Communal Grave – Black Harvest
This is Communal Grave’s third original (released to the public, that is) and boy, does it kick ass or what? This was originally supposed to be on GmH Record’s Underground Chaos compilation but I don’t know what happened, and the band ended up releasing this track online, as a sort of promo for their upcoming album “Solace in Violencia.” The band actually played this track live before, I think in the CotC last year also. But whatever, I’ll get straight to the point here. With tight riffage, a sexy solo, solid drum programming and catchy as fuck vocals, Black Harvest classifies as a definite mosh anthem. Right from the start, this track will have you banging your fuckin’ head and pumping your fists in the air and I can only imagine the chaos that would ensue if this song would be played live again in this current, completed format. The production is the best the band has achieved yet, marrying a crushing psuedo-brutality with knife-like precision, the best examples being the kickass break in the middle and the way the solo cuts through the guitar tone easily. But there are a couple flaw with it. The vocals – as I said before on the band’s facebook group and to Nabeel on MSN some months back – feel like they were recorded with Moiz standing right next to a brick wall. Now, instead of the vocals going forward, instead feel ‘blocked’ and the sound waves go around and cover the instruments slightly, like a piece of cloth. Mind you, this is not the only flaw with this song. The vocals, to be perfectly honest, feel somewhat devoid of emotion and kind of lazy despite being catchy. Anomaly had one of the most emotional vocals I’ve ever heard from a Pakistani band and Blinded by Deceit had some incredible low range vocals, just full of brutality. But the vocals here are just catchy, nothing else, which was probably the point. The solo, despite being mind-numbingly awesome, just feels out of place with a slightly wrong timing. The band’s sister group, Cardinal Sin, also seems to have this problem with the guitar solos – they just don’t seem to blend in with the music despite being awesome and not doing anything wrong and having the right tone etc. After some repeated listens, however, you’ll get used to it and it won’t seem weird in any way, though. The song is dragged on in the end through the hilarious grunting/breakdown combination and it’s the only flaw in the song which does not have a positive side to it, in my opinion. Last, but not least, even though it’s probably not too important, the lyrical contect here just doesn’t match up to their last two originals but then again – who cares? The lyrics are easy enough to sing along to, and doesn’t take anything away from the music at all. Overall, this song is just damn fuckin’ good at what it aims to do. And what does it aim to do, exacly? Rattle your goddamn’ heads, that’s what! 8/10

Dementia – Sworn Annihilation
Though the band started out as a metalcore tinged melodic death/groove metal band, they have evolved into a modern thrash metal band with this song. The music here is not unlike the recent works of Exodus, Machine Head and to an extent, Shadows Fall (which many people describe as ‘neo-thrash’, which is old school thrash fused with modern metalcore and groove metal influences). The song doesn’t take long to kick in, after a horror style intro that just SCREAMS ‘old school.’ What follows throughout the song is a clear homage to Testament’s ‘The New Order’ and ‘Practice What You Preach’ as the riffage sounds really similar to those albums, but the added groove touch brings Testament’s ‘Low’ to mind, especially with the extreme metal-esque vocal delivery. The solo is just crazy, I’m not going to dwell on it because Taureg Tariq explained it very well in his review. Production-wise, this is probably the best production I have EVER heard on a Pakistani metal song. The guitar tone is sharp but clean, and has that old-school ‘thin’ feel, giving it a razor-blade sort of feel. However, the solo feels kind of muted, maybe they should have increased its volume somewhat. The same goes for the drums, which are by the way, very tight and clean as well. Overall this is one beast of a song and should fuckin’ inspire Dementia’s peers in the Pakistani metal underground to step up to the plate in terms of production and catchy but crafty songwriting. This is not just Dementia’s best song yet, this is the best song I’ve heard this year, tying in with Odyssey’s ‘With Him, Came Destruction’ and Soul Vomit’s ‘New World Holocaust.’ Though, I have to admit, I doubted this bands’ capablities before, I was proved wrong by this song and I hope they can follow up with equally awesome material! 9/10

Berserker – Revenge of the Mullah
Berserker are Pakistan’s resident old school death metal worship band, taking in influences from the likes of Massacre, Morbid Angel, Entombed, Dismember among other legendary bands. Their first song ‘Atars of Putrification’ was a crushing slab of old school death metal which brought to mind a thousand zombies coming up from their graves to mutilate and decapitate all that stood in their way. Their new song, Revenge of the Mullah, improves upon all aspects of the band, including the vocals, drum programming, songwriting. And even though Berserker just basically worship (not rip off, mind you) the ‘old ways’ they have their distinctive sound, even though this is just the band’s second original. The opening riff of this song is testament to this fact. It doesn’t sound like Unleashed or Grave or whatever, but at the same time it is, it’s really hard to describe. But it definitely is old school and with a kickass chainsaw-like tone (though lacking in power, slightly). As I said before, the drum programming is really improved and along with the production, it gives the song a CRUSHING feel, and when I mean crushing what I really mean is EARTHFUCKINGSHATTERING. Yes, that’s it. Earth shattering. The problems with the tempo changes have been dealt with and the band are better than ever here. My only real gripe with the song is that it feels a little cacaphonic at times and the band still has a LOT of room to improve and evolve into a truly ugly and morbid band. The solo, for example is blatant Trey Azagthoth worship, a guitarist whom I find extremely overrated. I’ve always felt that the point of a guitar solo in death metal is not to match the uglyness of the music, but rather, to contrast with it while a the same time blending in perfectly. The solo here is just badly composed with no sense of coherency and for a short while completely kills the flow of the song, destroying it like the bully in your pre-school days would destroy your precious lego building. But whatever, old school enthusiasts like me should gobble this up even if it leaves you feeling only three-quarters full. 7/10