Archive for November 2016

IMPLΛNT, more commonly known I’m sure as the full project name Infected Manipulation Parasite Last Λbstract Noise Terror is a fairly prolific speedcore artist. Most of his (?) stuff has been released through the Bulgarian netlabel Глисти, but some releases (like this one) have been put out by Legs Akimbo Records, amongst others. Forgive me if I’m a little off here, as I’m still kinda finding my way with this type of stuff, but I…

Blacklands is the second album from female-fronted occult metallers, Castle (who have, quite possibly, one of the simplest yet coolest band names ever). Blacklands is more towards the rockier side of doom, rather than falling off the edge into the void of sludge. The cover art here is very striking, and I find myself drawn to it. Despite its quasi-surrealism, it is fairly simplistic, however every time I study it, I pick out little extra…

The Amazing Jeckel Brothers is easily the weakest of the original set of joker’s cards. In fact, I really don’t have that much to say about this album at all. It has a few stand out tracks, but for the most part it is just irritating filler and a bunch of shit that just goes on way, waaayyy too long (“I Want My Shit” being a prime example). There’s a terrible selection of “metal” songs…

Spermanys Most Wanted (surely there should be an apostrophe on Spermany’s?) is the first 7″ EP / demo from now-legendary groovy grindcore band Gut. Technically, Drowning In Female Excrements came first as a hand-made cassette released by the band, but this 1992 EP was the first from the band on a label. Gut are credited with inventing the pornogrind sound, which is in its most primitive and infantile form here. Due to the production on…

Clitorape are a groovy goregrind band from France. Gynaecological Apocalypse is the group’s very sexy debut release, boasting a super-downtuned sound and dual-headed pitchshifted vocal approach, because y’know, one pitchshifter is never enough. Expect styles perfected by Rompeprop, GUT et al plunged to new depths; new lows, new brutality and most importantly, new grooves. Stand out tracks include the smooth jazz and nu-metal tomfoolery of the hilariously-titled “Bubble Butt Blues”, the blast happy “Natural Porn…

(words by dance, Gareth, dance!) I decided to say a few words on this album after seeing the band perform live a week or so ago, where I was actually lucky enough to see all 3 versions that have been of the band perform since all current and ex-vocalists were present as part of the band’s 10 year anniversary tour. So, here we have Mothership, the latest release from the Tilian Pearson era of the…

Hymns was the final album by Godflesh before they originally broke up in 2002. It seems to apply the no-nonsense aesthetic from records such as Pure and Slavestate to the band’s later, more “nu metal” kinda sound as found on Songs Of Love And Hate and even parts of Us & Them. What’s also quite nice to note is that Ted Parsons, who drummed for Swans on a fair number of their seminal recordings, is…

Big Grams is an extremely refreshing mash up of synth-drenched electronica pop and hip hop. Initially, I had a reaction of “holy shit, this sounds like Lorde collaborating with Run The Jewels!”, and rather ironically, considering how ridiculous that comparison is, Run The Jewels pop up on track six here. Anyway, Big Grams is actually New York dream pop duo Phantogram but fronted by Outkast nutter Big Boi. And, not to mince words, its fucking…

This has to be one of my favourite releases ever, and the best thing is that it is completely out of the ballpark in regards to the music I usually find myself listening to. Despite my best efforts to listen to everything, and as much as I love dub reggae, it isn’t something I find myself listening to all that often, anymore at least. This insanely legendary collaboration between a few greats of the genre;…

This is the brand new album from a recharged Sum 41 and the first with guitarist Dave Baksh back in the group. My initial impression upon listening was “Oh it’s darker, keep this theme going please and we may have a good record here,” and I wasn’t too far off with such a request; its a lot darker, especially to those that may only know Sum 41 for “In Too Deep” or “Fat Lip”, as…

When Blues Pills first came about it was a refreshing, very accessible take on the done-to-death blues rock template. With the resurgence of both stoner and occult rock, Blues Pills offered a simpler route without any of the ridiculous satanic pomp and edgy marijuana references. When Bliss was released in 2012, I fell in love with the band’s dusty, authentic rock and roll music. Blues Pills inevitably got signed to a big label, and it…

