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...through me the way into the suffering city,
through me the way to the eternal pain,
through me the way among the lost people
abandon all hope, you who enter...
Inferno - Canto Three, Dante
Like a mysterious Charon preparing to ferry the souls of the damned into the eternal inferno; this is what the cover image reminds me of, with that priest wrapped in a sinuous cloak. While every other element of the cold scene recalls and highlights death: winged monsters, skeletal trees, tombs and gravestones, a Gothic Church. Distant mountains of an autumnal landscape.
I had promised it; and the time has come to talk about this collection, released in 1994 once again by the German label "Nuclear Blast" which this time decided to double the format and the groups involved in this authentic anthology. Two CDs enclosed in a sumptuous package for a total of over two and a half hours of Death Metal (but not only); with an internal booklet briefly narrating the genesis and discography of the 36 bands involved in this sonic monument.
An almost track-by-track review of at least the first disc would be needed, given the enormous importance of many of the bands that defined a sound in those years and contributed to spreading it worldwide. I will only limit myself to mentioning the most devastating bands.
It's up to the brief "The Grotesque" by Benediction to malignly kick things off: a cynical example of how imposing their classic Death Metal was, played without any technicality but with an evident desire to "tear apart." In my opinion, one of the absolute peaks of their production.
The Finnish Amorphis, champions of Gothic-Doom; the American Brutality with their ferocious, atypical, and entirely personal sound; the Swedish Hypocrisy with a slow and oppressive track; the Dutch Gorefest who abandoned the rawness of their beginnings in favor of a rough Hard-Death'n'Roll; yet again cold Sweden, home of Meshuggah and their intricate Thrash-Death; the Austrian Pungent Stench who stand out as always for a musical approach that incorporates sadism and masochism (live in those years they were really a "sight to see").
A real world tour that overwhelms with so much violence and physicality; but it is not over yet.
Sinister, Incantation, Dissection, Incubus finally close the first disc; one is left breathless, a minimum rest is necessary especially for the bleeding ear lobes before starting again with the second disc.
And things become, if possible, even cruder and more violent; but I will stop here to leave the surprise of listening to those who might be interested.
Other collections will follow in the same series; but none will even remotely approach this fatal feast.
Written on a cold afternoon, with only the company of the snow that has finally made its long-awaited appearance...THE ABYSS...
...Abandon all hope, you who enter...(ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha).
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