Nameless Grave Records

Plague Bearer, Summoning Apocalyptic Devastation (Nameless Grave 2023)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

After thirty years, Plague Bearer releases its first full-length album, Summoning Apocalyptic Devastation.

Plague Bearer started out in Seattle in 1992. They released a couple of demos before changing their name to Drawn and Quartered in 1994. But there was always something about that original formulation that the founders could not let go of. As the story goes, “guitarist K. S. Kuciemba was determined to keep the Satanic flame alive, slowly amassing simpler, eviler blackened riffs with partner H and putting out a demo in 2001 and [an] EP in 2006 with Nuclear Winter Records. In 2017, K and H reunited with longtime ally T on drums, along with vocalist Nihilist…” So, Plague Bearer is a side project of the principals from Drawn and Quartered, but it is more than that, given the long history. After all this time, the musicians have decided a long-player is in order, so we have Summoning Apocalyptic Devastation.

The opening song is “Unholy Black Satanic War Metal.” What a title, huh. It sounds brutal. It sounds aggressive. It sounds chaotic. The actual song is all of these things, turned up past ten. It is a rampage, with a “Gates Of Babylon” feel to it from time to time, but colored by a darker brush. The title track follows, and it has a slower cook at the jump. The blast beats do come, and the growling, curdling vocals. With recklessness at its center, the black embrace of this music cannot be shaken. “Defiled By Sodomy” alternates between gatling gun and pile driver in its rhythms. Impossibly, there is also a groove thread. That is a characteristic of this music that other music does not have – the ability to take buzzsaw constructions and play them over and around a catchy execution. If you listen to this one with your head held just right, the vocal melody is almost a shanty. Amazing.

There is a lot more to admire on this record. Spend some extra time with “Decapitated Angels” and “Churches Are In Flames” to appreciate their depth and impulsive verisimilitude. The closer is “Christbane” and it is a banger. I love this track. This album rips and roars and kicks in your doors. Highly recommended.

Summoning Apocalyptic Devastation is widely available on Friday, March 3rd through Nameless Grave Records. Look over the label’s website and Bandcamp to see the available formats and variants at the links below.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://plaguebearerwa.bandcamp.com/album/summoning-apocalyptic-devastation

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/drawnandquartered

Nameless Grave Records, https://www.namelessgraverecords.com/

© Wayne Edwards

Plague Bearer, Summoning Apocalyptic Devastation (Nameless Grave 2023)

Ruin, Spread Plague Death (Nameless Grave Records 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , ,

After you hear Spread Plague Death, the new Ruin album, you are definitely going to join the cult.

Ruin, also known as the Death Metal Cult, since it sprang back to life in 2015, has been cranking out the music at an alarming rate. While their preferred format is the split or EP, Spread Plague Death is the third full-length studio album, following Drown In Blood (2017) and Human Annihilation (2018). It feels like it has been a really long time since the last LP, but that’s is only because there have been so many other short-form releases in between. I am glad for this big one, not because I don’t like the EPs and splits – I do like them. It’s just good to have a bigger chunk all at once.

There are thirteen head-cracking tracks on the album, running around radio length, typically, with only one transitional piece. Vocals are creaking moans and shrieks, the guitars riffs are slammed down in granite chunks, and the machine is strung together with torrid rhythm.

Doom passages are abutted by blistering, speeding rants and the periodic sonic torques leave you withered enough to topple. The growling savagery of the vocals can best be described as appropriate when compared to the subjects of the songs and the furious tantrum of the other instruments.

Ruin’s music is for the crowd that appreciates aggressive music. There is not an enormous space for crossover appeal. You are either down with this hard-edged approach to metal or you aren’t. Count me in. Recommended.

Spread Plague Death is out now. Nameless Grave Records has the vinyl edition, cassette versions are available through Nero One Records and Death Metal Cult, and there is a CD from Goat Throne Records.

Band photo by Carmen Canchola.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://thedeathmetalcult.bandcamp.com/album/spread-plague-death

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/SPREADPLAGUEDEATH

Nameless Grave Records, https://namelessgraverecords.com/

Ruin, Spread Plague Death (Nameless Grave Records 2021)

Dungeon Serpent, World of Sorrows (Nameless Grave Records 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

Generated in a singularity, Dungeon Serpent’s new album World Of Sorrows is executed with aplomb.

The soul member of the band is Arawn, and he has to do it all from vocals to guitars to drum programming. That is a lot to ask and there are many examples of one-man-bands out there. Arawn, and Dungeon Serpent, is the exception, operating at the high end of the spectrum in composition and performance. World of Sorrows is the first album from the solo act, following an earlier two-song demo.

“Necroscope” starts the set off with a straight up death metal attack. Heavy and driving, this song should be the single. Fittingly, there is a YouTube video to go along with it and that makes sense because it is an excellent introduction to the album. “Decay” is next and it starts aggressively, too, but by the end the first melodic elements appear, and the ending is light and ethereal.

There is not much of a break as “Immortal Incubation” is a wild ride, while “Cosmic Sorcery,” my favorite track, offers moments of respite as part of the broader heavy. The closer is the longest song, the title track, “World of Sorrows.” It has an epic metal feel to it, big in its ideas and full in its production. The progression runs through the edge of doom to straight-up death metal to those gentler and spare melodic elements. In many ways it is like a suite, as we might expect in a long piece. It is just the right finale and nightcap.

World of Sorrows is out on Friday, July 16th through the ever-reliable Bandcamp as well as the Nameless Grave Records store. Recommended.

Links,

Bandcamp, https://dungeonserpentmdm.bandcamp.com/album/world-of-sorrows

Nameless Grave Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/NamelessGraveRecords

Nameless Grave Records, https://namelessgraverecords.com/

Dungeon Serpent YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChdc80haQRpzS_T4RXL92Rg

Dungeon Serpent, World of Sorrows (Nameless Grave Records 2021)