NATRON - HUNG, DRAWN & QUARTERED - HEADFUCKER
Headfucker zine's foray into the world of CDs comes in the form of Italy's Natron whose album will be available both separately and as an insert with a limited number of the zine's next issue. Italy has always managed to produce many weak bands; maintaining a forte instead in videos of voluptuous girls running on the beach surrounded by men with motor-oiled hair. Yet Natron is a direct blow to that image. Very well produced and professionally played, the Italian trio, with a mystery singer, plays a technical brand of death metal rarely out of touch with its brutal creation. A cross between the adrenalin of Cannibal Corpse, the power of Dying Fetus and the technicality of Wicked Innocence is a good way to describe this band. Knowing that all these bands are the zine editors' favourites it is not a surprise that Natron is the label's kick off release. Natron is 666 times more evil than Cradle Of Filth, 777 heavier than Therion, Sentenced et al and 13 times more talented than Pantera and the ilk. This is Italy's number one death metal unit. - Ali "The Metallian"