Monday, August 29, 2011

Review: Argentum (Mex) - Ad Interitum Funebrarum



Mexican old school Death and Black Metal scenes are quite well known among the underground, thanks to bands like Cenotaph, Shub Niggurath and The Chasm. Hidden among them, was a unique Doom/Black Metal band called Argentum. Formed in 1993, Argentum have released 2 studio albums.


Ad Interitum Funebrarum, Argentum's first album is an ancient-sounding, highly atmospheric Doom/Black Metal. Their playing style is similar to 90s epic Doom Metal masters Solitude Aeturnus, but has a more Death/Doom vibe in the sound, yet quite unlike what one might expect. There isn't any Celtic Frost worship here, nor is there any trace of diSEMBOWELMENT. The sound, mostly the guitar tone, is very similar to early The Chasm and Cenotaph. The production quality of the album adds heavily to the atmosphere the band tries to create here. The band mostly focuses on mid-paced or slower riffs, but certain Thrashy, fast sections can be heard at places in the album. The riffs are mostly simple, palm-muted, played in the style of Bolt Thrower. They are accompanied by blazing, melodic guitar solos, enhancing the eerie atmosphere and adding a touch of melancholy at times. Some songs have acoustic intros and sections, which suit their sound perfectly. The band incorporates synths in their music and can be heard throughout. The synth takes away absolutely nothing from the music, but in fact, it takes the atmospheric quality a step further, which is certainly a good thing. The bass is not very clear or audible, but emerges when you pay enough attention, and actively search for the bass strings plucking away. The production quality is to blame in this case. The vocals vary between death and black metal styles, and have an echo effect to them, giving them a crypt-zombie effect. The drumming is accurate, with no sign of sloppiness to it, and although it does not stand out, it is an important part of the music here. In company of each other, the instruments manage to invoke a very desolate and eerie atmosphere, which is consistent throughout the album.

The songs are quite well written, with riffs arranged properly to avoid a disjoint feeling and guitar solos placed at appropriate times through a song. The synth goes perfectly in harmony with the riffs. Every member and every instrument used here has a major contribution. The musicians play their instruments with near-perfection, with no sign of amateurism or inexperience. In spite of this, how Argentum managed to be overlooked, is beyond me.

Ad Interitum Funerbrarum showcases the perfect use of guitar solos and synth in harmony with Heavy riffs, without sounding lame or wanky. The production might put some people off, but that is only a minor drawback here. Highly recommended for Doom Metal fans.

9/10

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Review : Krhoma Death - Grating Into Corpse

Krhoma Death is among the lesser known Death Metal bands from the early 90s. One of the reasons being that they hail from France, which is not known for a lot of Death Metal, barring bands like Massacra, Mercyless and Agressor. The band have released some demos and an album titled Grating Into Corpse.



Krhoma Death's sound is similar to Dutch bands like Antropomorphia and Blessed Sickness, but a lot more Thrash Metal oriented. Especially in the mid-paced and slower sections of the songs, the similarity is evident, while the fast sections are very similar to Deicide. Krhoma Death manage to make their songs simple, yet mildly captivating and interesting with changes in tempo and structure. The riffs are interesting but mostly simple, while the solos are mostly twisted and wailing, but sometimes venture into the "James Murphy" territory. The vocalist doesn't have a new or unique style, and sticks to the conventional brutal-enough-but-comprehensible technique. The drumming is something to look out for. The drummer uses simple techniques and isn't super-fast or extremely technical or anything, but the drumming during faster parts of the song is intense and extremely similar to Deicide (as mentioned earlier).



Krhoma Death clearly doesn't aim for a specific atmosphere here, and is more interested in playing a primitive style of Thrash-influenced Death Metal, and they execute it quite well. This isn't as frenzied as Merciless or as riff-laden as Cancer, but that can be excused as it is still rather fun to listen to. Lyrically, the band focuses on conventional themes like Gore and Death and could care less about sophistication when it comes to writing lyrics, which, in my opinion would in any way be unnecessary for a band like this. The creativity involved in writing those songs cannot be questioned here, as each song is well-structured, and with enough changes in riffs and tempo that do not sound abrupt.

