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ine #41Washington state, U.S.www.metalbulletin.blogspot.comwww.facebook.com/pages/The-Metal-Bulletin-paper-zine in this issue: reviews, reports, news, interviews on:

Descend into Despair(Romania) Hirax(U.S.)

Ephemeros (U.S.) Thy Blood(China)

also:

BLACK METALCryptic Forest(Germany), Ghost Bath (China)NEOCLASSICAL SHRED THRASHExmortus (U.S.)

THRASHBat(U.S.)

www fuglymaniacs com (issues online, concert videos, interviews, reviews)

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history of Metal Bulletin ZineIssue 1 to 20: (2006-2009): WisconsinIssue 21 to 26: (2009-2010): TexasIssue 27 (2010) -- present: Washington state--Metal Bullletin Zine (MBZ) is a homemade publication,and not a business enterprise in any way. MBZ is notbusiness partners with any band,record/management/publicity company, club/bar, orany kind of for-profit organizations/individuals. MBZ isnot paid money and does not sell any product toanyone for money/profit.----metal on the radio/internet (Pacific Time)

Metal Shop (Seattle, WA): Saturday 11pm-3amKISW 99.9fm www.kisw.comFOUR ridiculous hours of the heavy stuff!

Sweet Nightmares (Houston, TX): Thursday night9pm-midnight KPFT 90.1 fm www.kpft.orgBill The Master and his pirates take over Texas!

Descend into Despair (Romania)After hearing the music, its clear why Descend intoDespair is one to watch in the doom genre, particularlyafter the new album The Bearer of All Storms. Perhapsit might help to see the following information in thisformat about The Bearer of All Storms:

DISC 1.1.Portrait of Rust (10:09)2.Mirrors of Flesh (8:28)3.Pendulum of Doubt (10:44)

4.Triangle of Lies (16:35)

DISC 2.1.The Horrific Pale Awakening (17:54)2.Plnge glia de dorul meu (17:44)3.Embrace of Earth (10:28)

The total time is more than 1 hour and 30minutes.

Opener Portrait of Rust projects a grey forlornmusical landscape of plodding guitar, depressivekeyboards, decidedly unhappy melodies and anamicable, cave-monster growling at a slow pace. Afterthat song, the listener will not expect anything merry toshow up. The slow-motion depression is well on its wayas the second song begins and youll be forgiven fornot noticing that it is a different song, given that thealbum flows so well, taking depression to lower lowsand melancholic valleys of no sunshine.

The mood that you are in will likely affect thereception to this giant of a doom/death doom/funeraldoom album. Or, maybe the album will change yourmood. No matter, the only real requirement, I wouldsay, is an affinity for very slow, melancholic doom. I, forone, had no idea what awaited going into this. Oncethe music began, I did not have any intentions ofsticking around for an hour and half listening to one

album. I thought that I would check out a song or twbut thats not what happened. I ended up staying fthe complete album. Thats why its best to let it plaand see where the spectrum of miserable moods goe

Pendulum of Doubt has some melodsinging, but how depressive that sounds, too. It almosounds like its a man crying; not quite, but you get thidea. Triangle of Lies runs more than 16 minutes, yetworks dense melodies that somehow make one forgthat its the same song, its another long passage low-key melodies and heaviness.

This tunnel of no light only gets more oppressivand claustrophobic once we enter each of the twalmost-18-minute tracks. Monsters and ghosts growand chant at the listener passing by in the night.

With that, we reach the end, the last song only more than 10 minutes; and so it is: 10 minutes sad bells, more ghostly weirdness. This track, in aseriousness now, could work at a funeral.

By the way, the band has other, earlirecordings available for free at Bandcamp. Finstance, Wings of Solitude (23:10) is a demo fro2010, Vanity Devotion (30:31) is an EP from 2011 anHierophant of the Night (12:36) is a single from 2012.

Personally, I like these older recordings anhave been listening to them recently when I stumble

upon them. The demo from 2010 gives a good idea the aesthetics at work with Descend into Despair, bthe new album is miles ahead, of course, in terms osongwriting, experience, skills and sound qualitTherefore, these recordings are a good preview of thbands potential, while the album is the manifestatioof the potential carried out to its logical conclusion.

The album certainly becomes mocomprehensible with each new listen, and its highrecommended to the listener seriously indoom/death doom/funeral doom. With so much absorb, that it will take the rest of 2014 to make sens

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In a way, I hope that the band does not have a newalbum out in 2015 because I will need some time just touncover whats going on and to recover from thetotality on display.www.facebook.com/descendintodespairbandwww.descendintodespairdoom.bandcamp.com--

Hirax (U.S.) (contribution by Jojo from Fuglymaniacs)In the early 80s California thrashers Hirax shared the

stage with other new bands from the region, such asMetallica, Exodus, and Slayer.

