It’s been a while since I wrote anything, but it seems to me that I kind of fell out off the Metal-boat for some reason. This morning I listened to Depth’s latest EP which appealed to me, but what really brought me back here was the song Eyez by Rap Metal-legends P.O.D. Earlier this year the guys already released the song On Fire, which came as a total surprise, but this totally shook my balls.

The lyrics take me back to a video, which showed some Black Metal artists commenting on the concept of Christian Black Metal, and one of the guys on there said that he was alright with the idea, only if they would actually scare the hell out of him with the might of God. I can tell you that not many Christian Black Metal bands do that, but P.O.D. here are doing just fine, with a mixture of unforgiven blasphemy, rising dead, guillotines and killing fields.

Mortification have passed by before here at the Baboon, but as I commented before the last five albums put out were kind of crappy. Although now I’ve kind of changed my opinion on some of these albums, Scribe of the Pentateuch is different, as I’ve heard from the recently uploaded song The Jaws of Life.

This song actually makes me quite excited for the album. I’m actually hearing blast beats for the first time in almost 20 years, which is a good thing. The vocals still haven’t returned to the full death growl on Scrolls of the Megilloth, but it’s definitely growly and gutteral. Shame the song is so short, because now I have to wait for another two days to hear some more, as the release date of this album is the first of April.

Some news to open up the stream of write up’s coming after the silence. I’ve been very busy with some stuff related to school and college applications etc. and Niek is away on a trip, so it’s been quiet for some time. But for today we’re happy to announce that Antivenom have completed their debut full-length Sacred Funeral.

Antivenom are a Christian Black Metal supergroup who got together earlier this year. The band consists of the members of Armath Sargon and White Funeral, both critically acclaimed bands on the scene. From what I’ve heard Antivenom is a natural extension on what both bands have been producing before: Raw Black Metal.

United States, internet-based Grindcore outfit Malodorous have returned with a new demo, after 5 years. After their debut Amaranthine Redolence, of which especially Eyes of Abomination gained some limited fame for its ferocious double bass rolls. Now they’re back with a new demo Augury of the Aborted, which was released yesterday.

The good thing is, that we have some freebies again. The guys have decided to give this demo away for free, and that doesn’t come with a sleek looking Bandcamp page, but with a low-fi Mediafire link. Hell yeah!

As a reviewer, you often need to do some extensive research before you write down anything, and Derelict was a band which I discovered while doing research about Dischordia. It is as such, that Dischordia are promoted by RicBurn Media, lead by our friend Eric Burnett, who in turn is the lead singer of Tech Death-outfit Derelict. At first I wasn’t bothered much by the busy kind of Death Metal, but with this little novelty, they completely fixed that for me.

On the 20th day of April, we will witness the birth of this Canadian Death Metal monster, and a monster this will be! As I can judge from the two songs presented this album will have all the guts needed in order to get Derelict to the next level, the “big” level.

Today, which means exactly today, Italian Thrash-outfit Boarders have released their third album called R-Existence. The guys managed to impress the world with their sophomore The World Hates Me, and judging from the first notes of R-Existence, they continue to do so. With this 40 minute album, Boarders again serve us some face molding Melodic Thrash Metal.

Emerging from a Megadeth cover band, Boarders actually date back to 1988. Roughly 20 years later however, they decided to walk their own path, and started writing their own songs, with lyrics in the vain of US-Metalcore outfit As I Lay Dying; society with a Christianity-influenced outlook.

We’ve had our little romance with US Grindcore-outfit The Right Wing conspiracy. First we reviewed their third album Alternate World and after that guitarist/vocalist Rafael Ortiz was kind enough to explain some aspects of Alternate World to us in an interview. Now this two-piece are back with a video for their song Mental Block.

The song is only 36 seconds long, but I liked the low-fi music video that went with it, perfectly conveying what the music and lyrics feel like. To quote myself: “Alternate World is a wonderful piece of Grindcore. The original concept (that is within the realm of Grindcore), together with the excellent songwriting and the more than decent musicianship make for something worth getting.”

It’s a Black Metallic week it seems, as we’ve now got material by Haemic, one of the projects in which our young Taiwanese Metal talent Ray Heberer, a.k.a. Halfbreed Ray, is active. We reported on the band’s earlier demo early in 2011 and now hearing a fresh preview for their upcoming album, I can’t help but notice they have made huge strides since!

To stay with the current trend of Dutch Black Metal, set yesterday by Niek with Mondvolland, I present you the new video by Duister Maanlicht. It’s the first single from their upcoming album “Hoerenzonen & Heksendochters”, a name, which neatly stays in tune with the other albums put out, bearing titles like “Over Ketters, Heksen en Ander Gespuis” and “Als Zwarte Engelen Sterven”. Although in the past people concluded that Duister Maanlicht was a Christian band, regarding their pseudo-religious lyrical context. However, with the release of this video, they seemed to have put this fable to death:

Duister Maanlicht is not a christian band, even though past lyrics might have misled people. Our goal is the war against female vocals in ‘black’ metal, keyboardblack and folk-influences in black metal.

Clear words, but according to our colleagues at Mauce.nl, I’ve found a more plausible explanation for this change of heart. They mention:

Now they’re back with a whole new line-up: a new singer, a new guitarist, a new drummer and a new bass-player. They have been recording new songs for their upcoming record “Hoerenzonen & Heksendochters” . Which will be released via SneeuwStorm Produkties / Nokternal Hemizphear.

So I think the fact that they have a totally new line-up, without Heidendoder who started the band, more than makes up for this change of direction.

Remember Oak Pantheon? The American atmo-melodic Black Metal outfit is working on an upcoming album and have sent out a little poll they could use our help with. There are three songs that they are considering to release ahead of the album as a teaser. The problem is they don’t know which yet.

So, what they’ve done is upload a reel with preliminary fragments of each of the three songs and it’s up to us to tell them which to prepare for the promo. There are no lyrics yet, but even the purely instrumental content is extremely convincing of the idea that this upcoming album may well blow its predecessor straight out of the water. And if you don’t remember, that was already an absolute masterpiece.

Anyfuck, what you need to do now is listen to this player, determine which of the three bits you like best and then go to their Facebook and select corresponding selection. Simple!