Archive for February 2017

Another thing that slipped unrecognised under my nose in 2016 was the new Burial EP. It appears that the urbanism-as-sound mastermind continues to favor the EP format over releasing another full length for us, although there is something beautiful about one of these EPs dropping every so often, offering us a glimpse into the modern, concrete existence of Burial’s world through a drizzly, fractured lens. It may sound a bit frightful if I tell you…

(Guest Revievv Invokked by Griefmonger on thy infernal date ov 27/02/2017) Polish Darkthrone if they were from Manchester. It’s good; there’s a nice mix of heavy and tremolo riffs with a production that you can hear, both without sounding polished or like it was recorded in your Nan’s shed. I like it. It’s not afraid to go slow and the vocals are just crossing the line of black from death. There’s a fine line. The…

Wadge is a long-running grindcore project from Canada, which has fallen into its very own self-styled “surf” grind. It sounds like a ridiculous gimmick, and I guess, to be honest, it probably is. What separates this however, from “bands” like Caninus or the fucking Grindmother is that this shit is actually fucking decent, and not just a stupid fucking meme set up to make money from people who don’t actually listen to grindcore anyway (okay,…

I was actually lucky enough to be in the room when this performance was recorded, and it was a fascinating hour spent staring at the intense visuals the band had prepared to play alongside their live show. It was one of the more memorable experiences from Roadburn 2012, so I’m very grateful indeed that the entire thing was recorded and released later on as a double 12″ package. Equally delicate as it is at moments…

Hour Of Penance are an intensely fast and technical brutal death metal band from Italy. They have been going since 1999, and whilst their style has changed somewhat over the years (there are also, quite unusually, no remaining original members in the group) they have retained a relevance in the worldwide death metal scene. With regards to the sound on Regicide, think razor-sharp riffery but with a refreshing melodic edge, savage guttural vocals and lightening…

This Becomes Us is the solo collaborative release from Future Of The Left (and not forgetting ex-Million Dead) bassist Julia Ruzicka. This debut contains ten tracks of absolute pure gold, featuring a different vocalist on each track, including Black Francis from The Pixies, among others. Opener “The Picture of Delorean Gray”, is a cracking little number; a nice and fast-paced, hard-hitting, fuzzy, punky number that leads into the bouncy “Undervalue Love”, which has a kind…

It is quite a bizarre feat to see the sprawling works of Om confined to the time restraints of a 7″ record. Nevertheless, the duo manage to pull it off without it having any negative impact on proceedings. I seem to keep forgetting (I know, right?) that Om are one of my favourite bands, and this obscure 7″ does not disappoint in any way shape or form. However, if you are new to Om, I…

Ahhhh oh my God, where has this been all my life? Have I been living under a rock? Quite fucking possibly! For those who are as stupid and ignorant as I am, Deltron 3030 is a hip hop “supergroup” (much in the vein of Madvillian or Run The Jewels) consisting of Dan The Automator, Del The Funky Homosapien, Kid Koala as well as a few select special guests, who all take on futuristic personas to…

Heinous are a goregrind band from Arizona, and when I say goregrind, I mean the blasting, frenetic style, not the slow, polka style. Imagine if Last Days Of Humanity recorded Reek Of Putrefaction but on the west coast of America, after spending the summer listening to Archagathus and drinking cheap beer. There may be a million bands out there called Heinous, but the name is truly deserved this time around. Wicked stuff!

Pyophagia is a Red Stripe fueled goregrind project that is based out of both Nicosia in Cypress and Bristol in the UK. The title is a combination of the names of the three quick tracks; the run time on this thing being less than 2 minutes (that’s what I’m talking about!). Expect pummeling, sloppy old school goregrind with distorted, frantic blasts, downtuned guitars and vomit inducing shifted vocals. All in all, a vile concoction that…

Corpseater is a one man grindcore project from Germany, and Unholy Massacre is the second EP release, following 2015’s Start To Mutilate. On first impressions I get a mix of Regurgitate meets the dirgy tones of Hymen Holocaust (without the pornogrind vibe, of course); Unholy Massacre is an undead-inspired, old school gory mess, with blasting drum machine work, filthy guitars and possibly pitchshifted, Mortician-style guttural vocals. Stand out tracks on this short EP include “Seven…

Man, this is fucking awful, even for Obie Trice. This is some Lil’ Wayne level shit right here. Seriously, how is it possible for someone to fall off so hard? Granted, the relentless pursuit of the $$$ leads some artists by the nose through the trends of the month / year / decade, and that is the only explanation I have for this absolute farce of a single. Ten years ago this guy was sharing…

So I just found out that WTC split up, which is a shame, but IMO they have never been able to ever top their first album, Perverse Recollections Of A Necromangler. This final “goodbye” CD is quite misleading, as the title and the high quality cover art suggests a new record, however all we have here is a bunch of demos cobbled together onto one CD. Now, if you are a massive WTC fan, I…

I saw these guys live and thought they were shit. I mean, fucking plank solo much? This album, unfortunately, does not do much to change my mind on them. Even by black metal standards, the production on this is terrible. It sounds like a seriously crappy mp3 compression, if crappy mp3 compression could somehow have been attained in the early 90s on some shitty recording equipment. The guitars failover into nothing but pure fuzz, offering…

I stumbled across this on a 3am YouTube sesh recently. There really isn’t anything quite like closely examining all the different types of cheese in the reduced aisle at Tesco with underground deep house filling up your skull; that one Filipino shelf-stacker eyeing you suspiciously from behind the Anchor Spreadable. The bass on this is absolutely incredible, as is the gentle progression of the beat; retaining that old-school house feel without dedicating too much time…