Unlike those other bands, these guys took thelong way to this album Immortal Legacy (2014). This iswhere the rubber meets the road; where a blue-collarmusician earns his keep. Katon W. De Pena has beendoing this a long time. There is no quit in this guy.

As for Immortal Legacy lets just say Hirax isalive and well. Hirax sounds true to form with theirblazing speed and Katon screaming like his jewels arecaught in a vice. The Harrison brothers lead the waywith the killer riffs and thumping bass. Iacobellis ondrums is a man possessed with his neck-breakingdrumming. Overall we love this! We are glad Hirax staystrue to their craft.

Black Smoke melts your face right off thegate, sending out all the right signals. Assemble themetal battalions, off to war we go with HellionRising, which reprises all the kill switch insanity onewould expect from Hirax. It would be criminal to ignorethis album and we will revoke your headbanger'slicense. You've been warned. (The album is availableon YouTube, fyi).

Deceiver heeds its death militia damage call.Evidently the prodigal sons have returned. The mouth ofthe beast roars with the lightning and thunderous paceof the title track, one of Katon's personal favorites. Theretaliatory strike felt by Violence of Action, verifiesthat we are all still at war. The instrumental Atlantis,mostly a bass solo, leads to "The World Will Burn" a quickassault with killer shredding to begin the song with a

catchy chorus. "The world will burn... suffer the worldWe got a bonus track "Mephistopheles" (5:16).

The only non-old-school element, norelinquished due to age and the wear and tear froyears of touring, is those piercing highs Katon oncexecuted with his banshee call. Production: by thlegendary Bill Metoyer who reunited with the banback since their debut and EP. Another notrenowned Noise Records album artist Philip Lawveapparently has come out of retirement to create his firoil painting in 25 years.

While many new bands are trying to imitate thaold 80s California thrash sound. Here we have thgenuine sound from a band that has been around fdecades. The production is just right. Sound's simplnot overly done or layered; with guest guitar solos bthe likes of Jim Durkin (Dark Angel), Juan Garca (AgeSteel), and Rocky George (formerly of SuicidTendencies). This new epoch of chaos and brutalishould be satisfying to all. This is EXECELLENTwww.blackdevilrecords.com--

Ephemeros (U.S.)Speaking of funeral doomsters Ephemeros back in issunumber 38, Metal Bulletin Zine observed:

Recently, I have been listening to Ephemeroslot, and I have been wondering why that is. It could bthat Ephemeros masterfully works funeral melodies anthat is really all there is to it: Ephemeros has greamelodies. This trait makes it very difficult to argue withe music, and very easy to agree with it.

This zine also noticed about the album titled AHail Corrosion:

Ephemeros plays very slow throughout th

complete album, yes, and the growling is low and slowyes, and the slow heaviness is meant for stopping ansmelling the roses, and for forgetting your fast, busy lifThe riffs themselves are a journey to the places wheplodding, tripped out heaviness meets up wimelancholy and melody, and it all makes sense wheEphemeros puts it together.

Recently guitarist Chris gave these answers an interview about Ephemeros and other bands ththe members of Ephemeros are in, and about life Portland, Oregon. Ephemeros is: Garrett (bass), Chuc(drums), Jesse and Chris (guitars), Josh (vocals).

All Hail Corrosion is: 1.All Hail Corrosion (13:53)2.Stillborn Workhorse (10:40) 3.Soilbringer (15:29)--"All Hail Corrosion" is your debut, correct? Ive read thnames of your other bands, but I am not going to liehave not heard your previous bands. For Ephemerowhose insane idea was it to play very slow doom?!Yes, All Hail Corrosion is our debut record, and we'

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very excited about it. We have 2 long ass songs writtenand plan to finish a 3rd and record a new album in thefall of 2014. Previous bands span lots of genres. Gravesat Sea is sludge/doom, Nux Vomica is crust/melodicdeath metal, post-metal, and ambient/atmospheric,Elitist was, well, I dunno what to call it, very angry andheavy music rooted in hardcore. This band was theidea of Jesse and Chris, and we basically just wantedto play very slow and heavy music that was both brutaland beautiful, following in the steps of a lot ofEuropean funeral and death doom bands.

