Babalon Vs Spring 2023
I thought, instead of going over a band's discography or doing recommendations, this week we go into albums I'm looking forwards to. Im only doing albums that are confirmed to be released this year because I have trust issues with anything without a release date. It's kind of like the Zodiac thing.
Prophecies Ablaze
Unpure
Black-Thrash
Sweden
It's been more than half of my short existence since Unpure has released an album and, in the Swedish tradition, they seem to have made it worth our while. "Prophecies Ablaze" sounds like a vicious return from one of the unsung legends of Swedish Black-Thrash. Evil and brutal riffs just ooze from this one, provided by a lineup bolstered by members of the indomitable Watain and Degial, and Kolgrim's vocals have not become any less ferocious with the passage of time. The first two promo tracks, "Northern Sea Madness" and "Small Crooked Bones" already show promise and are well worth your time in and of themselves.
Apocalypse
Rotten Sound
Grindcore
Finland
I might catch shit for this, but luckily I don't care - Rotten Sound is probably my favorite Grindcore band of all time. I too love Napalm Death, Nasum, and Repulsion but Rotten Sound is unique in both their immediacy and talent. I'm well aware "talent" in Grindcore sounds like an unsanitary proposition, but the mix of Swedish-Finnish death metal sound with the blistering brutality, to quote Goniloc, "touches you in the touchiest of places." The new opus "Apocalypse," is Rotten Sound's first full length album in 7 years and it sounds worthy of their already storied discography.
Nostalgia
Enforcer
Heavy Metal
Sweden
Remember a few years back when classic heavy was thin on the ground? Sure there were the legendary acts still ripping, but traditional metal was very much on life support (I promised to not make a Mötley Crüe pun) as far as new material for a few years. If you ask me, or read a piece I am writing, this changed with In Solitude and Enforcer. While In Solitude broke my heart and ceased to exist in 2015, Enforcer published their debut "Into The Night" in 2008 and have released some of the greatest records the genre has seen in quite a while.
Anyway, the Aarvika giant Olof and company are back and if the singles are anything to go by, this record is going to see the band continue their reign.
72 Seasons
Metallica
Thrash Metal
USA
You know who Metallica are, you've heard what's coming and you don't need me to tell you about. You might want me to but you don't need me to. However I am too excited to leave them off my list.
Rock Releases
Plagueboys
Grave Pleasures
Post-Punk
Finland
It is no exaggeration to say that after "Motherblood," I did not envy Grave Pleasures' position one bit. They always seem to have the monumental task of topping themselves, but it pays off when your track record is this strong. Grave Pleasures are one of the few acts that have me going " a new album you say dear fellow? Well I know whatever it is, it'll be great."
With good reason too, as "Plagueboys" seems to continue the extremely high standard laid by its forebears. It's desolate, it's emotional, it's extremely well written lyrically and musically, and its one of the few bands you could both dance to and cry to. Maybe even at the same time if you're Billy Eliott enough.
The Old Ways Remain
Blood Ceremony
Occult Rock
Canada
Canada's Blood Ceremony are often seen as The Devil's Blood Lite™️ but this is a very narrow way of looking at it. Beyond the blood and being Occult Rock groups headed by women, they have very little in common with one another. The vibe is different to the point I'm not sure they'd really fit a bill together. I could see TDB playing alongside, say, Candlemass but I see Blood Ceremony being much more at home with acts like Windir or Skyclad.
What I'm trying to say, inarticulately and with foam running from my rabies infested mouth is that the band has a more Folk edge to it. All three of their previous records left me with a taste for more, walking that tightrope of being psychedelic and classic without being derivative and "retro." Their new one has no songs out yet, possibly as a conspiracy to antagonize me, but I have every reason to believe it'll be worth checking out.
Babalon’s Bands I - The Dutch Masters (God Dethroned)
I know everyone has a bone to pick about a band they think deserves more credit, but I want you to know - every time someone makes a list about the greatest Dutch Death Metal acts and doesn't include God Dethroned, a tulip wilts. Not only that but a heavily tattooed Polish man in New York cries and yells at his computer. But I get ahead of myself.