Krhoma Death's Grating Into Corpse is not a hidden masterpiece, but is a little gem that deserves a couple of listens by any Death Metal fan. It is an enjoyable album that doesn't bore a listener through it's playing time, but there is nothing new to note or any genius as work here. As long as the listener keeps his/her expectations from this album reasonable, there is no reason to not like this.

7/10

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Primeval Doctrine from Unholy Raavancult: Funeral In Heaven (Sri Lanka): An Interview with Frontman Chathuranga Fonseka



Recently, Putrid Ascendancy spoke to Chathuranga Fonseka, The frontman of Sri Lankan dark congregation named 'Funeral In Heaven'. For followers of underground extreme music, FIH  have already secured a cult status and have preserved the ancient arcane values of Sri Lankan occult art and mysticism through their transcendental music or art whatever you call it! 
So here it is, a  brief conversation with Brother Chathuranga Foneseka. Enjoy!  



P.A: We have come across other interviews of Funeral In Heaven where we got introduced to the term of 'Hela metal', Could you please elaborate the concept behind it?


Chathuranga: Hela Metal can be described as a rejection of every other “label” which will be used to describe our music. I guess this was inevitable considering there really doesn't exist a label per se out there which would in a couple of words, describe our output. I guess this is the equivalent to Norway’s Immortal proclaiming to perform “Holocaust Metal” back in the day.
 

P.A: What Funeral In Heaven Plays is unique in every bits and parts.. now considering that you hail from Sri Lanka, An ancient terrain that has a distinct cultural elements, myths and legends and also that your country has witnessed scores of atrocities and violence, how did that all help evolve your music?

Chathuranga: Gratitude for the compliment comrade. I’d say that a certain part of evolving comes with the technology too, considering the time we live in and available facilities when it comes to this sort of thing in our part of the world. We have always wanted to experiment and delve into Indian and Sri lankan classical music and achieve a certain “quality” of production (and by quality I do not mean “polished/ over produced shit”) and I’d say that we’re still not there yet. Maybe in the future.
Everything you mentioned above including the biggest input being, life in Sri Lanka has inspired us and will continue to do so. We’re completely disgusted with how domestic issues are being handled, I understand that corruption is as much of a problem to you as it is to everyone else, but things here are just fucking absurd. Everything from our current cultural and societal hierarchy, governing bodies to religious institutions is absolutely corrupted beyond belief. On the other hand we have the fucking media parasites who spend most of their time “protesting” against something they deserved in the first place, to have even a faint idea about the concept of responsible journalism, or to see the damage which is occurring due to their extensive exaggeration and bombarding of worthless information and the promotion of pathetic and baseless trends. International politicians and media institutions such as Jayalalitha Jayaram and the worthless piece of shit Hilary Clinton and her fucking “government”, the cunts at Channel 4, BBC share the biggest part of the blame for fueling an imaginary war between races. Sri Lankan society is conservative to dangerous extents and most of the time completely oblivious as to the domestic issues concerning the country until its concerned publicly and commercially, where as then, suddenly everyone's a patriot.  All of these fucking scum should be wiped off the face of the earth. 


P.A: what are the lyrical themes, mainly?


Chathuranga: Ancient Sri Lankan demonology, history, war.
       
 

P.A: Many People here are not aware of the Sri Lankan Metal Scene. Could you kindly enlighten us on the scene? Since when did it start out and what were the bands that were influential in establishing the movement?


Chathuranga: The “scene” started out back in the late 80’s where we had great bands such as Sage Merlyn and Rattlesnake performing rock music. And now we have some great bands, comrades and veterans of the Metal scene such as Whirlwind, Paranoid Earthling, Siblings of Hatred, Forlorn Hope, Old Castles Massacre, Fallen Grace. And the “newer” bands we support such as Hollow, Ablaze, P.A.C., Dhishti, Pariah Demise, etc.   

 

P.A: How Funeral In Heaven was formed? tell us about the initial days, member changes and the obstacles you guys faced, if any!


Chathuranga: Being from where we are, I’d say we had more than our usual share of “obstacles” More of it, back in the day than the present. Everything from uncommitted members to the risks of playing Black Metal in Sri Lanka. The risks are present than ever considering the conservative politically driven environments which are surrounding us.

 


P.A: what's been your main influences as a band??


Chathuranga: Everything from Sri Lankan history, demonology, musicians, rituals, literature to philosophers have influenced the output, but the most important factor would be life in Sri Lankan HELL.
    


P.A: Now another question that really comes into my mind whenever I refer to the name Funeral In Heaven.. as far as i summed up it has a metaphorical meaning behind it. so can you please tell us why did you decide to name the band as Funeral In Heaven?


Chathuranga: We came up with the name to represent the current situation our lives as observatory members of this narrow minded society who have managed since of the past few decades to drive Sri Lankan culture to the ground. Heaven as it represents our ideals, exists here on earth, as does hell, depictions vary of course. This element fused with the dim landscape which fluctuates before our own eyes, the demise of our once protected and preserved culture, hence a death, a funeral. Maybe this depicts a transcending, a transmigration of sorts perhaps. Most people confused this with devil worship as it depicts itself to souls which lack simple comprehension as mere “devil worship”.

 


P.A: The inclusion of unusual instruments like Violin or Tabla certainly elevates the music to a surreal dimension! We also found out that band members worship Hindustani and Sri Lankan classical music! And that reflects in the music.


Chathuranga: Gratitude. We are glad it performed the mutual magick as it did with us in the process of creation. Yes. Actually, our members Kasun and Dineth hold degrees in Thabla and Indian classical music. They both hold “vishaaradha” titles, I do not know if this term is the same in your land as its used here. We have wanted to do this since the inception but we have at that time have never met anyone who was into both types of music. The purpose of some of our EP’s (or to be released) was to expose the “classical” side of the project, which explains why there are no “slow” tempo songs in our live performances. We have had I think a couple of ritual performances where Funeral In Heaven did ONLY these classical performances, acoustic, which was for a very small, exclusive crowd. What we aim to do is produce a sort of hybrid, a separate branch, or path which leads into complete illumination of self and mind over matter. We do this however with complete caution, as certain barriers cannot and should not be crossed as the result would be a generated insult and abuse towards the arts sacred basic foundations.



P.A: You have released two Ep's entitled as" Daiwaye Haaskam Saha Paralowa Sapatha" and "Shaanthikarma" which have been received very well.. and I must congratulate you for your unique effort which has made all of us very eager to expect a full length. so considering this fact we would love to know that whether a full length is on the cards or not?


Chathuranga: Gratitude again good sir. And yes of course, the full length is finally in the works. We just finished recordings for our upcoming LP with Plecto Aliquem Capite, titled “Astral Mantras of Dyslexia” which will include 7 tracks and will be released on Germany’s Dunkelheit Productionen, and we have moved onto the recording of a 11 track full length. It has been too long, more than how much it usually takes to record a debut, but with the equipment here or the lack of it, the lack of engineers or the tech support and most importantly the financial aspect, it was inevitable. If all goes smooth, recordings for this release should be finished before a couple of months of the ending of the current year.

  
 

P.A: You guys have played in many countries notable among them In League With The Legion Of Death (Thailand) so can you share some memorable experiences and not so memorable experiences with us?

Chathuranga: The Siamese cult was fucking insane. We met some true fucking metal maniaks in this journey! Combining that with Thai herbs, alcohol, food and the ladies lead to severe alcohol poisoning and a great fucking time, which we manage to remember in between flashes of time. The Deccan ritual, was commendable as well, due to the fact that we again met with some maniaks and finally after years on end, congregated with our warriors from Antim Graham!

 

PA: FIH toured in India twice. Hows the experience altogether? What do you really think of Indian Metal Scene?

