Thursday, October 18, 2012

Bandcamp Picks: Blood Harvest Records

With their manifesto "Only vinyl is real!" Sweden's Blood Harvest Records are tailor-made for kvlter-than-thou message board geeks and collectors. Luckily, they also put their various 7-inches and LPs on Bandcamp for the rest of us to enjoy, though digital downloads are few and far between.

Coffin Texts may be the most impressive band on Blood Harvest's roster. The tight, hyperblasting death metal on The Tomb of Infinite Ritual recalls Brazilian greats Mental Horror and Headhunter DC. With so many bands around the world trying to sound like they're from Stockholm, it's kind of amusing to hear a Swedish band that sounds like they're from South America.




The Stockholm '89 revival is still in full swing with Decomposed and their self-titled 12" LP. Their label describes them as "a mix of Grotesque with a hint of Autopsy," but honestly it's the other way around. Recommended for anyone who misses Dismember or can't wait for Death Breath's next fawning tribute to Chris Reifert.




If you were wondering what happened to vocalist Jonas Stålhammar after the Crown let him go, wonder no further....he's resurfaced in The Serpent's Redemption, the sophomore album from Bombs of Hades. Like Miasmal, BoH draws as much from Swedish D-beat as the classic Sunlight sound. This is the band to stick between the Motörhead and Discharge patches on your denim jacket.




Australia has a history of raucous, fukk-it-all black metal through Sadistik Exekution and Bestial Warlust. Erebus Enthroned don't traffic in quite as much chaos as their countrymen; on Night's Black Angel, they stick to melodic black metal in the early 90's Dark Funeral/Marduk mold. Strange that Blood Harvest went all the way to Australia to find a band that sounds like they live next door, but this is a solid, if somewhat generic, release.



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