Dave's Underground Laboratory: February 7, 2011

His day job and passion is as a high school physics teacher, but Dave Schalek's obsession is extreme and underground heavy metal.  Every Monday he holds class in the depths of his underground laboratory, bringing you brief reviews of the latest black, death, grind and other extreme releases.  And since he is a teacher, each CD earns a grade.

Graupel - Am Pranger (Ván Records)

Let's get things started off on the right foot! Germany's Ván Records is largely unknown in the United States, but the label's roster is chock full of quality black metal acts, most of which have connections to the defunct Nagelfar (note the spelling; I'm not referring to the Swedish act Naglfar) and/or prolific drummer extraordinaire Alexander von Meilenwald. Alumni from Nagelfar appear in such Ván Records acts as The Ruins Of Beverast, and, the subject of our first foray into the Underground Laboratory, Graupel.

Graupel are straightforward, raw black metal with a powerful sound. A loud, in your face production, fast drumming and riffing, and loud, rasped growls from Nagelfar alum Zingultus are all over Am Pranger..., the second album from Graupel. The formula, though not original by any stretch, works well enough as Graupel are able to write powerful songs with the right combination of catchiness, brutality, and atmosphere. As far as straight ahead, powerful black metal goes, you really can't ask for much more.

Dave's Grade: B

Toxaemia - Buried To Rise: 1990-91 Discography (Dark Descent Records)

For those of you who haven't delved too deeply into Daniel Ekeroth's tome, Swedish Death Metal, Toxaemia were a Swedish flash in the pan who appeared around the same time as such classic acts as Entombed, Grave, Unleashed, etc., giants all who went on to shape the face of death metal for years to come, were popping up out of the underground. What happened to Toxaemia? Basically, nothing after two demos and an EP. Subsequently, Toxaemia's various members dropped out of the scene, as well, not going on to join the ranks of other bands.

Amid this backdrop, Dark Descent Records has decided to reissue Toxaemia's official output in a two-disc retrospective. The first disc presents the band's output in raw form, circa 1990 or so, while the second disc features the same material after being remastered by none other than Dan Swanö himself. Frankly, he needn't have bothered as Toxaemia do not come anywhere close to the quality of the genre's heavy hitters, or even the also-rans for that matter. Sloppy musicianship, poor songs, you name it; even Swanö's fancy footwork can't save Toxaemia from third rate status. Take a pass, even if you insist on tracking down every release from this period. Toxaemia should've stayed buried.

Dave's Grade: D+

Eastern Front - Blood On Snow (Candlelight Records)

Uh oh. One look at a promotional picture for Eastern Front, a UK black metal act leaning heavily on genre tropes, should give you an indication for what you're in for on the debut full-length, Blood On Snow. Too pretty corpsepaint, button down shirts, combed hair, pained grimaces, generic black metal pseudonyms; you name it, as every cliché in the book appears in the armory of Eastern Front.

Boring clichés aside, Blood On Snow attempts to belch forth war themed black metal in the vein of Marduk with tales of Hitler's disastrous foray into the Russian winter. However, unlike Marduk, Eastern Front do not have any hint of viciousness about them whatsoever, playing fast be damned. There are a few good songs scattered about, but, frankly, why bother when genre giants have perfected this approach already, and with a great deal of authenticity?

Dave's Grade: C-

Abominant - Where Demons Dwell (Deathgasm Records)

For those of you not in the know, Abominant are a long running, underground death metal act from Kentucky. Put aside any notions of Southern-tinged metal that you may have thought of, however, as Abominant come across as a cleaner version of early Sodom, sort of like what would happen if you crossed primitive Teutonic blackened thrash with the cleanliness of Florida- style death metal. If you're thinking to yourself, "Nocturnal Fear", you're on the right track.

As you might expect from a band with nine (!) full-lengths under their collective belts since their inception in the mid- '90s, Abominant know their way around the genre and write decent enough songs with decent musicianship and a fairly clean sound, but don't expect a reinvention of the wheel, either. In the end, Where Demons Dwell is one of those death metal releases best summed up as, "not bad, but not great."

Dave's Grade: B-

Fester - Winter Of Sin (Abyss Records)

Here's another reissue of an album from another bygone band from yesteryear, this time getting the treatment from Abyss Records. Fester, apparently still active, were a blip on the radar in Norway in the early '90s, but suffered by playing very tinny sounding, primitive death metal on their debut, Winter Of Sin, at a time when, yes, you guessed it, the Second Wave of Norwegian Black Metal was about to explode into metal's collective consciousness the world over. Naturally, Fester were pretty much left in the dust, although they attempted to recover with more blackened themes appearing on their second full-length.

At any rate, Winter Of Sin is pretty primitive stuff with a horrible, watered down production that robs the music of any heft, whatsoever. There are a few good riffs scattered about here and there within Fester's generally mid-paced approach to basic death metal, but I find it very difficult to get past the atrocious production. If any attempt at remastering this album was made for this re-release, I wouldn't believe it for a second. For the diehards only.

Dave's Grade: D+

Sacrilegious Impalement - Cultus Nex (Hammer Of Hate Records)

The amount of quality black metal coming out of Finland never ceases to amaze me. To that end, Finnish black metal label Hammer Of Hate Records releases yet another solid, straightforward black metal album, this time in the form of Cultus Nex from Sacrilegious Impalement. Sacrilegious Impalement are exactly, as described; that is, straightforward. A loud production, riffs piled on top of riffs, lots of speed, deeply voiced screams, etc. all are present in spades. The songwriting is good, the musicianship is good, but only a couple of the album's seven tracks, particularly the closer, are really going to stick with you in the end with the necessary catchiness.

Like this column's opening salvo, Sacrilegious Impalement are playing straight ahead, powerful black metal. However, the slightly lower score that I'm granting Sacrilegious Impalement is solely due to the uneven songwriting, which Graupel do not suffer from on Am Pranger... That said, though, Cultus Nex is still solid, indeed.

Dave's Grade: B

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