Speed Metal

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Midnight - Let There Be Witchery (2022)

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    Unleashing waves of intensity and playful catchiness, Midnight has always stood out from the rest thanks to their bizarre lyrics and brilliant delivery. With “Let There Be Witchery” the band takes their sound to new levels with ten pummeling tracks filled with devilish sleaziness. Perfectly blending old-school Speed Metal elements with Black Metal undertones, this band is one that no Metalhead should miss out on.

    The release kicks off with the blistering pace of “Telepathic Nightmare”, a solid piece with crafty guitars and extreme catchiness. Building up momentum, ravaging tracks like “Frothing Foulness”, “In Sinful Secrecy”, and “Nocturnal Molestation”, perfectly transmit that sleazy old-school vibe that the Athenar masterfully crafts thanks to the stripped-down sound and funky lyrics.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Midnight - Rebirth by Blasphemy (2020)

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    Unleashing one of the most furious and yet catchy releases of 2020, today we have one-man battalion Midnight with “Rebirth by Blasphemy”. With over 16 years of existence, this release is surprisingly the fourth full-length record after a large series of EPs, splits and demos. Thanks to its completely intense live shows and the superb catchiness of their music, Athenar has managed to get signed to Metal Blade Records and now can conquer bigger stages with his intoxicating music.

    Opening with the blistering “Fucking Speed and Darkness”, you get that Speed Metal vibe crossed over with Punkish elements and a hearty dose of Black Metal. This is indeed the band’s signature sound and it is perfectly paired with a completely bonkers attitude of chaos and not giving many fucks. This is clearly materialized on pummeling tracks like “Escape by Blasphemy”, “Devil’s Excrement” and the retro-sounding “Rising Scum”.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Ulysses Siren – Above the Ashes (2003)

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    With Thrash Metal being born back in the 80’s in the Bay Area, it is not surprising that many bands just didn’t get enough attention when they should have. Ulysses Siren is the perfect example of how a very high-quality band didn’t get a fair shake and ended up in relative obscurity. Being at least 5 times better than Dark Angel, Testament, Metallica, etc., this band delivers seven riff-driven tracks that represent the band’s early demos. With “Above the Ashes” we have a testament of a band that could have been something else if the right things would have worked out for them.

    Opening with “Terrorist Attack” we immediately feel the Bay Area Thrash vibe with the intense riffing and the crushing vocals. The band’s spares nothing and delivers a brutal riffing assault that only a few bands those days would have pulled off. Showing no mercy, “The Reich” keeps the intensity levels super high with some epic melodic passages and devastating solos. Rounding up their 1985 demo “Terrorist Attack”, featured in the first 3 songs of the album, “Lake of Fire” is the best track in this release, with a heavy Death Angel vibe mixed with some classic Kreator.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Midnight – Complete and Total Hell (2012)

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    After not getting enough of Midnight with their debut full-length release “Satanic Royalty”, this compilation delivers 21 catchy songs that spawn all their pre full-length debut years (eight years and several EP’s and splits). Hailing from Cleveland (WTF), this band is one of the catchiest and most engaging Black/Speed/Heavy Metal bands these days, no other Black’n’Roll band comes close to them.

    Covering their complete early catalogue (minus few tracks), this release shows an interesting progression in the band’s sound (and recording quality). Track like “All Hail Hell”, “I Am Violator”, “Long Live Death”, and “Endless Slut” have that nasty sound and a very sleazy vibe to them, just like one would expect from a truck driver hanging out at a high-school female volleyball game.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Midnight – Satanic Royalty (2011)

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    Presenting a very interesting mixture of Speed, Heavy and Black Metal with some occult/psychedelic Rock elements, today we have Midnight and their debut full-length release: “Satanic Royalty”. After achieving a great kvlt/underground status for years it is about time that Midnight comes to the spotlight with their super catchy music. Having only released EP’s and singles, the band has perfected their sound over the years, and with “Satanic Royalty” they will storm the scene by surprise with their hard-rocking tunes.

    For over 30 minutes and 10 tracks, Midnight brings back that good old sound of bands like Venom and Motorhead, but making it their own with some occult Rock elements. Since the opener “Satanic Rotalty”, the overall hard-rocking feeling is very evident. The ‘harsh’ vocals are more of a powerful scream that can easily be understood and the overall production of this song (and album) is a very effective mixture of old-school with modern cleanliness giving it a very crisp and authentic sound.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    RattleheaD – Tales from the Gutter (2010)

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    Back in the day when Speed/Thrash Metal was (originally) a thriving genre, we used to have some pretty good bands (that later became really big: Megadeth, Metallica, etc.). If RattleheaD would have been formed in those days, for sure they would have been epic and big, but they probably would have sucked since they wouldn’t have had anybody to steal their sound from.

    Don’t get us wrong, we love old-school music and when a younger band does a great job in emulating past glories of other bands, we are all for it. But this is not the case with RattleheaD, their latest release “Tales from the Gutter” clearly shows why they are not signed and it might be a time to consider a genre change or some drastic changes in their music in order to get really noticed.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Helstar - Rising From The Grave (2010)

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    Today we have the Metal Blade re-release of legendary Helstar’s albums: “A Distant Thunder”, “Nosferatu” and “Twas the Night of a Helish X-Mas” is a boxed set that also includes the DVD of “Twas the Night of a Helish X-Mas”. For those of you that don’t know Helstar is a Power/Speed Metal band from the USA that released some epic albums back in the 80’s before disappearing for a while.

    All these three releases featured in the “Rising From The Gave” boxed set feature remastered versions of “A Distant Thunder” and “Nosferatu” and indeed these two great albums sound better than ever. We did not receive the 3rd and live CD for review, so we can’t really say much about this part of the boxed set.

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