Condition (2002, Split)
• Cross Species Transmutation (2003, EP) 7 new tracks of mayhem, the usual stuff, very fast blasting followed by very, very slow sludgy riffs. Great stuff, fantastic riffs, same problem I've always had with the band, the production is too bass heavy and muffled, but I'm tired of discussing that, really I am, so just enjoy the carnage, and buy it, buy it now!!!
• Inhuman Grotesqueries (2007) No surprises here, lots of low gargled vocals, guitar squawks, random time signatures and complex drumming. The songs are still patchworks of barely related riffs, and I feel the band lost a little of that bass they had on previous albums (although the treble is at a good level this time). If you dug their other albums, you'll probably enjoy this one too.
• Eugenics (2012) New release after a 5 year break. Again, very similar to their last album in terms of overall style. The production quality is vastly improved on this one though, head and shoulders above the lackluster production on "Inhuman Grotesqueries". Yes, the bass is back, but it doesn't overwhelm things like it did in some of their earliest releases. Otherwise, you know what you're getting into, certainly enjoyable, although still a little too random in terms of songwriting for my taste.
• Malignant Future (2016, EP) Short 3 song EP. Actually a bit of a departure for the band. Many of the core elements are still there, like the weird bent squawks, but the bass is gone again, and the guitar sound is super clear and razor sharp. They seem to have simplified the songs a bit too. It's not the riffs per say, they remain complex, and there's still plenty of blasting in the drums, but the song structures seem a little more straight forward, a little more followable. I do like aspects of these changes, stronger song structure makes things more memorable. But I think I preferred the more bassy production of "Eugenics". Anyways, we'll see what they do for their next full length. At 3 songs, this album is fine to grab if you happen to see it around, but not a must have.
• Discontinued (2024) After almost a decade, the masters of crazy random technical death metal are back. And in short, if you've loved this band, they have everything you're looking for in spades on this album. All the crazy chaotic riffs are here, the time signature changes, the inhuman speed, the squawks, ohh the squawks! And probably their best mix the band has ever had, with plenty of bass, treble, and tight as fuck. Yes, I might prefer songs that have a little more coherency, but the impressive feat of this band playing music this crazy complex in complete unison just brings a smile to my face, especially after so many years off. Fans will just ooze over this release, highly recommended!
  

• Foul Play (2005) Some good old-school thrash with death metal style vocals from Australia. Ok, doesn't sound like the winning combination on paper necessarily, but this is a really kickass album. The songs are the key. Lots of good riffs to keep the ear enthralled, good song structure and a sharp guitar tone. Production is decent but a little quiet. It kinda works though, the stripped down sound makes you feel like the band is in the room with you jamming. The album ends with a cover of Megadeth's 'Liar', which is well done, and may give you some idea of the overall vibe the band is going for. This is a short album at 31 minutes long (this is more of a promotional disc than a full length album), but worth grabbing if you happen by it. Can't wait for the first full length.
  

• ...Start Killing (2004) A cross between Dying Fetus / Cryptopsy and Kataklysm / Neuraxis (Obscenity may be another good comparison). The band can be a little two sided at times, the first side (the far better side, and fortunately more often used side) involves plenty of fast machinegun blasting, double bass, fast picked thrashy and tremolo based riffs (and the riffs are guuuuud), but then the other side involves "melodic" harmonized guitar stuff which personally I think distract from the otherwise harsh riffs which the band seems far better at. Vocals are mid-range hardcore / death metal style vocals. Production is loud and well mixed, Jean-Francois Dagenais of Kataklysm produces this album. Overall, when the band is angry, the band is great, when the band goes for the melodic stuff, it's just not quite there, hopefully they concentrate on the furious stuff on future albums.
• The Human Condition (2007) Not as good as their debut, but still decent. First, the production is lacking bass, the last cd had a really nice scooped sound going on, whereas this is far more trebely, and you don't hear much bass at all. Second, there's still plenty of "melodic" parts, which I discussed in my review of their first album. I'm sure some people dig this stuff, but I really don't, and I feel it interrupts the flow of otherwise good songs. Yes, variety is good to break up monotony, but this sort of variety just does nothing for me. The fast blasting and chunky parts are still top notch, and highly enjoyable. A try before you buy.
• No Tolerance For Imperfection (2009) Fantastic release. The band upped the intensity of the blasting bits, and toned down the melodic parts. The great production is back, and the riffs are just killer. Everytime you think you hear a cool riff, the next one is even better, all the way through the album. Totally memorable and brutal. Skip their second album, but this is a must buy.
• Peace Was Never an Option (2013) After their last album where they were a lean, mean modern explosive death metal machine, this one hearkens back a bit more to their "Human Condition" days. So all of the elements are still here, hyper blasting and double bass, fast tremolo picked guitars, etc, but the songs are a little simpler and again contain more of the melodic bits that I just don't care about. The bass is also missing in the mix again. So as you can tell, this was a bit of a let down, especially since their last album was one of my favorite albums of that year. It's not all bad, the opening riff to 'The Day I Died' is cool, and there are other highlights, but there's too much material that I just find unmemorable. Decent, but they can do better.
• Gagging Order (2019, EP) After a long break, Man Must Die is back with a 6 song EP. The first 4 tracks are brand new material, and it sort of finds itself half way between their last 2 albums. So a little more pure brutality than "Peace" but a little more melody than "No Tolerance". While not as instantly classic as "No Tolerance", overall I think the song writing is decent, especially tracks 1, 2 and 4, and the mix is an improvement. The last 2 tracks are a Extreme Noise Terror Cover, and a cover of SOD's 'Milk', I love that song, so hearing a death metal version with ridiculous blasting and death growls about wanting to drink milk brought a big smile to my face. Tough to find, but I'd say pick this up.
• The Pain Behind It All (2023) Some highs and lows on this one. The first full track (after a short intro) is a super fast brutal song you'd expect off of "No Tolerance". But then the next track is almost industrial in nature, with a more straight forward beat repeated again and again with a standard structure. Not the high point of the album. Then track 4 and 5 we're back to the crazy energetic stuff with machinegun double bass and tremolo picking. the 5th track "ClickHate" is particularly vicious, a great song! Then track 6 is back to something slower with a little more melody to it. Again, not so much my thing. Then it's back to the craziness. I'm sure you see the pattern. Thankfully the faster material is more common than the slower stuff, and so I can definitely recommend picking up the album, but for me, when they dig too far into the slow melodic stuff, it just doesn't grab me. I'm glad they're trying to add variety, but I think there's better sorts of variety they could explore. Check this out and see what you think, I think the faster songs are well worth the price.
  

• Hopeless Hopes (1997) Another local band (Quebec). Very technical melodic death metal, with lots of high end alternate picking, and decent drumming. Some good riffs, although there are some ascending scale based riffs that the songs could do without. The production is clear, though very top heavy, not much bass at all. A decent album, but nothing new.
• Warp Zone (2000) A big improvement over their last album. Lets see, they have weird time signatures like Meshuggah, complex rhythms and song structure like Theory In Practice, progressive melodies like Death, some calm bits that sound like Fred Throdendal's Special Defects, the guitar tone of Obliveon's "Nemesis". With a list like this, you'd expect me to trash the cd for being unoriginal, but ya know, listening to it again and again, I just can't say anything bad about it. There are just so many areas where I had to hit the backwards button to hear a really nice hook or killer riff. The vocals are somewhere between death and thrash, the production is excellent, very clear and with enough bass, the drumming is very complex, changing time signatures sometimes every bar, and very nice clear doublekicks (obviously triggered). And as I said, the songs are great, with lots of amazing moments, as well as decent song structure that makes each song unique and memorable. Very impressive, they're 99% on their way to having their own style, and I'll be very interested in hearing what the band plans to do in the future.
• Extracting The Core (2001, LiveCD) A live album released after only two studio albums? The bands choice of releasing a live album so early in their career confused me from the outset, but hell, the band is really tight, and I was interested in hearing if they could pull the songs off live. And that's exactly what they did, playing incredibly complex riffs with robotic precision, almost ridiculously so, I mean, these riffs are totally tight and clean, I wonder if they did any overdubs? Anyways, if you liked their last album, here's a chance to hear most of it live, with 3 songs from their debut album as well, great production from the soundboard with a little crowd thrown in. Does everyone need this album? Probably not, since their live performance is so similar to the performance on their albums, but it's still cool.
• Feeding the Abscess (2006) The thing about their last CD (has it been 6 years already?) was that it was great the first time you listened to it, and it only got better with each subsequent listen. The thing that's great about this cd is it's heading in the exact same direction. We may have a late entry into my top 10 list. Martyr just plays some of the best technical death / thrash, their playing is incredibly clean and precise, their riffs are complex and inventive, everything about this album screams quality. No big surprises compared to their last CD, if anything their chops are even better, and I enjoyed the addition of a few "joke" riffs here and there, like subtle passages from the Starwars score in the song 'Lost In Sanity'. Also, a few songs have some interludes using violins in an unusual fashion. The album is both fun, creative, and masterfully played. This CD is a must buy.
• Havok In Quebec City (2008, DVD) Possibly the best recorded metal concert I've ever seen. They just nail everything. The camerawork is perfect, you get to see all the instruments, you get lots of angles, the camera switches at an appropriate pace. When a musician has a solo, the camera focuses on them instead of elsewhere. The sound is equally perfect, you can hear every nuance of every instrument perfectly, and it still has plenty of power. And finally the performance itself is perfect, a good set of songs, about 72 minutes long. Crazy, crazy guitar work, some of the things they do with their hands, especially some really long fretting finger stretches, are just spectacular. And I don't think I ever really realized how complex the drumming was until I saw it for myself. Holy fuck, this guy is probably one of the best drummers I have ever seen, he's like a human octopus. Hell, there's even a bit where in the middle of a complex fill he tightens one of his cymbal clamps and continues the fill without missing a beat. The album also comes with some bonus songs from various concerts and an hour long documentary that goes over every detail of the band's history (it's in french, but with english subtitles). Really enjoyed the documentary, they get into a lot of details about song writing that most bands never get into. I'd say most DVDs that come across my desk get a single view, but this DVD is definitely something I'll watch again and again. Perfect performance, perfect package, a must buy.
  