(Words by Burra, who recently gave back Wednesday) I really like this album. Overall, it feels so much more alive with energy than any of the more recent releases; maybe with a slight return to their classic sound at times. Although nothing they do will ever be as good as Tell All Your Friends or Where You Want To Be, unfortunately thats just how it is! So anything they do always lives in the shadow…

(2021 edit: there have been some very sketchy accusations that have come out against the guy in this project. Instead of deleting my review because of someone else’s actions, please find the original 2016 piece below unedited. Consider it a historical document, or whatever. To be absolutely clear: LIW unequivocally condemns any acts of sexual abuse, violence or manipulation.) Anal Floss Is Boss is an hilariously-titled goregrind project from Carmarthen of all places (although currently…

Voices is the really, really, reaaalllly long-awaited return of Malaysian grindcore machine, Wormrot. When you think that the last thing we heard from these guys was the Noise EP, that is surely a crime against extreme music in itself. This hiatus has spanned for longer than most grindcore band’s careers, but nevertheless, they are finally back, and most people would probably agree that it has been worth the wait. Voices marks a massive departure from the usual…

Fantastic heavy stoner rock from Italy. Think Samsara Blues Experiment but heading off in a more straight-forward, Kyuss-themed direction, rather than becoming lost in endless songs. The psych here is well controlled and reigned in, but do not fret – there is plenty of “woah!”, “man!,” and “duuuude!” moments here to keep perpetuating the frrrreakah enough to space these bluesy numbers out into the stoner territory. Hey, there’s even a Peter Frampton-style wah part towards…

Lahar is a thrashy, hardcore-tinged band from the Czech Republic (I believe thrashcore is the preferred term) and Umění Strachu is their second album (third if you count the original demo, which has a fair amount of songs on it). It kinda has a skate-punk feel to it, which mixes oddly with soaring melodies and more traditional metal parts to form an unique brew of styles. Considering I saw these guys as Obscene Extreme, this record isn’t…

Everyone knows World Downfall, right? Right!? To be honest, getting onto World Downfall was one of the last things I did in familiarising myself with the history of grind, purely because every other Terrorizer record is so…well….not weak, but just….bland as fuck. World Downfall however, sounds like Morbid Angel on methamphetamine, and this 87′ demo sounds like the same thing but fed through a fucking meat grinder first. Whilst I do appreciate the analogue warmth…

Holy shit this is intense! Whoever imagined the murky worlds of goregrind and “dark hardcore” meeting? This is the closest thing to mixing powerviolence savagery with nasty, nasty goregrind since I heard the excellent UxDxSx a few years ago. I mean, this isn’t to say that Vermin Womb are a goregrind band, but you need to press play on this beast and get your head around those vocals. There is something Lovecraftian about the sheer…

This thing has been in Spotify “to do” list for absolutely fucking aeons, and every time I open it I am reminded why. It is if my brain, in some mad coping mechanism, blacks out all memory of ever hearing this album. Usually the human mind reserves this sort of thing for deeply traumatic events in life, like for instance, a car accident or a horrifying sexual assault. But, Reduced To A Limbless Sex Slave…

I’ve been meaning to write about this since it came out but I’m a useless moron. Even seeing the band live twice in the summer kinda booted me up the arse to get it done, but then I let it slide. Anyways, there’s no time like the present! Cattle Decapitation have come such a long way and it’s both a pleasure and a shame to see them fall into their own entirely unique sound. I…

(I found this review after salvaging a HDD from an old laptop. It was originally written in 2013) Ahh, the simpler things in life…the laptop open browsing the world wide web, a beer next to my right hand (and several more chilling in a washing up bowl full of ice), and my latest Agathocles LP purchase spinning on the platter. I’ve said it before, but you really don’t need to fix what is broken. Agathocles…

(words by Burra; eater of worlds, rustler of Jimmies) Here we have the band’s latest 11 track release: Integrity Blues; a beautiful sounding record from start to finish, and one that definitely shows off the slower, softer side to the band (which I love) with lots of atmosphere and lots of emotion. Haunting, soothing and yet, at times, harder hitting. It’s very difficult to pick any stand-out tracks from this album, simply as this is…