Review by Felix on October 3, 2023.

The albums of Toxic Holocaust are like a one night stand. They make fun and it's a good experience, but they do not have a long lasting effect and they fail to enrich your life on the long run. "Chemistry of Consciousness" does not mark an exception. It delivers incendary riffs in abundance, it is more metal punk than other bands like Warfare ever were and friends of complexity or compromises will not find a single track to enjoy. Toxic Holocaust do not play simple songs. To express it this way would be a euphemism. The pieces are totally primitive. "Rat Eater", equipped with the "excessive" duration of 3:43 minutes, has a kind of mid-paced intro, but the remaining songs put the emphasis on speed. Radioactive radiation in musical form - that's what one gets when listening to this document of iron-fisted fury. It's a kind of metal orgasm and here we've come full circle. Sad but true, we all know that orgasms usually do not last very long - regardless of the question whether or not it is a one night stand.

As a logical consequence, the album clocks in at 28 minutes and this duration does not leave much room for experiments. Even little deviations are not in sight. Each and every track is reduced to the essentials. The songs run down the road of thermonuclear devastation. Joel Grind, true to his pseudonym, grinds everything that stands in his way. The man with the doglike haircut worships his own song formula and the album does not indicate that he will ever modify it. Therefore, everybody knows what sound Toxic Holocaust stand for and indeed, you get exactly what you expect. The listener will not find any depth or any form of interwoven structure here, but the tracks deliver eleven slaps in the face.

The crunchy guitars dominate the sound of this adequately produced work. No doubt, the full-length does not lack pressure and force. It does not spread the aura of the underground, but it is not at risk to be blamed for sterility as well and one thing is for sure: the impact of the compositions is bolstered by this aggressive mix. Sometimes I wish that the songs would have a little bit more substance. A surprising break would also be nice every now and then, but I also like the radical philosophy of the band and therefore I enjoy the album. Especially highlights such as "Out of the Fire" with its fantastic opening riff, the flattening "Rat Eater" or the hyperfast "Salvation Is Waiting" with its restlessly flickering guitars deliver an appropriate portion of insanity. Anyway, there are no great quality differences between the single songs and the album is simply too short to think about pressing the skip button.

Needless to say that this record is highly recommended for fans of Genesis, Queen, Rush or Sieges Even.

Rating: 7.4 out of 10

Review by Nathan on April 11, 2021.

Usually, when I gloss over the promotional descriptions that accompany links to the new music I check out, I expect things to be a little bit overblown and treat everything I read with a slight grain of salt going in, since the person who wrote it will likely benefit from the album making money. Never do I expect a promo blurb to undersell something, but shit, here we are.

The title of the email that was sent to me read "for fans of: Ulcerate, Krallice, Alice in Chains, Kvelertak, and Paradise Lost" which immediately just kinda made me think...what? Talk about a bunch of artists I never would have put in the same category. The text mentioned boundless expression of emotion, escaping the limits of their previous progressive black metal project to transcend and defy genre, mixing rock with dissonant death metal. It was a valiant and worthy effort to try and encapsulate whatever Conquistador is, but all that poetic waxing still didn't properly articulate how it is like absolutely nothing I have ever heard before.

It's not even like it's just the occasional moment that makes you go "huh, that was kinda different" - every single acoustic build, every climax, every single twist and turn is dotted with idiosyncratic Stone Healer-isms that perhaps have traces of the bands mentioned above as influences, but they're integrated together in ways I didn't think any musician could even fathom, much less make sound remotely appealing. I don't usually delve into a track-by-track, as it's generally a crutch relied upon by novice reviewers, but I'll give a rundown of a few tracks just so you can properly take in the sheer uniqueness of the twists and turns this takes.

'One Whisper': a delicate acoustic melody with a flicker of dissonance in it gives way to a cascade of cowbell-driven rock with whimsical, almost cocky guitar leads that happily power along, until the song suddenly erupts into a storm of furious, Ulcerate-esque atonal death metal with a slight underlying melody...but the clean singing doesn't stop, even over the incredibly dissonant guitarwork. The song eventually twists into a moment of somber reflection before exploding into a final burst of energy, combining the dissonance with the driving rock energy, with a strained, melodious yell punctuating the climax.

'Until My Will Is Gone': At first, it feels like it's going to be the somber, delicate ballad that you're craving at that point, and it satiates that urge just long enough until eventually it bubbles over into a flowing yet jarringly dissonant Krallice-esque moment, building in energy until eventually the song eases back and shifts into a proggy chorus that gives feeling of later Enslaved with its subtly anthemic chorus and riffs that emphasize the off-beat a lot. It feels like the natural conclusion is to relax even more, but Stone Healer keep the momentum going for even longer by throwing in some of their most complicated and powerful riffing yet, backed by a gritty low end to supplement the high-end dissonant overload. You’re expecting a ballad, but you end up getting the riffiest song on the album.