• From Beyond (1991) Nothing like their later album, this stuff is pretty standard thrash / death metal from the early 90s. Good drumming, decent riffs, good production, similar in style to Benediction or Napalm Death or any of the other Earache bands releasing stuff at that time. A good quality album.
• Inhuman Condition (1992, EP) 3 new tracks and a Venom cover. Very similar in style to last year's full length, the first two new tracks are ok, but the EP closer is really excellent, it has great energy and really tasty hooks. Buy the last track at least for sure.
  
• Promise (1996) This album is slow stuff. They have some nice riffs, nice chunk here and there, much more atmospheric than in-your-face death metal. The vocals are a mixture of standard death vocals, mixed with recited lyrics. This album grows on me with each listen, so you might want to check these guys out if you want something a little more laid back without going straight to doom metal.

This band has spent pretty much their entire lives in Metallica's shadow (mainly because Megadeth's founder Dave Mustaine left Metallica right before recording their first album). This sort of comparison isn't really fair, Megadeth has always had a different vision than Metallica.

• Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good (1985) The other part of Metallica going off on his own. It's somewhere between metal and angry blues, with Jazz influenced solos. The songs are catchy in their own way, and memorable, but I think the riffs are a little more original sounding and less monotonous on their next album. Clear production, but not as brutal as today's stuff.
• Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? (1986) Great song writing, great solos, ok production. I wish these guys had more bottom end to their music, it would probably improve the music 100%.
• So Far, So Good...So What! (1988) Better production than their last album, good songs. Nothing super spectacular.
• Rust In Peace (1990) Their best album. The song writing is just right, and the lineup has finally become finalized with Marty Friedman on guitar and Nick Menza on drums. Marty's elegant, technical style is a good counterpoint to Dave's sloppy, aggressive solos.
• Countdown To Extinction (1992) Still some heavy songs, but not as fast and furious as Rust In Peace.
• Youthanasia (1994) A kinder, gentler Megadeth. No thank you. The CD has some ok songs, but I think their relevance to the metal scene is in serious question.
• Hidden Treasures (1994, EP) Lots of goodies from soundtracks and previously unreleased material. You should probably pick it up, it does have "Go to Hell", a really great song that originally appeared on "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey".
• Cryptic Writings (1997) Well, there was a lot of hype that this album showed Megadeth going back to their roots, but when all was said and done, the album just doesn't cut it. It has some faster tracks similar to their "Rust in Peace" days, but the aggression just isn't there. Most of the album sounds like Youthanasia. Not as bad as the new Metallica, but there are better places to put your money such as Meshuggah, Fear Factory or Strapping Young Lad.
• Risk (1999)
• The World Needs a Hero (2001)
  
• The System Has Failed (2004) A few good reviews peaked my interest, and I decided to pick up a new Megadeth album after a 7 year hiatus (my hiatus, not the bands). And overall I'm pretty happy with the purchase. The album starts off with this good pumping rhythm powered by a low alternate picked guitar riff and some good midpaced doublebass work, and remains reasonably heavy all the way through. The second track was a ballad that was sort of boring, but then tracks 3 'Kick The Chair' has this cool 'Take No Prisoners' from "Rust In Peace" sort of feel to it (and a few other songs also have riffs that are reminiscent of that landmark album). Most of songs remain heavy and mid paced (nothing too fast unfortunately), and also there are a few memorable and catchy vocal parts (memorable in that they're good, not memorable for being stinky). A few songs are filler, usually the slower, lighter and overly preachy ones, and just don't interest me, but I do feel the good outweighs the bad. While the band hasn't returned to their former glory of "Rust In Peace", or even their great days of "Countdown to Extinction", they're once again producing unsucky music, and I have to admit it's nice to hear some Megadeth again after such a long time, call me nostalgic if you wish. I hope Dave can continue down the path of heaviness perhaps to another classic album one of these days.
• United Abominations (2007)
• Endgame (2009)
  
• Rust In Peace Live (2010) As advertised, for the 20th anniversary of the band's classic "Rust In Peace" album, the latest incarnation of the group (with only original members Dave Mustaine and Dave Ellefson left) performs the entire album for a sold out audience in Los Angeles. The sound is excellent, the songs are just different enough to make them interesting while true enough to the originals to avoid complaints from the purists. They even left a few flubbed notes in there, so I assume there were no studio overdubs after the fact. Not being a fan of more recent Megadeth albums, I don't know Shawn Drover or Chris Broderick, but they do a decent job of pounding out the tunes. Although I still would have loved seeing Nick Menza and Marty Friedman complete the original lineup (even if only for this show), especially Marty, his guitar playing has a very specific sound to it, it's something that I do miss, even though the skilled Chris Broderick does his best to make me forget. After the main show, they perform 6 songs off other albums, I think they did a good job choosing 6 other songs to perform, with a good mix from all eras of the band. Overall, I really enjoyed the album, and it's worth it if you love the original "Rust In Peace" like I do.
• Rust In Peace Live (2010 DVD/Blu-ray) See my review of the CD for the general concert review. Overall the video is great, the picture quality is excellent, the camerawork is good with a nice pace to the switching. I do wish they'd stuck with the solos more, instead of watching the crowd when we should be watching Dave or Chris' fingers. Also, a small knit, I always liked when Dave and Marty did the dueling guitars in 'Hangar 18', in this version, Dave and Chris are in two completely different parts of the stage, which isn't as fun or intense. In general, well worth the cash.
• Thirteen (2011)
• Super Collider (2013)
• Dystopia (2016)
  

• Abject Offerings (1992) Straight ahead death metal. The sound is a little weak, the production could be better, but I always thought the guitar sound was distinct (it's really impossible to describe without hearing it). All in all, a good album for fans of a more straight ahead death metal style.

A band that is truly redefining metal. Starting where Metallica left off, Meshuggah uses strange time-signatures, detuned guitars, crystal clear guitar sound and almost robotic accuracy to show us a future where machines rule, and humans are expendable.

