Obedience - Marduk

Advantages: Good singing and guitar riffs
Disadvantages: Pretty standard fare

...Of course, you may be able to guess that the (rather kinky) album title here should be Obedience thru Suffering. Whatever, it’s a pretty damn good album, although pretty much standard Crowbar stuff. Crowbar are, without a doubt, one of the world’s heaviest bands, and this displays that perfectly. He songs are slow, and filled with well written, heavily distorted riffs which, though they move slowly, have enormous power. Much like a steamroller really. The lyrics are pretty standard fare for Crowbar, dealing with depression and isolation in a fairly poetic way. But despite the skill with which the lyrics are written, I can’t help but think that we’ve been here before with this band. The singing, however, is excellent, much more melodic than the later albums but still with the kind of tortured, slightly... Read review

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Advantages: Really early glimpse into Crowbar, with some good bonus tracks.
Disadvantages: Might be a little fuzzy for some.

...Background: Crowbar are a sludge / "doom-core" band based in New Orleans. Formed in 1989 and influenced by bands such as Melvin and Carnivore, crowbar pretty much define what many people think of as heavy. Unfortunately, Crowbar tend to be overlooked as one of the metal greats, but after listening to any of Kirk's riffs and you'll realise that they are the kings of old school heavy - slow, grinding and with that style that grabs your neck and yanks it about. If you haven't heard of them before, id say they are like a down tuned Pantera.... This album is real value for money - you get some great old school crowbar songs with bonus material, and videos! I really love this album - the really old tracks from "Obedience thru suffering" are really groundbreaking for the time - "Vacuum" has one of the most interesting uses of a delay... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: creepy at times
Disadvantages: too long, not enough actual music

...Those are Euronymous' famous words to describe Abruptum, the two man torture squad from Sweden. This is their debut album, released on Euronymous' label Deathlike Silence Productions. Abruptum featured It(Ophthalamia, Vondur) and Evil(Morgan from Marduk.) Together these created some of the scariest and evil sounds that you will likely ever hear. This is their debut album, and it consists of two very long songs(about 25 minutes each) that are full of moans, loud screams, strange noises and some actual music. The music is usually slow, doomy guitars accompanied by plodding drums, with the occasional keyboard creeping in. I believe It does vocals, although that is debatable, as both It and Evil switched up their roles in the band all the time. Evil is credited as playing guitar, piano, bass, voices and It is credited with vocals, violin... Read review

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