Find the coverage and some great photos of this year's Devilstone Open Air written by our Lithuanian contributor Inga here>> www
Death metal is such a limitless genre. You can do whatever you'd like. It can be over the top technical or slow. Brutal or insane and it's all so good. When we made "Visions of Death" it just came out with a natural old school-ish vibe and that's great, but our newer material has a much more modern technical vibe. I love how death metal has evolved.
For me, death metal should be heavy as fuck, brutal (which doesn't necessarily mean "fast"), atmospheric and evil. If the "evil" thing is not there, you can't label yourself death metal, that's a fact. I'm so fucking close minded when it comes to metal music... I listen to the SAME hard rock, heavy, thrash, doom, death and black metal that I used to listen to 15 years ago.
Dutch black metallers Sammath released their first proper demo "Zwaardbroeders Bij de Bergengte" in 1996 at the height of the Norwegian black metal boom during the genre's second wave. Since that time Sammath cut one more demo and subsequently three full length albums through German specialist label Folter Records. Building further upon the palette of Dark Funeral's "The Secrets Of the Black Arts" Sammath integrate influences from death - and thrash metal with spectacular elaborate leads/solos and a crunchy production. Most of the record plays a lightspeed with barbaric drumming, bone-crushing riffing, neckbreaking rhythm sections and devilish rasps by founder/main composer Jan Kruitwagen. Melody is present in "Triump In Hatred", but not in a conventional manner. These underlying nihilistic classicist melodies are skincrawling and eerie. Kruitwagen's demonic vocals recall (early) Gorgoroth, particular 1994's "Pentagram". The pristine production allows the guitars to shine, in definition and bite. The bass guitar is audible and the organic sounding drums aren't overly triggered. The unusually atmospheric artwork by death metal go-to-guy Tony Koehl is much better than his most recent work in the death metal genre. Apollon Records is releasing this album on red and black vinyl.http://www.folter666.decomment itWouter 7