Did you record bits and pieces of the songs at a time ordid you play the songs all the way through?Oh, we had plenty of "go-backs" and overdubs, butnothing too excessive. We tried to take out each songin the largest cuts possible. I believe there was someminimal sound replacing done to certain kicks/snaresthat maybe didn't sound too hot, but most of what youhear is the live real time recordings. We didn't questionFester at Haywire much at all about his recordingtechniques, partially because we completely trust him,

and also because we don't have any strong opinionsfor/against modern recording techniques. If it soundsgood, which we think it does, we're happy.

I keep hearing that Portland has a thriving scene ofpunk and metal. Do you feel that this is accurate? Iguess funeral doom is never going to be "hip" and"cool," is it? Or, maybe I'm wrong?!Well, I went to see Pallbearer last night and couldn'tbelieve there were 400 people there, so maybe it's

catching on? Yes, Portland has a very thriving punkand metal scene and we are very much a part of itthrough our other bands, our jobs, and just our friendcircles. Ephemeros is lucky to be part of such a thrivingscene.

Your song "Stillborn Workhorse" was on YouTube evenbefore the album was released. Does that bother you?

It bothers us just a little bit... but not much. I meawe'd like for people to purchase our tunes and suppoour band as well as the record labels that put up smuch money to make it happen. On the other hanI'm just happy people are listening to our tunes. I'happy anyone gave enough of a flip to bother puttinour stuff on Youtube.... that's rad.

Reviewers usually talk about how funeral doom depressive and use this silly language, like hopelessneand things like that. But when you are playing thsongs, do you not feel joy and happiness?I like to think our music evokes several feelings, but yethere is some joy and happiness that comes from it. Wtry to make music that reflects our hopelessness in thworld, but also those moments of light and hope thalways shine through. I also think our tunes are release for anger and rage. And also, its good stuff get high, close your eyes, and take a friggin breathfrom this stressful life. Practice is like therapy to us.

I looked up the definition of Ephemeros and I wa

wondering if the lyrics are part of an overall concepthave not read your lyrics, but I do like to know whpeople are screaming about. Who in the band writthe lyrics? How would you describe your lyrics?They lyrics are written by Josh, the singer. They are over the map, expressing all of the feelings I mentionein the earlier question. We have a loose concept time, erosion/corrosion, decay, and the slow march death. Ephemeros is the Greek root word for thmodern word "ephemeral" which means somethintypically something in nature, that only lasts one daLike an ephemeral insect or stream. The Greek roword translates to "of the day". So I suppose the themis being aware of our gradual decay, but also living the moment and embracing the moments of joy they come and go.

How much of the song "Soilbringer" was made up at thstudio? Was it more than 15 minutes long before yorecorded it? Did one of the guitarists, Jesse or Chris, jukeep going with the riffs and then your drummChuck, just said, "Oh, well, I'll just keep going, too"? Nething you know, boom, a 15-minute song?Haha, no, that is nearly exactly how we wrote it apractice and perform it live, with maybe a few ext

ambient sounds thrown in.What is the longest that your vocalist Josh can hold continuous growl? Also, if Josh forgets a lyric, would threst of the band notice? Would your bassist Garrett givhim a look, like, "Dude, you messed up!"?You're cracking me up...I have no idea how long Jocould hold a growl, but he seems to be able to holdas long as is needed hahah. And no, if Josh messe

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up, we wouldn't likely notice. In fact, we'd just assumehe was experimenting and hopefully making his vocalpart even more awesome.

OK, that's it. Thanks for your time!Thank you for the interview and interest in our band!!!Cheers!!! www.facebook.com/Ephemeros--

Thy Blood (China)

These thrashers EP, simply called Thy Blood, isavailable for free at Bandcamp. Thy Blood was active2001-2007 and in 2011 they returned to action. Whenyou hear it, you will notice the skill level and the overalltightness of the execution. Thy Blood is no beginnersband, and they sound professional. Whether you likeBay Area thrash, the German thrash style or the newerthrash from nowadays, there is something in it foreveryone: headbanging riffs, modern growling vocals,songs with a beat, a bit of melodies in places. The five-song EP is: 1.Golden Age (3:38) 2.Blindfold (4:23)3.Feather (4:15) 4.War (4:15) 5.Polizei (4:24)

The band is comprised of guitarists Jack Chenand Wei, bassist A Gui, screamer Cao Hui and drummerAlain. When this zine contacted Thy Blood about moreinformation about the band, it was the drummer Alainwho responded. This is what Alain reveals about ThyBlood.

--Do you have other recordings?Currently we are in the writing process of the nextsongs, so for now that's all there is on tape.

What is going on with Thy Blood in China at themoment? You are in Shanghai, correct?We are writing new songs and hope to start to getsome gigs starting in April. Yeah, we are in Shanghai,and actually there's not much going on, so as to saythe metal scene is very, very limited. A few big bandsmade it to China though, Metallica came last year andsome other bands like Behemoth, Periphery.

