Cruentus - "Fake" (Triple A Events Records, 2019)

Band: Cruentus
Title: Fake
Genre: Death/Thrash Metal with some Technical tunes
Time: 37.54 min
Release date: 15th October 2019
Vote: 75/100










Fuck, I received this album in physical format in December 2019 from the Italian promotion agency Frantic Mule but only in these days I found the time to listen to it! So, I'm sorry with Frantic Mule for this enormous delay but, finally, here you are the review about "Fake"! This is the second album of a historic Italian band from Apulia called Cruentus, a quintet that was born in the very far 1989 and whose main core since its early times is composed of the guitarist and founder Antonello Maggi, the singer Nicola Bavaro (that had experiences also in acts of the calibre of Schizo and Glacial Fear) and the bassplayer Adriano Boghetich. But the story of Cruentus is a bit special because, in brief, they are so unprolific that their previous (and first) album, "In Myself", was published even in 1996, so they took all the time in the world to work on "Fake"! Now let's see how they took advantage from these 23 years!

Se beccamo ner pit!: the mega-compilation about the LazioHC is finally out!

Hey brutal bangers,
do you remember the compilation that, under the name of xUnitedx, I was assembling in these last times along with a friend of mine? Well, it was finally released on 15th July 2020 through BandCamp and you can download it for free!

Honorable Mentions from the Abyss #24: Iato/Gôr Mörgul

Hey brutal bangers,

I remember that, in the early days of the 'zine (I am talking about something like 10 years ago!), I was always in search of Sardinian bands because I literally fell in love with the extreme metal scene of this so fascinating region called Sardinia, that I unfortunately never visited so far, even though some of very far origins of mine come just from there. Though not on purpose, both the Italian bands of this episode of "Honorable Mentions from the Abyss" come from Sardinia, and they are named Iato and Gôr Mörgul.

I received their respective albums in physical format from Satanath Records, along with "Exaltatus Mechanism" of Abigorum (the black/doom metal band of Alexey Koryolov, the owner of the aforementioned label), whose I'll talk about soon in another article. I'm sorry with Alexey if I am talking about these albums only now after I received them one year ago but, as someone says, "it's better late than never"! And don't forget that I included all these bands in the last episode of "Come on, burn my ears!"!

So, enjoy this article and discover these great bands if you still don't know them!

Shockproof+Gigantomachia (Rome, 23th July 2020)

Gruppi: Shockproof+Gigantomachia
Data: 23 luglio 2020
Locale: Traffic Live Club
Ingresso: gratuito su prenotazione





Da quando lo scorso mese ho cominciato a prendere seriamente la macchina anche per fare serata (eh sì, perché prima ero "un po'" troppo dipendente dagli ormai odiati mezzi pubblici), ho cominciato pure a frequentare di più il Traffic che, in buona sostanza, è attualmente uno dei pochissimi locali romani di musica live che sta organizzando concerti degni di questo nome in questi tempi difficili di post-quarantena. Più nello specifico, si tratta di concerti gratuiti e all'aperto, con un numero massimo di spettatori, e devo dire che, nonostante tutto, questa formula sta funzionando a dovere e rappresenta un buon palliativo per tutti coloro che sono stati per mesi in astinenza da concerti. Ecco quindi che ieri si è tenuto un bel concerto con gli Shockproof come headliner e i frusinati Gigantomachia come gruppo di supporto. E, quindi, eccovi finalmente su queste lercissime pagine il primo live report dopo mesi!

Valfaris (Steel Mantis, 2019)

Title: Valfaris
Genre: Videogame
Release date: 10th October 2019
Vote: 90/100







It was a lot of time that I wanted to open a section entirely focused on the videogames... or better, METAL videogames! They are "metal" in the sense that they are characterized by heavy metal influences not only in their soundtrack but also in their imagery, in their look, in some references. They can be videogames of every kind of genre but, since the aggressiveness of their metal nature, they often belongs obviously to the action games, that are also my favourite ones. And I don't care if they are in 2D, in 3D or in any dimension you want because the important is that they are good and enjoyable. But now I think that this new section could be only opened with an action game released in 2019 whose soundtrack was made by nothing else than an ex-Celtic Frost member: Valfaris!

Infector - "Let the Infection Begin" (Defense Records, 2019)

Band: Infector
Title: Let the Infection Begin
Genre: Thrash Metal
Time: 35.05 min
Release date: 2019
Vote: 78/100













It seems a totally another life when I published the first episode of "Metal in the Box", in which I announced the arrival of a mega-pack from Mythrone Promotion. The fuckin' Coronavirus seemed so far for us and no one thought that the quarantine would strike the entire world. So, bands with names such as these Infector, that I am finally going to review today after many months, are very fit for these uncertain times, especially when we are in presence of an album entitled "Let the Infection Begin". What a prophetic title, don't you think?

Honorable Mentions from the Abyss #23: The Noctambulant/Noctem

Hey brutal bangers,

ultimately I received many albums from Art Gates Records but, in the truth, I still had to talk about albums that they sent to me even in the last months of 2019. And, finally, only recently I found the time to talk about the two black metal albums that are the objects of this new episode of "Honorable Mentions from the Abyss".

No other words, and let's go straight to the action!

Motivate Us with Force! #2

Hey brutal bangers,
welcome to the new and second episode of "Motivate Us with Force!", the Timpani allo Spiedo's playlist that, entirely focused on hardcore punk with positive messages, I opened last month!

Come on, burn my ears! #8

Hey brutal bangers,
as I wrote in the last article, in these times I am very busy to do the compilation about the LazioHC (that now is entitled "Se beccamo ner pit!", that means "see you in the pit" in Roman dialect), so I found only a very little time to publish new articles for the 'zine. Fortunately, today I found some time to prepare the 8th episode of "Come on, burn my ears!", so this is the result!