| CD REVIEW Hells Headbangers Records Special: Sanguis Imperem + Midnight + Vladimirs + Speedwolf + Embalmed |
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Label: Hells Headbangers Records Another special again by one of the most interesting labels from the present yet focused on the past, Hells Headbangers Records. Concreteweb posted lots of individual reviews (I am honoured to have been able to do more than thirty HHR-reviews in mean time) in 2010 and 2011, as well as some ‘specials’ – there was an August-special recently, for example – so check out our beloved site and find out why this label (and this fan-site) is such an interesting one. This November-special includes five new recordings, which will be released worldwide during - and yes, you’re oh so smart if you did notice it - …indeed during the month of November. ‘November-special’, you see… It starts getting cold and dark outside, and these sombre moments will be painfully enlightened by utter violence and suffocative obscurity, provided with pleasure and sadism by undersigned… Enjoy (again)! Band: Sanguis Imperem Sanguis Imperem originally started as a duo, by R.S. and S.S., to be informationally correct (both of them also known from Sanguinary Perversion or their live support to Nocturnal Blood), and as a duo they did record their first demo, MMVII, indeed in the year MMVII a.C. Under the moniker Holocaust Wolves of the Apocalypse, which did include D. Bloodstorm of Bestial Warlust, they did some live performances, which was some kind of megalomaniac tribute-project to Bestial Warlust itself. Then J.G. got recruited on drums (also live member for Ghastly Apparition’s solo-project Nocturnal Blood). In mean time this Californian band did a MCD (called The Stagnation Of Centuries, 2008, through the band’s own label Glorious Assault) and a split with, indeed, Nocturnal Blood (through Nuclear War Now! Records, 2010). 87/100 Band: Midnight Even though these darksters do exist for quite a time, Satanic Royalty is their official full length studio debut. The past saw the light of many EP’s and some compilations, live recordings and splits, yet the fans (and believe me, this band indeed is pretty ‘popular’ in the underground) had to wait a long time. But now, finally, here it is: Midnight’s studio debut. Wonderful! This stuff stands for sledge-hammered Old School in its purest definition: Satanic Royalty is built upon the virginal roots of METAL in a sense of primal Rock-based yet primal-violently aggression. It sounds enormously trusted, even though performed with specific, proper details, and with an impressing variety in several aspects (tempo, melodies, aggression, song structures, influences etc.). In general this album can be considered a mixture of early Venom and Motörhead, spiced with elements from Warfare, Toxic Holocaust, Amebix, Nocturnal Breed or Blöod Düster, injected with elements from Groove, Southern Blues, Sludge and Punk, Speed and Thrash Metal and even added with flavours of Maiden / Priest-alike melodies, fragments of Tiamat’s Wildhoney (listen to Black Damnation, combining Tiamat with the most droning Sludge-grooves in years), and Bathory / Sodom-inspired blackness. Goatlord, Necromantia, Necrophagia, Chrome Division, Bewitched, Aura Noir, Deströyer 666, even hints of very early Warlock and Scavenger (the Belgian one), it does not matter; if you like it the sleazy way, you … 90/100 Band: Vladimirs Vladimirs, aka The Vladimirs, are a Cincinnati, Ohio-based Horror Rock formation, formed in 1995 by (former) members of e.g. Thorns Of The Carrion, Estuary and Bad Samaritans. The band did record a rich hand full of albums in mean time, mainly through Bloodpact Music(early years) and Blood & Guts Records (as from 2003’s The Odds Are Against Us). The last one dates from 2006 (the highly acclaimed Serpent Girl …-full length), so it took quite a while… The band also appeared on a few movie soundtracks and lots of compilations, among which some of the famous Dwell Records-tribute recordings (tributes to, for example, King Diamond, AC/DC and Led Zeppelin), as well as the fifth edition of the Hells Headbangers Records-samplers. 71/100 Band: Speedwolf Hailing from Denver, Colorado (U. S. f’ng A.), Speedwolf stands for spikes and bullets, boobies-licking and loads of whisk(e)y and beer, loud burps and smelly farts, pit-moshing and OLD SKOOL METAL! The most sleazy and dirty act out there, probably… 81/100 Band: Embalmed Formed at the end of the first half of the nineties, Mexican combo Embalmed sort of reached a cult-status in mean time with their (few) mini-records they did release officially (some EP’s and demos). And now, suddenly, a new studio recording, so let’s shout out loud all together: eternal obeisance to Hells Headbangers (again)! Only twenty five minutes it lasts, this Exalt The Imperial Beast, yet it is worth every minute of it and it must have lasted much longer. It all starts with the mad and psycho-grinding intro Overture …, yet as from Vindictive Armada Of Sodom Embalmed do what’s needed: blasting virginal eardrums with merciless outbursts of utter-primal malignancy. This is Old Styled Black / Death / Grind with the ugliest face, covered in faeces and mucus, flavoured with rotting entrails and freshly produced vomit, smelling of straight-from-Hell sulphur and decomposing body parts, damn, it makes me hungry! Devastating addition: the sound SUCKS! This isn’t ‘underground’, this is shit! 83/100 Hells Headbangers Records for sure are a splendid label with remarkable attention for the ‘real’ sounds of those times when it all did get ‘real’ for real. A reality, really it is… As you could read, the label focuses on more than Death and Black Metal, for three of these five reviews differ from both of those genres. Open-mindedness with intelligence and exorcising any form of commercial would-be pathetics. Ivan Tibos. |
