Hazael - Thor (Loud Out Records, 1994)

Don't judge a book by it's cover, never! Best example might be this right here. The cover looks like a shitty.. fantasy metal or something, made available online only because the band couldn't find a record deal. This however, is great and grim death metal from one of Poland's finest, sadly also most overlooked metal bands, Hazael. Sure, they didn't reinvent the wheel with Thor and also came two or three years too late, hence the break-up in 1996, but this debut is entertaining, fresh and memorable. They even got a bit of a Swedish touch and got that awesome buzzsaw guitars that made bands like Entombed and Dismember famous.

The original cd was released on the small Polish Loud Out label, only limited to 500 copies. Same goes for Ghost, another forgotten Polish death metal band. I am searching that one as well, but it's a real fucker to come by for a reasonable price. At least I got this treasure here.