• Psykisk Provbilb (1989, EP)
• Contradictions Collapse (1991) A very complex album. Lots of time signature changes, strange riffs, super chunky sound. The songs are very complex, comparable to anything Metallica was putting out during the Justice days.
• Demo '93 (1993, Demo) Pre-album versions of "Gods Of Rapture", "Inside What's Within Behind" and "Soul Burn". A very rare demo.
• None (1994, EP) The definitive example of Meshuggah's sound. Strange time signatures, the most brutally devastating sound ever. Samples, keyboards, you'll have to peal yourself off the wall once you've heard this.
• Self Caged (1995, EP) An EP with songs from their upcoming second album. Meshuggah really likes releasing variations on a song, it also has a live version of "Gods Of Rapture", not to mention the second of three completely different versions of "Inside What's Within Behind".
• Destroy Erase Improve (1995) Ok, this is about as close to a perfect album as you can get. Devastating sound, incredibly tight, very space age, focused, and precise. Amazing riffs. Out of this world time signatures. You must buy this album!! No, no, you're not listening to me, you MUST buy this album!
• The True Human Design (1997, EP) Lots of variety on this EP. It starts with a new Meshuggah tune, pretty standard stuff (which means it's great), then a perfectly executed live performance of Future Breed Machine, then a violent techno remix of the same song (Fear Factory could learn a thing or two from this tune), then a really strange acoustic happy version of the same song, and finishes with two ambient techno tunes. Also included is a video you can view on your computer of Transfixion, which is ok. A good buy for any Meshuggah fan, can't wait for the new album next year.
• Contradictions Collapse DigiPack (1997) A reissue of Meshuggah's first album along with the first 4 tracks off of "None".
• Chaosphere Promo (1998, Promo) I've been putting off reviewing this promo because the final album will be remixed and changed a bit, but I've finally decided to review the promo and write a second review when the album actually comes out. Meshuggah have definitely evolved a bit, while still retaining their trademark sound. Gone are the melodies, the standard metal song structures, and some of the variety. Instead, this album hits you for a good hour with riffs repeated again and again in a much more industrial fashion. While the repetitive nature of the riffs does sometimes leads to the album being a bit static, it never gets boring for a second. And the album never lets up for a second, hitting you with wave after wave of audio-carnage. As the title alludes to, it's controlled chaos. The band is more in synch with each other than ever before, simpler riffs made up of the same note being hammered out repeatedly in various complex rhythm patterns (The songs are similar in style to, say, "Suffer In Truth" from their last album). The sound is huge, although noisier than on previous releases. This makes the album a little more raw, but unquestionably brutal. And the solos are processed all to hell, and serve as another layer of noise to add to the already formidable wall of sound that thrashes you for the entirety of the record. Only one song, an acoustic song reminiscent of 'Acrid Placidity' changes the pace of the album (the song is called 'Unanything'), and I'm told this song will be left off the final version. An interview with the band states that this album is about anger, what with all the turmoil in the band over the past few years. And they'll get back to more melodic territory on future releases. All in all, this is a killer album, it's slightly different from other albums, but repeated listening will definitely win you over.
• Chaosphere (1998) Not a whole lot to add here. They removed one song (the only quiet, calm song on the album), so now it's straight through straight for the throat. The production has been improved, some of the fuzziness and noise is gone, it's a little tighter (much closer to the sound on DEI), but it still retains that chaotic element.
• Rare Trax (2001, EP) A 10 song EP of rare material from the band (and some extra bonus mpeg video trax of live stuff and videos). Most of the tracks are a lot of old demos of songs off of Contradiction Collapse, it also includes the rare Psykisk Provbilb EP from 89. It unfortunately does not include their great 93 demo. The songs are fun on this EP, but really only for hard-core fans. The only song I think will attract some attention is track 1, 'War', which is a more recently recorded track, and it's some scary combination of Meshuggah and Strapping Young Lad. The ultra-fast electronic blastbeats actually damaged my eardrums (really). Very cool. I'll be very interested in hearing their new album if the tracks turn out like that song. Actually, I'll be interested in hearing their new album no matter what direction it takes.
• Nothing (2002) I keep jumping back and forth, how do I approach reviewing this album? In many respects, this is like how I felt when Gorguts released their "Obscura" album, this album is so different I just don't know how to feel about it. The only certainty is this album is ahead of its time. To start, the band is using 8 string guitars, yes, it really does go that low, the first few bars of the 1st song will certainly let you know Meshuggah have reached a new level of lowness. Not sure if the bass player is still an octave lower than the guitars, he might be playing at the same level now (isn't that a scary thought). While certainly not Chaosphere, the songs do tend to follow a similar "repeated riff" formula, with complex riffs repeating again and again, and I guess that's my main problem with the album, the repetitive nature of the songs is just a little too much. All the songs remain pretty slow or mid paced as well, with very little to break the pattern up (i.e., no calm bits and no faster bits). So all the songs blend together instead of having cohesive single songs that are memorable on their own. Ok, now that I've gotten that off my chest, on to the good stuff. This album is fucking sickeningly heavy, as well as tight as fuck with almost no reverb at all (the noisy spacyness of Chaosphere is nowhere to be found). And Fred does some great spacy pseudo-jazz solos that all fans of the band should love. The riffs are in the usual start-stop fashion along with some really sickening low bend-related riffs that, thanks to that 8th string, become the sonic equivalent of barf (I mean that in a good way). This is an album you'll need to hear more than once to get into. I do find it's a great album to put on in the background while you're doing work, although as far as single songs go, the catchiness that I enjoyed from DEI just isn't here. Definitely worth getting, just be prepared to hear something very different.
• I (2004, EP) 1 song, 20 some odd minutes. This song sees the return of Meshuggah to something more akin to "Chaosphere" than "Nothing", with a more balanced guitar/bass sound. Also twinges of Fred's solo album with some of the ambiance and some truly spacy guitar solos (but it's not all guitar solos like "Sol Niger" was). But mostly, as you may guess with a song this long, it's a lot of repeated patterns in strange time signatures, repeated a little too often I feel, but hell, I still long for the days of "Destroy Erase Improve" where the songs were a bit shorter, more focused, and they would maybe repeat a riff 4 times before moving on to something else instead of 40. But for what it is, it's quite good, with some very heavy riffs, good shouting from Jens, some quieter bits to break up the assault, and plenty of intensity. This will definitely grace my cd player for many weeks to come.
• Catch Thirtythr33 (2005) I'm sorry, but this just isn't doing anything for me. This really isn't a sudden revelation, it's been slowly creeping up for years now, but I think it's finally hit me, it's finally sunk in. The kings of complexity have just become too simple. I've always been a huge fan of the band's song based days of "None" or "DEI". When "Chaosphere" came out and the band started repeating riffs over and over again in their songs, it was still cool, some of the riffs were neat, but with the release of "Nothing" I just sort of lost interest. I tried, really I did, I kept putting it into my cd player every few months hoping it would grow on me after multiple listens (like Gorguts "Obscura" did), but it just didn't. Repeating a somewhat complex riff at a mid paced speed for 5 minutes just wasn't captivating. Their "I" album seemed to be shifting the pendulum back towards the cool direction, now with this album, imagine the "Nothing" philosophy taken to it's logical extreme. "Catch 33" is basically a single song (split into 13 subparts), and that's basically what you should expect. The first 3 songs of the album (the first 5 minutes) is this "bada bada beeee, bada bada beeee" thing over and over again. Then it shifts, but only slightly for song 4. Yada yada as it were. There are a few interesting bits such as a robotic voice mid way through the album, reminiscent of Fred's solo album, some alien sounding guitars in another part, but far too often you have like 30 seconds of a single note being tremolo picked with nothing else. I'd also heard that the drums were all a drum machine in this album, I had assumed that this was because the drums in parts were too fast or intricate to be easily learned by a human, and I'm fine with that, but all the songs are midpaced and really aren't anything that Tomas hasn't learned before. Why the drum machine? There are a few riffs here and there that are cool sounding, and the album does get better towards the end, but overall, this just isn't gonna be in my cd player much, I really hope that their next album is more song based like they mentioned in a recent interview.
• Nothing Special Edition (2006) Contains the "Nothing" album from 2002 with re-recorded guitars and a DVD. First, the new guitar sound, its different sounding, and I suppose a bit better in terms of a more even mix, but still pretty similar. A few songs have been mildly extended, but nothing that changes the songs radically. Now onto the DVD, first are 3 live tracks from the Download 2005 festival. The sound quality is good (except the kickdrum seems to be missing from the mix almost entirely, which is really noticeable in 'Future Breed Machine'). The filming is also good, although a few times the camera switches between views 5 or 6 times a second, which made me nauseous. Also, during a few of the guitar solos, the cameras remained on the vocalist, which is annoying. The two other songs are 'Straws Pulled At Random' from "Nothing" and 'In Death Is Death' from "Catch 33". Ideally I wish they'd just included the whole concert, I assume they played more than 3 songs, and there's certainly room on the DVD. It finishes with 4 recent music videos from the band.
• obZen (2008) The best album the band has put out in quite some time. In style and quality, this is pretty similar to "Chaosphere", maybe a tad less melodic, but way more song based than "Nothing" or "Catch 33". It's all the trademark Meshuggah style and the same general guitar tone from their more recent work, but the songs are a bit shorter, more focused, and are more than 1 riff played over and over again for 5 minutes. Thank goodness. That said, there's not quite enough variety or ultra brilliant songwriting here to bring the album into "Destroy Erase Improve" territory, but there are a few real standout songs such as the album opener 'Combustion', and I love the crazy doublebass pattern in 'Bleed' (which is probably the best song on the album). The album even has some cool solos. If you haven't been too enthused with the band these last few releases, give them another try with obZen.
• Alive (2010, DVD/CD) The band's first DVD after 20 years of music. About time!!! :) First off, soundwise, the DVD and accompanying CD sounds really great, the music is so polished it could easily be off of one of their studio CDs. That's great, because the quality is high, but it also means you're not getting much of anything different that you haven't already heard on the CDs. The DVD consists mostly of footage from 3 shows, Tokyo, Montreal and Toronto. The Tokyo footage is the worst of the bunch, it's still a multi-camera setup, but the stage is very dark, you almost never see the musicians, you just see their silhouettes. Also, there's a lot of mpeg artifacting going on. Thankfully, the 2 Canadian shows are much higher quality, and you can actually see the band once in awhile. From a song perspective, there's almost no old material here, almost entirely the new stuff. The one main exception is 'Humiliative' off of the "None" EP, which I really enjoyed. And I guess that's my only real beef with this collection. Since the band hasn't released a DVD yet, I was hoping for a more career spanning sort of set. Instead, we get a really good quality momento from the band's current tour, but with very little older material. There isn't even a single song from the band's masterpiece "Destroy Erase Improve". As a big fan of the older material, I hope a later DVD / Live CD gets released with some older footage, or new footage of some of these older classics. The shows are 12 songs, just over an hour of material, which is fine, but could maybe have been a bit longer. There are interviews with the band between almost every song, giving some backstory, discussions of touring and being on the road. While cutting to interviews could interfere with the flow, in this case, I feel it sorta enhances the experience, breaking things up a bit. Anyways, overall this is a great concert DVD, I'd still love another DVD in the future that covers more of their entire career, but for what it is, this DVD is really professional and well done.
• Koloss (2012) This album is sort of a cross between their last album and the material off of "Nothing" or "Catch 33". So most songs are 1 riff repeated with different variations and modifications during the course of the song, but the cool thing is this album has a lot of differentiation between songs, making it easy to identify one song from another. This leads to plenty of memorable songs. Like track 1 is the offbeat guitar chugging song, track 2 is the medium-fast double bass all the way through song, track 3 has a somewhat more funkier and groovy main riff with a really fast and technical guitar solo. You get the idea. I think "obZen" edges this one out ever so slightly, but "Koloss" is a close second in term of the band's recent material, and well worth checking out.
• The Violent Sleep Of Reason (2016) This album reminds me a bit of "Chaosphere", probably because of the energy level. Albums like "Nothing" contained mostly slow songs, recent materials like "obZen" or "Koloss" tended to be a mixed bag of paces. But the material on this album is all mid to fast paced (with the exception of 'Into Decay'), with the trademark repeated start stop rhythm riff that eventually creates that droning effect. One of my favorites is 'MonstroCity' that has this unsettling groove thanks to a offtime bent note riff. The weird chromatic riff of 'Ivory Towers' is equally odd and ear-catching. And the melody guitar work over top of the low chugging takes a little more focus this time, with some really interesting effects, like in the intro to the title track. And I love the choral guitar at the end of 'Stifled'. Overall, if you liked their last two albums, you'll eat this one up as well, it has a little more melody and several standout tracks to add to the ever growing Meshuggah repertoire.
• Immutable (2022) While all the trademark elements are here, this album has a slightly different format with the inclusion of several intros, interludes, and instrumental songs, which I feel really help give the album more structure and a better pacing. The opening track 'Broken Cog' is almost an instrumental. Not a quiet piece though, but big thunderous held notes, with some soft spoken words here and there, growing in intensity before we get a few shouted bits towards the end. This song really helps build up excitement for the tracks to come, and I really hope they do this song live as a concert opener. Following are 5 songs of what I'd call normal Meshuggah material, oddly timed riffs that repeat and cause that droning effect. But then we reach track 7, 'They Move Below', which opens with a spooky acoustic passage, a great breather from the usual chaos while still retaining the uneasy mood. Then the song morphs into a heavy, slower groovy instrumental dirge, and all combined clocks in at almost 9 minutes. Following is 1 more normal track, then a 2 minute tremolo picked electric guitar only interlude which seems both very different than anything the band has done before and yet strangely consistent. Then 3 more tracks, and the album closes with another slow, quiet and spooky 5 minute acoustic song. Think I preferred the last album more due to the higher energy level, but I really like how they broke up this album with the interludes, and hope they consider doing something similar in the future. Otherwise, fans of the band will find plenty to love here.
  

