How we love and rejoice with all these reissues. Some are good, some are great, some are laughable; but we love them all the same. It is mostly metal and hardcore we are talking about, so humor me with more reissues.

Swedish label Regain Records (formerly known as Wrong Again) is reissuing Naglfar’s 1995 debut effort Vittra. For those unknown to this Satanic Swedish quartet, Naglfar played melodic black metal with an emphasis in speed, slaying riffs and bombast only as a second, but permanent, thought. Vittra came after the band had recorded two demos, 1994’s Stellae Trajectio and 1995’s nicely titled We Are Naglfar Fuck You. Produced by death metal legend Peter Tagtgren (Hypocrisy) at his Abyss Studios, Vittra sounds as fresh today as it did back when it was originally released.  There is basically one modus operandi here; full blast speed gives occasional way to syrupy melodic passages with an emphasis on grandiose riffs and the always insisting always to the top of his lungs delivery of founding member Jens Ryden. Vittra is truly relentless and a one track mind fucker, and as such it can grow tiresome after a few songs. Since the release of Vittra the band has suffered several line up changes. Nowadays none of the original members are part of the band. Naglfar has released four more full-lengths and two EPs since Vittra saw the light of day. This reissue includes three bonus tracks; a melodic cut titled “12^th Rising”, which nicely displays the band’s penchant for fast and faster, yet thoroughly melodic, riffs, a cover of Iron Maiden’s legendary “The Evil That Men Do”, which musically is pretty loyal to the original, and Kreator’s classic “Pleasure to Kill”, in which the band accelerates the riffs even faster than the Teutonic’s original.

Up next, and also from the nice Regain folks, is a reissue of Dark Funeral’s third record Diabolis Interium. Also known as the record that features Satan rubbing his tits on the cover (all this Photoshop artwork is kind of crappy to tell you the truth). Diabolis Interium (originally issued by No Fashion Records) was unleashed onto our sorrowful planet back in 2001, and like Naglfar’s Vittra, was produced by the devil’s favorite knob twiddler Peter Tagtgren. Tagtgren’s job here is once again to be reckoned with, except this time around the process must have been more complicated.  Dark Funeral goes so fast it makes the drummer from Naglfar sound like Def Leppard’s Rick Allen. But that’s not the only aspect of the band that is musically elevated; the guitars are so dense and run at so many revolutions at times they mesh with the orchestration, the cymbals are hit every split nanosecond while the vocal delivery of also bassist Emperor Magus Caligula is liver chilling and spirit channeling; he possesses the coldest and mightiest pitch this side of the Chikamauga.  This reissue comes with a second disk containing a previously released EP titled Teach Children to Worship Satan; it contains five tracks, four of which are covers. Classics from the likes of King Diamond, Slayer, Sodom and Mayhem get re-recorded with the band, with the exception of the vocal pitch, playing the songs basically note by note.   

From the dark colors and extreme temperatures of hell we go to the silly surreality of colorfully loud and jumpy video game-like metalcore of Seattle’s Horse The Band. Texas’ Pluto Records is re-releasing the band’s 2003 debut R. Borlax, which at the time it came out must have sounded totally fucking crazy. For those that are not familiar with these players, Horse The Band plays this pretty effortless mix of hectic and eclectic metalcore laced with the 8-bit sound produced by the Nintendo system. The keyboard sound that produces this videogame-like audio quality is prevalent in Horse The Band’s music, which can be both, a good and a bad thing. At parts it gives the music this 80’s pop like quality to it (end of “Cutsman”), at others it works as a sort of distraction making it rather weird and unfocused, and yet at others it enhances the ADD-like hyperactive attitude of the band. Horse The band, along with The Advantage and The Minibosses to name two of the most popular, is one of those to blame for the subgenre now known as Nintendocore. This reissue of R. Borlax features remastered audio and two previously unreleased bonus tracks.

The always reliable and hard working people of Metal Mind Productions are also dishing out some hardcore classics; now comes the day for Shelter, whose 1995 Mantra (Roadrunner) release saw the band taking a turn towards the highly melodic. Led by Krishna activist Ray Cappo (formerly of Youth of Today) and formed in New York, Shelter was a band with a very emphatic adherence towards pop melodies, easy pop punk hooks and even some rare hip hop singing which may turn some off (yours truly included). Good thing Cappo was not your average every day hardcore vocalist, he could carry a tune as well as any trained vocalist or American Idol participant and his clear tone is basically as easy as the guitars of Porcell. On any given day, I wouldn’t be able to tolerate music like the one contained in Mantra, curiously enough, all these songs go down like lemonade and truth be told, I much prefer Shelter’s brand of melodic hardcore than the typical meathead New York hardcore. 

Two years later (1997 for those who can’t count) came Beyond Planet Earth, an even friendlier, easier, poppier and unfortunately, crappier too, affair. As the last release by the band through their deal with Roadrunner, Shelter must have been pushing for success any way they could. The radio friendliness of some of these songs is downright criminal and in some cases downright obnoxious. The guitar playing for instance, was reduced to its simplest form and all for the service of mass accessibility. Wisely, Cappo skips all that rapping that stunk up Mantra and on counted occasions targets his former hardcore fan base with quasi lethal proto New York hardcore numbers like “Rejuvenate”. Not enough though. Oh yeah, there is some ska there too; winds and all, I couldn’t be bothered, Beyond Planet Earth does absolutely nothing for me. Shelter dissolved in 2002, in 2005 however Cappo recorded ten songs. The following year (that’s 2006 for those who can’t count) Eternal (Good Life Recordings) was released and Cappo toured Europe with a temporary lineup comprised of members of European hardcore bands. The status of the band is as of now unclear.

