Archive for July 2021

A under-rated classic of synthesizer music, in my opinion, and one of the first electronic albums I heard of this nature. I love the stepping synth sounds and the real drums which accompany it. I also love the art, and I love that whilst visually it harks back to the past (as does the whole premise of this kind of album), the album doesn’t sound like it was recorded 40 years ago. Instead, it sounds…

Tbh when I was a teenager I only checked out Lacuna Coil because Christina Scabbia was (2021 edit: and still is) all kinds of gorgeous. Off the back of such shallow interest, I never really got much further than the big singles, two of which are included here in the form of “Swamped” and “Heaven’s A Lie”. Yes, these do give the impression to the casual listener that the record is stacked at the front…

Revelations is the last in the original run of albums to feature bassist Youth. It is strikingly different from the two previous albums, and perhaps on first listen doesn’t seem as good (also, what even is that fucking record sleeve?), but it has grown on me. I will say however, the last but one track “Good Samaritan” is probably the worst Killing Joke song I have ever heard. Its absolutely abysmal. Youth is on record…

Hyperdontia are fucking great. Hyper-intense, whirlwind death metal, where nothing and everything makes sense all at once. Yeah? The drums and guitars are absolute carnage, but not to the point where its like war metal and things become an intelligible mush, no – there is a coherent edge to Hyperdontia’s brutal attack. That is, partly, what makes this new breed of super intense metal so exciting; this is a wall of confusing, brutal noise, but…

Crisp, cold black metal is the order of the day, summed up perfectly by what I initially considered to be a strange choice of cover art. I stood on the roof of my work place and listened to this, 12 storeys high and gazing from the cityscape out the coast, the wind freezing me to the core. Kampfar, you have won over a new fan.

Woods 5 is probably my favourite Woods Of Ypres record. As a band I’ve been meaning to check out for years now, I finally made the journey through the discography backwards. Perhaps it was because Woods 5 is my starting point, or perhaps its because Woods 5 comes across like a black metal influenced Type O Negative, but I love it regardless. Either way, we have a journey through somewhat melodic, and somewhat epic compositions…

Blue Sky, seemingly in some sort of weird knee-jerk reaction to how slow, creepy and difficult their original Jurassic Park adaption was, followed it up with this insane sequel where Dr. Grant is turned into a machine gun toting maniac hell bent on killing every solider or hired mercenary that moves. A new, just as pompous and ridiculous soundtrack was required then, and so this was dialled up to eleven. Its nowhere near as good…

I remember people going crazy for these in the 00s era. Some of my friends idolized them but I never so much as ever looked their way, I’m unsure why. Anyway, today is the day I finally listened to The Gallery, and what a record it is! I expected it to sound like At The Gates, but first impressions are more along the lines of Cradle Of Filth meets Children Of Bodom, but with a…

Probably one of my favourite hip hop records of all time! Much like Dre’s own The Chronic, this sits as a stand out from that era, and even has similar production (both being done by Dre of course). Snoop Dogg has never been as good as he has here. Personally I find the man (legendary as he is) has an overall weak discography, despite he rap skills. Doggystyle is an exception to this rule, being…

The fuck did I just listen to? It’s over in about 30 seconds, so it really is a bizarre assault on the senses. I think, at that length, I’ll just leave this here for you to click on, if you dare. https://archive.org/details/AAR00035

Ah, gotta love this. LDOH’s recent record and reformation had me looking back at the old stuff, and I went all the way back to the first demo. Its just bass, vocals, and horrendous noise. Sounds like Fear Of God meets 7 Minutes Of Nausea and is a far-cry from the gore stuff that would soon follow. Noise history here!

On Crystal Sun, Lost Cascades conjure an atmosphere as lush and as relaxing as the cover art promises. Heavily drawing from vaporwave, but without becoming trapped in the style, Crystal Sun is a uplifting and positive listen. Perfect working from home music, or even to unwind to. Brilliant stuff.

Faces Of Gore is an old Marc Palmen project (LDOH / Urine Festival). Here, reprinted as a split with Biocyst is the almost impossible to find demo entitled Bradyurethrorrhoea. Its not a far-cry from Urine Festival, or one of Bobby Maggard’s infinite gorenoise projects. It is sloppy, disgusting, and fantastic. Biocyst on the other hand, seem really familiar to me but I don’t think I’ve ever heard them before. Honestly, its more of the as…

Ah, good ol’ Libido Airbag. Testosterone Zone was a welcome return after a number of years in absence. If it could be compared to any earlier works then the closest would be the massive techno headfukk of Miss Melanoma. My own criticism of this thing is the crap cover art, but y’know, you can’t really complain in these circles. The production is honestly the best the duo has ever sounded, Sleaze Servant aside (or on…

Seemingly revered, but I’m not really vibing this. It sounds like any old band rehearsing in their garage. The riffs are awkward and the band doesn’t seem to gel all that well. The quality of a lot of cult demos is questionable, but this is just plain rubbish. Sorry. (Edit: this may seem very harsh a review, and this record isn’t as bad as I’m making out, absolutely not. But, its not for me)

It always pains me when it comes to doing negative reviews of a band that clearly has their shit together. If the band was downright awful then it wouldn’t be so bad. Unfortunately for Black Tomb, who are seemingly proficient musicians, they come across as a poor man’s Electric Wizard, and not as much else. I mean, this is doom metal folks, nothing is original here. But, there is nothing endearing, memorable or even interesting…

This kinda shit is where I go in my happy place. Sometimes I wonder about what the fuck is the point in all of this, the effort with the site etc., but fuck, when I die, bury me with goregrind tapes please. I’ve never heard this before, which is something I feel that I’ve snoozed on because I love both bands. LDOH stuff seems to be two sessions, and I’ve lost track of if I’ve…

Well then. This is dank as fuck. I’ve heard some miserable excuses for music over the years, and the whole world of depressive black metal prides itself on being able to make the most horrendous sounding albums with wanton disregard for production and audible clarity. Not that black metal is the genre inside which I die on a hill regarding sound quality, but this is so unforgivably bad that it gets to a point where…

This project is a cracking and volatile little collaboration between the members of (I think) Deflowered Cunt and Anal Cunt drummer Tim Morse. Abrasive, micro-blasting noisecore is the order of the day, living up in its entirety to the project’s name and its choice of art style. This is available on a limited run of cassettes for the true noise freaks, on which I can only imagine has a warmer sound than this digital version.

I’ve recently fallen back down the rabbit hole of playing Doom. As a kid I cut my teeth PC gaming by starting out with shooters like Doom. In fact, my original exposure to this terrifying world was the somewhat awful looking Sega 32X port, which culled levels from a few of the episodes and chucked them together. But when I got a pack that contained Ultimate Doom, Doom 2, and the Master Levels, I never…

Deaths Dynamic Shroud are a really interesting duo (trio?). Regret When It Was Lost, which I believe is the full translation, from my limited vaporwave knowledge, appears to be the most well known release from the band. There’s a sort of morose quality coursing through these electronic compositions, which are, truly, vaporwave only in name (its a genuine album, not just 80s pop songs slowed down, for example).

I had to check this out simply because of the name attached to it. Grainy pictures of prostitutes (mangled or otherwise) is a solid trope of the noise or power electronics worlds, but what can I say, I’m a sucker for everything exploitation. Aurally, The Dawn Of Sleaze is rather disappointing in a bash-your-pretty-skull-in way, instead opting for the intestinal massaging of what are almost walls (but not quite). There is some variation, but for…

I recently discovered (through the Steegcast podcast on the History Of Metal) that Budgie were originally from Cardiff, which is of course, just down’t road from me. I figured then it was probably best for me to go back and suss out some of this Budgie business. Solid, swaggering rock and or roll, with hints of proto-metal, presented through the typical analogue production sounds of the day. I do not mean this in a bad…

Thanks to Chris for recommending me Filthpact. Resurrected Under Condemnation collects together a whole bunch of material in one easy to listen format, and the listening is good. The sounds come from all corners of the extreme spectrum, from grind, to d-beat and hardcore punk, to something solid, chunky and more metal. Great stuff. I look forward to keeping an eye out for more Filthpact stuff in the future.

Fantastic record! What a shot in the arm (no pun intended regarding current worldwide climate) for my interest in The Mars Volta and their later work. It is easy to write this off as disappearing up its own arse, but this is spaced out, gloriously complex, Latin-influenced and drenched in saxophone and weird jazz movements. Add all of this to the band’s already interesting songwriting and you have an intense melting pot of gorgeous tracks….

Depending on who you speak to, COF either died with Midian or it is one of the greatest records the band ever did. I fall somewhat firmly into the latter camp, Midian was a stand-out in the gothic craziness that was the earlier Cradle days. I remember reading a review online, which must have been done by a very serious, very kvlt black metal fan, who said that Midian was pure trash and was nothing…

Drawing Down The Moon is a landmark of the more brutal side of the black metal spectrum. Beherit are, of course, a legendary name in such circles, but honestly I had always avoided this album because I thought the cover looked really terrible and it didn’t sell itself to me. I’m glad that eventually I got around to listening to this as its a monster of an album. Expect lo-fi war metal styled brutality, with…

CunningLynguists are a group whose name I’ve seen about the place quite a lot, but I’d never gotten around to checking them out until now. I guess if you’re a frequent reader of LIW (poor you) you’ll notice that this is a recurring theme, what with the sheer amount of music out there to be heard, so I’ll cut to the chase. A Piece Of Strange is a lovely slice of introspective hip hop, full…

Eccojams is considered a classic of the vaporwave genre, or least the initial movement. This makes sense as it has a lot of the tropes of the original projects, and can be compared in many ways to Macintosh Plus’s Floral Shoppe with its choppy, repetitive sampling and use of 80s pop songs playing at half speed (thereabouts). I’m unsure if there ever was a Vol. 2, but Vol. 1 is a fairly lengthy record. There…

This is the first time in years that I’ve taken a punt on a physical purchase based entirely on the artwork. A Discogs seller holding a Lord Gore tape that I wanted also had this, so I threw caution to the wind and bought the fucker. Three-titted toilet monster aside, this is some cracking death metal. Its not all straight up splatter of course, running through the veins of this band the chaotic undertones of…

I’m not super fussed on the production of this record but there is no denying its place in the history of brutal death metal and of course the finding of its feet in the slam world. The riffs are brutal and hardcore-tinged, the drums are glorious and the vocals are sick as fuck. Shame the production is a touch dry, but there’s no harm and no fowl (foul? Ha!)

It would be wrong to say that Internal Rot’s Mental Hygiene flew under the radar, as it did receive a high amount of hype from impressed grinders, but personally I believe Internal Rot should be up there alongside Magrudergrind, Wormrot, Insect Warfare, Nasum etc. – what we could possibly conceive as the “grindcore mainstream”. Mental Hygiene is such a great fucking album, and one that I heavily recommend.

This is one of those things where I cannot remember for the life of me where I picked the recommendation up from. Musically, its not something that I would usually listen to, but I found myself falling in love with Black Magick SS’ occult rock swagger. Hey, maybe its just everything I ever wanted Ghost to be, except not shit, and with a black metal influence. Whichever way you cut it, this shit fucking rocks….

Another few days or weeks, another Miles Davis record. Since the beginning of lockdown I’ve made a good effort (considering how much other stuff there is to listen to) to go back and work through a fair chunk of this man’s discography. Truly, it can be intimidating in scope, so I’m glad I finally got to grips with it. Blue Haze is a record from the classic era (I mean, isn’t it all classic? But…

I love Cradle Of Filth. I love classical music. I love hammy keyboards and the dungeon synth genre. Why then, if you smush all of these things together, as is the case with this record, are the results so resoundingly poor? This two disc set is so categorically the very definition of disappointment. Its the same tracks on both discs 1 and 2, the only difference is that on disc 1, the songs have new…

I love Immortal Technique. I have a lot of respect for his contributions to hip hop and his constant “revolutionary” attitude. No doubt it has caused many rap and hip hop fans to think outside the box on a lot of different issues. The 3rd World is no different in that regard, Tech is on point with his flows and his deliveries (as are the majority of the folks doing guesties), but the same issue…

Stunning, hypnotic electronic synthesiser soundscapes in the vaporwave aesthetic, however you could say this kind of thing borrows just as heavily from Berlin School and more traditional forms of electronic experimentation. Misty Eyes in the story of a man reflecting on the past 100 years (unless I have misunderstood that) and brings up all those powerful feelings of nostalgia and loss that reflection can touch upon, whether sad, bittersweet or even in a heartwarming way….

Is it black metal? Is it death metal? Is it grindcore? Such is the beauty of this particular blend of ‘bestial’ or ‘war’ metal. The guitars are a downtuned mush, the drums are a mess, the vocals are horrendous (some are even pitchshifted), but what a glorious cacophony it is! I’ve been checking out a lot of bands of this nature recently but Abysmal Lord has to be one of my favourites so far. Now…

By the order of the ancient underground tape trading kings of Old school death metal, I proclaim that Jungle Rot can and shall keep pumping out full lengths like its nobody’s business. You like war and death? You like metal? Throw ’em together and watch the fireworks show. Is it classic Rot? No probably not. Is it still a banger? Most definitely.

Wodensthrone are the masters of intricatley-woven black metal, taking instead a meandering, journey-like approach rather than a necro, slap you in the face with a stereo full of wasps approach. The keyboard work is fantastic, and really lends an epic edge to proceedings.

Good ol’ fashioned 90s-style bleeping blooping electronic music, from the days when this kinda thing felt all fresh and interesting. Autechre is, of course, more than this movement, although some of the warmer, soft synth sounds do remind me of AFX-related musics. LP5 is perfect however, right through there are stunning beat compositions and busy electronic works. I particularly like the repetitive first few minutes of the final track, which has a heavy industrial feel…

Iselder’s controversial first EP is not the strongest black metal release of the year, but it is an interesting listen and I did enjoy my first run through the works of this project. Unfortunately, I was a few days late when it came to the tape release, and missed out on a copy, which I would love to have. The artwork on this thing is something that has been a part of my life for…

And so ends the journey into the world of dementia, as led by The Caretaker. Part 6 is utter chaos and confusion (for the most part, at least), a fitting end to this harrowing project. How accurate is this? Who knows, especially for a story told entirely through the medium of sound. Either way, one must heavily commend The Caretaker on his monumental effort, and of course, for the light and focus that he has…

The guitar tones on this are just absolutely filthy. Overall the sound is massive yet a little dry, but the guitar fuzz is absolutely perfect, as are the strained yet often drenched in reverb vocals. For slow, stoned and treacly riffs, there really is no need to look any further.

What a trip! What a mood! Bringing nothing but good vibes through the medium of electronic music, George Clanton excels in this gorgeous and snappy synth pop outing. I only ever stumbled across this due to Pad Chennington’s 107 vaporwave albums you must hear list, and whilst this is not strictly lodged in that genre, there are a lot of tropes from that world, including nostalgic synth sounds and the occassional wobbles as if you…

Good ol’ Annihilator. Sometimes you just need to reach for the cheesy metal, and this nasty little thrash record has cheese in spades. The acoustic intro is a little too Metallica (not that they have a monopoly on widdly acoustic intros to trash records, but still) but the music thereafter is nothing but a pleasure to listen to. The lyrics are hammy as fuck but the music is not to be fucked with. Please try…

The title of this thing is just perfect, isn’t it? And what a start, at least with my experience with Ossuarium. Brutal, chunky death metal is the order of the day. If I had to be critical, I would say the drumming is a little rough, but otherwise this is a great release and I look forward to hearing more from these guys.

Ah, busy busy old timey jazz, just what the doctor ordered. The perfect music it seems, for playing chess on a lockdown Saturday night. I’m sure these musical geniuses of generation’s past could not have foreseen this, however. I hope they don’t mind. Anyway, this is brilliant urban, big-city jazz that conjures up visions of motorcars whizzing along wet streets and lovebirds snuggling into red leather booths at smokey clubs and restaurants.