Burnt Offering – Burnt Offering

Way back in 1990, I was an exchange student from rural England to Mid West America. It was a 3 week trip- preempting my eventual year long trip and eventual long term dominance of Middle America.  And though I was deep into metal in 1990, my only ability to find metal was issues of Kerranggg and Metal Hammer or stumble across records and cassettes  in record shops. One such random stop on my first trip to America revealed the debut album from Chicago’s Burnt Offering on (a white) cassette. The Alien/Giger -ish cover and the raw, sheer American -ness of the death metal meets thrash blew me away and I cherished that cassette as I imagine I might have been one of the only people in the UK to own this album at the time. Until I fucking left it on one of my subsequent USA/England flights. Though occasionally available on LP on ebay and Amazon for a steep price, and other than a equally hard to find 1997 compilation, a true  CD version never was released by Walkthrufyre Records, and that needs to change. It doesn’t need to be mastered or rerecorded, just re-fucking released so I can own it again and listen to “Kick Your Dirt” again in all its glory.

Dead Blue Sky – Symptoms of an Unwanted Emotion

Before Bleeding Through, Still Remains and Underoath made it big by adding melodic death metal, black metal and keyboards to metalcore and emo, there was Cincinnati’s Dead Blue Sky and their lone 2001 album.  Maybe because they were from Ohio, or maybe because metal heads weren’t quite ready for synths and screamo in their metal, Dead Blue Sky never really got the level of recognition their peers did only a year or so later and disappeared into obscurity with one overlooked album under their belt. If they had released it a year and half later, I think it would be a classic. And now the whole keyboards and ‘core is pretty standard, a whole slew of angry, trendy, spotty teenage kids needs to hear this and hear how honest and raw it was. Granted,the release needs a makeover, especially in the drums and overall mastering, as well as a new cover, but if this was re-issued today, meat head fans of Winds of Plague could hear what keyboards could really bring to core based music.

Depresy – Sighting

There are only a few  things Teufel from Teufel’s Tomb has been good for over my decade plus relationship with him; recommending me Lykathea Aflame‘s Elvenefris (more on that in a bit) and Depresy‘s Sighting. Oh, and bukakke jokes. Released in 1999 on Shindy Productions , Slovakia’s Depresy played melodic death metal, but not just simple Maiden licks over bouncy Swedish death metal- an epic but melancholic, classically inspired sense of prose. Deep growls, atmospheric keyboards and sense of regal gloom just didn’t connect with the then exploding Swedish melo-death scene. This needs to be packaged up with the equally excellent preceding A Grand Magnificence EP and show that even back in 1999, Slovakia were on par with their revered Swedish peers.

Fall of Efrafa – Owsla/Elil/Inle

The most recent band and releases on this list, this trilogy of releases just needs to be heard by more people outside of the UK. Now defunct and with members in the equally awesome Light Bearer, the ‘Warren of Snares’ trilogy was based on the deeply atheist and political writings of Richard Adams. And while subsequent animated movie  Watership Down was required reading when I was a wee laddie in England it never seemed to take in the US and much like Fall of Efrafa, was overlooked stateside. Certainly the band started to get more recognition with their third and final effort, Inle, as more intellectual hardcore music was burgeoning, but the first crustier album needs to be heard and I’m just picturing a gorgeous, hard bound, 3 disc booklet with all the glorious artwork laced with gold embossed lettering and full lyrics and linear notes from the deeply intellectual band members. Can’t you see it now?  Someone make this happen.

In the Woods – HEart of the Ages

True story- back in 1995 when this came out, it was a random purchase for me from a obscure UK distro (the kind where you ordered from a magazine ad) on one of my summer trips home. It’s was my prized possession upon returning to the states. I mean you talk about a real game changer in the black metal scene at the time as it, Fleurety‘s debut and Borknagar‘s debut truly defined ‘progressive’ at the time, and owning this as a college kid in central Missouri was pretty rare. However, one day I found the CD snapped in half in my then girl friend (now wife)’s car. She insisted she simply was putting the car seat forward and ran over the CD. This lie was perpetuated for almost 15 years, until only a couple of years ago she admitted she broke it in a fit of rage after a fight. Oh the humanity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s a good thing I grabbed another copy back in 1995, cos finding the original Misanthropy Records pressing is a bit pricey. And despite a couple or reissues, one as recent as 2003(Candlelight Records), this gem of a mind boggling record needs a real remaster and re-issue, especially since the band changed style significantly after this releases and has since folded and could provide maple note and insight into this unique band and ground breaking release. Plus, that big ‘E’ in the album title has bugged me for over a decade, and what better way to get to the bottom of it than a re-issue with extensive linear notes?