Chathuranga: We performed a ritual in New Delhi for a not so Black Metal audience, and of course Deccan Festival in Hyrderabad. Delhi had a great weather as we embarked on the invasion last December, but the same cannot be said about the recent journey, as we had to come to Chennai first before landing in Hyderabad, and we spent almost 14 hours in the hot streets of Chennai, getting kicked out of malls, looking for beverages, herbs, payphones, alcohol to cure our much despised hangover and contact the promoters, and where in the process we got involved and entangled into a situation which most probably had the potential of ending up with someone getting stabbed or shot, with some LTTE supporters at a dingy bar in Chennai. Fucking cunts. And I’d rather not speak about the promoters for this event as I have nothing pleasant to express about them at the moment. We are however grateful to our Indian regiment who purchased our merch, spoke, greeted and supported us on this tour. Reuben and IIIrd Sovereign, Parash and AG, the gents from Flaming Skull, Rafal, Seth and everyone from Decapitated, Nervecell, it was a pleasure to have met all of you.


PA: Any personal favourites when it comes to any Indian band that you think have fair potential for success(if any)?


Chathuranga: Leaving aside acts such as Dying Embrace from Bangalore who have already reached cult status (666 fucking beers Vikram!), we like the music of Amogh Symphony, Devoid and IIIrd Sovereign and are in dire need to check out hymns by Dhwesha and Aghor Andhakar.


P.A: We featured your single called "Malediction Of Veracity" in our compilation of Putrid Ascendancy along with other Indian Act and Barzak(now Orator) of Bangladesh, and I must confess the song took almost every listener breathe away, its beautiful and ethereal. The Juxtaposition of soothing serenity and grittiness was commendable. What inspired you to create music like this?


 Chathuranga: The song was based on a suicide bombing which took place in the central main train station in Colombo a few years back where a LTTE cadre blew herself up in a platform taking a few civilians and most importantly 12 members of a college baseball team with her. One of the members of this 12 member group had ties to us. We just got disgusted how the international community and the fucking media was taking advantage of this situation as if it was some opportunity they saw which had potential for exploitation to aid their senseless needs for greed. We wanted to take our classical side into more darker atmospheres, Kasun and Dineth, who played Violin and Thabla, took lead with Joseph who composed the guitars and Malediction was born. Malediction was initially a 1.30min “introductory” track from our demo CD from 2006. We’ve always viewed it as a shame as it had much potential for expansion, which we later did for the DHSPS release on LOD Records.


P.A: We have always have this fixation when it comes to asking other individuals about their top 5 albums of all time. so do us this favor by letting us know about your personal favorites!


Chathuranga: Arrgh very tough question comrade! I will ease myself with this question by answering with my CURRENT top 5 which I have been delving into as of late.
  1. INQUISITION – Ominous Doctrines.... 2011
  2. HOLOCAUST – Heavy Metal Mania EP 1980
  3. REVENGE – Infiltrate.Downfall.Death 2008
  4. BLOOD REVOLT – Indoctrine 2010
  5. TSJUDER – Desert Northern Hell  2004                                                                                                                                           
 
P.A: Last but no the least since what is your opinion about Black Metal in general and are there any bands that you really dig among the newer ones?


Chathuranga: Apart from the fact that I see some unique projects experimenting with innovation and great newer acts who are resurrecting the ancient cult of the past, I don't see much happening. I’d rather stick to the clasSICKs and maybe discover a great unit or two a year. Among my newer discoveries are Necros Christos, Blood Revolt, Nyogthaeblisz, Metalucifer etc.

 

P.A: Chathurnga, we brothers at Putrid Ascendancy want to thank you for your precious time and support! We really wish you and Funeral In Heaven all the best for its future endeavour.. Hails!

Chathuranga: Much gratitude for taking the time and intrest to do so comrade! BLESSINGS FROM THE ANCIENT RAAVAN CULT! JAI RAAVANPUTHRA



Funeral In Heaven
Sri Lanka 
Genre -  Blasphemous Hela Metal/Black Metal

A.A.M.C.U.F. - Chants
K.N. - Skins/Violin
A.D.F. - Bass
N.Yakka - Guitars
A.Perera - Guitars
D.W - Thabla/Yak Bera

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/funeralinheaven
Myspace
Youtube 
http://www.youtube.com/user/FuneralinHeaven666



Putrid Ascendancy wants to express its gratitude to Brother Chathuranga for the interview. If you have a band, and you want to feature it on our blog, do mail us at putridascendancy@gmail.com
Join us on facebook:- http://www.facebook.com/Putrid.Ascendancy 
Hails!