• Kill 'Em All (1983) The riffs are great, but the production is bad (Mind you, this is '83).
• Ride The Lightning (1984) The riffs are great, the production is pretty good. The first signs of Metallica's epic song writing style shows through.
• Master Of Puppets (1986) Great riffs, great production, easily destroys any album released in that time period. Epic song writing, great chunk, great sound, great riffs.
• Garage Days (1987, EP) An album of mainly cover songs. A nice break from Metallica's normal stuff.
• ...And Justice For All (1988) This is it, the crowning achievement in metal. The best metal album ever. You must own this CD. The best rhythms, leads, songs, writing, sound, drumming. There's a newer version of this CD that's been remastered from the original tapes (says so on the package), try and get that version if possible since the recording level is a bit punchier.
• Metallica (1991) Sort of a let down. The songs are shorter. About half the songs on the CD are good. Maybe if they cut the bad songs, and lengthened the good songs to twice their length, we'd have a great album.
• Live Shit: Binge & Purge (1993) Live CD's, Live videos, you can really overdose on Metallica with this boxed set. Worth the cash.
• Load (1996) It's a load all right. If you own this album, you've obviously landed on the wrong webpage. Metallica is Dead. Long live Meshuggah.
• Reload (1997) No review. Why bother.

• With Sympathy (1983)
  
• Twelve Inch Singles (1985, Demos)
  
• Twitch (1986)
  
• The Land of Rape and Honey (1988)
  
• The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste (1989)
  
• Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up (1990, Live)
  
• Psalm 69 (1992) A classic album. The CD opens with 'N.W.O.', which is probably one of my favorite Ministry songs. The doublebass part at the beginning just gets my blood pumping. It's quickly followed by "Just One Fix', whose inverted drum beat keeps banging in your brain long after the track is done. The album also contains the classic 'Jesus Built My Hotrod', whose name alone makes it deserving of high praise. Overall most of the album is pretty fast, and the few slow songs are either grandiose and epic in nature (like the song 'Psalm 69') or unsettling in that good way ( like 'Scare Crow'). A must buy for industrial fans.
  
• Filth Pig (1996)
  
• Dark Side of the Spoon (1999)
  
• Sphinctour (2002, DVD)
  
• Animositisomina (2003)
  
• Houses of the Molé (2004) The all "W" album (each song begins with a "W"). The usual array of guitars and electronic drums, with plenty of anti-George Bush ranting. Some definite standout tracks, the first track, 'no W' expertly combines the classic Carmina Burana with a vicious drum beat. 'Waiting' has some nice doublebass in the intro, followed by a good forward moving song. 'Worthless' has a nice inverted drum riff, although I preferred when the band did it on the song 'Just One Fix' off of "Psalm 69". They also do a song called 'WTV' that's a sequel to their song 'TV II', as sequels go though, it's a little too similar to the original to be terribly interesting. A few other decent songs, but the last 4 songs are slow and a little dull. The first 3 songs on the album are the best, and if you're gonna pick this up, it should be for them.
  
• Early Trax (2004, EP)
  
• Side Trax (2004, EP)
  
• Rio Grande Blood (2006)
  
• The Last Sucker (2007) The final album for the band, and they go out with a bang. First, thematically, there's really no question what their message is when you have George Bush as a lizard creature on the lenticular cover. And recent political events provides the band plenty to talk about (or shout about, actually). The sound, while certainly industrial, has a little extra metal to it, probably thanks to Tommy Victor of Prong fame on guitar (he also helped write many of the songs). When you listen to a song like 'The Dick Song' you totally hear that Prong style crunchy guitar. Lots of great songs on this album, it's tough to pick favorites, this material is really catchy and will play in your brain long after the album stops playing on your cd player. As well as 'Dick', 'The Last Sucker' is particularly good, 'No Glory' has a good frantic pace to it, and while 'Let's Go' is not as heavy as later material on the album, it's got a good driving riff that keeps it pounding forward. The album ends with 'End of Days', which contains a long spoken word segment that reiterates what the band is all about. A shame it's the group's final album, but you know, I agree with Al Jourgensen, it's best to leave on a high note. And I think this is a pretty high note.

• Overthrow (2001, Demo) After the demise of the Dying Fetus we knew and loved, the players scattered, and at least two of them ended up here, Jason Netherton (bass vocals) and Kevin Talley (drums). Teamed up with Mike Harrison on guitar and vocals, they've now formed a new band and are off to new territories. So how does it sound? Well first, keep in mind this is still a demo, characterized mainly in the slightly muffled production. The songs are all very well written, but that figures considering the players involved and their years of experience in the field. The more chunky thrashy parts are straight out of Dying Fetus, but the tapping acrobatics have been replaced with tremolo picked riffs. All 5 songs on the album are good to-the-point death metal. I suppose I'd have to say overall the album is too short, but hey, it's a demo, so I suppose the length is a good thing because it'll get me excited for their next album which will be a full length. Drumming is of course super fast, same stuff Kevin tends to do. The band overall is tight and intense, and despite the aforementioned slightly muffled sound, the production is good too. Definitely check this out.
• Misery Index / Commit Suicide Split EP (2002, Split EP) 3 songs from each band. The first 2 Misery Index tracks are similar to their Overthrow album, although the guitar sound is a little noisier, which I'm sure will be fixed for their upcoming album. Good stuff. The third track is a cover of a Disrupt song. Commit Suicide is more of a straight ahead death metal act. Lower vocals (but not super low), tremolo picking and chunkier bits with some blasting. Imagine some of the slower parts to Dying Fetus minus the trills and tapping and you get the idea. Decent production but a little messy. 2 original songs and then a cover of Death's 'Open Casket'.
• Structure Of Lies / Misery Index Split EP (2003, Split EP) The album starts off with 4 songs from Structure of Lies, who remind me of early Nasum, hence, expect fast, crazy and angry grindcore with a few slower areas (the songs are more standard length though, except for track 3 which is 15 seconds). The production is at a good demo quality, without much bass, and the guitars have a nice buzzsaw style crunch to them. Vocals are mostly high pitched screams. The 4th track is a live track which is definitely a bootleg, but you can hear all the instruments just fine. Then 3 Misery Index songs. The production is good, although again, not too much in the way of bass (you can hear the bass, but it's more of a high pitched twang then any real "bass"). But no matter, it's sort of demo quality but still plenty of aggression. Track 5 is 40 seconds long. Track 6, 'Demand The Impossible', is later re-recorded for their first cd. Track 7 is something specific to this split ep. Overall, a decent little mini album, if you find it for under $10, might as well add it to the collection.
  
