Utumno- Across the Horizon

Utumno is yet another forgotten Swedeath artifact of the early 90's, releasing only a demo, a single, and this EP before disbanding between '90 and '93. Featuring the guitarist and vocalist of Abhoth amongst others, there are certain similarities to Abhoth and other Swedeath forerunners, including the typical Sunlight Studios guitar sound, but it's far more atmospheric than Entombed, Aboth, Grave, etc. This is not to say it's watered down, because it definitely isn't; the EP is mostly fast tremolo picking and Entombed-esque d-beat/thrash riffs. What makes this release stand out are the depressing doomy sections and mournful melodic parts. Utumno manage to inject a healthy amount of each into their music without overcompensating and sounding more melodic than death metal. The vocals are slightly more shrieked than the average death growl, which neither adds nor takes away from the music. The drums are consistent, and blast only very occasionally, maximizing their effectiveness. The bass is unfortunately not outstanding though it can be detected lurking beneath the surface of the music. On a last note, Across the Horizon is also quite depressing I find, something of a rarity in death metal, and something I really enjoy. For fans of Gorement, Dismember, and Carnage.

Goreaphobia- Omen of Masochism

When you think about it, this band's name doesn't really make sense. Fear of gore? Don't they like gore? Wouldn't Goreaphilia make more sense? Anyways, this band is like a rawer Morbid Angel or Nocturnus. None of the synth or avante garde grandeur, but lots of groovy earth heaving rhythms, diabolical, bassy tremolo picking, and keening interdimensional solos reminiscent of the great Trey Azagthoth.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DGPBLN7J

Afterlife- Surreality

Here we have Surreality, the one and only album by Indiana's own ethereal death metal act Afterlife. This album sounds like the album that should have been between Death's Spiritual Healing and Human. The songs are made up of violent, detuned, Stockholme-flavored death metal, infused with slow, melodic leads, awkward prog tinged riffs, and pleasantly prominent bass that brings Atheist to mind. One listen to "Divine Enlightenment", in my opinion the standout track of the album, should show you what I'm talking about.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VTJHZGD9

Abhoth- Forever To Be Vanished There In

This unfortunately my first post in quite a while, as my life has been rather hectic, but I'll make up for it by posting something fantastic. This is the third demo by Abhoth, a Swedish OSDM band who formed around the same time as Nihilist, but never received the same recognition. It's well written and straight-forward dirty, thrashy, death metal with marvelous guitar solos that never wank. A must have for fans of Entombed, Interment, Grave, and Swedish OSDM in general.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0CM62HRJ

This is originally from metal throne forums, but it's incredibly true and made me smirk, so I'm stealing it.

The Reason so Many Tech Death Bands Suck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuEiq_01R9I
Seriously, what the fuck. How anybody can listen to this and call it good is beyond me. Lets break down why it sucks.*It's completely random in the songwriting department. Why the hell would they put a clean part in that song? It's not witty, it's not even remotely surprising considering the rest of the song. Hell, it might have worked if it wasn't in such a random place. But, it doesn't. And they might think that they're super-smart, trying to out-wit their audience, but they are just so damn progressive that they progress all the way up their own assholes.Which leads me to the second point:*Prog as fuck! Did you hear that diminished chromatic scale thrown in between the other random swept arpeggios?No, neither did I. Nobody gives a fuck about which scales you like to "weedly weedly" down the guitar neck with, so why do 90% of tech death bands have to do this? Sure, a certain combination of notes might sound interesting, but using them blazing fast nonstop just defeats the purpose of pleasing the audience and only aims to impress the listener with the band's technical prowess.Progressive is good sometimes, if used in the songwriting department. King Crimson didn't try to impress the listener with the skill at their instruments, but their songs are refreshing and breakthrough 50 FUCKING YEARS after the release of their debut album.Technical Death Metal bands aren't progressive. I wouldn't put Atheist into the same category as the abomination listed at the start of this post, because they are nothing alike. Atheist writes songs, with direction and actual thought precess. "Hybrid" write songs crammed with as much shit as possible that they could fit into 4 minutes.And, finally:*It's generic. It might suck a whole lot more than a lot of technical death metal bands (and that's saying something), but it really is nothing different. Same formula, just pulled off shittier. It sounds the exact same as millions of other bands, who do it much better. So why is this band even signed in the first place?To cater to people who know shit all about metal, and still go prancing about bragging about how their music is technically superior to everybody else's. They are worse than Dream Theater fanboys, I kid you not.I have much more to say, but can't think of anything because this mindblowingly shit song has completely erased my mind of any thought process. I think this is how the band felt when writing the song.

Crypt of Kerberos - The Macrodex of War

I first picked up this compilation album about a year ago with no particular interest in it besides the unique band logo and album title. When I finally got around to listening to it I was fairly impressed. Crypt of Kerberos utilizes a very unique style of guitar work, haunting vocal style and primitive recording to produce a specific sound that characterizes the band so well. Needless to say this compilation album (along with World of Myths) definatly holds enough merit to be enjoyed by fans of Swedish OSDM.

Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?vb6bzvrv4a4gb3h

Phantasm- The Abominable

Boasting a pitifully tiny discography consisting of three demos and no proper full lengths, Phantasm are an often overlooked gem of golden era early '90's death metal. This, their second demo, is arguably their best work. To give a comparison, this sounds like Entombed's Left Hand Path, but more articulate, with more riffs per song, very composed lead guitar work, sprinklings of clean guitar, and occasional subtle use of keyboards. The opening song and my personal favorite, A Soul's Nightmare, opens with an unsettling spoken intro, then launches into a thin, wailing tremolo riff that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and sets the mood for the rest of the release.The entire demo has a wonderful creepy vibe, like walking through a cemetery at night. The lead guitar sections in particular, though they are not complex or tie-your-fingers-in-knots technical, evoke images of ghastly haunted places and unspeakable lurking fears.

Download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=J5NVZJ73