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Review : Clandestine (Pol) - Clandestine demo 1994



In most places across the internet, Clandestine is described as a Melodic Death Metal band. According to Metal-archives, Clandestine have 3 demos released across 3 years. The Melodic Death Metal tag is partly correct, as the band plays a groovy and slightly variety of Death Metal, but those influences don't overshadow their general sound, which is essentially old school Death Metal.



This 1994 demo contains 4 songs, all titled in Polish, so it is obvious that the lyrics are in Polish as well. Nonetheless, the tape rip I found over at RAF666Underground blog also included a scan of the lyrics sheet that confirms this. The music played by the band is generally mid-paced Death Metal with speed/thrash like grooves and occasional bursts of speed that may sometimes reach frenzied levels heard in most Death/Thrash. But this is no Death/Thrash Metal release. The band uses eerie and sometimes melancholic melodies (and hence the melodic tag) to create a strange crypt-like - yet spacious or open - atmosphere. The demo is plagued by bad production and the guitars sound too silent in the mix compared to the drums, bass and especially the vocals. Yet, they are sufficiently loud to make out the riffing, which is honestly nothing new or unique, despite having a catchy groove to most of them. An exception to this is the last track titled Niepojety, which has a slightly epic feel to it. Similarly, all other elements of the music follow the general formula employed by Death Metal bands from early 90s, which is not a bad thing at all, but don't look for any kind of innovation here. The demo is sufficiently long at 23 minutes, and although good, it isn't interesting enough for me to give it another listen immediately.

Overall, a good demo that deserves a couple of listen and definitely something you might want if you are into demos. Don't look for anything new here, as this is standard stuff, but if you enjoy old school Death Metal, you will certainly enjoy this.

Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=05XUYO1S

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Crushing Death/Doom assault from San Diego, California, RUMINATIONS


Putrid Ascendancy unveils an in-depth Interview with members of Californian (San Diego) Death/Doom Act Ruminations.
 
The line up is - Carlos Gaitan a.k.a Arturo (Ex- Morbid Gods) on Drums, Jonathan Quintana on Bass and Lisa Lee (Ex- Morbid Gods) on Guitars.

Ruminations have just released their rehearsal demo tape that contains some of their new tracks of crushing swampy death metal with filthy overtone.
 


 
P.A: I just loved the demo songs! Sound very filthy, gloomy and crushingly heavy, though I would like to see a better mixing! I also loved the way you guys are sending the tapes to selected followers. It was all financed by you guys. So pretty admirable job guys!
   
Arturo: Thanks!

Lisa:
Thanks, I bought those tapes with my shitty fast food job.

Johnny:
Thanks a lot, And yea the mixing wasn't too good but that's just because it was rehearsal tape man.



 


P.A: For those who don’t know Ruminations, would you mind coming up with a brief introduction?
 
 
Johnny: Ruminations is an avante garde death/doom band, I guess that’s how most people describe us. but to be honest we are just playing music we would want to listen to! Not trying to rip off the bands we say are our influences!

 


PA. How Ruminations was formed?   


Lisa: Well this basically came to be out of a tour we were supposed to do,(me and arty) under Morbid Gods. But some financial problems came up with our bassist Nocturnal holocaust and he wasn't able to do the tour, so instead we decided put together another band out of the side projects arty and Johnny had been doing.

Johnny: Ruminations has dated back pretty far between me and Arturo doing small little death/doom type projects here and there

But most of it was mostly secondary cause we were focusing on our prior band Rotting Embodiment.

Arturo: what they said.


 


P.A: So Lisa and you were playing in Morbid Gods, One of my favourite Acts from California area,
you joined Morbid Gods much later in 2010 after leaving your first band, so how’s the journey so far?
   


