Black Breath - Heavy Breathing

Black Breath got my attention sometime last year, when they got featured in the same fanzine like my own band. They had one record out, "Razor To Oblivion", a 10" I purchased shortly afterwards. A heavy, solid record for everyone who likes rough Hardcore and Swedish Deathmetal (so obviously this record was made for me, haha), giving you a good 50/50 mix of both genres. 
Their new record entitled "Heavy Breathing" was released via Southern Lord Records, somehow I missed to order it directly, so one day I checked the SL-site again when the vinyl version's gonna be released, and found out it was already sold out. Bummer. But Per Koro Records from Germany got some copies shortly afterwards, so I finally got mine. And, as you've probably heard somewhere else, this record is fucking awesome. It leans definetely more towards early Swedish Death Metal, sound- and songwise, a.k.a. Entombed "Left Hand Path" era, Dismember "Like an everflowing stream" era, or, not so Swedish but for sure influental for those, Autopsy. Heavy, groovy Death Metal riffs, uptempo beats but not ridiculously fast, that's the way it goes. Add a good dose of Motörhead and Discharge, put a Boss HM-2 pedal between guitar and the old Marshall, there you go: Black Breath. The vocals are the main factor reminiscent of Hardcore, but don't get me wrong: "Heavy Breathing" for sure eyes more towards Metal than the previous record. 
The first Black Breath full length should complement everybody's record collection (if available haha) who likes his Death Metal "Stockholmish", his Hardcore raw and/or his hair long. Amazing record that leaves me longing for more. 

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Liers In Wait - Spiritually Uncontrolled Art EP

Death Metal time again, today: the only official release by this Swedish band called Liers In Wait (which was released in 1991). I believe they named themselves after that line in "Abominations" by Morbid Angel: "Liars in wait, priests of the night/Make images to burn by the moon/Robbing the spirit, raping gods law/Send up our hate to burn heavens gate" and changed the A to an E. But that's only a guess. Liers In Wait have musically way more in common with what was happening concerning Death Metal in the USA at that time than with the "typical" Stockholm- or Goteburg-style. I'm thinking of bands like Morbid Angel (obviously), maybe Cannibal Corpse and Deicide above all. You know that means we're more on the technical side of things. Loads of riffs, sick harmonies, strange rhythm patterns, you name it. What makes this record so awesome is that Liers In Wait managed to keep their songs technically, catchy, groovy and super heavy at the same time, not to mention the superb production. The band came to live after the break up of Grotesque 1990; their main songwriter Kristian is also the dude behind the songwriting in LIW. Whereas two other guys (Tomas and Alf) of Grotesque went to form what would become one of the best known Swedish Death Metal (and, not their fault, quasi proto-metalcore) bands ever, At The Gates, LIW never really made it, although they definetly had their chances. I'm very curious to listen to their other releases, their seems to exist a demo and even an unreleased LP, but none of it seems to be findable anywhere in the depths of the internet. So if anyone has this stuff or knows where to download it, write me! Most information given here is taken from Ekeroth's book, what else. 

Vader - Necropolis (Review)

Fuck all Deathcoreposerbullshit, fuck breakdowns and girlpants, fuck everything. This is the new Vader record and if you don't start to bang your head with the first note of the first song, you're not worth reading this blog one minute longer hahaha. Seriously, this piece of vinyl (of course there's a CD version as well) is so brilliant, it's the best Deathmetal record that got released 2009 so far. I mean, Vader are into this nearly as long as I live, so they know how to do it. But in difference to other bands that are "in the game" for that long which perhaps start to experiment with other influences and stuff like that, Vader just kill. I mean, just kill. The vocals sound so fucking mean, like a witch-priest or something like that. The music's just the perfect. Hard. And fast. And heavy. And dark. And heavy and heavy and heavy. Did I mention the perfect vocals? Nobody sounds like that. Except Satan himself maybe. My favourite song is probably "Impure". It makes me want to thrash myself, my room, my neighbours, their families and friends. I can't fucking wait to get to see Vader live by the end of September, it's gonna be so good. I'm blown away.

Nirvana 2002 - Disembodied Spirits (Demo)

To be honest, I wouldn't know shit about this band without Ekeroth's book about Swedish Death Metal. But since he mentions this band a few times, and how great they were and so on I decided to check them out, which is quite easy it times of the internet. They never released a real record, only a bunch of demos, and this demo was released in 1990, has a powerful production, awesome songs, sick riffs and great vocals. I mean I am surely not the biggest expert of Death Metal, but I do know about good music, and this IS good, definitely at the same level like the early Entombed/Dismember/Grave stuff. Be sure to check this out, otherwise you'll miss something.