God Dethroned is a Dutch band hailing from Beilen-a town Wikipedia has assured me exists but I cannot verify this information. About a year and ten months after their demo, Christ Hunt, the band released their debut album called The Christhunt. Except for adding an article and removing a space to make it a much more memorable title, the debut of God Dethroned already gives a hint of what was to come. Whereas their countrymen, Asphyx, appropriately feel almost hammer-like and blunt, God Dethroned's power lies in the polar opposite. They have this Black-Thrash sharpness to them that would place them as comfortably alongside Nifelheim as Possessed.
The band was perhaps in its infancy but lead composer and vocalist Henri Sattler had already started showing his distinct writing style. Might ruffle some feathers here but in my heart, this early day evolution hit its apex with Grand Grimoire. Coming out a whole 5 years and a reunion (or as Metallica would call it, 20 seasons) after their debut, The Grand Grimoire showcases the band hitting their sweet spot. It's where the band first found their optimal footing. Henri's infectious and massive melodies interwoven with breakneck but unique rhythms sound like a cavalry charge.
Two years later, in 1999, the band began releasing material more frequently. They rounded out their early years with another stone cold classic, Bloody Blasphemy. Many of they whose feathers were ruffled a mere 6-7 lines ago would hold up The Christhunt and Bloody Blasphemy as counterarguments to my use of the word "apex." But they're wrong because my taste is better than theirs. That aside, the quality is consistent enough that really, it's mostly a matter of which melodies speak to you the most. It really is almost like judging parts of a painting.
When I said "more frequently" you probably imagined that I was implying their next releases are not as good, but that is not the case. While neither Ravenous nor Into The Lungs of Hell improve upon the first three records and the latter has the cover of a Doom 3D expansion pack, both records feel like they make the band's discography more robust and complete. Both contain many crucial tracks like “Villa Vampiria” and “The Warcult,” but I'd say Into the Lungs of Hell is the first God Dethroned record that doesn't feel wholly indispensable. It's good, but not the imagination sparking goodness that came before or after.
Key after. So A year after Lungs..., the band would release The Lair of the White Worm. The band’s 2004 opus is a masterclass on how to make blackened death metal catchy while maintaining its identity. While The Lair of the White Worm is what I imagine a pornstar calls his jeans, the band use this record to cast us out into fresh waters. The production is more modern but the razor-like sharpness is unmistakeable and relentless. If the first few records had that Morbid Angel sprawl, this album is the early Emperor answer. The scenic playing is larger than life and the drums tastefully serve as the guitar's engine.
To Lair... was borne The Toxic Touch. It is very much the Bloody Blasphemy to Lair's The Grand Grimoire. An excellent followup that, while not revolutionizing the band's sound on the former, extends their repertoire and brings some further stone cold classics to the table. Yes I like the term stone cold classic, sue me.
The next big shakeup was on 2009's Passiondale and here things get complicated. This time the shakeup is lyrical and thematic. God Dethroned put on their pickelhaube (yes I know that's a German helmet and they're Dutch and neutral, relax) and went to the early 1920s. Passiondale itself is one of my favorite albums about World War I and is really a better representation of that conflict than all of the great many we've seen recently. The band's music evokes the grime, the moments of bravery and the ubiquitous death with a faithfulness that matches the fantastic Hail of Bullets and their WWII related releases.
But, to my mind, Passiondale also led the band down the road to its two worst albums, Under the Sign of the Iron Cross and The World Ablaze. The biggest sin of these two albums is that they both feel like waddling. The wealth of imagination and passion (dale) that brought the band to where it was on Passiondale is frankly just absent. If the former felt like grim and poignant storytelling, the latter two feel like the dry documentary version.
I was very disappointed, but then in 2020, I was busy one day trying to decide what shows I wasn't going to when the band hit out with Illuminati. This Jay-Z based concept album is proof that when the band is driven, they can drop apex level music whenever they feel like it. Where do I even start? The guitar work showcases an entirely new side to the band. While still possessing the famous melodies, the rhythms on this record sound lumbering and gigantic. The band delves into all kinds of interesting topics lyrically and doing them justice was always going to be a challenge. They meet this challenge, and fuckin' A, they keep going. The grandeur they manage to bestow on songs like the title track, "Gabriel" and "Eye of Horus" shows, in my humble opinion, why God Dethroned and Henri cannot be left out of any conversations about the Dutch masters. Right up there next to Asphyx, Pestilence, Rembrandt and most importantly, stroopwaffles.
Their new single, "Asmodevs" drops today, and so help me god (dethroned,) I will print this piece on stone tablets and throw them at venues until they get a full fledged US tour.