• Retaliate (2003) Ok, do you like Hate Plow? Because you gotta love a band like Misery Index in the same way you love a band like Hate Plow. It's not their originality, it's just the never ending consistent brutality that draws you in, leaving you bloody and wanting to hear the cd again. A few songs into the cd you may not have found any single riff or moment that stands out from the next, but by song 4 or 5 you'll notice that your head is banging and there you have it, you're hooked. Production wise, top notch, plenty of high and low end. The drummer, while not Kevin Talley, does a great job and is plenty fast. I guess if I had any real critique is I wish there were a few more riffs here and there that really stood out from the rest, something that stuck in your brain, but overall everything is so strong, live these guys must absolutely kill. Must be listened to really loud, so turn it up and go smash something.
• Dissent (2004, EP) 5 song EP, and last recording with Kevin Talley on drums before he left to join Chimaira. Basically this sounds a lot like "Retaliate" in both song style, performance and production. The album starts off with a slower song (still heavy, no acoustic guitars here) that builds over time to track 2, which starts the speed, and continues most of the way through. You know, while I certainly liked their last full length album, I think I enjoy Misery Index in EP form better. While good songs, their music does tend to all blend together without a tremendous amount of variety, and so if you have a short EP, you have fewer songs to listen to and so you can spend more time with each individual song. Anyways, highly recommended.
• Misery Index DVD Volume 1 (2004, DVD) About 1h 40m of random stuff from the band on tour. It starts off with the main show from Greece, it's a bootleg, one camera deal, so don't expect any slick production anywhere on this DVD, the camera is actually from a rather unique vantage point, it's sort of behind the band from the side. While this makes it hard to see the band, it does make for an interesting view of the crowd, and the greek fans are sick, a huge flood of people squished against the small stage, banging their heads like crazy, and constantly threatening to crash overtop of the stage like a giant tidal wave (and some of them do). Looks like a fun show. Then they have a brief bit showing the band doing their day job, working as electricians, a strong reminder that the few death metal bands who are able to make their band their full-time job are very lucky indeed. Then 4 songs of Jason doing special guest vocals with his old band Dying Fetus (I believe Misery Index went on tour with DF last year, so this is probably footage from one of those shows). Fortunately the camera is in front of the band this time, up in the balcony. Then back to more Misery Index concert footage, all bootleg again, and a few tidbits from the tourbus. While very low tech, and never sounding very good, there's something raw and cool about this DVD, you get to see the day to day life of a medium sized death metal band, no rock start stuff going on here, just a few everyday guys getting together and doing what they do. It's obvious the band just loves playing metal, and that's very cool. Since the quality of the footage isn't too great, I can't give it top marks, but for various pieces of bootleg footage strung together, this was certainly fun to watch.
• Discordia (2006) No surprises here, tons of anger, tons of blasting. Similar style to their last EP and their last CD. My only big complaint is the production lost a bunch of bass. "Dissent" had a nice bassy production that kicked my gut without losing that top end crunch. This has a little more reverb, and has lost a lot of that bass, ending up a bit nasally. Also, as mentioned last time, listening to them in EP form works a lot better since the songs don't blend together as much. And so obviously, being a full length album, this cd suffers from the same drawback. But otherwise, the album is pretty solid, and fans of the band will enjoy it. It's not my pick of the week, but worth looking into.
• Traitors (2008) Very similar to their last album, which was similar to their last album, etc. The band is nothing if not consistent. Thankfully the one change they made is taking the production up a notch, this mix sounds a lot more like "Dissent". The odd mix on "Discordia" is nowhere to be found. Lots of aggression, decent songs but no real super standout riffs. If you enjoy what this band does, I think you'll enjoy this album, but me, I keep hoping for something just a little bit more.
• Pulling Out The Nails (2010, Rare) This CD is 30 tracks of rarities, it includes all non album material from 2001-2008, including the "Overthrow" and "Dissent" EPs, as well as the splits with Structure of Lies, Commit Suicide, and Mumakill, the 7''s, several live tracks and cover songs. Since most of the material I have already reviewed above, my review will be short, it's great to finally have all of this material in one place, and as a whole album, it's quite enjoyable. The sound quality is good, not as good as the albums of course (since a lot of this stuff was recorded quickly), but certainly listenable. And 30 tracks is great value, especially if you go for the mp3 download from amazon or itunes. If you don't already own all of the EPs and splits separately, or if you do but want to replace them with a single all inclusive package, check this out.
• Heirs to Thievery (2010) Yet another in their catalog of consistently good albums. Same style, same vibe, I feel the songwriting on the album may have gone up just a notch. The album could still use a little more variety and a few more standout riffs, but overall the songs are all pretty strong. The production is their best yet, a nice balanced sound with good highs and lows. Nothing much else to say, it's Misery Index doing what they do best.
• The Killing Gods (2014) After a pointless intro, track 2 starts things off right with the usual Misery Index style. I generally prefer the faster songs on this one, the slower stuff is ok, but maybe have a touch too much guitar melody for my tastes, I prefer the stuff that's far more blasting and angry. I especially like the album closer 'Heretics', which has that patented Misery Index groove mixed with unrelenting speed. With two intros and a Ministry cover, the actual album is only 10 songs and goes by pretty fast, but overall is the usual quality we expect from the band.

• Vinctus (2014, EP) Sort of a heavier Tesseract, with touches of Meshuggah and Mnemic. The reason I say a heavier Tesseract is because while the rhythms very much remind me of the band, these guys have way more death metally vocals, maybe only 50% sung vocals. The sung vocals remind me a lot of Michael Bøgballe from early Mnemic, almost certainly because of the heavy vocal processing they receive. It helps give the music a very spacy alien feel to it which I tend to like. Rhythm wise as I said, lots of complex polyrthymns in the Tesseract / Meshuggah style. And plenty of keyboards at the right moment for atmosphere. Another comparison may be brought up with Texture's first album, before they got a little lighter. In general I really like this EP (3 songs + one techno remix), and hope to see a full length album in the near future.
  