It concludes with the break you've been waiting for in the form of a layered, folky passage with perhaps a tad of Agalloch influence, before breaking into a final surge that is akin to a more melodious version of the new Suffering Hour album. I know it probably feels like I'm name dropping random bands Ad Nauseam (I hear a bit of them in here too!) but it's all in there, I swear, and it's just a testament to how seamlessly the Kaminsky brothers are able to blend a myriad of influences.

'Into The Spoke Of Night': Overall, this leans a bit more to the extreme side with its dextrous guitarwork and more consistent use of harsh vocals, but it's also the most steady and integrated. There's still valleys and dips with occasional times where it leans more on the side of consonance, but overall this just keeps coming at you from different angles for several minutes before settling into a mid paced alt-rock type section. Then, that turns into blast beats and tremolo, all underlined and driven by the drum performance of Matt Kaminsky. It's easy to give most of the credit to Dave considering he plays more instruments, but Conquistador wouldn't be what it is without Matt's subtle intricacy and flowing, breathing performance that always elevates the riffs. On this song in particular, they turn the winding stream of guitars into a powerful barrage. It's hard to describe what makes his performance so spectacular in words, so thankfully the band uploaded a YouTube video of a rough playthrough of this song that captures his talents better than my words ever could, so just watch that. Fuck, I would pay an uncomfortable amount of money to sit in a room with these guys and watch them jam for an hour.

I didn't even get to the weird, emotional catchiness of 'Surrender' or the bassy groove mixed with obtuse, jagged guitarwork in 'Torrent Of Flame'. I am not kidding when I say every single track on this is going to blow your mind in one way or another. If you can name a subgenre of rock or metal, chances are there's something sprinkled in Conquistador that will remind you of it. Unlike most albums in this genre-blending style, though, it retains enough structure and hookiness in its songwriting to give you something to draw you back in repeatedly and doesn't ever use complexity at the expense of memorability - it feels like Dave Kaminsky lets his fingers go wherever his heart guides them and maps out the direction by repeating and returning to motifs. Combined with the drumming that follows the riffs like they came out of the same brain, it's an album that I promise will defy your expectations even after all the hype I've given to it so far. Conquistador is simply spectacular and one of the best pieces of music you'll hear all year.

Rating: 9.1 out of 10

Review by Kostas on September 9, 2023.

It is a fact. After 32 years, countless releases and live shows, Rotting Christ release their thirteenth full-lenghth album, The Heretics. A continuation to the obscure Rituals and admittedly a record I wasn't sure what to expect from. Many people bear mixed feelings about this band. Old school fans are disappointed, others are excited for the new music and so on. I'll try to be objective and write a review about the music only.

It is obvious from the very start that there are going to be many symphonic elements in this album. The gregorian chants and multiple vocal styles help build an awesome atmosphere which is present throughout the record. It is not exactly dark. I'd say rather sinister. A mix of awe and glory, definitely the outcome of the aforementioned vocal influences combined with the classic Rotting Christ riffs. These riffs are dynamic, clever and catchy. And they actually work as the power plant of The Heretics, providing the rest of the music with energy and aggression and evolving all the musical compositions to the next level. It is really a pity that drumming and most bass lines are once again rather boring, preventing one more record from standing out as a gem.

Although no gem, The Heretics is still a very good album. We could say it is a combination of everything good about Rotting Christ. There are the great old guitar rifts, the incredible solos, Sakis' extreme vocals... and of course numerous legendary quotes from the big heretics of the past. Well, to be honest, I think they overdid it with the quotes in this one. There is just too much talking in The Heretics. But anyway, there is nothing new, really. Besides some female vocals in 'Ветры злые', everything else is something you have heard in a past release by the band. From the gothic melodies of 'Sleep Of The Angels' to the battle hymns of 'Aealo', I could spot elements from every single album of Rotting Christ. Do you really want to know what this record sounds like? Imagine all these past styles, combined with some rather uninspired simplistic lyrics and many chants. This is what The Heretics sounds llike.

I know, that's not bad for many metalheads out there. I actually caught myself enjoying most of the tracks as well. This is catchy, quality music for sure, at least to an extent. However, I'd love to hear more and I know this band can achieve more than recycling themselves over and over. Adding some symphonies is unfortunately not enough to create a new album. In the end, I'm glad this album is well-written and I'm pretty sure many people who don't know the band will find it very enjoyable. But I also know it could be much more than just enjoyable.

Rating: 7.7 out of 10