REVIEWS' ATTACK #5: Corpse Garden/Bestial Invasion/Edgeflame/Provocator

Hey brutal bangers,
here you are a new reviews' attack episode, that time is about 4 interesting bands, ranging from technical thrash metal to the rawest black metal.
I think that, in the future days to come, I will write faster and faster reviews because the digital promos in my possession are toooo many...and I have also many physical promos to review!
But stop with this intro and ENJOY THESE REVIEWS!!!



Band: Corpse Garden
Title: IAO 269
Genre: Experimental Death Metal with various influences
Time: 51 min
Year: 20th November 2017
Rating: 92/100












The Polish label Godz ov War Prod never disappoints me, also when its boss Greg decide to release albums projected towards strange and unexplored territories. This is the case of "IAO 269", third album by the Costa Rican quintet Corpse Garden, whose drummer Erick Mejia plays even in the mighty Deiphago!

Produced by nothing else than Colin Marston of Gorguts' fame, behind the mysterious title of "IAO 269" lies a 51-minutes nightmarish journey in which there is a sort of experimental death metal that reminds me a lot of bands like Deathspell Omega, Atheist, the same Gorguts and Portal. Corpse Garden perfectly combines, throughout the album, an old-school (hyper)-violence with a more modern will to experiment bizzare ideas, taken influences even from non-metal genres. And all this through a dark and disturbing atmosphere created also by the cryptic and esoteric lyrics. After the ritualistic intermezzo with some Spanish spoken vocals "La muerte: principio y redenciòn", the album has more psychedelic tunes by longer and stranger tracks like my favorite one, the almost 9-minutes monolith "The Elevenfold Vibration", whose second part is really fukken absurd!

No other useless word, "IAO 269" is surelly one of the better extreme metal albums released in the now dead 2017! At this point, I can't wait when Corpse Garden will tour Europe in April 2019 with the help of the Italian agency Cult of Parthenope...in the hope that there will be also a date in Rome!

FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/corpsegardencr
BandCamp: http://corpsegarden.bandcamp.com/
Godz ov War Prod: http://godzovwar.com/

Band: Bestial Invasion
Title: Contra Omnes
Genre: Technical Thrash Metal with many Neoclassical influences
Time: 37 min (self-released version)
           52 min (Shellfire Attack version)
Year: September 2017 (self-released version)
11th October 2017 (Shellfire Attack version)
Rating: 78/100










Confess! Did you think that these 5 Ukrainian maniacs called Bestial Invasion played a Teutonic thrash metal in the vein of Destruction, don't you? At first, also I thought in this way but I completely changed my mind when I started to listen to their second album "Contra Omnes".

In fact, it shows a band on fire with a crazy technical thrash metal characterized by totally hysterical tempo and mood changes, a prog approach, a cascade of endless guitar solos, a virtuoso bass played by the band's founder Metal Priest, a lot of elegant neoclassical influences, a surprising good amount of ferocity (there are even blast-beats from time to time!), and a theatrical and heavy metal-oriented vocalist in the person of Vakhtang Zadiev, that gives something solemn to the songs because of his vocals incredibly close to Bruce Dickinson. There is, indeed, a Destruction cover aptly re-titled "(Technical) Thrash Attack", that's longer if compared with the original one. And, if all this wasn't enough, there are very very special guests of the calibre such as Rand Burkey (Atheist), Shawn McCoy (Confessor) and John Gallagher (Raven...but this one is into the "See You in Hell"'s Grim Reaper cover present only in the version released by Shellfire Attack).

Maybe, Bestial Invasion are, in certain points, too self-indulgent (like in the insisting acoustic guitar solo in the end of "N.E.V.E.R.M.O.R.E.") while the tempo changes are sometimes so many and abrupt that they don't allow to the songs to reach memorable climaxes, so I prefer similar but more digestable acts as the Spaniards Injector. In every case, if you are into stuff of bands like Mekong Delta, Realm, Watchtower and Coroner, then Bestial Invasion are fit four you...but BE CAREFUL with the headaches since the tracks into "Contra Omnes" are totally unpredictable!

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/bestialinvasionua
Shellfire Attack: https://shellfire-attack.bandcamp.com/

Band: Edgeflame
Title: Beyond the Pale Carcass
Genre: Thrash Metal
Year: 15th January 2018
Time: 32 min
Rating: 73/100












Here comes another thrash metal band! Edgeflame, born in 2010 by the will of the singer/guitarist Tolga Sert, comes from Turkey and are very prolific since this "Beyond the Pale Carcass" (Narcoleptica Prod/More Hate Prod) is their third album.

