Review Of Apathetic Torture's 2018 Album "Vile Scourge".

 Band Name: Apathetic Torture

Album Title: Vile Scourge

Tracklist:

1. River Of Lard

2. Axe Fucked

3. Princes Of Hell

4. Cranial Drainage

5. Drowned In Cunt Blood

6. Excruciating

7. Suffocated By Semen

8. Malicious Christ

9. Vicious Intrusion

10. Broken Axion

Rating: 9/10

Release Date: January 2, 2018

Run Time: 32:00

Label:Independent

Versioned Reviewed: Spotify Stream

Band Members: 

Erick Viloria - Bass

Brian Giradin - Drums

Rob DeSantis - Guitar

Michael Centrone - Vocals

“But Britton, why are you reviewing an eight year old album?”. I get asked this sometimes. I review any Metal or Punk album, regardless of release date. Especially if a band asks me to review it for them. I mean, Apathetic Torture’s one and so far only album “Vile Scourge” may be an older album, but to me and many of you it will be brand new. The goal of my page is to get music of lesser known bands out there for us to discover and support them a bit. Sometimes, Hell, a lot of the time, these albums that passed me by are great and to have finally found out about this. This is the case with “Vile Scourge”. This music rules. Hard!

Apathetic Torture hails from New York and a lot of their sound is rooted in that early to mid 90’s Death Metal sound. Brutal yet catchy melodies, great musicianship. The myriad time changes and more. All four guys know their instruments and not a single second of the album becomes lame or watered down. I hear some Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse and more. Palm-muted guitars? Yeah, they're here. As are rapid fire drums and a nice pronounced bass sound. The vocals are great and remind me a bit of Cannibal Corpse era Chris Barnes. A few songs have weird, creepy and/or funny sound samples, which is something I always liked. As you can tell by the song titles, the lyrics are pretty over the top and the band doesn't care about offending anyone. For a self-released album the production on the album is insanely good!

The cover art is a hand drawn scene of various evil beings carrying out blasphemous shenanigans. It’ss well drawn and while simple it’s detailed and depicts the music that you’ll find on the album well.

The band doesn’t seem to have a Facebook, Bandcamp or any other page aside from Spotify. I provided the link below to the album’s Spotify page where you can listen to the album in its entirety for free. I beg that my followers that are into OSDM do that,a s “Vile Scourge” is a monumental slab of Death Metal greatness. Okay, now I need to address the elephant in the room. Metal Archives says the band is still active and this is the only album they ever put out and that was eight years ago. No, this won’t do! We… I… need more! Not only that, the band is good enough that they should be signed if that is what they want. Uncover this hidden gem now!

As always, I ask my followers to support the bands, labels and artists by buying the physical copies of the albums they love or by visiting their Bandcamp pages and supporting them there.

Apathetic Torture's Spotify Page.

Free CD giveaway.

 Okay, my mistake is one a gain for one of you. I accidentally bought two copies of the same CD last week. Lol. So, I'm giving the duplicate away. It's a secret what it is, I'm keeping the packaging it came in to send to whoever wins. I will say it's Thrash Metal and great. Sadly, since I'm disabled and broke, only people from the U.S. can take part because of the heft shipping fees out there right now. Just comment below with your best guess of a number between 1 and 200 that I will choose at random on August first. Good luck!

Review Of The New 7" Album "Devil Of Mediocrity" From Punk Legends Gudon.

 Band Name: Gudon

7” Title: Devil Of Mediocrity

Tracklist: 

Side A. 

1. ???

2. Stoic Violence

Side B.

1. Against Stupid Law

2. Shame On You!

Release Date: 

Running Time: 9:00

Rating: 10/10
Label: SPHC/Believe In Punk 

Version Reviewed: 7” Vinyl

Band Members:

Guy - Vocals

Tank - Bass

??? - Guitar

Naoki - Guitar

Oumi - Drums

Jacket Artwork By Guy

Mastered And Engineered By Shintaro Ryoching

Oh man, the list of hardcore and punk bands I love is never-ending. I have and always have been a bigger fan of Metal, but Punk is right up there too. Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, Minor Threat, Jerry’s Kids, Dicks (Not my band!), on and on. That said, I didn’t know as much about Punk as I did Metal, so a lot of bands passed me by. SPHC Records sent me the newest 7” from a band from Hiroshima, Japan called Gudon who has been playing this music since 1984! It seems they took a break and now are back pummeling the Japanese mainland and the rest of the world Godzilla-style! Read on and see what I thought of this 7”!

