VadimVon - RiseKhaosInfernal
The band was recommended to me by a friend whose opinion I value highly and whose soul is damned enough, to have developed a unique taste of the sinister and inconvenient aura that (true) death metal should carry. Until three weeks before I knew nothing of Vadimvon. When I was suggested to listen to them I heard a couple of tracks on their myspace page and was geniunely shocked.A week ago I got hold on RiseKhaosInfernal and had the opportunity to fully appreciate the bands magnificence. This is easily the best death metal record I heard this year. Morbid Angel would be a safe reference according the way they sound, but there is much more in Vadimvon that deserves time and repeated listening in order to be fully absorbed. Far away from today's plastic gay death metal that is served by the mainstream "extreme" (ha) press, equally distanced by the clinical soulless work of over hyped bands like Nile, this is an entirely different universe. Chaotic but structured, sickly "melodic", willing to use unusual paths to lead to the anti-cosmic darkness.
Paired with Nefandus' Death Holly Death, this is by far the best you will hear at this area, this year.
Thanks and respect to M.S. for introducing Vadimvon to me.
Slayer - World Painted Blood
Generally speaking I have no interest in mainstream extreme music and I surely avoid writing about it. Of course Slayer wouldn't be a case like any other. They are the band that introduced me to thrash when I first heard Evil Has No Boundaries in a mixed tape, around 1984. The creeping feeling they created was present for many years. The raw darkness of Hell Awaits, the otherworldly violence and fury of Reign in Blood and for me, above all the opening notes of South of Heaven are records, songs, moments that marked my early musical life. As time passed, my interest in them faided somewhat, as did my interest in thrash metal.
Nevertheless, despite their mainstream exposure, they have always remained firmly rooted at the same soil they first grew in, an example for any band trying to expand their fanbase without losing their soul.
World Painted Blood is a fucking great record that comes at the right time. The wave of the neo-thrash bands with a fucked up idea of what thrash metal really is, was threatening to drown the last remnants of our memories and good taste. Somebody had to show those stupid kids that thrash metal is no party music.Fuck yeah...Slayer are back as we knew them. Kiddies go play someplace else. The party is over.