Opened by the epic instrumental song "Grotesque Legion", "Beyond the Pale Carcass" is fit for who loves until death the US thrash metal and classic bands such as Metallica, Slayer and Exodus. In fact, the approach choosen by Edgeflame is really old-school, apart for more modern aspects like short blast-beats from time to time, few breakdowns, and without forgetting their tendency to play the guitar solos through oriental melodies, a nice touch of slight originality especially listenable in songs like "Wrathbringer". Thanks, for example, to the very angry vocals of Tolga Sert, Edgeflame plays in an aggressive manner but without being truly violent since not only the good balancement between fast and slower tempos but also the presence of a warlike titletrack, that is the more mid-tempo oriented song of the whole album. Interesting is even the feature of the two guitarplayers to create some layered riffs so to offer better arrangements.

Said all this, "Beyond the Pale Carcass", whose my favorite track is "Deceived by Gods" (characterized by an acoustic intro), is surely good but without being really impressive or creative for me, also because I think that songs like "Feared Butcher" could sound in a more intense and faster way. Hence, for their future productions to come, I suggest to these 4 thrashers to play in a more violent way in order to express a better intensity, and/or to develop the oriental influences in order to make more creative ideas. For the rest, judge in yourselves Edgeflame through the 3 videos that they made to promote the album (above there is the video for "Wrathbringer"), so check 'em out and THRASH 'TIL DEATH!!!

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/Edgeflameofficial
Homepage: http://www.edgeflameofficial.com/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/Edgeflameofficial
Narcoleptica Prod: https://narcolepticaprod.bandcamp.com/merch
More Hate Prod: http://www.morehate.com/

Band: Provocator
Title: Satan Chaos Blood and Terror
Genre: Raw Black Metal with Bestial Metal influences
Year: 23rd February 2018
Time: 26 min
Rating: 80/100












Do you want now a real slab of extreme barbaric violence? Whatever your answer is, my answer is that you have to listen to this "Satan Chaos Blood and Terror", released by the historic US label Moribund Records! This is the second album of Provocator, whose I already reviewed their 2014 debut "Antikristus" when they still were the solo-project of the Slovenian Hellscream (known to be the singer of the black/thrashers Bleeding Fist) while now they are a duo thanks to the addition of the Italian vocalist Lord Astaroth from the black metal band Kurgaal. But nothing about Provocator's music is changed from "Antikristus"...and I'm fukken OKAY with this!

In fact, starting from the fantastic cover artwork made by the Thai maniac Sickness 666 (from Zygoatsis!), "Satan Chaos Blood and Terror" is a joy for the war metal fans like me! This because Provocator continue to play with so blasphemic hate a totally raw, bestial and chaotic black metal with some death metal influences. We're talking about a sound rooted in the '80s-early '90s, so the references are bands like Beherit, Blasphemy, Sarcofago and, especially, the mighty VON. And that "especially" means that Provocator plays in a so raw way that some of their songs contains only a single riff throughout their lenght (like "Anno Vulgaris MDCXXX") while the few guitar solos are really instinctive and noisy and the blast-beats reigns so tyrannically over the album that the first slow tempos are shortly into only the 5th track "Iron Horned Baphomet"! Additionally, I appreciated a lot the insane vocal performances of Lord Astaroth, that keeps very high the levels of madness expressed by Hellscream in "Antikristus" by tormenting the listeners with an absurd series of vocals, including the totally hysterical (and a little bit kitsch!) screams in falsetto in the same "Iron Horned Baphomet" or the"UGH!" à la Thomas Gabriel Warrior from time to time. And the result of all this putrid noise is that "Satan Chaos Blood and Terror" is a pure infernal pleasure for me, especially during my favorite tracks like the war metal anthem "Satanic Storms of Mayhem" and the closing song "Goathammer Militia", an apocalyptic mid-tempo tremendously closer to Hellhammer!

Ok, the variety is almost inexistent, the drums are programmed since there is no human drummer behind them (and you know I am an HATER of the drum-machine!), the volumes are inconceivable (for example, the vocals are too high as compared to the other instruments) and numbers like the titletrack are too noisy...but FUCK this, FUCK that and FUCK all the other flaws about "Satan Chaos Blood and Terror"! Because we're talking about an album of pure bestial intensity with no compromises that lasts only 26 minutes per 8 demented songs! And because I completely love bands characterized by an adorable "I DON'T GIVE A FUCK" attitude like these Provocator! The only real flaw about them is that it's a real shame that they are only a studio band, so I think that they have to start to put on a live line-up in order to spit finally all this hate towards a scaried audience. Hellscream, is it possible this thing?

FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/Provocator.Cult
Moribund Records: http://www.moribundcult.com/