Archive for March 2017

This is one of those albums that I ended up checking out purely because of the cover art. I’ve been avoiding Abigail Williams for the best part of a decade, purely because I thought they were some sort of shitty scene metalcore band or something, and whilst they do bring that kinda “edge” to the table, In The Shadow Of A Thousand Suns is a complex piece of a work and a decent contribution to…

Oblivionized are a grindcore / tech death answer to the distillation of sounds purveyed by those such as early Dillenger Escape Plan, Fuck The Facts, and even to a degree, Antigama. The shredding guitar / intense drum work is reminiscent of fellow British grinders Evisorax, but Oblivionized have a much more – how should I put it – “progressive” edge that sees a lot of interesting elements brought into the firing line (like the singing…

Luciferion were a band from Sweden that played an interesting blend of genres that I can only describe as symphonic death metal. Like Dimmu Borgir, Emperor and the like did for black metal in the 90s, Luciferion apply the same logic to brutal, unrepentant old school death metal. Obviously, there is a lot of variation in death metal now and a lot of different angles to the style, especially as incorporating certain aspects of melody…

Killbite are a hardcore band out of Bremen in Germany, playing in the heavy, almost metal style rather than the punky, upbeat style of hardcore. Discrimi-Nation isn’t a million miles away from the powerviolence sound; hard-hitting, dark, distorted, angry as fuck – there are many tracks here worthy of getting the pit moving, whilst a few others are more thought provoking and morose, especially the untitled closing number. This is thoughtful, powerful hardcore music with…

This is an absolutely mental little EP featuring members of Water Torture and Thedowngoing (who I am currently not too familiar with, I’ll be honest). It only clocks in at around 5 minutes, but with this kinda hyper-intense level of energy I’ll forgive the tiny run time. Bordering somewhere between a rehearsal room recording and a decent recording sesh for like, a split 7″ or something, Sects meld different corners of the grind world together…

So here we have Eisley’s first release since the departure of Stacey and Chauntelle (as well as drummer Weston who remains as a studio member but not a live member), leaving vocalist Sherri Dupree Bemis and bassist Garon Dupree to pick up where the band left off and move forward. It is always tough to lose band members, especially ones that brought a lot to the table and in this case, the loss of the…

Holy fuck! This is fucking amazing! Bass-driven, hardcore-tinged powerviolence madness from the Americas! If I keep using exclamation marks does it look like I’m shouting!? I hope so! Easy comparisons out of the way first: Man Is The Bastard, Water Torture, Prisoner 639 (or anything that grinds like a fucking beast at a low rumbling frequency). To quote a YouTube commentator: “Non stop harsh grinding savagery from start to finish”. I could not have put…

(Words by Griefmonger) I’m a prissy fuck. I thought this would be a straightforward shit-shoot. And I was wrong. We have got at least 15-17 mins of engaging music (and vocals may I add), although I dare you to try and make it to 20 mins without getting diabetes, which is when it becomes a shitestorm of Trivium, Metallica, Hatebreed and Alice in Chains. There is no amount of nonsense or high end guitar that…

So, so, so stoked for the return (yet again lol) of Last Days Of Humanity, and the return to the gurgling madness we all know and love. This return is somewhat low key, but I guess it fits with dropping new shit on a split. I believe the music on here was recorded some time ago, and that the vokills have been provided recently. It is good shit though, glad to have ’em back! FUBAR…

From Crotch To Crown is the latest offering from long-running Dutch death metal group Prostitute Disfigurement. Honestly, when I first heard this, I thought it was an older release, as it isn’t as polished as the previous album, Descendants of Depravity. It isn’t exactly a step backwards though, as personally I prefer a bit of a rougher edge to my death metal, despite the clinical execution of Descendants… being pretty incredible stuff. As always with…

It has taken me so long to review this album that the follow up came out recently (2016’s Agony). That is pretty shameful, as I have been pretty stoked about this bunch of Brazilian thrashers since catching them at 2015’s Obscene Extreme. Nervosa are an all-female act, and it is incredibly refreshing to not see this used to their “advantage” as some sort of gimmick or selling point. Victim Of Yourself has the perfect production…

Planet Of The Pigs is the final (2020 edit: nope!) album from long-running Czech grindcore band, Pigsty. I think to still call Pigsty a grindcore band by this point is pushing it a bit; Planet Of The Pigs has a whole world of other influences building on the grinding template, from thrash to death metal, to the kooky ongoing concept (“Inspection Report” kicks this thing off with GWAR-grade sci-fi storytelling) and even the insane djent…

Henker are absolutely lightening fast! Imagine Meshuggah-meets-Braindrill in the same studio Cattle Decapitation recorded their last few albums in. Maddening drumming performances meet technical yet brutal guitar playing and dexterous bass movements that completely fuck with your head. I mean, those drums….Jesus Christ. I know they are triggered into oblivion, but you gotta be impressed by this shit. Honestly though, due to the sheer speed and technicality of this thing, all the songs do kinda…

I’m not entirely sure what it was that struck me, but I randomly went out of my way to finally listen to a Meshuggah record, and what suprised me more than anything was that I was able to make it all the way to the end without turning it off. I have nothing personal against Meshuggah, except for inspiring a worldwide fucking legion of brocore brown-nosers and carbon copy chug and/or “djent” bands that believe…