Archive for 2020

The Bad Seed EP was one of the final offerings from the volatile Birthday Party group. The tracks positively crackle with chaotic energy, firing this awkward, bizarre mix of punk and indie pop (yeah) up to a whole new level. There are times where it seems the whole song will fall apart, but that just seems like a part of the deal here. Worth going back to, especially for Nick Cave fans.

This is sick as fuck. Dr. Octagon’s (Kool Keith) self titled record from 1996 is a lesson in how to produce sublime hip hop beats, and then provide a stunning flow to go with it. Comparisons with MF Doom are perhaps too easy, but it’s easy to see where MF took a lot of inspiration from. Some of the lyrics about being a gynacologyst are a bit clumsy and haven’t aged too well, but all…

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t initially underwhelmed by Swans’ 90s output, especially coming in as a fan of the sonic destruction that was Filth, Cop, Greed etc. – Omniscience however, the live album I believe for the Love Of Life album, showcases those rigid and dark folk songs in the stretched out sprawling live incarnations one would expect from Swans. Even the morose electronic-laden and acoustic guitar driven rock melodies that the…

I’ve never properly taken the time to sit and listen to Dream Theater before so decided it would probably best to start right at the beginning. I understand that a different vocalist is at work here, but honestly, When Dream And Day Unite is pretty much as I expected it to be, discounting a roughness around the edges. This has 80s to the max vibes; snippets of hair metal breach through, and that snare is…

Hey Frankenstein! You want some metal infused horrorpunk? What do you mean “no”? Haha I played the absolute death out of this record when I was a teenager. Admittedly, I only really bought it because it had Joey from Slipknot on guitars, but it opened up the world of horrorpunk for me. An obsession with the Misfits developed in the years coming which would allow me to snake into the punk genre too – so…

Can you believe this has been the longest gap between Napalm records? It doesn’t feel that long since Apex Predator dropped. I guess that means that I’m getting old as fuck. Either way, here she blows, coming in from the horizon like a steamboat with a deceased crew and smashing head on into the dock with “Fuck the Factoid”, before pulling out all the usual tricks (and I’m sorry, but that same goddamn Russ Russell…

Greed Killing – as a single – is probably the lowest point in Napalm’s career, if I had to pick one. The band were pursuing an industrial or “groove metal” (says the press) direction at the time, but Greed Killing is a shameful commercial grab that is hideously out of place even with the album it’s from, let alone the band’s output in general.

Now this is how you do a Napalm Death record. Order Of The Leech is fucking ferocious, and was a phenomenal return to form after a patch of slower albums. Following on from Enemy Of The Music Business, Order… keeps the pace up, with flesh-ripping metallic grindcore carnage. Literally that’s all I can say. This started a trend in how Napalm records would appear and even sound. Favourite track: “Narcoleptic”.

The original Napalm Death Peel Sessions have to be some of the most brutal sounds put to tape. I cannot fathom the sheer energy, speed and ferocity that is going down on this recording. It is the polar opposite to Swans’ Public Castration Is A Good Idea, but on the same chart in regards to pushing the extremities of music. Truly essential noise. (This review covers the first two Peel Sessions released in 1988 and…

Too Experienced is a chilled out journey through some tight, head-nodding variety of reggae. I’ll be honest, I’m more well versed in the spaced out, dubby strains of the genre, so this is a refreshing change. And what great tunes there are, from the bigger hits to the lesser known entries. Either way, a solid record.

I hate it when shit like this happens to bands. I guess something similar happened with Gorgoroth, where several instances of the band existed (also with Von if I recall). I tried to give this a fair go, but CKY without Deron Miller is not something I think I can get my head around. Sure, there are plenty of bands that can shed vocalists and reinvent themselves in the process, but personally I think Deron…

A beautiful, morose journey through ambient, acoustic folk tunes. The guitars sparkle with life and the vocals, whilst admittedly I cannot understand, are gruff and powerful. I feel as though I am being transported to a distant land.

Having being slightly disappointed by Miles’ early 90s attempts at bridging into a more electronic music / hiphop direction (hey, just imagine what that could have done for popular music), I was a little anxious going in to this. As much as I would trust Bill Laswell with any band (except maybe Swans hahaha) I was indeed skeptical. But of course, my worries were quickly put to rest. What we have here is a gorgeous…

Did someone say proto-thrash? You can literally smell the BO when listening to this record. I conjure images of a band of spotty teenagers or twentysomethings playing Flying Vs and wearing cut off shirts; performing before a crowd of greasy-haired, denim jacket wearing beer drinkers bumping into each other in time to the music. Metal is a beautiful thing, isn’t it? A lot of the “bigger” bands either seem to come out blazing; defining their…

I don’t what it is about my relationship with Friday The 13th, but my patience for this series is much lower than others. 3 carries on pretty much where 2 left off, but I cannot bring myself to even care what happens. Jason recovers from his wounds and the bloodbath continues. All in all, bias aside, Friday The 13th Part 3 is a fairly average slasher, and I won’t be rushing out to enjoy the…

Cool, calm, relaxing vapor. Ah, its the musical equivalent of valium. †Nematophy has been in my online playlist for about a year, and I must have played it through now a number of times. Its time to delete it and let some other stuff shine instead, so here I am committing it to the site and filing it away. †Nematophy is another fantastic Windows 96 album, further cementing this project as one of my favourites…

You wouldn’t think it would be easy to top Loss, but Wodensthrone seem to do it with little to no effort. Curse seems like a natural progression; the meandering, thoughtful, blackened metal going further down the rabbit hole, further down the path less trodden. Glorious.

Old Star marks a nice, subtle progression for Darkthrone’s sound. We meander back to the longer songs of old, and are treated to a morose, almost melodic set of black metal riffs. The production is also noticeably cleaner than some of the recent punk metal stuff. All in all, Old Star is a decent entry into the Darkthrone discography, of which there have been many peaks and troughs.

UUUGGGHUHHUGGGHUHGGHHHHH! Panzerfaust sees Darkthrone applying the breaks a little after searing through a trilogy of some of the grimmest and most frostbitten fucking metal in the history of music. Yes, the shoddy production and insaaaaanely cold riffs are still front and centre, but one cannot shake the absolutely atrocious vocal performance on display here. It’s easy to forgive bad vocals in something like black metal, but this is Darkthrone’s Nocturno Culto we’re talking about here;…

Power Trip has been on my to do list for fucking years. I have no shame in saying that it was the grisly reminder of Ryan Gale’s untimely death that led me to finally taking this record and listening to it. I can only offer my condolences to his friends and family; he seemed well liked and of course loved, and after listening to this record I can attest that he was a brilliant front…

Head Cage is a solid (yet decidedly not grindcore) offering from all-round good eggs and metallic riff kings, Pig Destroyer. Immediately, I’m taken aback by how “compressed” and artificial this album sounds; it’s like everything is fighting for competition and the drums sound treated and false. I’m sure this is some technical engineer’s wet dream but honestly it sounds like complete shit. Thankfully, after the initial adjustment to this production style, it gets a bit…

So this is it, the grand daddy of jazz fusion. Now over 50 years old, it was the perfect time to return to this record and give it another run through. I first heard this in I think 2008, a friend gave me some high-end mp3 rips of it, and on the recommendation of my uncle to check it out, I tried my damnedest to get into it and understand what was going on, but…

Anticapital is my favourite out of the two main Assuck releases. I love the sound, not just in terms of the incredible production but also in terms of the blend between death metal styles and incredibly fast grindcore speed and precision. It is a match made in heaven, and whilst Assuck haven’t always been “up there” on my list of favourite grindcore bands I have a lot of respect for them, and for this record.

How does one critique an album like Reign In Blood? I often ask that of myself when I start to write about something that is often considered legendary, timeless or even just historically important in regards to the genre at hand. This time, the genre is thrash metal, or arguably even just metal as a whole, and the impossible album to analyse is Slayer’s magnum opus. I’ve never really been that big a fan of…

What surprised me the most about this split is how great both Rectal Smegma and Cliteater sound. I’ve not really been feeling the output by either band recently for a number of years now, but on this split they both sound like bands which have been energised; in the boggy world of “groovy” “goregrind” there are acidic oceans of absolute drooling shit, but both sessions here sound incredible. The shame however is that the same…

Thangorodrim is amongst the more well known dungeon synth artists of modern day, and rightly so; the project took Mortiis worship to a whole new level on the first debut album (not a bad thing in these circles) but on Prologue, Thangorodrim strikes out into territory I would comfortably call entirely it’s own. To my knowledge, Prologue combines a few of the older tape releases together onto one collection. Prologue is not a short record…

I was lucky enough to discover this band for the first time after catching them as the support act at a Pixies show. I mega enjoyed and was intrigued by them. “How have I not heard of these before?” I asked myself. Purchasing this album was then an absolute no brainer for me, and I immediately got into it; what a cool sound we have going on here, cracking melodic harmonies, and a big dreamy…

There’s a whole bunch of bass n drums two piece grindcore bands these days, but Reeking Cross have to be amongst the best, if not taking the crown entirely. As 2015’s short, sharp and fucking chonky Cloaked In Vermin shows us, Reeking Cross’s frenetic, batshit crazy powerviolence is not to be scoffed at. CLOAKED IN VERMIN (Septik Brain 2015) by Reeking Cross

Children, for my lack of any understanding of the noise scene, appears to be a project between Genetic Noose and a fellae named Gaeme Baillie. I had a chuckle to myself thinking the Children material here sounds a bit like Arab Strap recorded an album whilst in the middle of a severe bout of alcohol-fuelled manic depression. Either way, it’s miserable as sin and fucking angry as fuck. What more do you want from your…

Yob is all kinds of heavy. I’ve never been the biggest of fans, but there has been that understanding, that appreciation; the musical equivalent of giving someone “the nod” across the room. I see you Yob, I see that you’re heavy, meandering out there in the crushing cosmos of the unknown. I appreciate you. Atma is a perfect example of what Yob are all about. Atma by YOB

I knew about Lord Gore’s debut for a long time before I actually heard it. That shocking cover art, even as a cartoon, was often splattered across death metal MySpace pages and internet forums, so when I finally got a hold of this during a trade with Razorback Records, it felt like I had reached some sort of holy grail of underground death metal. Lord Gore are a fantastic band. On the surface of it,…

This is the record that angered the Nigerian government so much that the army stormed Kuti’s compound and threw his mother out of a third story window, resulting in severe injuries which led to her death. The title and overall theme to proceedings seems to call out those blindly following orders before they went and did just that as the result of such a calling out. Like, what the fuck Nigeria? Way to prove the…

I’ll admit, first impressions of this were not amazing. It sounded almost lazy, but I was listening to it in a car park in the rain. Recently, I have returned to this record to give it a second chance, and whilst I must admit that Douglas P sounds a bit tired, there are some beautiful tracks here. Whether its worth making new Death In June records at this point is not up to me to…

I’ve been coming at Miles Davis from both ends recently (oo er), eager to broaden my horizons in both his discography and in forms of jazz. Fusion was my way in, and from there I shall worm my way through all of these records like a dirty little badger! Yeah. Doo-Bop unfortunately, is not a particularly great record. Miles’ final offering, it saw the legend once more trying to branch off into something new and…

My introduction to the world of plunderphonics happened the best part of 20 years ago, when The Avalanches’ ridiculously catchy “Frontier Psychiatrist” was all over the TV and radio. I didn’t really understand back then exactly what it was that was going on, but The Avalanches stood out to me as whacky and different, even alongside other big electronic acts dominating at the time, like Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers. Unfortunately, that lead single…

What happens when you cross Godflesh’s Justin Broadrick, The Bug’s Kevin Martin and ATR’s Alec Empire? Well, you get Curse Of The Golden Vampire of course, and I assure you, this project is not the punchline to a shit joke. This self titled record is not a million miles away from some of the sounds and textures experienced on Techno Animal records, or even on Godflesh’s Us & Them record. Its an interesting, and rather…

Oh shit fam, Mike Patton, that guy from Faith No More? Yeah, he’s done a suuuuuper weird record on the side! It sounds nothing like FNM LOL he’s bonkers! Adult Themes For Voice was recorded on tour by Patton in a series of hotels rooms or whatever, and is a record built entirely out of vocal samples. Yeah, it sounds like complete shit at first but yknow, maybe I’m growing my Covid19 hipster lockdown beard…

This is the debut solo release here from Hayley Williams of Paramore (despite other current members of Paramore actually having a part to play in the album at various points throughout). An unique and refreshing sound – and move away from Paramore – adapting a clever and dark sort of indie pop vibe. A fantastic selection of songs here, and a really tight bunch that fit perfectly together as an album and compliment each other…

Aura is a suite of “songs” written as a tribute to Davis by a Danish composer called Palle Mikkelborg. Legend has it that Miles loved the songs so much, he offered to collaborate and make it a canonical Miles Davis record. It would eventually get released several years after recording, in 1989, and would be the last Miles Davis studio album to be released when he was alive. Aura is all over the place, but…

ColdWorld is not a project I know much about. Intentionally or not, that fog of secrecy shrouding the project only helps heap on the atmosphere and drive home the miserable point, for ColdWorld not only plays black metal; ColdWorld is another one of those depressive one man black metal projects. On the surface of it, the DSBM tag brings up all sorts of cringe, neckbeardy associations, but ColdWorld is guilty only of conjuring up genuinely…

For All Tid is the sprawling, cold, blacker than black debut record from Dimmu Borgir. A long, long wintery journey away from their later records and incarnations, For All Tid is a plodding, slow burn of a black metal record, where the keyboards and atmospheric elements take centre stage, followed by a very muddy and densely produced full band. Expect reverb.

This ancient relic of 90s dungeon synth has quite a sad story, as its composer is no longer with us. This does add some morbid weight to the already sombre atmospheres, but let’s not define this artist’s life by his untimely death. Secret Stairways is, for me, an incredibly introspective record. It had a much more suspended, ambient vibe to its morose, glacial compositions than your average dungeon synth record; possessing instead of bombast or…

The battle rages on and on! The battle being, of course, Dimmu’s thrashing black metal and all of its symphonic bombast. Death Cult Armageddon was not my first taste of Dimmu but it was the first full length album that I ever bought by them, I think randomly staring out at me in Poole’s HMV (alongside Impaled Nazarene’s Death Comes In 26 Carefully Selected Pieces). I remember always been shocked by how polished this album…

Another witchy/satan/black magic exploitation movie thats very thin on plot and acting but very stacked on nubile young beauties and gobbledygook. I mean, what does one expect going into this? The imagery is fantastic even if the cinematography is somewhat lacklustre and the lighting is appalling. The acting? Well, surely you know what you are getting yourself in for if you are interested in this kind of thing.

Pissgrave’s first record was a disturbing slab of relentless death metal, and Posthumous Humiliation seeks to continue in much the same way. Bludgeoning, ugly, disgusting music is the order of the day; music, which even I, after two decades of listening to this shit, find almost impossible to penetrate. Gaseous, livid, and catastrophic, Pissgrave are one of metal’s genuinely terrifying bands.

This is probably not a term used to describe goregrind very often, but this delicious little record is simply divine. I only played it because the artwork / theme reminded me of Dead Infection’s Corpses Of The Universe, but I got more than I bargained for. The mix here is near perfect; the sickness of the instruments dance together in some sort of gracefully macabre unison – like, you could say, an exploded cadaver floating…

Selfless was the big, shiny offering that Godflesh dropped for Columbia, when Earache proffered up a bunch of bands to the mainstream. Ultimately, the gamble failed, but this move no doubt gained Godflesh a whole world of new fans from the industrial metal world, especially in America. Selfless is noticeably much cleaner than what came before it. Even against the precision of Pure, Selfless soars, with melodic riffs, uplifting synthesisers, and the largest amount of…

I have a lot of respect for most Psychopathic Records artists but this EP is utter dog shit. Imagine the Dark Lotus staff taking on the subject matter of Necro’s The Sexorcist. And yes, there is an aspect of cringe to any hip hop that deals entirely with sex, but when ICP – under aliases of course – are rapping about fucking bitches in they booty holes, we reach a whole new realm of uncomfortable…

Floral Shoppe is the oddity that defined the genre (or shall I say movement?) of vaporwave, which is still passed off as a meme by some. But hey, it’s their loss. Floral Shoppe hosts – or birthed? – many tropes of the style; pitchshifted beats and vocals, fluttering synths, a treacle-like atmospheric consistency, and a distorted window into the realms of either the past or the future. Am I dreaming about a past that I…

Going in to a record named Vaginator, you have to expect certain things – there is a checklist of items that are often present on records in a genre such as this. Most are accounted for on Namek’s debut (and I believe only) album, but what I did not expect was the incredibly high end production job, which allows this muddy full band pornogrind romp to breathe and to be delivered with all of its…

Space Is Only Noise is one of my favourite chilled out, down tempo, ambient kinda records. I’ve heard this described as deep house, and whilst I see where the bridges are built, I wouldn’t have ever classed it as such.  Being a genre Nazi aside, this is such a relaxing record. The sampling is on point, and with headphones the stereo stage is massively utilised to its full capacity. It is at once all encompassing,…

I firmly believe that Type O did something incredibly unique with their music, even if it touched on many of metal’s tropes in the process. Steele et al clearly didn’t take themselves too seriously, but the musical chops are there all the same. This record is surely timeless now, especially in the annals of doom or gothic rock, even if somewhat falling into the category of ‘parody’. The mammoth opening track is a work of…

Another year (or thereabouts), another stage in Caretaker’s magnum opus. Stage 3 is where the changes are not so subtle. At this point I’ve kinda figured that the old, jaunty 30s-style tunes from parts one and two are supposed to be memories, and as we descent through each stage, the memories become more and more fractured and broken. Stage 2 introduced minute differences; small fractures and unsettling off-colour compositional changes. Stage 3 is a bit…

One of those awkward, weird things that sits between noisecore and just kids fucking around. Then again, FWTKM has always had an unusual streak. I traded away this tape many, many moons ago (it was the Sludgesicle Records re-issue).

This dual-EP (its like the band has done a split with itself!) was one of the only early Gut pieces that I ever got around to owning on vinyl. It has now gone to a better home, but I do miss it. This is classic Gut; dirgy, barely audible snails pace “grindcore” with disgusting vocals and harrowing horror movie samples. This may not win any awards for recording quality, but makes it up for it…

Seriously poor fucking effort from LDOH – this live set is fucking useless. Like, this level of bad live recording thrown half arsed into a 7” split would put even Agathocles to shame (lol). Absolutely pointless in every sense. 2 Minuta Dreka on the other hand are killing it here, expanding on that funky, groovy sound that came with Porno Bizarro. 2MD have never sounded so alive. LDOH though, fucking sort it out guys. I’m…

I’ll admit, Tutu was a shock when I first heard it. I’m not an expert on the 80s fusion scene, but not totally blind to it either. Its not so much the marriage with synthesizers and drum machines that puts me off here, but the restrictive and muted nature of the tracks in general. Most of the time, Davis is in the background, while his more-80s-than-thou band are doing all of the work, fantastic musicians…

Did anyone say Carcass worship? Anatomical Amusements is medical goregrind turned up to 11, with insane drumming, gorgeous production, and sickening riffs n’ vocals. A short EP, but every second is enjoyable. Anatomical Amusements by Crash Syndrom

What in the sweet holy fuck did I just watch? I’m not a film writer so my language and terminology is not developed enough to really do this film justice, but Midsommar was a twisted, genuinely disturbing journey into the world of off-grid cults. I’m not entirely sure of every message that the creators were trying to convey, but its very interesting watching how things transpire, if not a little (a lot lol) terrifying doing…

Pulmonary’s session is a little thing aurally, but musically its on point. Rehearsal room grind with that dirty shifted bubble vocal sound! Cakewet are a bit louder, and a bit more precise, mixing sloppy grindcore with elements of death metal. Raspy low vocals and lightening quick blasts throughout. Vomitrocity have a bit more of an old school death metal vibe (demo tape vibe of course), but Flesh Disgorged and Copremesis kinda just blur into one….

If you read my ongoing reviews of this series you will no doubt surely be able to tell that I have something of a love/hate relationship with the Leprechaun movies. They are just so atrociously bad in every conceivable way. The funny thing about the original Leprechaun is that I managed to convince my girlfriend to watch it with me, off the back of Jennifer Aniston being cast as the lead. Let me tell from…

What Mega seemingly has over 0 and 1 is the instant glossy hit of electronic shine. Out of nowhere the record is in your face, all colours flashing, and from then on out you are enraptured in the world of the Blank Banshee, and have no choice but to go on the ride. Is it possible to improve on the cult status and legendary electronic work of the first two records? The answer, of course,…

Blank Banshee is another one of those projects that gets lumped in with vaporwave when in reality the sound reaches across several styles of electronic music. I’ll admit that 1 often gets overlooked by me, either by the sheer gloss of Mega or the instant classic status of 0. The compositions are glorious however, ranging from banging 80s pop to drawn out ambient soundscapes and synths. Lush. Blank Banshee 1 by Blank Banshee

The material on display here is quite possibly the definitive NxVx sound. It is a shame really then, that the limited nature of lathe cut releasing (both a pro and a con) allows only a small number of people to hear this properly. Thankfully, it’s on YouTube, which isn’t quite the same, but it gives the rest of us a chance at experiencing the noize. Apologies for the mega lo-fi art on this entry, I…

My mother is a big Pink Floyd fan. Naturally, once I got my first “car” when I was 20 (a pre-Defender-era Land Rover 90, of all vehicles!) I “borrowed” a bunch of their cassettes, and this beaten copy of Meddle was one of the ones that got the most plays. I’m no expert in the world of the Floyd, but the early 70s were of course the main portion of their astronomical rise to fame….

I initially mistook this for a new studio release from Clams Casino. After shitting the bed and hitting play one morning at 5am as I watched the sun rise over the sea (it was fuckin’ great), I quickly realised that this was a compilation of older works, as well as the latest 7″ he dropped which sold out instantly. Maybe there is more to what is going on here, but I’m not a Clams expert….

Mucopus play thick, chunky and unwieldy death metal. There is a slam tinge to proceedings, even dare I say a smidgen of deathcore stylings in the vocals in particular, which isn’t really my thing at all. That aside, Undimensional is a well put together record that is played and produced to a high standard. I’m just a bit unsure if the original material is inspiring enough to warrant further exploration of their work.

I see Hacked Up For BBQ and Chainsaw Dismemberment as two parts of the same death metal masterpiece. Hacked Up however, recorded a whopping three years earlier, is the original Mortician full-length, released after several years of establishing themselves as one of the most brutal bands on the planet. The open guitar and bass on “Bloodcraving” are absolutely nothing short of legendary, and no-doubt introduced Mortician’s nasty down tuned vibes to a whole new world…

Denzel Curry has been recommended to me many times lately, so I decided to get into Ta13oo, which has the most interesting cover art of his records. I can’t deny that the man has talent, his flows are fantastic, and the production is solid overall, its just that the whole thing is a little ‘trappy’ for me. Perhaps I am out of touch with modern hip hop (a very real possibility), but I couldn’t fully…

Talk about “Find Of The Month”! Filmmaker… makes… dark, brooding electronic music that encompasses the stomp of early 90s industrial and the nostalgia and synth styles of the 80s, and more recently, the vaporwave trend. Honestly, it hits hard, in the best way, and has the right mix of sheen and nastiness. I absolutely love that record sleeve, as well. So many questions! Definitely keep a ear to the ground for Filmmaker releases. The Love…

Walkin’ is fantastic. It is one of those records that embodies its title and lives up to its name. I feel like I’m walking down the sidewalk of a busy American city. Maybe I’ve got a dame on my arm, maybe I’ve got a small cigar in my hand. I don’t know where I’m going and I don’t suppose it really matters. The late 50s era of “true” jazz Davis stuff is not something I…

Fantastic, moody, old school style dungeon synthesizer music. My one complaint is that there is some sort of effect added that makes the recording sound like its come off an old cassette tape, which clashes badly with some of the busier compositions. This results in a few messy, confusing moments. For the most part however, Nameless King channels some great vibes and ideas, and I would recommend this record to other fans of the dungeon…

What an absolutely bloodsoaked whopper of a record! I was recommended Sulfuric Cautery by a friend and quickly set out to check them after the description I was given. Featuring members of Couple Skate and Pizza Hi-Five, I was eager to check these guys out. Imagine blasting chaotic goodness from say, the more legendary LDOH records, with the new world (lol) viciousness of projects like Hyperemesis, all distilled into one dustbin lid tinged assault of…

This is just glorious. I have, admittedly been snoozing on Earth recently, so I was energised to go back and find that this solo record brought so many of those classic 90s Earth vibes with it. Conquistador is a smokey record, carried with that wild west swagger, but delivered like a low voltage dose of electricity coursing through your body. These riffs are simply alive and it is nothing less than an absolute pleasure to…

This is probably the busiest and most involved ambient record that I’ve ever heard! Haha! I suppose its due to the sheer number of ambient producers who create a stunning custom patch and then just put a book on the lower end of the keyboard for 55 minutes and call the resulting dirge a new record. I’m being obtuse of course, but hopefully you get what I mean. Laswell has pulled together a small world…

Dogs Blood Rising was my first experience with the work of Current 93. The record threw me at first, as there are no songs per se, just large, meandering passages of sound collages. “Falling Back In Fields Of Rape” heavily scratched my de ja vu (turns out the Death In June song with the similar title / lyrical layout to this is a “cover” of this ginormous undertaking of a track). All in all, Dogs…

It’s rare that an album’s title helps define the sound in such a way that is present here. These two tracks creep and slowly unfurl into movements of incredible musical restraint. The two pieces were cut from much longer sessions, and present a unified, mellow front to a band that was heavily in sync. I can only say so much in words about this one. Something to listen to at night, perhaps when the rain…

One of my favourite dungeon synth releases of the last few years. Granted, I’m not as deep into the genre as some, but unearthing gems like this is what makes this particular world of music so rewarding. What I love about this kind of thing is the unique worlds and visions that just listening alone is enough to conjure. Truly, it’s an art form and very evocative. Expect heavy winter based themes and vibes of…

Now this is just great. Mysterious, occult-heavy acoustic hymns are presented in the form of washed out guitars and the deep baritone delivery of the King himself. The whole thing is bathed in reverb, to the point where the album sounds like it was recorded down a well or something, but I’ll be honest with you: it works.

I stumbled across this forgotten gem one day and on a random Saturday shift, I made my way through the whole thing. First off, let’s put all our cards on the table here. Hopefully, I’m not offending anyone when I say that The Mist (or at least the Gottverlassen album) are a pure Sepultura clone. I mean, just take a look at that record sleeve for a start! If you can look past that however,…

Holy shit, this is nihilism distilled into raw sound! At about 6 minutes in length, Money Hater really doesn’t fuck about on this 2016 EP. I was expecting some sort of powerviolence (by looking at the sleeve) but the harsh noise here melted my face in the best possible way. 6 minutes of sheer armageddon, get in!

Ah Carpathian Forest, for when you absolutely need some creaking, sexually charged black metal in your life. Admittedly, there are a lot of mixed vibes on this record, compared to some of their earlier records, but Black Shining Leather is a nasty little album that I have come back to several times when the mood strikes me.

Demo 1991 looks like just about any other early 90s / late 80s underground demo, so its easy at first glance to dismiss this as an early record, but no – this came after Horrified. The noticable difference is that the songs are a bit pacier; a 12 minute record consists of 4 tracks, with the blast dialled back a little in favour of grime-chocked thrash metal.

A spooky, unhinged entry into the Cernunnos discography. The synth work is spot on as always; a bizarre, kooky whirl of tones that remind me more of German expressionist cinema (of all things) rather than deep dark woods and dungeons. My gripe with this release lies with the vocal performances, which are too loud and if anything, detract from the synth work below them.

Dec 2017: To somewhat paraphrase the legendary Devin Townsend, the sound on this album is as heavy as a really heavy thing. Like, really really heavy; a collapsing neutron star, or some such. Dopethrone is a monument in modern day doom metal; easily one of the albums that re-invigorated the scene and brought new life to the (at the time) fairly stagnant genre, all the while re-setting the benchmark for what heavy music can be. It is…

Sketches Of Spain seems to rank high on many Davis’ appreciator’s lists. I can not fathom the musical skill involved in pulling together such an album, but this ode to Spain is somewhat lost on me. It has more in common with big brass band movements than anything particularly jazzy, and whilst it is far from awful, it’s not something that I’m all that interested in, despite how beautiful it may be.

Holy shit this is bad. The “goth” end of the industrial spectrum has never ranked highly for me, but Mine is a perfect example of all the awful tropes that the genre perpetuates. The guitar playing is lazy and dated, as is the harsher vocal styles. The clean vocals are pretty good but are mixed awkwardly. Percussion wise, we’re clearly in drum machine territory here (if not, then that’s some stale-ass drumming, guys). A prominent…

I meandered into the works of Jean-Luc Ponty during my recent trips into the world of jazz. Jean-Luc’s Aurora however appears to be something completely different. This violin-led electric orchestra of madness is something that sounds so 80s that it hurts. Considering that it was recorded in the mid-70s, I can only attest that it was – actually – years ahead of its time. I don’t know enough about this kind of music right now…

Images And Words is, I believe, the second Dream Theater album and the first where the really cringey album sleeves began. Touching more into a power metal vibe than I am admittedly usually comfortable with, Images And Words is an upbeat yet often cheesy romp through some serious musical dexterity. Its nice to see the origin of “Metropolis Part I”, and closing track “Learning To Live” does unfold to be rather epic, but on the…

I feel like I’ve been here before, and I suppose that’s exactly the point. Stage 2 of the gargantuan Everywhere At The End Of Time series on dementia sees mostly a rehashing of the themes and tunes of Stage 1. But, if you’re listening carefully, now and then Stage 2’s compositions will throw you out of the loop. Every now and then, through the record crackle and swinging 30s numbers, The Caretaker works in a…

Now this is an interesting window into the pre-grind, proto-formation of Napalm Death. In all my years of Napalm Death fandom I’d never gone back and checked out the early demos, so this was a learning experience for me. There is a lot of misinformation floating about online about this record. Miles Ratledge (the OG drummer here) has cleared it up in some YouTube comments. The TLDR is that a lot of uploads claiming to…

Well this just fucking blew me the fuck away. Chepang’s name is spoken of highly in grindcore circles and now I can totally understand the muted hype that this group has generated. A low key sleeper for sure, Chepang can match any grindcore great in ferocity and speed. Truly one for the hardcore speedfreaks out there. DADHELO – A Tale of Wildfire by Chepang

Uncle Acid sit in that mire between lazy indie rock and that stonery, Sabbath-worshipping area of proto-metal, which explains The Deadbeat’s recent support slot with the aforementioned Sabbath nicely. As much as I enjoy Mind Control I find nothing original or special here, which to be honest, probably sounds really harsh, but its nice sometimes to just enjoy a record without losing my head over the intricacies of such; this is rock and roll, and…

Another stunning offering from the truest and grimmest of northern musical miscreants, Gorgoroth. Granted, the drums have a case of the 1349’s (being that the drums sound like wet fucking cardboard – I had to check that it wasn’t Frost playing here!) but otherwise this record is incredible. There’s really not all that much for me to say; this is blasting, evil black metal at its very best.

I have chastised LDOH several times recently for phoning it in when it comes to splits; Agathocles’ing it to the bank with crappy live records and old shit that should have stayed old. Despite this, one must admit that this live session from Eindhoven is a very enjoyable romp through classic LDOH material, and with a decent sound to boot. When the shifter comes in, sometimes it eclipses all in a muddy gloop, but hey,…

Later Darkthrone is like a fine wine to me. I wasn’t initially into stuff that went past The Cult Is Alive, but it has started to grow on me like moss on an old tombstone. There is something of a simple pleasure to F.O.A.D.’s analogue warmth. That of course, and that it’s an absolute riff machine, marrying black metal and crust punk with old school heavy metal stylings – a glorious combination, give or take…

Hammy, hammy metal for everyone! I was drawn in by the cover, and stayed for the Candlemass worshipping silliness and epic / silly vocal pompery. The riffs are solid, and the production is quite lovely, but this is a one off for me, I think. In the Shadow of the Inverted Cross by Sorcerer

I caught Coldworker’s last ever show, I think at probably OEF 2013. At the time I thought to myself, “Shit, I never checked out the Contaminated Void!”. Several years later then, it’s time to commit Coldworker’s debut to the site. Let’s not mess around with long paragraphs here, as the band themselves are certainly not fucking about. Featuring the same drummer as Nasum, the opening track quickly sets the pace on a breakneck trip through…

NxVx bring that dirty grinding bass romp that we all know and love, where the Nunriders offer a more, how should I say, “nuanced” approach to the noisier side of life. This is one of those more interesting split release combinations, where you wonder how the two bands even got together. Interesting stuff. 

Fuck, what a trip. Gabba techno at its finest! On We Are From Rotterdam, the Nightraver takes the gabba template and takes it to hypnotic, mesmerizing territories.