Arturo: Pretty cool I guess, It’s a lot more comfortable to play with this band then it was with Rotting Embodiment, which was me, Johnny and Luis way back when.
With Morbid gods it got better cause we got more things done. As far as Ruminations goes I am much more proud of the musical integrity as opposed to Rotting Embodiment and Morbid Gods. It feels good to be writing the music.

Johnny: Really good trip homie!

Lisa: Been really good, we all get along.


                                


P.A: How’s it been working with Lisa?


Arturo: Apart from having sex all the time it's been great, haha but seriously though, Lisa doesn't have a huge ego like most guitarist which is cool!!

Lisa: Arty and Johnny are really good musicians but they don't have tits so I get all the compliments after a show.. (chuckles)


Johnny:
No ego!

 
 


P.A: So how you guys came across Jonathan? Did his presence in the band change the direction of the music you and Lisa were taking?
 
Lisa: We found him outside of Walmart with his acoustic guitar and his shopping kart singing that gay wonderwall song (grins)

Arturo: I met him at school, and nah he hasn't changed it...


Johnny:
Well I’ve been around playing with arty in different projects for a long time, the musical direction has been crafted by him and I for quite some time..

So nothing has changed at all





P.A: This question goes to Lisa. What the reaction has been so far when people find out to their astonishment that the person behind those skull crushing guitar onslaught is a pretty looking girl? Any obsessive fan? 


Lisa: I only look good because Johnny and Arty's sexiness rubs off on me, I think it's Johnny's beard. Nah but I don't think most people really care, it definitely doesn't make any difference to my band mates, they didn't have me join as a gimmick, and there aren't any obsessive fans that I know of.





P.A: I think line up changes and member related hiatus or changing bands too often put a pause when they come to personal/band’s growth, do you agree?

 
Arturo: Not really, we've never had a problem with that.

Johnny: Yea I don't really think any of that has affected us to much, if anything it's made us stronger as a band.


Lisa:
Well it has happened to a lot of bands, but I would ultimately disagree.

 


P.A: How’s the scene in San Diego/California? Is it infected by trend virus like many other places?
   

Arturo: Yea there is no scene down here in San Diego, and the Los Angel’s bands are all posers. They don't care about the music.

Lisa:
There are not many real death metallers here at all, it’s mostly High school thrash kids then a few black thrashers that just want to get drunk all the time!


Johnny: Well I don't hate the LA scene or the Las Vegas scene but our local scene is complete crap, High School neo thrashers who don't have any musical integrity. But there are a couple acts (not limited to San Diego) I like Sadistic Slaughter, Draconis, Detest, Predatiorial, Spun In Darkness, Chainsaw Carnage etc...






P.A: What is your plan for future with Ruminations? Any goal/aim that you already set for the band?
 
 

Arturo: We plan to do a lot of releases, more shows and some more progression of the music.

Lisa: To have a really good album released and definitely do more shows with an actual good crowd who enjoys the music, because our local venues are shit.


J
ohnny: The general stuff. To get more releases, shows and perfect the Ruminations name and sound!

 


P.A: To my best of knowledge, you guys are still unsigned! So what kind of labels do you think Ruminations should sign to?
 
 

Arturo: Ones that get shit done, that's dedicated to actually getting music promoted and out there.

Lisa: Ones that don't take forever...ones that get shit done basically!


Johnny: Basically anybody who can promote us right.


 


P.A: What are main influences for Ruminations, musically?
 
 

Arturo: The Chasm, dISEMBOWELMENT, Molested, Disgorge(MEX), Undermoonlight sadness, Infester, Skepticism

Lisa: Candlemass ,Loss ,Absu(early), Soulside journey (Darkthrone), Worship, Evoken


Johnny: Pan.Thy.Monium, Traumatic Voyage, Nuclear Death, Thergothon, Amebix... Just general underground shit you know. Me arty and Lisa have been Into death metal, doom metal, black metal, thrash etc for a long fucking time so we could name drop all day. but truth is When we look at our influences we really don't take too much from them like most bands do. We want to do something fresh and new, we could just rip off Incantation or Autopsy or Nihilist like most bands do today but that's not our thing...


