Soulless - 2005 - Summoning Heresy

Here we have Polish Death/Thrash Metal act Soulless, with their latest mini CD. We are presented with 5 tracks, including an intro and a cover of the Sepultura classic "Necromancer", which leaves us with 3 of their own creations. The music is mostly mid-paced, but with faster, blastbeating parts. This sounds similar to Fallen Christ, with a good portion Morbid Angel. An overall rather American sounding release.

The vocals sounds like a mix of old Thrash vocals, American Death Metal screams and Polish Death Metal growls. Quite brutal!

The soundquality is rather chaotic and raw, with the bass being mostly somewhat muffled. The drums are towards the front, together with the vocals, with the guitars a bit in the back.

Standout tracks are "Infernalis in Favorem" and "Beheaded Messiah". And the Sepultura cover kicks ass.

Sunday January 14 2007, by :Vragh:

Among the Living/Dominatör - 2005 - Split

Two bands from the Netherlands are presented on this split effort. Among the Living play slightly melodic Thrashing Death Metal, with some small amounts of Doom in the mix, and are represented
here with four tracks. The music is actually really heavy, reminding me of both Slayer and early Metallica.

The vocals are barked out, reminding me more of Punk/Hardcore style vocals. They actually remind me somewhat of Max Cavalera's vocals, mixed with something I can't put my finger on at the moment. Can't really describe them better than that. At first I wasn't really that fond of them, but after a while you notice that they actually fit the music rather well.

The soundquality is very good indeed. The instruments can be heard clearly in the mix, and the sound is sharp. I would say that this is actually a lot better than average. This was the bands last recording.

Standout track is "Drown".

Dominatör plays a somewhat slower Thrashy Death Metal, with more Doom in the music, and are represented with five tracks, the last one being a live track.This is slower than Among the Living, and with a different heaviness as well. Traces of Slayer are present here as well, as a bit of Megadeth and even some slight amount of Testament.

The vocals are somewhat similar to those by Nathan of Graves at Sea, and they also remind me a bit of those by Chuck Schuldiner of Death, although these are not as highpitched.

The soundquality is somewhat murkier than the tracks by Among the Living, but I like it, and the individual instruments can still be heard clearly. The live track has a remarkably good soundquality, as well.

Standout track is "600 Days".

Saturday October 21 by :Vragh: