Archive for 2021

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.

I often overlook just how fuckin’ good Deicide are. Their self-titled is a classic of death metal barbarity. Its more brutal than say, Morbid Angel, and whilst not as gore-drenched as Cannibal Corpse, Deicide’s debut offers up a ferocity, a feral element if you would that is missing from a lot of classic death metal, and would usually be attributed to war metal and the like. Great record.

This topped a lot of lists last year and I can totally see the hype is deserved. Stormkeep, whilst perhaps on the surface looking more like a dungeon synth project, actually play intense and interesting black metal. All the usual moving parts are here; the hyper-speed blasts, weeping guitars and shredding vocals, but things are twisted and presented in such a way to appear fresh, interesting and dynamic. A whirlwind of an album, and no…

Well then, this is fucking heavy, isn’t it? Been putting off checking out the super-hyped Hyperdontia (and I can see why) for a while now, but the real surprise of this little monster comes from Mortiferum, who are right up my slime-filled alley. Disgusting stuff all round, and some more bands to go on the never-ending check out list.

The Pit is my favourite track by this electronica project, and its easy to see why they decided to release it as a 7″ single (or the label decided, either way). Dark, broody bass and spooky synths are led by a banging beat and a 80s influenced vocall performance, whilst not being the greatest singing performance ever, lends itself excellently to the vibe and flavour being achieved here. If you never listen to Priest, at…

Perhaps I bit off more than I could chew by reviewing the Analord series as seperate entries. I tend to chain them, and they start to bleed into one for me. Even when reviewing seperately, I quickly run out of words to describe them. Guess my limited writing skill actually shows when it comes to this kind of complex electronic music haha So let me be brief then, Analord 04 is as good an entry…

This is really an intriguing album. The title alone promises something mystical and exciting, unknown and terrifying. The art, well, strip away three of those things, leaving terrifying. I think that word is probably the best way to describe this entire album. Like, who on earth allowed this to happen? If the man himself isn’t crooning out awkward ballads or pop numbers, he’s lending his “guitar” “skills” to a bevvy of lukewarm reggae / dancehall…

Outside of the “big four”, Municipal Waste was probably the first real thrash band that I got into. Their beer-soaked antics, which also proudly boasted hardcore punk influences, resonated with the battle jacket wearing metal fiend that I was at 19 years old. The Art Of Partying is a perfect example of that crazy sound, the ultimate party thrash vibe. The late 00s thrash revival didn’t quite go to plan, but Municipal Waste stood the…

I couldn’t think of a better name for this myself: these are Barbaric Visions indeed. Moody, dark, drab, damp, echoic – these are the words which come to mind when thinking back to this dismal and sombre split record. Both Shadow Dungeon and Forest Temple bring their own unique darkness to proceedings. A great split.

Swans’ self-titled EP is a far cry from the punishing experimentation that the band would originally become renown for. Gira and his ever-revolving musician friends are no strangers to growth and change, but Swans’ self-titled is probably the only one time where they truly belonged to a scene or movement and didn’t stand out on their own. Loosely associated with many of the tropes of the no wave scene, Swans is an awkward record taking…

Small town girlllllll! Haha! Now, I’m no stranger to weird and wonderful music, and of course one of the sad caveats that come with such worlds: music that is up its own arse, or collaborations that are just doomed to fail but float along on the artistic merit of those involved. I’m not want to shit on these worlds, but what Metallica and Lou Reed attempt to do with this “bold” and “challenging” record just…

There’s 52 ways to be a low key right wing asshat, one or two are the same, but they both work as well. I’m coming clean for the Proud Boys, my chauvinism doesn’t scream as well, and Eric Blair won’t listen all night… LOL. Famous Monsters was the second Graves-fronted Misfits album. Its much more smoother and melodic than the previous one, which is a bit faster and rougher around the edges. There are more…

I completely ignored 13 when it came out. I had no interest at all in the reunion, especially after the damage Sharon Osbourne has done to Sabbath over the years, effectively burying the Iommi solo years, and having Heaven And Hell form as a separate band. This is of course, barely the fucking surface of things when it comes to Sharon and her horrendous behaviour, but I digress. 13 is, simply, not very good. The…

This was a special listen. I’ve come across Telepath a few times in my forays into vaporwave, but this is an earlier record. I had the pleasure of listening to somebody’s glorious double cassette upload, which contains a number of additional bonus tracks. All in all, this is a lo-fi journey through dense atmospheres (similar to genre-mate HKE) and chilled out, laid back beats and sampled tracks. It’s 90 minutes long, but its worth every…

Nonsense of the purest, highest degree. I’m not really sure what is going on here, but this is pretty terrible all round. I love black metal, noise, grind, the lot – but this is MySpace bedroom-era trash. https://archive.org/details/AAR0073

I picked this up from a self-promoting post on Reddit. In what the artist describes as their 5th album, CD cobbles together chopped and scratchy Japanese samples in the true vaporwave / plunderphonics style. I’m not really clued up on Japanese culture at all, so I am not sure what the sources are for these sounds, in my ignorance I could take a guess at TV shows, commercial themes, and fuck knows what else. All…

Ultra pitch-shifted, slow and reminiscent of a bad acid trip. Disconscious is the soundtrack to wandering that abandoned mall in the recesses of your mind. Think of any mall today, and compare it to the glory days that you remember for that mall in the 80s or 90s. This is the soundtrack to those thoughts, which is a lot darker than its palm tree and classy car covered artwork would make it seem.

My pathetic little human brain cannot comprehend the sheer riff fuckery that is on display here. Death metal is getting more and more ambitious and the current “wave” of death revival is super fucking exciting. Enter then, Cryptic Shift, who suck a whole bunch of influences into their deathly whirlwind. This really is something special. The focus when it comes to the Visitations record is the first track, the absolutely gargantuan 25 minute epic that…

I’ve had this vinyl for about a decade if not longer and I’ve never really paid it any mind until now and I can see why. I was correct in my estimations that this kind of thing is simply not for me. Sure, I can take pleasure in the listening to of simple rock and or roll, but I won’t be returning for a round two.

Xasthur is a very depressing black metal project, this I have established firmly over several album listens in the last few years. Telepathic With The Deceased however, seems extra damp and fucking miserable and despite its fairly awful artwork, the music itself is a torrid affair of metal that sounds like it is completely and utterly done with the world. Its worth noting that in the Vice documentary on this kind of music, Xasthur becomes…

Tubular Bells is a fucking mad one, if you stop and think about. Like, I don’t know why the first part of this very uplifting and experimental journey was used in the unsettling as fuck movie The Exorcist (I’m sure Oldfield’s record label wasn’t complaining, sales wise!), but there we go. The “famous five minutes” aside, Tubular Bells is a mammoth release, where variations on a theme are looped over and over as Mike experiments…

Necroticism is a weird one. It has a strange feeling for me, that despite being a death metal record with plenty of pacy moments or even blasts, the whole thing just feels like it’s trundling along at a snails pace. I’m not sure exactly what it is that causes it to feel like this, but it is what it is. Traditionally, my listening of this band would end here, as the group transitioned away from…

Ah, Pulse Demon. There aren’t many stand out individual noise records. Bands, sure, but individual records? There aren’t that many. Pulse Demon is probably one of the most instantly recognisable, but is it one of the better offerings from Merzbow? And why is it so popular? Well, for starters, its got everything from the Merzbow project. It captures – from the prime era – all of the project’s great attributes. It’s not as intensely incinerating…

This is one of my all time favourite Genesis / Megadrive soundtracks. I found the game impossibly hard as a child (I don’t think I ever completed it), but its soundtrack will stick with me until the end of time. It is upbeat and jaunty, and other times slow, melancholic and pensive. It is often simplistic, yet other times unfolds into glorious chiptune pomp. Really, this has it all, and its a long one, too….

I’ve been meaning to check out Clipping. for a serious amount of time now. I finally got to listen to …Addiction To Blood in the dying months of 2020, and I soon grew to learn what all the fuss is about. The first thing to notice is there is no immediate urgency with this record. The songs creep slow, building all sorts of menacing atmospheres. On the first run through, a lot of the tracks…

Darkly Darkly is a hideously-titled later effort from Cradle Of Filth, in what I refer to as the post-Thornography lull of disinteresting releases (Devil’s Thunder aside). Darkly is just that – dark, almost artificially so. Cradle’s sense of mystery and evil is something that permeates most of it’s musical output over the years, however here on Darkly Darkly the atmosphere seems forced and cheesy, and a little crap, to be honest. Musically, the band are…

There has been a lot of hype around this band as of late. Vinyl prices for Satan Sex Ceremonies (and I’m sure, other releases from them) are nothing short of extortionate. Perhaps then, I went into this album with too much of an expectation. The art too, conjurs up an unique sense of sleaze and evil, of which the sound does not match. Mephistofeles play laid back stoner rock in the vein of Electric Wizard…

This is just glorious in every conceivable way. The legendary Floral Shoppe by Macintosh Plus is “re-imagined” in this recent reworking from the (I’m sure intentionally) similarly-named MACマイナス. That may undersell this record however; this is not just a re-hashing, although some themes from the original do get a reprise. This is much more, this is a record with its own life and its own vibe, although I have to agree that it does carry…

Heavy, dense, dark electronics meet droning, rumbling guitars in this 26 minute oddysey. I’ve had this on my to-do list since about 2014, and I’ve listened to it a 100 times since. Finally then, it gets committed to the Lines In Wax site. How simple yet unsettling is that art? Especially when placed alongside the title of this record? Interesting stuff.

I’ve given this a few listens over the last few weeks. It was one of the records I used to test the Sony WH3’s (I forget the full name), and probably one of the only things that actually sounded good through those overpriced cans. Anyway, I digress. I find Black Saint And The Sinner Lady to be rather inpenetrable, which is unusual, considering the breadth of mental jazz that I have listened to over the…

The start of a highly commercial period for Bowie, I believe Let’s Dance is possibly his best selling album? The title track is great and there are some lovely entries here along with it, but I can’t really fall in love with this the way I want to.

Sketches Vol. 2 is the 2nd volume (you don’t say?) of tunes created using a Teenage Engineering PO-33 device. I’ve recently been checking out YouTube tutorials on these little bits of kit, and stumbled eventually onto Gar Hoover’s compilation here. Honestly, this is really cool and really chill, and a great example of how the device can be used to make beats. I look forward to checking out Vol. 1 one day. Cheers!

Trult, madly, beautifully awful. There is so much manufactured angst in this I feel an inescapable desire to purchase spiked wristbands before the record is over. I wasn’t into Kittie when I was younger and I’m not into them now. Oh well, was worth a go.

Got recommended this as an example of a dungeon synth subgenre that I hadn’t previously come across. Introducing the frankly ridiculous sounding ‘dinosynth’ (hey, its not as shit as comfy synth at least). Diplodocus however, plays very stimulating classic DS-like compositions, with obligatory dinosaur-related sampling. All in all, its a pretty solid synthesizer record.

Upbeat, swinging 50s style bop jazz which sounds like its from some lost world. I can imagine this playing in a Fallout game or the ballroom of The Shining. Release date is 1985 for my cassette copy but unsure if the recording came earlier. It certainly sounds like it. It’s not supposed to be, but this is spooky shit. 2021 edit: I can’t actually find a copy of my version online. It has a different…

I remember being severely bored by this release when it came out. I think it was probably impossible to top the gargantuan Annihilation Of The Wicked, to be honest, but it would be wrong if I held a grudge against this follow up for that reason. Whilst it held no real highlights for me when I first heard it, I can now listen to this back and appreciate it for the solid death metal record…

On Gothom City (what is with that spelling?), Esham wheels out all the tropes of his best work; the violence, the sex, the crummy self-production, and the rest of the guys from NATAS, just because. Gothom is generally more polished than say, Closed Casket or KKKill The Fetus, but still has that unique sound. However, at this point in the Esham canon things are starting to become derivative. Is it great, yes – but almost…

Well isn’t this just positively, delightfully disgusting? Before Splattered Entrails went all big production sci fi vibe on us, the project churned out such ditties as this enormously ridiculous opus entitled Choking On The Rot. I idolised this God tier bedroom goregrind splatter when I was younger. As a responsible adult however, it doesn’t pack the same punch for me. On returning to it I’ve found it a bit samey, but all in all this…

Phaedra is possibly the most well known Tangerine Dream record. Its appearance as a path-diverging choice in the mindfuck that was Bandersnatch (Black Mirror’s feature length choose-your-own adventure) has no doubt contributed to its resurgence. Over the last few months I have listened to an original mix and then the Steve Wilson remaster, including the additional outtakes and alternative versions that were presented in that remaster package. I’m not too fussed on the extra takes,…

I still stand by my earlier statements that Cannabis Corpse is better than Cannibal Corpse. An ignorant statement perhaps, when comparing genuinely to the ongoing legacy of Cannibal Corpse, but a testament also to the sheer skill of Cannabis Corpse. A parody in name only, Beneath Grow Lights Thou Shalt Rise is another slab of absolutely perfect death metal. The production is glorious and the music is excellent. I absolutely cannot ask for more from…

It was the announcement of Slowthai’s second record that made me fucking stop and realise just how goddamn fast time is going these days, especially in lockdown life. Here it is then, my somewhat late quick entry for the artist’s cheeky debut. He’s right though, there ain’t much great about Britain, at least not urban Britain, and that disgust, angst and attitude is distilled entirely into the record itself. It’s like The Streets’ Original Pirate…

A cigar in the garden (a cigarden?) on a Saturday afternoon can only be accompanied by such classy yet rough and ready tunage. I’d need to look into the line up here a bit more but Miles and his gang are on top form. Several live variations on the Bitches Brew classics are presented, and then some. A treat.

News At 11 is now something of a legendary release in the ever growing and evolving world that is vaporwave. Evoking somewhat more of a sad nostalgia rather than the warm yet melancholic lost futures of regular mall vapor, News At 11 treats us to a treacle-paced retrospective back to a morning when the world changed forever.

Pharmakon is a lass that knows how to invoke a creepy atmosphere or six. Long before Lingua Ignota brought screaming into the mic under the mainstream light, Pharmakon was churning out gorgeously disgusting power electronics like it was nobody’s business. What I love the most about Pharmakon is that there is no need to wallow in the depths of endless distortion in order to create chaotic or unsettling soundscapes. Yes, these are often clear and…

Ever onwards I go through the Sabbath catalogue. Admittedly, on first listen, The Eternal Idol is a shock, even after Seventh Star. Nothing about this looks or feels like a Sabbath record, from the bizarre, 80s-as-fuck art that wouldn’t be amiss on some sort of dark vaporwave cassette, to the crooning stadium rock that fills the disc. Honestly, I don’t understand why Sharon’s legal team seems so intent on wiping out the post-Ozzy (or even…

Punishing heavy thrash from the legends that are Sepultura. For the most part growing up I only ever really associated Roots with Sepultura. It was only in later years that I went back and discovered their earlier 80s/90s output, which is of course savage as fook and all of which are now mostly metal classics. Beneath The Remains is no different. It is a perfect example of the band’s earlier output, and a stunning thrash-tinged…

Another chunky, bludgeoning goregrind-tinged br00tal death offering from the lads in RazorRape, Stripped To Kill has a bizarre and hollow production sound. I’m not the only person to have noticed this it seems, as one of the comments on the YouTube upload of this says its like listening to music coming from someone else’s headphones on the bus. I had to laugh at that. I like the artwork to this one. It has a smidge…

There’s something sweet about the chilled out yet morose tunes of Portishead. Sure, the beats are definitely sounding their age, but the spacey atmospheres and glorious vocal performances that makes this debut so exciting, even today.

What I like about Waco Jesus is that they are primarily a death metal band that doesn’t take themselves too seriously, yet also manages to retain a brutal and sinister edge. Some of the misogynistic overtones are a bit much, especially by 2021 standards, but this is brutal death metal we’re talking about so realistically I need to shut my fucking face about that. A solid record, if not a little short for a death…

Another few months go by, its time to listen to another NxVx split. This time its the pretty fucking good split with the legendary Stoma from The Netherlands. NxVx are on their own sickness ting; rattling bass that echoes through the slave pits and pleasure pits of the seediest vice planets, all lo-fi as shit. Stoma on the other hand still sound pretty lo-fi but also massive as fuck. The sound is perfect. A great…

P.L.F. are always a pleasure. Continuing my shitty P.L.F. puns, having this record queued up in my to-do list could have been called a Pleasurable Listening Forecast (I’ll show myself out). Despite my love for this band I am not super familair with the ins and outs of their splits, and this is the first time I’ve heard them use a pitchshifter, which is an interesting variation. Before I chuck this on and actually press…

Reset is the sophomore Tower Of The Sun record, and showcases the gorgeous expansion that the project has made with its sound. Like an unusual fungi growing across a dirty crystal on a far away planet spinning around an even farther away star, Reset does not so much as press restart on the group’s sound, but instead represents a delicious mutation instead.

Darkthrone had an oddly clean beginning for a band that would go on to spend decades wallowing in lo-fi disgust. Soulside Journey is, if you’ve not heard, quite different to most of what was to follow from this excellent duo. There are echoes of the frostbitten riffs that would define their sound going forward, but for the most part, Soulside Journey is a clanking death metal beast and an interesting beginning for one of the…

I heard you like foot fetish oriented slabs of crushing noise, bro? No? Oh. Well, The Rita brought some anyway. I have a rip of this on my computer and I have absolutely zero idea where it came from haha – either way its a lovely harsh massage of the senses. Its impossible to keep abreast of The Rita but when our paths do cross I always enjoy the experience.

Become The Bitch is the delightfully titled third album from Dutch party goregrind legends, Rectal Smegma. Here, the Smegma have chunked out further since their first release. Gone mostly are the party vibes and tupa tupa grooves, instead a more punishing death metal sound is utilised, through a chunky production that is heavy yet crystal clear (that bass sound, aye aye aye!). What makes Rectal Smegma sound apart from other bands of this style though…

Can’t say I’m the biggest fan of this kind of thing but in 2020 I made the decision to look back at some of metal’s greats, including Maiden, Sabbath and Priest. Killers is, of course, a world-class record. I absolutely love the old analogue production, the drumming and the bass are a pleasure to listen to. For a casual listener such as myself, hearing Maiden without Dickinson is weird, but refreshing. Plus, I love that…

I was performing the impossible task of hunting down Reekorrhoea demos when I found out via Discogs that the legendary Grindfather had released the entire collection on cassette. Time to break out the Walkman with the dodgy drive belt then, for some excellent gore. Honestly, a few of the sessions are bit hit and miss, but when it hits, Reeko is fucking unbeatable. I’ve covered some of this material before in various demo reviews but…

Jurassic Park for the Genesis was a slow, clanky mess of a game, but one that had its own kind of bizarre, dark atmosphere. A lot of that lives on today in this minimal and bassy soundtrack. From the groove of the tectonic “Jungle” theme, the anxiety of the “Pumping Station”, the abstract “Volcano” or the balls-out rock of “The Visitor Center”, the music of Jurassic Park for the genesis is a unique and haunting…

A back to basics approach is given on this early release from Imminent Starvation. I’m enjoying the “end of humanity” vibes on offer here, which are always good fun. Tops. All in all, pulsing, no nonsense electronic music for those who like it to hit that little bit harder.

Target Earth was the first Voïvod record that I ever heard, asides from a few minutes of Dimension Hatröss when I was a younger gentleman (Lies! I was never young!). Target Earth is also the first record that allowed me to “get” Voïvod’s bizarre brand of sci-fi thrash. Expect the usual wailing guitars, robotic vocals and odd time signatures, but of course, with Voïvod, always expect the unexpected. A fantastic progressive metal adventure.

Skeng is one of the best Bug tracks, so of course it deserves its own dub. The original is cut, chopped, mangled, and turned into a new beast all of its own. 6 minutes of genius.

Find Candace is one record from what I like to call the “spooky” era of Venetian Snares. Unsettling samples, child-like doll artwork and an overall air of menace permeates these scatterfuck breakcore compositions. To write Venetian Snares off as pure chaos though does do the man a disservice; the beats and tracks in general here are meticulously created to provide you, the listener, with an uncomfortable electronic music experience.

Short, sharp and to the point. Featuring live soundboard recordings earmarked originally for a (cancelled) split release, Unholy Grave eventually found these tracks released on cassette by Grindfather Productions, and thats what we have here. Things are pretty grimy, even for a soundboard recording, but if you know what Unholy Grave are about then this is, pardon me for saying, more of the same. That’s not necessarily a bad thing in these circles. One for…

Cheers to Earache Records for reminding about this band in a recent tone-deaf meme post which appears to have significantly backfired for them. Anyway, Tomb Mold play a disgusting blend of muddy gore, which is coupled with an abstract and even a technical edge. The production is gorgeous, crisp and meaty. One of the best in the new crop of bizarre death metal legends. Speaking of which, Tomb Mold were one of, if not the…

Typical yet enjoyable slam from another disgusting band with another disgusting name. The incredibly small, tight and horrendous snare drum wins out here. The drum sound appeals to the deepest, most emotional core of my heart. Throw some hammers.

Dusty, sloppy, death metal inspired grindcore is the order of the day. Of course, Blood are the absolute best at this kind of thing. I’d always put off listening to them until I saw them one year at OEF and damn they blew me away. They still retain this incredible sound even now. Mental Conflicts is a bit all over the place, but its a fuckin’ doozy. You’ve always wanted a grindcore rendition of “Auld…

Roman Polanski’s Repulsion has been on the to-do list for a very long time, even more so since I saw Catherine Deneuve in Belle De Jour. I’m not sure that I like Repulsion as much as Belle but she’s perfect for this role, regardless. Deneuve has a still, fragile beauty which betrays no flicker of the chaos unravelling in her character’s mind. Which is, of course, perfect for such an artsy black and white psychological…

I’ve been putting off all things Dune for many, many years. The density of Herbert’s fantasy has always had me rescheduling my goosery into such. The movie, well, I heard was awful, despite being a Lynch film. But, with the 2020 remake coming, I figured now was the time to get caught up, at least with the previous cinematic offerings that came from this world. Dune is a mess, to put it simply. David Lynch…

Ah, here comes the inevitable disappointment. No? Well, that’s a relief. Although I will say watching this made me feel empty. Why? Maybe its because it disregards all original Halloween sequels. Sure, awful as they mostly are, you’re making a bold statement by erasing a chunk of horror cinema history to rewrite it with… what, exactly? Did the entire Halloween franchise really need to be undone for this? What does it offer in continuation or…

As part of my mission to explore more mainstream records that I have overlooked, the most-recognised “debut” of “proper” Pantera came into my periphery. Still boasting some silly tropes of their earlier style, Cowboys From Hell is an odd mix of redneck metal and cringeworthy power metal tropes. Honestly, I just fucking don’t like Pantera. At all.

I’ve always considered Umpskiptar the low key death rattle to the initial Burzum black metal return. The project is barely black metal at all anymore, the songs lean much more towards overt norse and Viking vibes than they do anything dark and evil. That’s not to say that Umpskiptar is necessarily bad however, it actually has its own kinda unique charm to it. The songs are generally long and winding, again that trademark Vikernes hypnotic…

Endroducing is a textbook case of the plunderphonics movement; samples are the focus of the audio collage here, all of which are artfully and gorgeously woven into fantastic tunes for us all to enjoy. This is literally the perfect soundtrack to walking through the city in the rain, at least in my case!

Don’t you just love it when you pick something random to listen to and it blows your head off? Galactic Edge is a strange release, coupling tracks from the Galactic Supermarket album and mixing them with a few new ones, but this doesn’t really matter to me as I am new to this artist and instead am more focussed on just how good this is. I guess it would class as some sort of thinking…

Ah, such woe, such wistfulness! If you’re in the mood for slapping your headphones on and losing yourself in a journey, then I would recommend this record. Great stuff.

I got sent one of these by Bobby back in 2013, which came with a cache of other massively disgusting gore and noise. Transpired Bowel Junk is no different; expect blasting, headache inducing goregrind with a noisy edge. A pleasure to listen to, no doubt.