Best of 2011 Volume 1 - Mitochondrion - Parasignosis

From: Canada
Year: 2011
Genre: Blackened Death Metal

So since I only post every other day, for the most part, and I don’t feel like doing one HUGE post, I’ve decided to start posting my favorite albums of 2011, one post at a time, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, starting now. I’m gonna try to keep it to the heavier stuff but one or two random albums might pop in there. Also if an album I love has already been posted on here, I’m just gonna post it again cus obviously I feel that it deserves the attention. So here goes……

A hypothetical: The moon reflects the suns fading light upon the earth. Deep within the forest, a group of black robed men stand in a circle, invoking the power of Satan. They pass a silver goblet around the circle, which contains liquid LSD. After ingesting the sacred elixir, one of them approaches a radio they have set beside the circle and hits play. The abstract madness of Portal’s Swarth comes blasting through the speakers. After contemplating cosmic destruction and witnessing the birth and death of the universe on the back of their eyelids, members of Incantation and Morbid Angel head home to jam. This album is what I think the resulting jam session might sound like.

Buy it here.

Goreaphobia - Apocalyptic Necromancy

From: USA
Year: 2011
Genre: Death Metal

Goreaphobia was formed in 1988 in Philadelphia, PA. They were, arguably, the first death metal band to come from there and one of the first death metal bands to come from the east coast of the US. They broke up in 1992 and members went on to join the ranks of Incantation, Immolation, Master and Absu. They reunited in 2007 and released their first full length, titled Mortal Repulsion, in 2009. They recently released this, their second full length, album and on this offering they have managed to combine old school death metal, old school black metal and old school thrash metal into something wholly modern sounding. The riffs are awesomely catchy and memorable, something I really miss in a lot of modern death metal, and the songwriting is top-notch. There’s even one song that approaches post-punk with its jangly guitars and gothic overtones. Chris Gamble’s voice falls somewhere between Tom G Warrior of Celtic Frost and Tom Angelripper of Sodom. Although the individual pieces aren’t original by any means, the end product and the way they alchemize their sound by summoning the spirits of the old school masters into an apocalyptic onslaught of pure metal fury is pretty fuckin awesome (see what I did there? Apocalyptic Necromancy! Get it? Get it? Aahhh im such a fuckin dork) In my opinion this is one of the better DM releases of the year.

Nihilist - Carnal Leftovers 1987-1989

From: Sweden
Year: 2011
Genre: Death Metal

This is where Swedish death metal began. Nihilist was formed in 1987 by Nicke Andersson, also of Death Breath and The Hellacopters, Alex Hellid and Leif Cuzner. After the band called it quits, Johnny Hedlund formed Unleashed and the remaining members reformed with Uffe Cederlund (later of Disfear) on guitar and renamed themselves Entombed. Easily the most influential death metal band to ever come out of Sweden, the importance of these recordings cannot be overstated. Without Nihilist bands like At the Gates, Grave, Dismember and of course Entombed would never exist. They pioneered the buzzsaw guitar sound that so many bands copy today. This is their complete discography, containing all their demos and the first Entombed demo, “Life Goes On”. Absolutely essential for any fan of Death Metal.

Master - Unreleased 1985 Album

From: USA
Year: 2003
Genre: Death Metal

Master were formed in 1983 and, along with Death and Possessed, were one of the originators of death metal. Although, due to problems with record labels, they never reached the level of notoriety that the aforementioned bands did, they were hugely influential on second wave death metal acts like Obituary, Pestilence, etc. and first wave grindcore acts like Napalm Death and Terrorizer. This is the album they recorded for Combat Records in 1985 but never released until 2003, the music on this recording has more of a d-beat punk approach to death metal and was greatly influenced by Venom and Slayer. Still going almost 30 year later, Master are easily one of the longest running death metal bands in history.