Holy shit, this 4-song and 9 minute little 7” is packed full of the most energetic Punk I’ve heard in a while. I need to check out their past releases, for sure! The sound here is like 75% 80’s styled Punk and 30” Thrash/Speed Metal. There’s definitely an 80’s Crossover sound permeating the music. I hear influences of old Punk, but also some Metal like S.O.D. and Nuclear Assault. I think both of those bands came after Gudon did though! The vocals rule and again are most Punk/Hardcore mixed with some Metal styled vocals here and there. The lyrics are typical Punk fare and touch on things like politics, war, politics and things of that ilk. It’s kind of sad that these kinds of lyrics are just as relevant today as they were in the past. Humans! Pfft! The one thing that gives “Devil of Mediocrity” a more modern sound is its awesome production. They managed to give a Punk album a superb sound while not making it sound too overproduced or clinical. The musicianship on display here is top shelf. Fast guitars with chaotic solos, maniacal drumming and absolutely amazing bass lines are found throughout.

Whether you are into Punk or Metal, “Devil of Mediocrity” needs to be in your collection. It’s pure musical brilliance played by a group of very talented people. I can't recommend this one more! If you want it, you better hurry though as it is limited to a run of just 500 copies.

The artwork was done by vocalist Guy and is hand drawn in black and white and depicts a plethora of pure Punk ideologies and symbolism. It’s a total throwback to the 80’s and I love it. There is an insert that has all of the lyrics, more artwork and band and album information too. The vinyl is on red vinyl, a cool deep red too. The jacket is made of a thicker cardboard than most 7” albums I see and as such it feels good in your hands and gives you comfort knowing if taken care of it’ll last a while!

As always, I like to ask my readers to support the bands, labels and artists by purchasing the physical copies of the albums they love or by visiting their Bandcamp pages and supporting them there.

Link To The Bandcamp Page For This Album.

SPHC Records Bandcamp Page.

SPHC/Believe In Punk Website.

Blasted By Britton Facebook Page.

Blasted By Britton Site.

Review Of 1917's 2025 Album "Factor Bestial".

 Band Name: 1917

Album Factor Bestial

Tracklist:

1. Agonias en el cielo Z(la risa del abismo)

2. Lapidados a plena luz

3. El apego del narcisimo

4. Abberacion del ego

5. La vaz que mas miente

6. Tribulacion

7. Espejismas en los que creer

Run Time: 38:53

Label: Independent

Rating: 9/10

Version Reviewed: Facebook Stream

Band Members:

Alejandro Sabransky - Vocals, Guitars, Drum Programming

Mario Mansills - Bass

This is my favorite part about reviewing. When a band I had never heard of and asks me to review one of their albums and I find the music amazing. This is exactly what happened with the band 1917 originating from Argentina. Alejandro Sabransky asked me to review their 2025 album “Factor Bestial” and I agreed. These situations don’t always go well. I will review any album or band unknown to me because that’s the biggest part of Blasted By Britton…. Promoting the smaller and/or unsigned bands or bands on small labels. As if now the band is unsigned, but I have no idea why. “Factor Bestial” fucking rules. They have been around for over 30 years and have had some Death Metal greats work with them. Most notable to me was Alejandro telling me just a few days after Mick Browning died that Mick did a guest spot on one of their albums. Love it! They’ve been around over three decades and now have thirteen albums under their belt. They have reveled and thrived in the underground, but let’s get this band more well known if we can, folks.