New Jersey boys Blessed Death came into the trash scene back in 1984, right at the time when the whole trash movement had started to take shape. In 1985 the band releases Kill Or Be Killed through Megaforce Records, and only one year later Blessed Death signed a contract with Roadrunner Records. Metal Mind is re-releasing the band’s sophomore effort Destined for Extinction, which truth be told is much better than someone would expect from a nearly forgotten 80’s band. I can understand how Blessed Death got relegated to the back rows when you consider the high quality of second tier trash (not meant as an insult, just referring to any trash bands that were out of the Top 4) bands like Testament and Death Angel, but this is much better than most anyway. The riffs fly through you slashing and slicing skin with the elegant chalance of El Zorro; they are a fluent mix of sheer speed and enjoyable technicality. Had Destined For Extinction received more promotion it may have had more of an impact on the scene and Blessed Death could have been considered as influential to the progressive death trash scene as Atheist, Pestilence and, later in their career, Death. One thing I like about Blessed Death are the vocals of Larry Portelli; usually rough and abrasive he wasn’t afraid of pulling a falsetto. Sure, he did not have the pipes of a Chuck Billy, but fuck, if he can scream circles around Dave Mustaine. Blessed Death was dropped by Roadrunner Records in 1992 and the band called it quits soon after. Their 1991 third album titled Hour of Pain was released in 2006 by the band’s own Blessed Death Productions. 

Located less than an hour away from Deaf Sparrow’s headquarters is Sarasota; a quiet and calmed central west coastal town where tons of Americans go to die and also the home of Crimson Glory, a band my younger brother worshipped for about three days and that I never gave the time of day. Though some of the God-awful promotional photos (how about those metallic silver masks?) floating around make them seem like a quartet of cheeseballs with a hungry taste for cock, their sleazy and slick kind of progressive rock isn’t all that bad. It helps that these were talented musicians; a fact that is in display all over their 1991 third album Strange and Beautiful.  The opening title track has a bit of a Middle Eastern vibe to it. Months before the release of Strange and Beautiful drummer Ravi Jahkotia joined Crimson Glory, a fact that is said to have brought a tribal feel to the band. More outstanding and impressive was the almost virtuoso guitar work of Jon Drenning (who also produced Strange and Beautiful along with Mitch Goldfarb), who weaved intricate groovey, sleazy and heavy on the wah-wah factor riffs and the clean pipes of Midnight. Had I paid attention to my brother I probably would have liked this a lot. A whole lot more than Spread Eagle that’s for sure. Some of this is way light though, and so polished it’s a fucking deterrent.

Astronomica was Crimson Glory’s fourth and last effort and it’s getting the royal treatment by Metal Mind Productions. This reissue contains two discs; the first is obviously the album and the second disc packs one remake of the second cut “War of the Worlds”, two demo versions from cuts of the same album and five live recordings. Crimson Glory had gone through tough times though, with the departure of vocalist Midnight right before the tour in support of Strange and Beautiful Drenning moved the band to Arizona and rechristened it first as Crush and then as Erotic Liquid Culture. Five years later Drenning was back in hot and humid Florida and with new recruit Wade Black at the mike Crimson Glory was once again a full-fledged band. Little traces of cock rock are heard throughout Astronomica, in their place the high pitch falsetto of Black gave the band airs of either power metal or progressive rock. Drenning is again great displaying technique and gusto, but the recording (produced by Jon Drenning alone) itself suffers from a totally shitty hollow drum sound.

Going back to the hard stuff; Quebec, Canada’s Gorguts (pictured above) came onto the scene in 1989 with a chunky, unshapely beefy guitar sound and a controlled timing for a death metal band. Much of their debut Considered Dead sounds like Morbid Angel, but without the virtuoso qualities of a Trey Azagtoth at the axe. Still, some of the guitars are quite interesting, especially the solos which denote certain finesse not seen very often amongst death metallers. But for the most parts, at the time Gorguts were sticking to the basics and following the path that most death metal bands were following at the time. Considered Dead is hardly outstanding but is an all around powerful and solid record. Like most of the death metal releases from Roadrunner at the time, Considered Dead was recorded by Scott Burns at Tampa’s Morrisound Studios. Matter of fact, I could swear the location of the band photo in the insert is about ten blocks away from Deaf Sparrow headquarters.

Much of the band’s fame as a very technical and somewhat progressive death metal combo started with 1993’s The Erosion of Sanity, which for the most part sticks to the same basics of Considered Dead but dares to be a little different. Founding member and leader Luc Lemay (guitars and vocals) was a man of evolution and in The Erosion of Sanity the guitars are killer, with stubborn stop and starts, technical solos, endless circular patterns and obsessive but paced intricacy. Some of the songs break of typical patterns and are down tuned jazzy exercises of extremity. (“Condemned to Obscurity”)  This time around the band produced the record themselves and had Colin Richardson (from Carcass to Sepultura to 3 Inches of Blood) mix the results; which was also a wise decision as it broke from the somewhat tepid sound Scott Burns had us all metalheads hooked on back in the day. Following the release of The Erosion of Sanity Roadrunner Records would drop the band, who’d resurface five years later with the more progressive record Obscura (1998), issued by the now defunct Olympic Records.  

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