 


P.A: Where you guys rehearse? How many hours you guys jam per week?
 
 

Arturo: Well I practice with Lisa in my room all night long homie, Jon R. If your reading this me and Lisa have been jamming before you even knew

Lisa: Usually three days a week for like two hours.


Johnny: Read above, brutal huh... 


 


P.A: What’s your take on revival of old school death metal that is slowly becoming a trend for few people?
   

Arturo: Am kinda of split on it cause some of the bands are actually putting out decent material but for the most part it's just bands ripping off their influences like Johnny said.

Lisa: It's cool, people can do whatever they want. If it's good it's good if it sucks it sucks.


Johnny: I don’t know, some bands are alright but honestly who would you rather listen to? A band sucking Incantations dick or just Incantation themselves, with any trend all integrity and respect for an artform will die, but I really could care less as I am focusing on our thing you know. I don't care much for the labels "old school" or "underground".


 


P.A: What is the most constraining factor for Ruminations?
 
 

Arturo: Playing live because no one is really into the type of music we write, everyone wants aggression and speed and we really aren't slating that thirst. We like playing something a little deeper and more ominous so it's hard to get people into it.

Lisa: Finding a label that doesn't take forever to do a release. Possibly some sponsors so we could play where we would have a better crowd.


Johnny: Well we all have fucked up/lack of equipment so we always have to borrow a bands drums, amps and such when we play live.


 


P.A: Who is in charge of lyrics and composing?
 
 

Arturo: We all contribute!

Lisa: All of us.


Johnny:
Mostly arty but all of us contribute.

 
 


P.A: I am in love with the logo. Who created it?
   

Arturo: Drew.

Lisa: Drew drew it, Johnny and Arty wanted a logo inspired by the Mexican band Pyphomgertum so they asked Drew, that's how it happened.


Johnny: Nocturnal Holocaust from the ‘now disbanded’ Morbid Gods, he is starting a new called Bestial Sodomy I think. Anxious to hear it!


 


P.A: We always have this fixation when it comes to asking other individuals about their top 5 albums. So do us this favour by letting us know about your personal favourites!
 
Arturo: The Chasm-From the lost years, Disgorge-Chronic Corpra Infest, Septic Flesh-Mystic places of dawn, dISEMBOWELMENT -Transcendence into the Peripheral, Arghoslent-Galloping through the battle ruins

Johnny: Nuclear Death-Carrion for the worm, Wicked Innocence-Anthropological Infestation, Cermonium-Into the autumn shadeTenebrarum-Altra Magia, Bloodsoaked-Frost Image

Lisa: Candlesmass-Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
, Carnage-Dark recollections, Absu-Barathrym Vitrol, Cenotaph-Gloomy reflections of our hidden sorrow, Covulse-World without god


 
P.A: Arturo, Lisa and Johnny, We, brothers in Putrid Ascendancy want to congratulate you all for the demo and thank you for your time,
we wholeheartedly wish Ruminations all the best in its future endeavour.. Hails!

   

Johnny: Haha, Thanks man.

Lisa: Thanks to you too.


Arturo: No problem, also if anyone would want a free demo message us or email us at our Facebook or email address.



                                                                                 demo rehearsal tapes



                                                  Ruminations - Leafs

                                                  Ruminations - Funeral Embers           



   Ruminations Rehearsal




RUMINATIONS
San Diego, California


Members
Lisa Lee-Guitars
Arturo(Carlos Gaitan)-Drums,Vocals,Pianos
Jonathan-Bass,Vocals,Acoustic
http://facebook.com/ruminationssd
Band Page 

Putrid Ascendancy wants to express its gratitude to the band for the interview and the demo tape. If you want a copy of Ruminations demo tape, Contact the members using facebook link posted above.
If you have a band, and you want to feature it on our blog, do mail us at putridascendancy@gmail.com
Join us on facebook:- http://www.facebook.com/Putrid.Ascendancy 
Cheers! 
 

