The third unleashing of the UnderEarthed series comes to us as a double CD pack (heaps of entries meant expanded lineup and double CD) representing quite a few genres of extreme metal from Australia. Exhumed by our favorite Aussie metal hosts of Monday nights 2RRR shows ‘The Dead End’, ‘Smacked About Mark’ and ‘Metal never Sleeps’, the compilation displays some of the best of what Australia has on offer (most of which is unsigned). It showcases the east vs. west, and to tell you the truth, there’s no clear winner. The purpose of any compilation CD is infact a much needed exposure and I will not take too long reviewing each song in great detail, rather I will give a short insight in some of the bands featured here that I personally enjoyed and the overall feel of this multimedia compilation.
The CD features 32 bands many of which are buried bellow the Aussie dried out ground trying to break through the void of endless un recognition by the European and other world markets, but also there are a few names which I think can be categorized as the bigger emerging names of Aussie metal as well. Take for instance the Melodic Death metallers, PATHOGEN (track featured is ‘Fallen Kind’) who less than six months ago released a killer debut album called ‘Bloodline’ and scored some amazing tours across the nation with none other than Finland’s Children of Bodom and will undoubtedly continue on doing so. TRANSCENDING MORTALITY is another new comer worthy of immediate praise. Their track featured is of course their best release of their short career I felt, titled ‘Into the Light’, coming of a demo release by the same title. The popularity comes as no surprise as they always put on fantastic shows Live and raise the bar each time they come on stage. Their great progressive melodies will have them branded among the elite in no time, and they are yet to do a full length which is amazing!
ALARUM (track featured being ‘Velocity’) are one of the biggest names of this compilation and that comes as no surprise. Their deserved recognition coming at the previous ‘Metal For The Brain’ festival where their guitarist took out some serious honors beating some of the finest in the process. The list goes on with the talent featured on this killer compilation. Among the name worthy are CELESTIAL (Melodic Death Metal), DISSENSION (Black Metal), BATTALION (War Metal) and RAVEN BLACK NIGHT (Epic Doom) and tracks available on this compilation being ‘Warpath’, ‘In the arms of Putrefaction’, ‘Dead Man Ridge’ and ‘My Love is Holy’ respectively who very easily hold the weight of this insane and monstrous release and keep it quite diverse.
There’s of course your less familiar bands such as POSTCODE 2770 (whose track featured being ‘Slice’) who play a combination of speed metal, death/grind and black interlaced with various other styles of music. Gothic metallers LEICOHTICA, featured track being ‘Dark Autumn Rain’, a new comer band consisting of half a dozen members that put out a solid EP release ‘In Torments Garden’, a powerful independent release as it was dubbed by a local media source. Lets not forget the thrash side of the compilation, featuring the likes of BLACK REIGN and their track ‘New Age Generation’, the Bastard metallers AETURNUS DOMINION (track featured ‘God Has Failed’) who can play with furiousity and aggression and of course the mighty Progressive Death metallers DEMONIKUS (with ‘By My Hand You Will Bleed’). The track holds some black vocal patterns as well as some fast thrashy riffage as well...
Apart from lots of amazing Aussie talent, on the first CD you will find the bonus material in form of HTML, in other words, a very interesting multimedia section with detailed biography together with album artworks of each band featured on these 2 discs as well as links to their respective web pages and contact details for a more updated information. If that wasn’t enough there’s also Underearthed screensavers, Metal Art, Underearthed team bio and information on the previous releases of Underearthed to keep you informed and entertained. There’s no question that these people put on a great compilation album and most metalheads will be pleased as there’s a fair bit of sub genres represented and that’s all that matters in the end as it will give the listener an insight into the Australian underground.
Personal pleasant surprises and picks: PRAETORIAN (Doom/Death Metal), ARCHAEA (Melodic Thrash/Death), DEMONIKUS, KERB STOMP, WITCHKRIEG, ZERO DEGREES FREEDOM. Disappointments: EBOLIE.
As you probably gathered, these compilation volumes will continue to annihilate the masses, with fourth release due very soon, as we’ve already received the heads up on the bands: Aeturnus Dominion, Anno Domini, Backyard Mortuary, Beyond Terror Beyond Grace, Bleed the Tryant, Bludgeoner, Chapel, Dark Sorcerer, Digital Fiction, Excarnated, Feral Fox of Notre Dame, Head Hammer, Inward Escape, Malignant Monster, Meat Wallet, MSI, Murder Hill, Murderworld, Neverborn, Project Vorn, Punisher, Rather Be Dead, Reign of Terror, Silenced, Stone Wings, Synthetic Breed, The Loving Tongue, Tzun Tzu, Veil of Anguish. More information: http://underearthed.cjb.net/
This or any of previous releases are certainly well worth the money if nothing but sheer volume, so please do get your claws on it if you can.
Disc 1:
01. ARCHAEA - Poisoned Vision
02. BATTALION - Dead Mans Ridge
03. AETURNUS DOMINION - God Has Failed
04. PRAETORIAN - Wide Eyed Death
05. CHAPEL - Born In The Blood Of Kings
06. HEAD HAMMER - Retaliation Upon Salvation
07. FORLORN SUFFERING - In Blackened Flames...Eternity
08. IMMINENT PSYCHOSIS - Bootbash
09. EBOLIE - Blood Tapped Skull
10. CELESTIAL - Warpath
11. LEICHOHTICA - Dark Autumn Rain
12. ALARUM - Velocity
13. DISSENSION - In The Arms Of Putrefaction
14. VITRIOLIC - My Gift Of Disaster
15. DOOMED AND DISGUSTING - Funeral Director
16. DEMONIKUS - By My Hand You Will Bleed
Disc 2:
01. EXCARNATED - Molesting The Faith
02. KERBSTOMP – Snuff
03. ONE STEP BEYOND - True Faces
04. TRANSCENDING MORTALITY - Into The Light
05. THE FUROR - Thrive On War
06. PATHOGEN - Fallen Kino
07. VEIL OF ANGUISH - Snake Eyes In Paradise
08. POSTCODE 2770 - Slice
09. ZERO DEGREES FREEDOM - Last Leaves of Autumn
10. BLACK REIGN - New Age Generation
11. MALICE - Masters Of The Southern Storm
12. PSYCHONAUT - Darklord
13. WITCHKRIEG - Fallen Angel
14. HEAD KNUCKLE EXCPRESS - She'll Be Right Mate
15. VANEGARD - The Hollow Winds Of Eternity
16. RAVEN BLACK NIGHT - My Love Is Holy
Congratulations to Michael P. from N.S.W. for scoring a copy of this magnificent release by winning the HailMetal.Com draw competition. We will dispatch your copy ASAP. Thanks to UnderEarthed for making it possible.