• Mechanical Spin Phenomena (2003) While I treated the band somewhat harshly in my review of their "The Audio Injected Soul" album, I have to admit, after a year of repeated listens to that album my opinion has softened. Yes, they do have a lot of obvious influences, and this their debut certainly is no different (from Meshuggah's start-stop riffs to some vocals that almost sound like Rob Zombie). But the one thing that does set the band apart is the sound of their choral vocals. Sure, Strapping Young Lad and Fear Factory do that all the time, but there's something about the harmonies that Mnemic uses that are just, well, Mnemic, no one else has quite the same sound that Michael Bøgballe achieves. So while "Mechanical" certainly isn't 100% original, in the grand scheme of things it does have a few unique points, and the songs are so strong that you just end up not caring anymore. This album rocks. Fuck originality. It has groove, it has plenty of aggression, it has tons of atmospheric layered samples, it has catchy bits that let the songs stick in your mind. A must have for all techno-metal / math-metal fans.
• The Audio Injected Soul (2004) Part Meshuggah, part In Flames, part Strapping Young Lad, oh how I long for a band that is just themselves. I mean I know it makes my reviews easier if the band has obvious influences, since I have a frame of reference to explain what the band sounds like. But I do long for the days when I get something that sounds like nothing I've ever heard before. It has happened now and again, like the third Gorguts album "Obscura", SYL's "City", or Meshuggah when they first started out, but I digress. This album is not one of those unique albums, but please disregard my ranting, this is still a good album. So basically the heavy parts sound like Meshuggah with single note start and stop riffs played in weird time signatures, the more melodic parts sound like In Flames, and the heavy vocals sound like In Flames, with the choral vocals sounding like a cross between In Flames and Strapping Young Lad. Excellent production and memorable songs keep things interesting. If you enjoy any of these 3 bands, give Mnemic a spin, it's worth a listen.
• Passenger (2007) This, Mnemic's third album, is a bit of a departure for the group. The biggest change is of course the vocals, Michael Bøgballe is gone, replacing him is Guillaume Bideau, formerly of Scarve. And the change is pretty evident. Guillaume does a good job of screaming, shouting and singing, but the vocal sound is definitely different. For example, there's way more choral vocals in this album than previous albums. Lets just say if you're not a fan of Def Leppard, you probably won't like this album. And that's just one obvious influence, some of Guillaume's screams sound very much like Slipknot, some choral parts sound like Slapdash, some of the singing sounds like the guy from Eighteen Visions. I appreciate the variety to the vocals, but I wish that the different styles sounded like themselves, and not like other bands. Otherwise, the rest of the group is basically doing exactly what they've always done, angry, heavy and pounding music, with plenty of spacy sounds and samples overtop odd time signatures and a guitar tone that's the sonic equivalent to a sledge hammer to the head. It's actually a little confusing, you'd think Mnemic is trying to get more commercial by adding more melody to the vocals, and yet, the musical style of the rest of the band pretty much assures they'll never get any major mainstream success. Anyways, I don't want this review to seem too negative. This album has some nicely crafted songs, some great hooks, plenty of anger and aggression. Nice production thanks to Christian of Fear Factory. What can I say, I dig it. But, that said, I can see why some people may not like it. If I had my way, I'd tweak a few things, but for what they're trying to do, it's quite successful. So definitely check out some mp3s before you buy it. And maybe in another album or so, Guillaume will start sounding more like himself. Also note, there's an extra bonus track 'Zero Synchronized' on the Japaese Edition of the album, the song is ok, but not awesome, the riff is a little bland and the song overall doesn't really go anywhere, probably not worth the extra cash unless you already live in Japan.
• Sons of the System (2010) With their last album #1 in my top 10 albums of 2007, this followup had a lot to live up to. And sadly, the results are disappointing. Overall, the key word is simplify. The weird time signatures are heavily simplified. The song structures are much simpler, with standard verse / chorus. The tempo is midpaced to slow for pretty much every song, without anything fast to break stuff up. The vocals are also simplified, more sung vocals, less yelling, more straight forward yelled Verse / Sung chorus. Simplified drum pattterns. And overall, the album just lacks the energy of their last album. All that said, the album does grow on you. I do like the Choral vocal parts to 'March Of The Tripods', 'Fate' has a really god verse riff. And 'Within' has this really twisted verse riff that's super low and gurgly. The album is enjoyable, but it's just not as spectacular as "Passenger". If you're looking for heavy brutality, look elsewhere. But if you're really into vocal melody / harmony, and can dig a slower pace, there are some good songs on this album.
• Mnemesis (2012) It should be a major warning sign when a band all of a sudden replaces almost all of its members. Not that that always leads to a bad album, Dying Fetus did it almost 10 years ago and their later albums were great. But Mnemic, well, overall I'm just not digging their new direction. Returning is the vocalist and band leader/guitarist, and the new Mnemic musical thrust is a lot more melodic than the Mnemic most of us know and love. Some shades of this were revealed on their last album, this album pushes the style even further. Very few yelled vocals here, it's mostly sung stuff, and lots of spoken word. There are some heavy guitars here and there, but a lot of the songs stay pretty melodic. Some examples of bad songs: the opener 'Transcend', as well as being midpaced and kinda blah, contains this horrible 70s sitcom style "spooky" riff in the middle that is just so out of place. Then there's the album's two ballads, 'I've Been You' and 'There's No Tomorrow'. That last song is basically a 2 note riff that goes on for 6 minutes with choral vocals, talk about a borefest. I am all for choral vocals, but someone like Devin has the right idea, do crazy fast angry music with the choral vocals to accentuate things, don't just turn your music into Def Leppard. There are still some decent songs on the album, 'Values' is pretty good with a nice meaty guitar hook towards the end, but still plenty of heaviness to balance the melody. I kind of like the bonus track 'A Matter Of Choice', again, it's got some heaviness and complexity to it, that a lot of the rest of the album lacks. 'Junkies On The Storm' also has some good parts, but I don't dig some of the sung vocals that just sound far too operatic. In closing, a few good songs, but overall the band has gone too slow, simple and melodic for my tastes, and I'm not sure if I'm gonna keep up with the band if they keep heading in this direction.
  

• Unforsaken (2007, Demo)
• Genesis Of Perdition (2013, EP)
• Scourge (2018) This band has been around apparently for over a decade, yet this is their debut album. I guess they got a slow start, but the result is rather awesome. This album is planted firmly in the Progressive Death Metal genre, a few songs are more straight forward in a deathcore kind of way, but the majority of their songs go all over the place adding jazz influences, doom, latin, traditional japanese music, acoustic guitar interludes, violins, and keyboards, with many of the songs lasting 10 minutes or longer. Imagine a combination of Impending Doom, Death and Pestilence's "Spheres" album. On the metal side, plenty of blasting, fast double bass, tremolo picking on the guitars and fast riffs. The first track 'The Grey King', is a good example of the more straight forward death metal approach. Then the other side of the coin, a song like the 10 minute instrumental 'Infinite Wisdom' starts off with a nice acoustic piece, melodic guitars, then slowly builds and builds until they're doing crazy scales in unison, then off to jazzier territory, then back to double bass and metal chugging, and plenty of guitar solos throughout. Right up there with Metallica's album ending instrumentals or maybe 'Implements Of Destruction' by Chimaira. The mix is huge with a nice strong wall of sound, everything is clear and powerful. Vocals are mid range growls and then higher pitches yells. Overall an excellent album, it's catchy, it's angry, it's experimental, it's heavy, I hope we don't wait another 10 years for an album number 2.
  

• Horror Infinity (1990, Demo)
• Imperial Doom (1992) A little more raw and aggressive than their 2nd album, the production is a little messier, but decent for the era. George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher (later of Cannibal Corpse) does a great job. The songs are really good, a decent mix of technicality and memorable tunes. Well worth owning.
• Millenium (1996) Pretty standard Death Metal. All the elements are here, double kicks, blast beats, lots of riffs and growls. The riffs are well thought out, well composed and well executed. The songs are well written, and there are tons of tempo changes. The clarity is also excellent, you can really hear each note perfectly, even in the ultra fast solos. The band looses point though for a lack of originality, and although the production is crystal clear, it's too sterile. The aggressive element just isn't there. Still a decent release, and better than a lot of the stuff out there.
• In Dark Purity (1999) Taking the technical aspects of the last album, making the songs structures a little simpler, and then fusing it with tons of anger and aggression (that I felt was missing from their previous album). I don't think there's a bad song anywhere on this album. Great song writing, doubles, blasts, tremolo. Crystal clear production for every instrument (with possible exception to the bass). And they end it off with 'Angel of Death' from Slayer, and some very impressive doubles during the drum break towards the end of the song. One of the best death metal releases of this year so far.
• Enslaving The Masses (2001, Live + Demo) Big two disk set with one live disk and one collection of early material. The early material disk is definitely worth having if you don't have the stuff separately, some good songs in an early 90s vein technical death metal style, not overly complex but still hard on the fingers (or legs, for the drummer). The first five tracks have George "CorpseGrinder" Fisher on vocals (now with Cannibal Corpse) and are very professional. The next 3 tracks are very early demo quality. And the last three are somewhere between the two other recordings. The live disk is pretty decent as well, the guitars are a little muffled but the production is overall decent. They play a lot of stuff from the new album, and do a damn good job of faithfully playing it as cleanly here as in the studio.
• Rise To Power (2003) With this cd, Monstrosity have combined the old Monstrosity with the new Monstrosity. "What do you mean?" you may ask. "Have the band really changed their style that much that you can combine the old with the new?" No no, I'm not talking about style. I'm talking about combining the song writing and skill showcased on "In Dark Purity" with the production quality of "Imperial Doom". As well as clone bands, the other thing that's been coming through my cd player as of late is great bands with poor production, and unfortunately Monstrosity have now been added to the list. I mean really, if there's anything we've learned from the newest crop of bands on the Unique Leader label it's that almost anyone now can get some good quality production these days. You don't need to sound muffled or thin. Ahem. Anyways, despite the obvious problem, after a few songs you get used to it. The song writing on this album is on par or slightly below on a couple of tunes as their last outing, and overall after I got used to the production jolt (which really isn't terrible, it's just when you have it so good any step down is kind of a disappointment), I really did enjoy this cd a bunch. So for fans of the band, this should certainly satisfy.
• Spiritual Apocalypse (2007) Yay! The good production is back! After a slightly disappointing previous album (more than slightly from a production standpoint), this album shows them returning to the sound and writing quality of their 1999 masterpiece "In Dark Purity". The sound isn't as overdubbed as on "Purity", but it's still thick and powerful. Song writing wise, no real surprises, just a lot of great material. After just a single listen I could already pinpoint about 5 or 6 riffs that I just had to hear again. A sure sign of a good album is when you listen to it again immediately after finishing it the first time (This is especially true for people reviewing CDs, I have another 4 CDs in my pile to review, but I'm holding off listening to them so I can listen to this one again). Honestly, I'm not sure how the band manages to write riffs this consistent when they have totally new guitar players on every album (keeping in the Monstrosity tradition, this is almost a whole new lineup, only keeping the same bass player as last album, and of course, drummer Lee Harrison who is the only consistent member). It sucks that this album seems only to be available right now in Europe, the US audience is really missing out on something great. So despite the cost, I really recommend to everybody to spend the extra cash, get this imported, and enjoy one hell of a good Monstrosity album.
• Live Apocalypse (2012, DVD)
• The Passage Of Existence (2018) Despite the 11 year gap, this album picks right up where the last one finished, just pure Monstrosity, no surprises, all of the elements you know and love from the band. Plenty of good quality riffs, some nice technical fast stuff, some slower pounding stuff. I'd say this album has a few more melodic parts to it than some of their previous material, they've always had melody, but this album shifts in that direction a tad more. But still plenty of blasts and fast tremolo picking. A really solid album from the band, hopefully not another 11 years till the next,
  