In Shanghai there may be around 20 millioninhabitants in the broader region, but there are only a

mere 3-5 places where bands can have shows, thatnot including stadiums that welcome bands like thRolling Stones (they are coming soon).

What are your plans for the band?Our plan for now is to have a good batch of songs, anthen start having shows in the surroundings of Shanghand the other centers in China, Beijing being the moimportant (others are Chengdu, Wuhan, etc.)

What happened that made Thy Blood reunite in 2011?In 2007, the original drummer left Shanghai for Irelanand at that moment it just fell apart for some time. took 4 years to take things up and get a new drummand reunite musicians.

What type of jobs do you all have in Shanghai? Is difficult to find jobs?Project manager, electronic commerce, computengineer. Yes, it's not so easy to get jobs here as well. few of us are project managers in different fields.

Will you have a website in English in the future? I visiteyour website, and it looks cool, but unfortunately,cannot understand Chinese.For now Bandcamp is our only presence in English. Ware considering adding something else to the mix in thfuture.

Where did you record the EP "Thy Blood"?We recorded it in our very tiny 12 square meterehearsal room. There are many recording studios Shanghai, but not the type that would record Metbands. For our next release we are thinking of rentinsome place at least for the drums.

Your song titles are in English. Are the lyrics, too? We"Polizei" is German, actually. What do you think abohaving lyrics in Chinese? or perhaps, you do both?All our lyrics are in English. On our next release will havboth English and Chinese copies of the lyrics.

So, what inspires your lyrics?Most of our lyrics describe our lives and how the socieand the government interrelates with it. Golden Ageis a song about our longing for the 80's rock 'n roll staFeather is about the Movie Paradise Now.

What would you like thrashers outside of China to do support Thy Blood?Download our music and share it! Who knows maybsome day we can tour overseas. Thanks a lot for yomail! All the best to you. --Alainwww.thyblood.bandcamp.com THE END.--

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more REVIEWS/NEWS/UPDATES by MMB

BLACK METAL

Cryptic Forest (Germany): Ystyr (Einheit Produktionen)

The very modern, very competent black metal ofCryptic Forest does not require many listens to becomeintelligible given the professional sound quality and thepolished thrashy, headbanging riffing, and the on-pointdrumming that quickly attracts the listeners attention

towards the steady and fast approach to thesongwriting. Oftentimes the riffs sound like totalheadbanging thrash, like on King of Cryptic Forest, asong that exemplifies an affinity for fast, speedy, 80sthrash riffing, not usually associated with black metal.Another dimension consists of slow, repetitivenotes/hooks/melodies, for the cold vibe. Then, on asong like the closer Creatures of the Dark the bandshows off its more melodic metal side, with audiblekeyboard work and some melodic singing. Overall, thevibe is blasting modern thrashy black metal, however.

The central objective for Cryptic Forest is fast,

headbanging metal, and they are good at it. Theyhave a professional production and work the tunes thatmetalheads from a wide spectrum can understand.The frenetic pace of Call to War and Ystyr forinstance, is downright infectious. Songs like these willeasily cause whiplash or other types of neck and backinjuries. Its a double dog dare: Cryptic Forest dares youto not headbang. I bet you cant do it. You have to doit; and this band knows it, too. No self-respectingmetaller will resist the huge speed metal monster riffs.www.cryptic-forest.comwww.facebook.com/cryptic.forest

Ghost Bath (China): FuneralHere we go again with Ghost Bath and its anotherwhoa-man-yikes one! A previous issue of Metal BulletinZine, number 39, observed that not much informationon Ghost Bath is available. Leaving aside theunconfirmed questions of location and identity of the

musician(s), lets get to the nitty gritty of the new albumFuneral that follows the 2013 EP named Ghost Bath.

Once again, its another set of looney tunes deranged melancholic neopsychedelic postpunpostblack metal. For the record, yes, Ghost Bafeatures completely insane-asylum worthy high-pitcheshriek-howling; plenty of awkward moments (cryinseemingly out-of-tune segments, special effects, horromovie vibes and other goodies like that), but there also plenty of melody by way of the guitar ankeyboards.

A type of unified postblack metal framewoaligns together the variety of song moods, which at thrisk of too much reductionism, can be summed up afollows: fast, cave black metal passagemelodic/melancholic/goth/horror moments; and thpost component that arguably is the bread anbutter of the Ghost Bath sound identity. This albufeatures a mix of mellow tracks like the instrumentaSilence, a simple guitar-only number, or Sorrow, sad piano track, plus the usual suicide-obsessed annihilist freak-out tracks.