Friday, August 5, 2011

Suppuration (Ukr) - Ecclesiastical Blasphemy

Suppuration were a Death Metal band from Ukraine who changed their style to Black Metal and name to Crystalline Darkness, and today, after another name change, are known as Nokturnal Mortum. Their demo Ecclesiastical Blasphemy was recorded and released in 1992.

Ecclesiastical Blasphemy starts off with a dark, ambient intro, which is a typical calm-before-the-storm approach used by a lot of bands. Although what comes next with track 2, titled "Come Out and Kill" doesn't hit you in the face with a force of a megaton explosion, but rather forms a dark overcast with heavy rain and hail pounding down on you. Suppuration played a rather dark, but sufficiently heavy style of Death Metal. The riffs are catchy and mid-paced, lack complexity and although amateurish, are cleverly written to invoke a sense of evil when coupled with the short and simple guitar "solos" (if you can call them that). The vocals are nothing remarkable, and typical Death Metal, but suit the music very well. The drumming is sloppy and sometimes out of sync with the rest of the instruments, but sloppiness is certainly the last priority of a demo listener. The bass is surprisingly very loud and perfect in the mix for a demo.


Low-res scan of the cover



At this point in their career, the band wasn't skilled enough when it came to instrumentation and playing, but their interesting songwriting is what makes this demo a good one. Despite keeping everything simple, Suppuration managed to churn out good riffs and create a remarkable atmosphere throughout the demo. A negative side to it is that it's scattered with interludes, which drops the actual song count from 7 to 3. If you're a listener who doesn't mind pointless interludes (or likes them), you'll like this release more than I did.

This release is highly recommended for Old School Death Metal fans. It's not unlike a lot of other demo-only or long forgotten bands, but it is something worth adding to your collection.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Review: Eructation - Demo '92

During the late 80's early 90's, there was an explosive emergence of Death Metal bands in Sweden. Among the 700-800 bands that spawned, was Eructation. The musicians behind the band, like many others, went on with their life after recording and independently releasing one demo in 1992. They were long forgotten until certain tape-trading blokes from the glory days decided that the internet is a good place to give those guys the exposure they deserved but never got. The response Eructation received from the still-underground community of Old School Death Metal worshipers was surprising to the band members themselves (as they expressed on a fellow Eructation fan's blog).


Now, on to the music. Eructation play a thrashy and catchy form of Death Metal, and unlike Nihilist, Carnage and most Swedish Death Metal, their sound is distinctly different from the usual chainsaw guitars and howled vocals. Their sound has more resemblance to Dutch Death Metal like Burial, yet more inclined to Death Metal than Thrash. The demo consists of 3 songs, totaling to 15 minutes of play time, which is short for such an amazing demo. The highlight of the demo are the addictive, memorable and insanely catchy riffs, rivaling even the most complex and intricate Thrash Metal guitarists at times. The bass guitar is clearly audible and goes hand-in-hand with the main guitar riffs, yet draws a line between complexity and comprehensibility. The music is as simple as any Thrash or Death Metal is, yet it is as intricate as a Progressive Metal musician would make it. Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely no stupid guitar wankery. No sweeps, no unnecessary shred solos. In fact, there are no solos. It is just that the guitar lines aren't restricted to a few notes per riff. The drumming is nothing new or inventive, but something a metal musician would usually play, yet has neatly arranged beats with properly fitting snare and catchy double bass patterns. That adds to the addictive nature of the music. Vocals are low growls that remind slightly of David Vincent during his Altars of Madness days (only less evil), and suit the band's rather fast and restless sound.



The production job is amazing for a demo dating back to 1992. It sounds old school, but compared to demos of bands like Carcharoht, Pestigore or Cemetery Earth or hundred other bands whose demos aren't even audible unless you turn the volume to max and risk cracking and tearing of sound, it is loud and audible enough to be enjoyable even to people who don't particularly dig demos. Though, listening to this demo means you're risking a brain implosion due to overload of riffs. Once you're done, you won't know what hit you, but you know it hit you hard! In the end, a review is basically an opinion presented in a manner that it looks less opinionated, but if you doubt me, listen to this for yourself: