Oct 212010
 

The last 24 hours has brought us good news from two bands we’ve written about in the past — the UK’s Detrimentum and India’s Bhayanak Maut. We like good news. We like to share good news. And this good news involves new music that will blast away all the cares cluttering your brains (and perhaps your brains, too) and leave you feeling energized and ready to spit in the eye of anyone who tries to fuck with you today. That’s a good thing, isn’t it?

DETRIMENTUM

Last January we ran a multi-part feature called UK DEATH METAL IN REVIEW, in which we looked back at 2009 and some of the extreme UK metal bands that we listened to a lot in the old year. One of the bands whose praises we sang was Detrimentum (see our post about them here), based on their album Embracing the Deformity. We called the music “complex, ultra-fast, technical, brutal death metal that periodically gives way to sweeping black-metal influenced melodic guitar passages and blistering solos.” We noted that the “overall tone is dark, ominous, and overpoweringly intense.”

Unfortunately, we learned not long after writing that post, via a message from one of the band’s founders, guitarist Jon Butlin, that only he and guitarist Paul Wilkinson still remained from the line-up that recorded Embracing the Deformity. On the other hand, he explained that the jaw-dropping Steve Powell of Anaal Nathrakh fame would be joining the band as its drummer, and that the group intended to finish recording an album of new songs as soon as the line-up could be sorted out. (That post is here.)  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

Jan 232010
 

Earlier this week we added a second installment of our irregular feature on UK Death Metal in Review, and one of the brutal bands we raved about was Detrimentum and their 2008 debut album, Embracing This Deformity. In response to that piece, we got the following message from one of the band’s founding members, guitarist Jon Butlin:

“Hey – thanks a lot for the great write-up! We really appreciate it! Since the album, we’ve undergone a few lineup changes, it’s only [guitarist] Paul [Wilkinson] and myself left from the ‘Embracing‘ lineup – the stresses and strains of the UK underground have taken their toll! Anyway – once we get the lineup sorted out we’re hellbent on recording a new album, hopefully this one won’t take 5 years like the previous one!

The new tracks are more diverse than previous efforts, we’ve thrown more of everything in the mix – hopefully it will be clearer-sounding than the last album, but just as heavy. Our current drummer is Steve [Powell] from Anaal Nathrakh, a man more than capable of insane dynamics, ear-shredding blasts and crushing double-bass – so watch this space! Thanks again for the support – I’ll get round to updating all the friend requests this evening hopefully!

cheers
Jon Butlin
DETRIMENTUM”
There’s no doubt that Steve Powell is one more-than-capable drummer — in addition to playing with the awesome Anaal Nathrakh, he also handled the drum duties on another fantastic UK death metal album produced in 2008 by the band Theoktony (which we wrote about here). Butlin and Wilkinson are also extremely talented, and that threesome forms an essential foundation for what we hope will be a bright future for Detrimentum. We’re definitely looking forward to new music — with any luck, sooner rather than later!
Dec 312009
 

Alan McFarland (Man Must Die)

As 2009 draws even closer to the end, we’ve continued to think back about albums we really enjoyed this year.  Among them were releases from five UK bands that could loosely be classified as death metal, though they sound almost nothing alike.  Four of them — Man Must Die, Viatrophy, Ignominious Incarceration, and Xerath — turned out killer new albums in 2009, and the fifth — Theoktony — was a prodigiously talented band we only discovered this year, though sadly its future is in doubt.

We don’t pretend that this post is a comprehensive review of the best UK death metal of the year, because we’ve no doubt there are awesome 2009 releases we simply haven’t heard.  The five we’re covering here are simply albums that happened to grab our attention  — and didn’t let go. Continue reading »