June 15, 2009

Obituary - Slowly We Rot

Getting it right the first time means it’s only downhill from there. On Slowly We Rot, which turned 20 yesterday, Obituary not only found their sound, but nailed it shut. The record answered the question of what Celtic Frost would sound like playing death metal. Grumbling trudges, thrashy rave-ups, and whammified solos formed half the...

1349 - Revelations of the Black Flame

What happened??? Revelations of the Black Flame (Candlelight, 2009) has nine tracks. Four are ambient interludes. One is a six-minute intro. One is a Pink Floyd cover. (Evidently Americans aren’t the only black metallers indulging their “psychedelic influences.”) The three remaining tracks are metal, but two mine a sort of blackened doom. (“Serpentine Sibilance” is...