Jarkko Rantanen - Death Metal Champion

Young Jarkko Rantanen was clearly born to innovate Death Metal regardless of any obstacles that got in his way. Born in Loimaa, Finland (population 7000) - it seems by the time he was ready to jam in 1991, all the other Metal bros in town had already formed Demigod, and he was assed out on his own. Despite being odd man out in the middle of Finland, Jarkko somehow managed to scrape together some friends and recorded a demo that got them signed to Apidocere records. You can read my "anniversary" review of the 7" that followed HERE . Though he never managed to keep a solid lineup, Jarkko and drum/guitar partner Seppo Taatila never let this hold them back - at two seperate points in their career they had to take time off so a member could learn to play drums out of neccessity!. It is also noteworthy that Jarkko's brother, Turkka, wrote all of their cryptic mythologicial lyrics and painted the covers to all of their releases.
 I truly believe having such a varied and chaotic path of converging and ever-changing creative energies infused Adramelech with something special that only comes around every so often in our scene. Don't take my long winded fanboy version of it though - here's the official biography on MetalFromFinland.com
From what I recall, this is taken almost word for word from an old interview that was on their myspace years ago. Also, their Encyclopedia Metallum status lists them as "On Hold"...
 With Demigod playing MDF this year, I can only cross my fingers and hope that their "little brother" Jarkko comes to Maryland next year to once again show who the most brutal and obscure Loimaa band really is...

New Zealand Death Metal History

I think it was Adam who gave me the Eviscerate "Severely Butchered Remains" 1993 demo many years ago, when we used to get so many demos we swapped them like baseball cards. While home sick today from a brutal stomach virus, I did a little research and found some other obscure bands from New Zealand that were active almost 20 years ago, in the year 1993, that magical 12 months of Death Metal history... Although at first these bands may seem a little slow and trying, I have definitely noticed an emphasis on American style guttural vocals and gore, but slowed down to lingering atmospheres that predate the current "post-" or "funeral doom" scenes. This is very dark, raw stuff - give it a minute to settle in.

Here's a sample of the Eviscerate demo (primitive but effective):

 

This is my personal favorite oldschool New Zealand band - Convulsion. Check the interesting vocal techniques:

Then there's this scary shit, Sinistrous Diabolus - masters of the impending doom buildup:

DAN ALERT! CODE SCOTCHBONNET!

HAVE YOU SEEN MY BASS PLAYER? Last seen suffering from a head wound and drinking with a strange homosexual asian man. I AM WORRIED SICK, PLEASE HELP!

Yea!

Holler at your boys

As you can see, Dan has stepped up his attendance average big time and I am practicing drums every day. Old Boar, coming soon to a tape deck near you.
Photos by Paulo

"2 out of 5 Rehearsals a month."

"We light a candle, run laps around the English channel."

Free Canadian Death Metal (REALLY Good!)

Xyphos from Canada, boys, Xyphos from Canada.... I can't help but describe this as sounding alot like Godless Truth's demo and first two albums but with much better vocals. Not to spite Martin of Godless Truth, but Xyphos display an excellent croak-like, dry, guttural voice which is frequently accented by a consistent mid-range black metal snarl. To call it "Tech-death" seems kind of a misnomer. Don't get me wrong - the music displays above average competency and experience, but  has a straight-forward, choppy feel that reminds me of the late nineties, when Death Metal bands were having fun with breakdowns and hadn't gone completely overboard yet. They always keep things interesting with touches of clean guitar, dark melodies and the occasional technical flair, but nothing sounds forced or out of place and they seem pretty comfortable confining their depth and attention to detail to the realm of Death Metal alone, which is cake for you and me. Here's a link to Death Metal Invasion, where I downloaded their EP, "What Comes Before", for free. Be careful, you might get lost in Death Metal Invasion for awhile, so much free Metal...
XYPHOS

SHUT IT DOWN

Coffin Dust is playing The Acheron in Brooklyn on Thursday 3/29. For those of you not in the loop, I already wrote about this amazing up and coming Thrashy Swedish Death Metal style band and how they remind me of Intestine Baalism when I first started this blog. Here, once more, is the link to said review and FREE download:
Coffin Dust

The Acheron (Brooklyn, NY)

I guess The Acheron doesn't update their show listings often, but the show is listed HERE, so I'm inclined to give it a try.
 Thanks to T. Ander for the tip.