Tag Archives: triangle

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TOXIC TWINS, Menace to Unity (1997, Brennus)

The skull:
This is surely just a photo of the underside of a skateboard from the 80s, right? What else could it possibly be? It’s pretty cool, in that very-low-rent Pushead knockoff kind of way, even if the riveted metal motif doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. If anything, the fastened-together look more like a defense, rather than a menace, of unity. But anyway, the bandana is a nice touch, and I’m sure that if this guy’s jaw is open to speak, the word he’s speaking is, “Gnarly!” or its Corsu equivalent.

The music:
You’d think, with a name and a cover like this, that Toxic Twins would be some mid-grade new thrash band, but you’d be wrong. In fact, this Corsican (!!!) act have been around since at least 1994, and this, their second album, is a surprisingly interesting historical curiosity. The main vibe I get is “LA 1986,” as Toxic Twins sound like nothing so much as a cross between Warrior and Motley Crue, although that glammy base is leavened by a bit of the weirdness you’d sometimes get from bands like Saigon Kick or Warrior Soul. If that list of names does nothing for you, I can assure you, aside from Warrior (whom I love), it does little for me, but Toxic Twins blend it all up in a mid 80s stew that is nonetheless fairly enjoyable. The music isn’t especially heavy, but it’s definitely metal, and the glammier aspects feel more vestigial than intentional. I have no idea who is singing (basically all of the members are credited with vocals) but most of the lead vocals are sung by just one guy, and he sounds a lot like Warrior’s Perry McCarty, minus the upper end of McCarty’s (once) astounding range. This midrange rasp is put to great use, and some catchy melodies are eked out of not a lot of notes. There are a couple longer passages sung by another guy, and he’s not nearly as good, even if he isn’t terrible. My main complaint with Menace to Unity is that it rarely really gets going, and by the end of the disc, all the mid-tempo tunes start to blend together, but this was a serious problem across the board in melodic (non-power) metal in the mid 90s, and the tunes here are generally strong enough to overcome this as a serious handicap. While the other two Toxic Twins albums appear to be long out of print, evidently Musea (of all labels) reissued this about a decade ago and it’s still available. Supposedly the band is still around, but their last release came out in 2008, so who knows? But, this album is sufficiently good that I think I’m going to have to spend a little time trying to track down those other albums, if only digitally, because there’s some chance that they might be pretty good.
— Friar Johnsen

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ASH BORER, Ash Borer (2011, Psychic Violence)

The skull:
All kinds of “hipster alert” sirens going off right now in my office. First, the occult-looking skull, the design of which could be a Death in June or Brighter Death Now image, co-opted by some California atmospheric black metal band. And the fact that it’s shaped like a cassette. And, indeed, it was released on cassette. My concerns far outweigh any impact the actual skull is having right now. But what about him? This guy looks glassy and carbon-black, and the storm a-ragin’ behind him is nothing like the storm in my mind, knowing I might be having to grapple with yet another bearded clan of hipsters who I could never, ever relate to. Let’s see about that…

The music:
Three songs, nearly 40 minutes. Okay, you can already see where this is going. Think Krallice. I’m thinking Krallice, anyway. Which is not the worst thing to think, if I’m honest with myself. The opening track, “In the Midst of Life, We are in Death,” has an ominous dose o’ doom running through its center. Then blazing black metal busts down the gates of doom and lets rip. It’s fine. It’s even fairly authentic. But it gets real dull, real fast. And ditto on the other two tracks. Scathing, blazing, full-tilt madness when it’s not moving extremely slowly, this is competent and boring. It feels like background music much of the time. And black metal of any kind should never feel like background music. In fact, I don’t even believe in background music. So I guess I don’t believe in Ash Borer, even though I know they exist.
— Friar Wagner

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BLACK FLAME, Septem  (2011, Behemoth Productions)

The skull:
I tend to think of skulls as male for some reason, but who really knows the gender of these boneheads we’re evaluating? Four-hundred thirty-four skulls in and this is the first time one immediately strikes me as female. Possibly, in part, due to its modest size and reasonable proportion, but more because the skull looks like it belongs to Medusa, the Greek Gorgon whose main claim to fame was having snakes where her hair should be. Which begs the question: does the carpet match the drapes? It doesn’t appear that this artwork will be helpful in answering that timeless query. However, I do think I see a clue, or some kind of symbolism, in that triangle. Am I right, guys?

The music:
There are so many Italian metal bands with large discographies that no one knows much about. That’s largely because there are a ton of Italian metal bands that are technically very good at their chosen sub-genre (black metal, black/death, thrash and power metal being especially popular there), but deficient when it comes to having an engaging, distinctive musical voice. And many of these bands sound like mere analogs of more globally-recognized, non-Italian bands. This leads us to Septem, who have been around since 1998 and, unsurprisingly, are pretty okay but nothing more. They deliver a cruel, believable mesh of death and black metal, something that draws from the old Greek black metal scene and the Norwegian masters as much as it does more modern, precision sorts of sounds (think Behemoth). Sometimes they sound like Samael if they had continued down the dark path of Ceremony of Opposites instead of going the martial/industrial route. Sometimes they sound like Root if Root had suddenly decided to play with the intensity and adopt the robust production values of Vader instead of taking the progressive/eccentric path. But usually they just sound like they want to be Behemoth — and what modern death/black band doesn’t secretly wish they were Behemoth? Thing is, Black Flame don’t even make it a secret. It’s all there on Septem, right out in the open. What’s more: they’re signed to a label named Behemoth Productions. You can’t make this shit up. — Friar Wagner

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INTERMENT, Where Death Will Increase 1991-1994  (2010, Necroharmonic)

The skull:
Where will death increase? Where will it decrease? Where does it stay the same? These are burning questions in Interment’s world, a world where skulls scream the question into the void rather than discussing the matter in a more civil manner. This skull, however, screams not, nor does he even talk, as he is gagged with a ring and primed for use as a totally bad-ass door knocker.

The music:
I don’t know about death itself, but death metal certainly increased between 1991 and 1994, especially if you’re talking about the number of shitty bands around in 1994 compared to 1991. Doubtless many of us into the first and best wave of Swedish death metal discovered a few previously overlooked gems since revival in interest found tons of second- and third-tier bands from the first era having their demos and albums reissued in more recent years. My most satisfying discovery of  an old band like that was Toxaemia, but Interment don’t spark the interest the way that band does. If you’d never heard brutal Swedish death metal before, Interment would definitely impress, but listeners who missed them the first time will likely acknowledge their competence and quickly move onto something a little fresher. Their sound recalls Dismember most, which means it also sounds a lot like early Entombed, but it’s got the thickness and tempo variety of early Therion and a bit of an early Unleashed thing going on too. This release compiles their three demos dating between 1991 and 1994; note that the first demo not only bore the same name as this comp, but featured the very same door knocker. In 2010 they released their very first full-length album, Into the Crypts of Blasphemy (as opposed to the crypts of rays), and they sound exactly the same there as on these early recordings. They’re consistent, that’s for sure.
— Friar Wagner