Immolation - Providence

From: USA
Year: 2011
Genre: Death Metal

Well I noticed there wasn’t any Immolation on this blog yet and, seeing as how they are one of the greatest death metal bands ever, I figured I’d rectify that. For those of you that don’t know, Immolation was formed in 1986 under the name Rigor Mortis and changed it in 1988 because, I’m assuming, there was a speed/thrash metal band from Texas that already had that name. Along with Suffocation and Incantation, they helped define the New York death metal sound, and continue to do so 25 years later. They’re known for their squealing dissonant guitar riffs and complex rhythmic song structures. This is their latest EP released through Scion AV, their signature sound is still in place but has continued to slightly evolve. Oh and it kicks ass.

Disincarnate - Dreams of the Carrion Kind

From: USA
Year: 1993
Genre: Death Metal

After contributing to three death metal masterpieces by Death, Obituary and Cancer, guitarist James Murphy released this DM masterpiece of his own. Murphy wrote the majority of the music and played lead, rhythm, acoustic and bass guitar. As always the guitar solos are incredible and the riffs are technical yet catchy without ever being overly showy or venturing into prog. There are constant tempo shifts but the music never threatens to lose you and, besides the intro and outro pieces, remains crushing from beginning to end. Featuring artwork by the inimitable Dave McKean.

The Skeletal - The Plague Rituals

From: U.S.
Year: 2011
Genre: Death Metal

I really can't find any info on these guys, other than that they are from Florida and have Kam Lee (ex-Massacre, Mantas, Death, etc...) on vocals.

Entrails - The Tomb Awaits

From: Sweden
Year: 2011
Genre: Death Metal

These guys date back to pretty much the hay-day of death metal around 1990, but broke up due to not being happy with their sound. They of course reformed around 2008 and have been dishing out the old school death ever since...

Evisorax - Isle of the Dogs

From: U.K.
Year: 2011
Genre: Grindcore, Death Metal

I'm not sure how I completely feel about this release. On one hand it's got some pretty good grind/tech/chaotic riffage, but on the other it does have a bit of a deathcore vibe as well, so I guess you'll have to decide for yourselves on this one-->>

Belphegor - Discography

From: Austria
Year: 1991-2011
Genre: Black Metal, Death Metal

I love this band, so I figured you should too-->>

Studio albums

The Last Supper (1995)
Blutsabbath (1997)
Necrodaemon Terrorsathan (2000)
Lucifer Incestus (2003)
Goatreich - Fleshcult (2005)
Pestapokalypse VI (2006)
Bondage Goat Zombie (2008)
Walpurgis Rites - Hexenwahn (2009)
Blood Magick Necromance (2011)

Demos/EPs

Kruzifixion (as Betrayer) (1991)
Bloodbath in Paradise (1993)
Obscure and Deep (1994)

Live albums

Infernal Live Orgasm (2002)

Spawn - Human Toxin

     From: Germany Year: 2004 Genre: Death Metal 

Death fucking metal. Do you like death metal chunky? Do you like death metal groovy? How about dark? Well this shit is for you. This band reminds very much of the other groovy heavy death metal bands like Bloodsoaked, Jungle Rot, and Houwitser. Just straight up heavy and brutal ass death metal. Fucking awesome.

Fleshcrawl - Descend into the Absurd

    From: Germany Year: 1992 Genre: Death Metal  

We are going old fucking school here. This is death metal the way it should be done. Instead of listening to an old-school impersonator band trying to sound true. Why not just break out one of the better pre-1995 death metal albums. This Fleshcrawl album is just fucking massive. Slow, doomy passages crawl on forever. The dry production just reeks of dusty and dried out tombs full of skeletons and bone dust. This is darkness. It will take you places you really never thought you'd want to go whether you like it or not. Enjoy!

Flagitious Idiosyncracy in the Dilapidation - Kakusei EP

From: Japan
Year: 2011
Genre: Grindcore, Death Metal

I still haven't really found out what their name means (or how these four petite Japanese girls can bust out crazy grind for that matter), but here's the latest release-->>