While the band claims to be Death Metal, and they definitely are, I heard a bit of Black Metal in there as well. The music here is catchy as hell and played with precision by two guys that know their instruments well. A drum machine was used to record the album, but you could have fooled me as it sounds like a real drummer. The guitars are brutal; fast and memorable and catchy riffs permeate the entire album beginning to end. Most of the Black Metal sound to me comes from Alejandro’s vocals which sound a tiny bit like a more Death Metal version of Dani Filth. And that’s a compliment as I love “The ‘Filth”! As I have gotten older I have noticed that I am appreciating the sound of the bass on Metal albums more. In fact, I recently bought a Fender bass and amp and plan to play on it.and take lessons. Will I ever be as good as 1917’s bassist Mario Mansills? I highly donut it! Lol. This dude’s bass playing is extraordinary and his bass lines plow through the rest of the music with ease. The lyrics are written and sung in Spanish and touch upon themes such as philosophy, poetry, art, religion and Psychology. The production on the album is great, and to think this was done on an independent budget is amazing.

The artwork for the album is great and shows a hollow eye socket with a scene of some post-apocalyptic aftermath. It looks like open bibles are spread around in all the devastation. It’s pretty damn cool. I reviewed the Facebook stream of the album, so I don’t know what is contained in the actual CD, if a CD version even exists. Don’t let the band pass you buy for over three decades! Lol. Better late than never, right? The guys should be proud of this. Highly recommended!

As always, I like to ask my readers to support the bands, labels and artists by purchasing the physical copies of the albums they love or by visiting their Bandcamp pages and support them there.

1917's Bandcamp Page.

1917's Facebook Page.

Blasted By Britton Blog.

Blasted By Britton Facebook Page.

Dehydrated "30 years of Sickness" Review.

 Band Name: Dehydrated

Album Title: 30 Years Of Sickness

Disc Once:

Tracklist:

1. Demons In My Head

2. Victim

3. Whispers In The Abyss

4. Voluntary Misgiving

5. Mental Torment

6. Vyhrabem Mrtve Telo

7. Cock And Hole

8. And Death Shall Have No Dominion

9. Cold And Bleeding

10. The Glory’s Hangman

11. Don’t Laugh You’re Dying

12. Last Sunset

13. Appealing Murder

14. Dying And Asking

15. Dreams Of eternity (Massacre Cover)

Run Time: 1:01:29

Disc Two:

1. Hate To God

2. Common Perfection

3. The Stallion

4. The Weak King

5. Stolid

6. Ode To Solitude

7. Touch The Sun

8. The Old house

9. Poet And Pain

10. The End?

11. Way Kyky Raga

12. Lymphomgranulome Inguinale

13. Dying Out Of Extremity

14. Psychopathological Patient

15. Introseal Fibrom

16. Zijuca Fibrom

17. Utrpenie Zivej Hmoty

18. Smertelne Predstavy

19. Kannibalizmus

20. Zhubny Nador

21. Dehydration

22. Vyhrabem Mrtve Telo

23. Geneticke Zvidocenie

24. Analny Vysmench

Run Time: 1:20:25

Rating: 10/10

Label: Paragon Records

Rating: 10/10

Version Reviewed: Double CD Jewel Case

Band Members:

1991 - 2001

Bruno Jural - Guitar, Vocals

Palo Baca - Bass

Pegas - Drums

Adrian Jezik - Vocals

Vlado Pagac - Vocals

Maros Juliny - Drums

Jan Balak - Bass

Janek Bezovy - Guitar

Pavol Ondris - Guitar

Marius Kadak - Guitar

2002 - 2012

Brano Jurak - Guitar

Vlado Pagac - Vocals Lasso - Drums

Maros Juliny - Drums

Jan Balak - Bass

2013 - 2023

Brano Jurak - Guitar

Janek Bezovy - Bass

Drahoslav “Dragan” Gabris - Vocals

Jozef Nitriansky  -Drums

Peter Bencik - Guitar

Roman “Elevo” Lasso - Drums

Mato Benkovsky - Vocals

2025 - Current

Bruno Jurak - Guitar

Janek Bezovy - Bass

Roman “Elevo” Lasso - Drums

Mato Benkovsky - Vocals

Dehydrated is one of the many bands that I’ve heard a lot about over the years but have never heard until now. Paragon Records sent me “30 years Of Sickness: a Two CD, almost two-and-a-half-hour compilation of pretty much everything the band has released. So hey, I’m all caught up with this one release.

