7 Forgotten Euro-Thrash Bands You Need to Know revolvermag.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from revolvermag.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Kez Whelan
, January 20th, 2021 09:23
Don t worry about the metal whoppers taking part in the recent attempted coup, says Kez Whelan, there are a lot more relevant statements being made out there.
Asphyx
Any hopes 2021 would see a return to relative normality have been dashed in record time as Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer made headlines for the first time in, ooh, well over a decade this week, after being snapped amongst the armed, riotous mob of MAGA terrorists that stormed the US capitol.
It’s depressing, but hardly surprising; Schaffer has always been a reactionary right-wing idiot, as anyone who’s had the misfortune of sitting through his unbearably maudlin 9/11-themed ballad, When The Eagle Cries will attest.
As old school and gnarly as it gets,
ASPHYX have been flying the flag for making death metal properly for more than 30 years. Okay, so the current lineup is almost entirely different from the one that released The Rack (an immortal classic, fact fans!) in 1991, but current guitarist
Paul Baayens has already proved himself to be more than equal to the task of conjuring riffs in the Dutch band s grand, grotesque tradition. Even more so than on 2016 s Incoming Death ,
ASPHYX sound newly enthused and more lost in their own warped world of multi-tempo viscera than ever.
Sounding even more raw and barbaric than they did on 2009 s flawless comeback opus
The history of death metal could never be told without the inclusion of Martin van Drunen s iconic vocals. The Dutch musician came up as a member of Pestilence, adding his distinct tortured death growls to the band s classic first two albums
Malleus Maleficarum (1988) and
Consuming Impulse (1989). From there, Van Drunen joined the great Asphyx, performing on the band s massive 1991 debut
The Rack and 1992 s masterful follow-up
Last One on Earth. Van Drunen left the band soon after and proceeded to do stints in Bolt Thrower, Grand Supreme Blood Court and Hail of Bullets, among others. He rejoined Asphyx in 2007 where he s been holding down the frontman position ever since.