The non-instrumental tracks do have lyrics in English, juso you know. Heres the kicker: if the yeller is agonizinin English and pronouncing those lyrics, no one will eveever figure it out because it is a vocal style that goes fhowling and shrieking.

Thats it, Im calling it right here and now: GhoBath is going to be huge in China, bigger than ElvBeattlemania, Sabbath, Priest, Maiden and Metalliccombined, bigger than Dead Horse even! OK, maybnot more famous that Dead Horse, but youve got admit that Ghost Bath is postmodern to thpostmodern. How can you not enjoy the weirdness?!

Did I tell you yet that this album is available ffree?!! www.ghostbath.bandcamp.com

www.facebook.com/blackghostbath

NEOCLASSICAL SHRED THRASH

Exmortus (U.S.): "Slave to the Sword (Prosthetic Rec.)

Did Exmortus set for itself the objective of making own latter day Rust in Peace? Did they convincEddie Van Halen or Yngwie Malmsteen to join them fa thrash album?

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Right away, the attentive listener will notice withthese songs that the obvious reason that Exmortusstands out is the amount of effort taken to make aprofessional recording with quality instrumentation.From the start, the album overflows with neoclassicalshredding; and the spirit of neoclassical metal andshredder guitar comprise a substantial portion of thefundamentals of Exmortus.

Yet, Exmortus also compiles quite an array ofseemingly colliding traits. The polished neoclassicalleanings, for instance, may not be the most immediatecharacteristic that listeners imagine when they think ofthrash, a genre associated with speed and punkenergy, not necessarily finesse. In some songs, such asMoonlight Sonata (Act 3), classical music takes overin the form of metal; its metal, but its classical musicon guitar, too. Neoclassical thrash puts Exmortus in adistinct niche, apart from less skilled street orcrossover thrash bands. Of course, shredding thrashhas been Exmortus style for years, but it just seems thatthe planets aligned in a row for this album and theband has made the one that they will have to live up

to for the foreseeable future (ever?).

Headbangers should worry not, though,because Exmortus is very much a metal band. Not a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants and not rough-and-readythrash band like Toxic Holocaust, but still very much athrashy entity, in the live setting this music should beboth entertaining and bit virtuoso, not just obnoxiouslyloud. As a band of contradictions, Exmortus seems togo against the stream of its own sound by employingrough growling and completely typical metal lyrics.Perhaps one would think that with such polished, skilledelegance goes a clean production and wouldnecessitate melodic singing. Or if not that, then maybe

it would be some of the smoother growling found in aband like Insomnium. Instead, this growling is a bitaggressive and the lyrics are all about warriors,fighting and steel, in a Manowar-ish lyrical style. Inpoint of fact, the art for this work seems to be inspiredby all those bands with warriors and swords on thecover, too numerous to name them here.

In conclusion, thrash listeners or guitar-friendlisteners searching for a band that has a moderpolished production and lots of shredding will finmany things to smile about with this new Exmortalbum. Its also melodic and upbeat enough that thtraditional heavy metal audience can find somethinto its liking, the only obstacle obviously is the growlinEven so, the playing and the songs deserve a chancbased on the overall quality.

Now, boys, a word about those lyricswww.facebook.com/exmortusofficial

THRASH

Bat (U.S.): "Primitive Age (Tankcrimes Records)

Taking from Venom what they need, using the Exodattack as they please, raiding the Discharge vauMotorheads crunch to a fault. This is the way of th

Bat.

Rejecting the modern studios, playing thradirty and furious, the Bat plays no silly game, they saposeurs are to blame. This is the way of the Bat.

The shirtless Manowar boys run away, afrawhat the Bat has to say. Ego bigger than Metallica anPriest, the Bat eliminates each name from the list. Thisthe way, the way, the way of the Bat.

Moshers, hoboes and freaks; the Bat thrashing action. They will insult you, get a reactio1987, this volume knob goes to 11. 1988, no, thats watoo late. Travel back in time, the streets and the grimFive songs, 13 minutes, thats what youll get, and lesson in violence you wont soon forget.

Old (old!), ugly (fugly!), analog thrash, that is thway, the way, the way of the Bat!

[FYI: Bat is ex-DRI drummering Felix Griffin; ex-Cannabis Corpguitaristing Nick Poulus; and bassering/shoutering Ryan Wastemeshow Living Fast hosteringfrom everthrashers Municipal Waste.]

www.bewareofthebat.bandcamp.comwww.facebook.com/bewareofthebat--March 16, 2014