If you listen to this for the first time and are like me who had never heard the band until now, you may be like “This is great, but I’ve heard this before”. It’s a bit of Carcass mixed with early U.S. Death Metal and Benediction. Keep in mind that Dehydrated was there in the early 90’s at the very beginning of Death Metal. I just missed out! This music is the kind of Death Metal I prefer. Brutal, catchy, heavy and fast and well played with fancy guitar solos and leads at times and some horror movie sound samples to boot. That’s something I’ve always loved; the horror movie sounds samples. All of the material on this two CD set is great, even the demo stuff. They are obviously a band that has always looked for quality musicians during times of change and that’s probably why they are still around today. This set contains material from their 2025 EP “Victim”, their 2019 EP “And Death Shall Have No Dominion”, their 2017 album “Resurrection”, their debut album “Ideas” and their side of a split with the bands Bestialit and Burnt. The vocals at times remind me of David Ingraham of Benediction and the lyrics touch on themes like Death, murder, horror, disease processes and more. The production varies of course since its music spans over three decades. The sound is good to great all the way through.

The cover art is a grotesque collage of dissected human bodies and people being tormented. Inside the booklet you will find more artwork including the cove rimage for each album that is on the comp. All of the lyrics are also printed within and there are band photos and band and album info as well.

Well, if you’re a fan of Death Metal at all, especially the kind that doesn’t try to be too fancy and sticks to the “Old Ways”, this career-spanning CD set is a perfect way to get into this great band. This garners my highest recommendation! Good going, gentlemen!

As always, I like to ask my readers to support the artists, bands and labels by buying the physical copies of the albums they love or by visiting their Bandcamp pages and supporting them there.

Dehydrated Facebook Page.

Dehydrated Bandcamp Page.

Paragon Records Facebook Page.

Paragon Records Official Website.

Blasted By Britton Facebook Page.

Blasted By Britton Blog.

Review Of The Newest Pater Tenebrarum Album "Meat Grinder".

 Band Name: Pater Tenebrarum

Album Title: Meat Grinder

Tracklist:

1. Rabies

2. Flesh That Hates

3. Antibody

4. Night Of The Cannibal Dread

5. Here Comes Eddie

6. Disembowel

7. Meat Grinder

8. I prefer You Dead

9. Pictures Of Dead People

10. The Crimson Church

11. Realm Of The Red One

Rating: 9.5/10

Running Time: 43:46

Label: Running Wild Records

Release Date: November 21, 2025

Band Members:

Christian Spannbauer - Vocals

Klaus Nahodil - Guitars

Rene Polak - Guitars

Richard Stadler - Bass

Roman Kolesnik - Drums

Additional Album Info:

Recorded By Norbert Leitner And Pater Tenebrarum

Mixed And Mastered By Norbert Leitner

Logo And Artwork By Armin Stocker

Photography By Janusch Unterhuber

Orchestration And Sound Effects By Klaus Nahodil, Rene Polak And Richaed Stadler

All Lyrics By Richard Spannbauer

What we have up for review today Boils and Ghouls is the sophomore effort from Austria’s Pater Tenebrarum titled “Meat Grinder”. Yeah, you know it’ll be good with that title. I like grinding my meat! Errr, I meant I like my Metal to be grindy! I’ll shut up. With the show!

The music on here ticks off two boxes I like to have ticked. It’s very Thrash influenced at times reminding me of early Forbidden and a whole lot of Testament. Thrashtastic guitar riffs, catchy as hell, well played and a nice bass presence along with an upfront drum sound. What sets the music apart for this album is that it has a lot of very weird but cool synth parts. These too are very catchy and a pleasure to listen to. Also, the vocals are mostly in a Death Metal style which ticks box two for me. Thrash And Death Metal are my two favorite musical genres, and these boys know how to blend the two well. The lyrics touch upon such themes as hate, murder and death. You know, happy stuff! The production is great and everything comes through clean and clear without sounding muddy at all.