• Abominations Of Desolation (1986, Demo) This album is a lot of fun, I get the same feeling as when I listen to one of Slayer's old records almost 2 decades after the fact. Obviously the production isn't great (although better than you'd expect, with all the instruments pretty clear although treble heavy). They play a bunch of songs that were later re-recorded for their first 3 cds (some of which were renamed), and a couple of tracks you won't hear anywhere else.
• Altars Of Madness (1989) The production is better than on their 2nd album, with ample bottom end and some classic songs.
• Blessed Are The Sick (1991) Bad production really detracts from this recording (almost no bottom end). The songs are ok, but there's a few really killer riffs here and there, and the leads are completely nuts.
• Covenant (1993) Super fast drumming, good song writing, and some of the fastest and most technical leads I've ever heard in death metal make this band stand apart from the rest. Wait till you hear these double kicks. The production isn't all that hot though, pretty darn muddy actually.
• Domination (1995) The riffs are great, and so are the leads (of course), but the production on this album is really bad. Way to bass heavy (yes, there is such a thing), the clarity leaves something to be desired. I wish Trey would spend more time in the studios on his sound. Still worth owning just for the first two songs alone.
• Entangled In Chaos (1996, Live) The mix is clear, but not too much better than some bootlegs I've heard (with virtually no bass). I have to give it to Pete Sandoval though, it's unbelievable how accurate and fast his drumming is live. The rest of the band is pretty good too.
• Formulas Fatal To The Flesh (1998) The riffs are much more memorable than on their last album, and the song writing is about as good as Morbid has ever been. The drumming is faster (can it be?). The new vocalist is good too, not as low as Vincent, but still scary, and it works well with the music. The production, as usual, sucks. Trey just can't make a good guitar sound to save his life. The sound is really muddy. This is ridiculous! I assume it sounds like this because Trey likes it that way, but I don't see why in this day and age you aspire to a muddy mess when you can have crystal clear production. Still, a worthy buy, the song writing is excellent.
• Formulas Fatal To The Flesh + Love Of Lava (1999) The bonus CD contains 25 tracks, the guitar solos from the album with no accompaniment (each solo includes extra takes and variant takes that didn't make it on the album). It's about 10 minutes long, and pretty much sounds like a really good guitar friend of yours sitting by his amp shredding all over the place for the hell of it. A nice bonus with the FFTTF album, but not exciting enough really to buy the album over again for.
• Gateways To Annihilation (2000) A bit slower then previous efforts, but this heavier album is just that, a hell of a lot heavier, like a steamroller on a killing spree. When I say slow, I mean, there's still plenty of double kicks and blast beats, but overall, most of the songs don't get much faster then say 'Rapture' off of "Covenant". I've heard this album referred to as Domination 2, but overall I find the songs on this album a hell of a lot better then everything after track 2 on domination. Many songs have that 'Where the Slime Lives' feel. One thing I'm really digging here is while all of Morbid's other albums have always been a little anticlimactic, ending with some strange interlude song, or something equally uninspiring, this album ends with probably the fastest track on the whole record, I like going out with a bang. Production-wise, probably their best production yet, still sounds like morbid (ie, sorta muddy), but it's a little thicker and yet a little clearer then usual. Also, Pete's drum sound now sounds more triggered then ever, and there's a couple of spots where, well, I have to believe he'd never actually use a computer to edit his double kicks, but they reach some points where they are just too fast and perfectly timed to be human. Sort of a sore spot, I don't want to say he's using a machine, but even if he's not, a machine might as well have been used, there's no way you could tell them apart. I think most Morbid fans will enjoy this album, it has great song writing, and overall the album sounds like one continuous whole instead of a bunch of separate songs, just keep in mind it's just a little less frantic then some of their other albums.
• Heretic (2003, Digipak) So I'm surfing the Earache website, and it says "click here to listen to a track off the New Morbid Angel". So I click, and think to myself "Yickes, sounds like an early demo, hmm, doesn't say anything about it being a demo, ah well, looks like someone made a mistake". So I pick up this CD, and put it into my car cd player, and about 3 seconds into the first song, I realize the mistake wasn't the website, but the band. This is some of the shittiest production I've ever heard. By far the worst the band ever had, it sounds like the group is 1000 miles away from the microphone. It's all clear, but there's zero bass and everything is horribly low in the mix. What the fuck!! I'd like to say the production is the only thing wrong with this album, but sadly, it's not. Don't let the 14 songs thing fool ya, 6 of those are intros / interludes, most of which are pretty boring. Hell, one of them is a pete sandoval drum solo, which would be fine for say an instructional video, but for an album? It's totally out of place. So there's really only 8 songs on the album, and other than the first two, it's overall pretty unmemorable. What happened to those fantastic riffs from the last record? Like FFF, this album seems unfocused, ends on a low note, hell, at least that album had 6-7 great songs on it and ok production. I love the band, I think they're great, but this is just a bad CD and I can't recommend for anyone to pick it up. There's also a double CD version of this floating around, the second cd has a few vocal-less demos, and a few quick unaccompanied guitar solos from this CD and FFF.
• Illud Divinum Insanus (2011) Now I certainly haven't been living under a rock, I've heard the rumors, the early album reviews, the stories that there's a lot of material on this album that some call "experimental", and other call "suck". So I was somewhat prepared when I finally got my hands on the album. But even with the preparation, it's still kind of surprising. Basically what we have here is half a Morbid Angel album. Song like 'Existo Vulgoré' and 'Beauty Meets Beast' have all the usual Morbid Angel stylings, and are great songs. But the other half of the album is radically different. The songs range from Industrial material to more rockin songs to stuff that sounds like techno remixes. Now the band has experimented before, usually in the realm of instrumental intros or interludes, and the song 'Angel Of Disease' from "Covenant" certainly wouldn't be COMPLETELY out of place with a song like 'I Am Morbid', but this is just a little over the top. Even if these experimental songs were my thing, they just don't relate at all to the rest of the material on the album. The styles are just too dissimilar. If they had decided to include a few outside influences as part of the Morbid Angel sound, that's great. But it really sounds like this is a split album between Morbid Angel and some other band. My suggestion, give a listen to the whole album, but then make a playlist of the more standard songs and find comfort that at least we got 6 new tunes. Sorry guys, next time you want to do material like this, I'd suggest you make a side project with the same people and try new stuff to your heart's content.
• Juvenilia (2015, Live) Another live album for the band, but this time a throw back, the concert is from shortly after their first album, so expect basically their entire first album in live form. There's more bass on this release than on their first live album "Entangled In Chaos", but the sound is also muddier. Overall though, the songs of course are classic, they are well performed, and the album is enjoyable. Would be nice to see a live album though of modern material.
• Kingdoms Disdained (2017) After a pretty disastrous last album, Morbid Angel are back to form. It was pretty obvious after "Illud" that original vocalist David Vincent is just not into death metal anymore. His contributions to that album led to an album with a split personality, basically the songs Trey wrote were great, the songs David wrote were horrible, and I have since purged those tracks from my ipod, making "Illud" a nice 6 song EP from the band. But now that David got the boot, and vocalist Steve Tucker is back, we have "Kingdoms", which really could be called "Formulas Fatal To The Flesh 2". First off, the sound is very similar to "Formulas", perhaps a little more bass and a tad more muffled, but Morbid Angel is notorious for strange production quality, so taking that into consideration, it's one of the better mixes for the band. The songs are generally all good, although "Formulas" had a few more standout songs in it. None of this material hits a 10, but pretty much everything hits a solid 8. Best tracks are 'Piles Of Little Arms', 'The Righteous Voice', 'For No Master' (that sounds a little like 'Bil Ursag') and 'Garden Of Disdain'. 'Declaring New Law (Secret Hell)' is also interesting, it has almost a tribal beat to it. A song like this is the sort of "experimenting" the band should be doing, not that industrial crap from their last album. Trey also does perhaps his most abstract solos yet, always entertaining to hear. New drummer Scott Fuller does a great job, his drum style is much more organic sounding, less computer precise, but in a good way, he's a great replacement for Pete. Overall, while not the best MA album, it's a worthy addition to the library, and a great way to help forget about 'Illud'.
  

• Forensic (2002) Pretty straight ahead death metal. Riff wise, the band focuses more on strong songs than random collection of notes, which is fine by me. While there are some faster blasted parts, the band seems a little more laid back with many mid-paced riffs, occasionally going to tremolo picked riffs. Vocal wise, there's actually a lot going on here. Not sure how many different people are doing vocals, or if it's all one guy, but the vocals go from super, super low gargles, to medium growls, to high pitched screams, to chanted stuff, to whispers, to spoken word. It all seems to work within the context of the songs. Production is good, although the band seems a little far away from the microphone, I think if they had punched up the mix slightly it would be more of a "in your living room fucking up your ear drums" kinda sound. They have sort of a Polluted Inheritance vibe going on, say from their betrayed album, but thankfully the songs are a little more straight forward and as such much easier to get into. If you're into something that's super fast paced and super brutal on the ears, then you may not get into this band, but if you're into something slightly slower, not as intense, but still technical, you should check this out.
• Cadaver Art (2005) Pretty similar to their last album, although possibly a little faster in spots. The production is a bit of a shift, not too sure if it's a step up or down. Before it sounded big but a little too much reverb (hence too far away). This is far more in your face, but is missing a little bass and is ever so slightly muffled. The vocals are a little more straight forward too, not as much variety as their previous vocalist (other than the two guitar players, the band is made up of entirely new members). The highlight of course is the songs, and there are certainly some well crafted ones here. Fans of Iniquity, Cannibal Corpse or Suffocation will certainly find plenty to love here. No surprises, but a solid release.
  

