Honorable Mentions from the Abyss #6: GrimmDistribution

Service communication:

before reading the article, you have to know that my ebook about the first wave of black metal entitled "Nel Segno del Marchio Nero" ("in the sign of the black mark") was finally released on 24th March 2019. It's available on the best digital stores like Google Books and others. It's completely in Italian. Thanks in advance if you'll buy it!

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Hey brutalbangers,
as I promised you some days ago, this is a new appointment with "Honorable Mentions from the Abyss" including only 2018 releases from a Satanath Records' sublabel: GrimmDistribution. Exactly, these releases are 4 and comes only from Italian acts. This time the musical offerings are very different because they ranges from old-school death/grindcore to a special form of industrial black metal, so to offer something for everyone's musical (and anti-musical) palate in the extreme metal.
Enjoy this article, men, and let me know what is your favorite band within the following ones!

FEED THEM DEATH - "NO SOLUTION/DISSOLUTION"

In Italy, the so-called brain drain is catching on even in the extreme metal music. In fact, sometimes I know bands entirely composed of Italians but located abroad. For example, this is the case of the crust/d-beat act Speed Kobra, that is in Germany now. Or it is the case of Feed Them Death (FB page), a one-man band leaded by the multi-instrumentalist Void, who lives in London, England. He was one of the original members of the Italian deathsters Antropofagus, that I saw live on stage some months ago, so we're talking about a veteran of the scene. Well, he founded this new project known as Feed Them Death in 2017 and, under this moniker, published so far an EP and a full-lenght album with the same title: "No Solution/Dissolution". In this place, we'll talk about the album, that was released by the US label Exalted Woe Rec along with GrimmDistribution and that was sent to me also through the Italian agency Anubi Press.

If you want some grindcore with a strong metallic edge, then "No Solution/Dissolution" fits for you! Precisely, Feed Them Death make deaf the listeners by spewing forth a devastating death/grindcore where the moments of clarity are really rare since the blast-beats and the purest chaotic aggression reigns supreme. Interesting are some basslines (as in "Exposed Parading Dissent"), that are a bit particular for a classic death/grindcore album like this one. There are also illustrious guest vocals by people such as Argento (Spite Extreme Wing and another original member of Antropofagus), Christian Montagna (owner of the Son of Flies webzine) and Deimos (Will 'O' Wisp). Maybe the songs are too similar, so the album lacks of imagination but the intensity is right. Nothing but death/grindcore à la Terrorizer that soon will be perpetrated again with an imminent second album!

NECROSPELL - "AWAKENING OF TYRANTS"

In this period when even the most obscure bands from the '90s are used to come back after many years of silence, also Necrospell (FB page) are no exceptions in this "trend". This is a quintet from South of Italy that released their first and only demo in 1995, disappearing the next years for the usual musical divergences. In 2017 they raised from their premature death by the will of the original guitarplayers Ferenc N. (best known for his militancy in Lord Vampyr) and Andrea G.. Strong of new members, Necrospell worked hard to publish finally their debut album "Awakening of Tyrants" (GrimmDistribution/Murdher Records).

"Awakening of Tyrants" includes 8 tracks (comprised of intro) but mostly of them are re-recorded versions of the demo songs. Said these technical details, Necrospell show a death metal able to combine the aggression with a great melodic sense. This last one is perfectly exemplified by the guitar solos, that gives a sort of elegance to the music. In practice, Necrospell mixes a US death metal with the Gothenburg sound in a single solution. By reading a post on their FB page dated on 27th November 2018, it seem that they changed not only the bassplayer but also the drummer (that now is Antonio "Hamon" Guida, an old acquaintance of this 'zine since his past experiences in Cold Aenima and Demonia Mundi). Now I hope that they will start again their live activities because they are inactive for a long time!

ACHERONTE - "SON OF NO GOD"

Sometimes they come back! You must think that I reviewed Acheronte (FB page) even 7 years ago in the occasion of their "Genesis of Evil" EP. They've come a long way since then! Now, they are very active on the live front (they have also played few months ago at the Ciociaria Black Fest, near Rome) and have released two well appreciated albums. The last one is this "Son of No God", that the Italian label The Triad Records (here we knew it through the Nomura/Nulla+ split) published along with GrimmDistribution.

It's curious: the band, that now is a trio and not a quartet anymore, have recently announced their new musical direction towards death metal. But, without doubts, "Son of No God" is a fukken brutal black metal assault in the vein of Marduk and the likes. Lacerating scream with some putrid growls, savage riffs with no solos, a mountain of blast-beats, and long songs able to reach also the 12 minutes of lenght ("Fall of Perfection"), even though the tracks are sometimes too obsessive structurally speaking by repeating the same things for minutes ("Babylon Unholy Hammer"). But, mind you, this black metal deserves a lot! At this point, I am really curious about the new sound of Acheronte.

NOCRATAI - "TORMENTO"

Everything is bizzarre in Nocratai: bizzarre is their moniker, bizzarre is their line-up, bizzarre is their music, and bizzarre is their (anti)-musical career. Speaking about this last one, Nocratai released a monstrous series of demos and splits between 1999 and 2008. After that, the total silence. Abruptly, the Italian Evil Distro published a Nocratai's compilation in 2017. In the next year, their debut album "Tormento", without any fuckin' warnings, saw violently the black light under the auspices of GrimmDistribution, The Ritual Productions and Black Metal Records.

Now, this album, that was recorded even in 2011 (but 5 songs were already edited for a 2008 demo), is a pure delirium! This because it combines black metal with the techno music (or in every way you want to call it) since the synthetic beats and other special effects. The final result is that Nocratai (that have into their line-up the unstoppable black metal apostle Gionata Potenti, already known on these pages for Acherontas, Fides Inversa and Handful of Hate) plays a martial and simple industrial black metal close to Aborym and Martyrium that see its sickest peak in the final 16-minute song "Drugs and Their Terrible Consequences". In addition, some songs are in Italian, like "Ogni strada porta al Calvario", where there is a famous sample taken from the cult movie "The Seventh Seal" (1957). I'm not so much into this form of black metal but I must confess that the general effect is disturbing. But now what are doing Nocratai? Are they active in some ways? Fuck, it's bizzarre also their same existence!