The cover art is awesome and shows humans with the skulls cut off pulling what I can only describe as a wagon of Evil. There’s a ghost so scared he’s getting the fuck out of there! Lol. It’s all done in dark colors and hues and is a pleasure to look at as the CD plays. I got the digifile CD to review. If you don’t know what those are, and I didn’t until Running Wild Records sent me some, they are CD’s packaged in a papery cardboard cover that sometimes has the CD booklet in it. They’re pretty cool and I’m sure save on shipping. Fucking shipping prices these days… FUCK! Why? Anyway, this digifile had the CD booklet as well as band photos, all lyrics and more artwork.

I sure am glad I became friends with Running Wild Productions owner Rainer Wild. That guy has not only shown me a huge chuck of the great Austrian Metal scene, but he has proven that he cares about the bands on his label on the very highest level. He’s passionate about this music and his bands and any band on Running Wild Productions can feel secure that they will get the best promotion possible. Do yourself a favor and pick “Meat Grinder” up and give it a listen. It put a smile on my face!

As always, I like to ask my readers to please support the bands, labels and artists by purchasing the physical copies of the albums you love or by visiting their Bandcamp pages and supporting them there.

Pater Tenebrarum's Facebook Page.

Pater Tenebrarum's Bandcamp Page.

Running Wild Productions Bandcamp Page.

Review Of Immolation's New Album "Descent".

 

Band Name: Immolation

Album Title: Decent

Tracklist:

1. These Vengeful Winds

2. The Ephemeral Curse

3. God’s Last Breath

4. Adversary

5. Attrition

6. Bend Towards The Dark

7. Host

8. False Ascent

9. Banished

10. Descent

Rating:

Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Run Time: 41:35

Version Reviewed: Jewel Case CD

Band Members:

Steve Shalaty - Drums

Alex Bouks - Guitar

Robert Vigna - Guitar

Ross Dolan - Bass, Vocals

Additional Musician: Danny Lilker - Guest Vocals On “Host” And “Descent”

Additional Album Credits:

Mix And Mastering By Zach Ohren

Drums Recorded By Nolan C. Buchanan

Guitars, Bass And Vocals Recorded And Engineered By Justin Passamonte

Artwork By Eliran Kantor

Interior Artwork By Santiago Francisco Jaramillo

Layout By Rob Kimura

Yonkers, New York’s Death Metal heroes Immolation is a weird band for me. I only own two of their albums and I don’t know why. I love the first two albums that I own, but for some reason, some inexplicable reason I never got any other albums until now. I’ve seen them live a few times too. Weird. Anyway, I decided to pick up their news (and thirteenth!) album called “Descent” without ever listening to it first, like the old days! I sure am happy I did!

The music here is 100% Old School U.S. styled Death Metal. It maybe has a bit more polish because they’ve grown as musicians and there’s new production and recording techniques, but this would sound at home at any Death Fest in the early 90’s. Dissonant and heavy guitars, excellent drumming, a bass that pounds through the mix like it should. Power chords, speed riffing… it’s all there and it’s done better than most other bands that are still going from that early bygone era. I really love that slow, prodding pace interrupted by brief moments of speed. It makes me want to slam dance in my office. The vocals are perfectly brutal and the lyrics touch upon uplifting themes like hatred, anti-religion and darkness. As hinted at earlier, the production is superb and retains a classic Death Metal sound while keeping with modern times in that it it’s not muddy, raw or low-fi sounding. 

The cover art is unique and well done looking like a hand painted scene of a female being burned away as she descends into a fiery hellscape. That’s my interpretation anyway. Inside of the foldout poster-style booklet you will find other excellent pieces of art, the album lyrics. The CD tray insert also has additional cool artwork. It also has all of the album and band information.

I need to fix it so that I have all of Immolation’s albums. “Descent” is an absolute gem of an old school Death Metal album that will have old and new fans alive nodding their heads in time with it’s catchy riffs and beats. So far, this is the album of the year for me. 

As always, I ask my readers to support the bands, labels and artists by purchasing the physical copies of the albums they love or by supporting them by visiting their Bandcamp page.

Immolation's Bandcamp Page.

Immolation's Facebook Page.

Immolation's Official Website.

Nuclear Blast's Bandcamp Page.

Napalm Record's Facebook Page.

Nuclear Blast's Website.

Moonspell "Far From God" Review.

 Band Name: Moonspell

Album Title: Far From God

Tracklist:

1. Cross Your Heart

2. Far From God

3. Biblical

4. The Great Wolf In The Sky

5. Your Promise Of Light

6. For The Love Of Mortals

7. Our Freedom To Fall

8. Reconquista

Label: Napalm Records

Version Reviewed: Jewel Case CD

Run Time:

Rating: 6/10

Band Members:

Fernando Ribeiro - Vocals

Pedro Paixao -Keyboards

Ricardo Amarim - Guitars

Aired Pereira - Bass

Hugo Ribeiro - Drums

Additional Album Credits:

Lyrics By Fernando Ribeiro

All Music By Pedro Paixao And Ricardo Amarim

Produced, Mixed And Mastered By Jaime Gomez Arellano

Pre-Produced By Jaime Gomez Arellano And Moonspell

Strings On The Great Wolf In The Sky By Alicia Nurho

Album Cover Art Painted By Eliran Kantor

Album Design By Joao Diogo

Band Pictures By Chantix Photography

Executive Producer: Fernando Ribeiro

My love for the Portuguese band Moonspell goes all the way back to the release of their debut full length album “Wolfheart”. That album to this day still sits in the top 10 of my favorite albums of all-time
list. It was dark, gothic and was firmly rooted in Black Metal to boot. I also loved their first 7” and the “Under The Moonspell” EP as well. Their sophomore album “Irreligious” saw the band tone down a bit, but it had a lot of great tracks on it despite being far weaker than “Wolfheart” was. After that I kind of stopped caring about them and I only ever really liked one of their later albums… I forget which one, but it was heavier and more Black Metal than anything they had put out in a while. This is my first review in 9 months due to me being… unavailable. It’s great to be back to reviewing again and I decided to buy Moonspell’s newest album “Far From God” without listening to it first. I do that from time to time, even if it’s a band I stopped following for a while. Does this album capture the greatness of their early albums? Read on to find out…

In a word, No. No it doesn’t. It isn’t a bad album, but it’s just way too Goth Rock and mellow for me. It’s very rooted in 1980’s Goth rock and rarely gets heavy at all. The musicianship is phenomenal and some of it I found catchy, but I want to hear that Vampiric Black Metal again! I love the sound of a good bass presence music, and this has it in spades, and they keyboards are great as well, but it’s just way too laid back and mellow for my tastes. Fernando’s vocals back in the day sounded like if Bela Lugosi sang Black Metal and in my opinion the vocals Fernando did on “Wolfheart” are far better than anything Peter Steele did with Type O Negative. On “Far From God”, that style surfaces here and there and is mostly in a clean style. The lyrics are well written and focus on death, vampirism, love and all things melancholy. The production is top notch, though it is a bit too polished sounding to me.  

The cover art is nice and shows two people… uhh… maybe two men… I can’t tell and don’t care but I can’t tell if the one in the house is a man or woman. Either way they are kissing through an open window and it’s done in an old style with dark and shadowy nuances. Inside the 24-page booklet you will find all of the lyrics, band photos, band and album information and more.

I hope Moonspell sees fit to throw older fans of the band a Black Metal album again soon. “Far From Good” is simply an okay album but there’s nothing on it that excites me and gets my blood moving. And isn’t that the whole purpose of vampire themed music.

As always, I ask my readers to please support the bands, labels and artists by buying the physical copies of their albums or by going to their Bandcamp pages and supporting them there.

Moonspell's FB Page.

Moonspell's Bandcamp Page.

Napal Records Bandcamp Page.

Napalm Records Facebook Page.

Blasted By Britton FB Page.