• Gory Departure (1990, Demo)
• Prolong The Agony (1990, Demo)
• Dying Remains (1993) An ok album, slower, heavy riffs, the production isn't bad. The sound is more like a good demo than a studio release, but it gets the job done.
• Split 7" Morta Skuld & Vital Remains (1993, EP, Peaceville) Another 7" vinyl from Peaceville, featuring an unreleased track 'Sacrificial Rite' from the "As Humanity Fades" session. It's a good song, so if you find this EP, get it. The vital remains song is so so, never liked them much myself.
• As Humanity Fades (1994) Low vocals, ok riffs, good steady double kicks, and some contorted solo's. A nice blend of slow and mid tempo stuff. Nothing terribly fast. Not as aggressive as I like it, but still heavy stuff.
• For All Eternity (1995) The riffs are still there, but the production is horrible. They sound like they're playing in a toilet bowl. Way too much reverb, I feel really sorry that they released this album in such a fashion. Hopefully they'll realize their mistake.
• Surface (1998) A good album. The production is way better than their last album (but still a little muddy). The guitar sound is big, and the bass is clear. The cymbals and snare seem a bit distorted for some reason, I'm not sure why. The riffs are good, high quality riffs, well thought out and composed. Mid-tempo and slower stuff, a good overall album, buy it if you liked "Humanity".
• Wounds Deeper Than Time (2017) After close to a 20 year break, the band returns with a new outing. First, please do note, while there are aspects of the band that have remained stable during its tenure (certain types of chord progressions, the sound of the vocalist, etc), for the most part the band seems to reinvent itself with each new album, sounding quite different from the last. And this album is no exception. This incarnation of Morta Skuld has a big and fat sound, not unlike "For All Eternity", but thankfully the big sound isn't as noisy. In fact, its arguable that this is the best sound the band has ever had (although the dry sound of "As Humanity Fades" has some nice aspects to it). The drumming on this album is a little more frenetic, more fast double bass, a little less groove. Overall the songs are a little less melodic and a little more angry. The songs are good, plenty of memorable riffs and hooks. While their 2nd album is still my favorite, this album is now a close second, I'm really happy to see them back for another round and return with this level of viciousness.
• Suffer for Nothing (2020) Decent but not as strong as their previous album. My biggest beef is the sound, it's not as dry as "As Humanity Fades" and it's not as thick and heavy as "Wounds", it's still clear and not overly noisy, but I feel it needs a little more umph. Songwriting, it's pretty similar in writing style to "Wounds", with a good mix of fast and slow. While the song writing is decent, I don't feel it has quite enough standout riffs that stick in the brain. This album is a solid B, but I hope they can return to an A level for the next one.
• Creation Undone (2024) Sadly, another so-so album from the band. First off the sound on this album is a little too noisy for my taste. Noise can be brutal sometimes, but in this case I found it makes it hard to hear the guitar tone, especially if you're not listening with headphones, and so it's far too much like static. Then the vocal patterns are pretty monotonous. In death metal, you need to either vary the pitch or vary the patterns of your vocals, this album does neither, it remains very monotone and almost all the words are shouted as half notes. Finally, while there are some standout riffs (like the middle riff from 'Oblivion'), a lot of the riffs are pretty simple and repeated far too evenly without a ton of variation. This all leads to, as the kids these days say, an album that is very “mid”. Throw in genAI cover artwork, and I just feel the band wasn't terribly inspired for this release. "Wounds" is still their best modern album.
  

• Extreme Metal Drumming 101 (2005, DVD) Wow, that's a lot of Flo. The major portion of this review could just be listing all the material on this 2 DVD set, so instead, read the table of contents here or see the related post in the 2005 news section. As far as an instructional DVD goes, it's got some good material. Flo does a bit about stretches, exercises to build speed, nothing revolutionary, just a solid program of various beats repeated and then turning your metronome faster and faster (although he did have some good tips on how to break the monotony of these sorts of exercises). He also discusses several commonly used death metal beats, and discusses drum placement, posture and such. Overall it covers a lot of bases, the only thing to note is he frequently jumps ahead without explaining the basics first. Like for example, he discusses an exercise with double strokes, but never shows a slow version so if you don't actually know what a double stroke is, you'll be lost. So I guess this DVD starts off with the belief that anyone who's watching it has already had some simple drum lessons, not just experience playing the drums, but actual drum lessons so they know a few fundamentals and basic terms. I'd also have liked him to talk a bit more about his influences, he definitely uses a few odd beats and jazz inspired stuff in his fills, so more info on that would have been great (drumming 201 maybe?). Note, while it says he discusses influences on the DVD in the table of contents, what he actually does is have a list of his influences, he doesn't actually discuss them. The 2nd DVD is the drum masturbation DVD, tons and tons and tons of footage of Flo playing. But hey, you bought the DVD, and you bought it to see Flo play, so no reason to complain about over 3 hours of footage. And it definitely solidifies Flo's position as one of the fastest and more interesting metal drummers I have ever seen. There's clips from live performances, about 4 drum solos, all good stuff, my only nits are first some of the clips of him playing live aren't all that well recorded, and most of the songs he plays are songs you probably already saw on the Metalfest DVD that Cryptopsy released recently, it would have been nice to see some of their rarer songs. The DVD-ROM portion even includes drum notation of several songs, which are just sick. Overall, if you love Cryptopsy and want a decent "advanced" drum instructional video, this is a great buy, but I'd recommend some simpler DVDs first to get basic terms and simple techniques explained to you.

• Convergence (1996) James Murphy doing what he does best, playing guitar and writing music. This CD covers a wide variety of styles, from straight ahead metal, to rock, to ballads, to rock and jazz instrumental pieces, and everything in between. About half the songs are instrumentals, the other half include guest appearances from vocalists such as Devin Townsend and Chuck Billy from Testament. With such a variety, the album doesn't hold together very well thematically, it seems to be a bunch of unconnected pieces, but James' spectacular guitar work and good riffs keep everything from become boring. There's no question, this guy is fast and as accurate as they come, and he can still play with soul (A real thick guitar tone too). Production wise, it's clear but could be a bit more menacing at times. A few of the songs at the end of the album are a bit unoriginal, but overall, a good album, and a good indication of the many sides and personalities to one of metal's best guitar players and soloists.
• Feeding The Machine (1999) Similar to his last album, which isn't bad at all. Lots of guest vocalists such as Chuck Billy from Testament, and several instrumental songs (Some of the vocalists are a bit so-so, not nearly as inspired as the music itself). The styles are varied as usual, heavier stuff, lighter stuff, jazz, fusion, you name a style, it's probably used somewhere. Really catchy melodies and nice riffs make it all listenable. There's a slightly stronger keyboard use on this CD that makes a few pieces sound almost like Dream Theater, until James starts soloing, and then you know it's James, there's just something about the way he combines notes in his solos that he can do and no one else can. In general, a good buy if you liked the last CD, or a good buy if you like to hear James solo. If you want only to hear the heavier side of his music, wait for the new Disincarnate album coming out soon.

• The Aeonic Majesty (2000) Side project for Theory In Practice, imagine "Colonizing the Sun", but now with more symphonic keyboards, robotic drums, and straight ahead black metal vocals. Basically while TIP is a mix of several styles, this is similar but swung heavily in the symphonic black metal direction. The guitars are still thick, tons of tremolo picking. In general, nothing new here, but well done with enough atmosphere and mood to be enjoyable.

• Apocalyptica Psychotica - The Murder Tracks (1998, Demo)
• DeathMachine (2000) All the usual black metal stuff is here (constant blastbeats, screamed vocals, keyboards, a huge reverb filled wall of sound), but an element of technicality is added with several memorable riffs, and overall it sounds fresh without all the usual riffs that you've heard a million times before. The band actually does have some variety with some slower chunkier parts, but overall they smash you with this impenetrable wall of harsh frequencies, almost going to noise a lot of the time. Any death metal fan who doesn't mind well done well produced black metal will probably enjoy this cd. Includes a techno remix at the end which actually isn't bad at all either.
• Superior Massacre (2002) While certainly Myrkskog, this isn't a simple rehash of the last album. The wall of harsh frequencies is pulled back a bit, the reverb not quite as substantial, but instead of weakening the sound, it just adds a little more clarity and tightness that helps accentuate the new tunes. In general, this is a little more riff based than before, but don't freak, I can definitely still classify this as black metal, without hesitation. The drums are also even more triggered than before, with a very robotic sounding bassdrum (played at 400bpm, of course). Vocals are generally lower, but there's still some good highpitched screams. Superior is definitely the word to use, again, if you like death metal or black metal, Myrkskog provides us with a perfect combination.