Archive for 2022

Onwards through the Analord universe! The opening track to this one always lights me up with energy, it’s like something out of an old Sonic The Hedgehog game but in an acid techno style. Track 3 has always stuck with me, with its haunting, warbling synth lead.

Hellripper are fucking class. Taking from the uhh, Midnight / Abigail / Naked Whipper school of thrashy, punky black metal, imagine Darkthrone’s late 2000s crust output pushed up to 11. A compilation, but a good section of material to get your jowls dripping for more. The record’s title gives you all the info you need on whether to press play or not. Personally, I think you should.

Silly yet fun little EP from death meets grind British metallers Foetal Juice. If you like puns in your metal, you’ll love this slice of insanity. Really good production too.

As much as I love Legion I find the production so dense and impenetrable I can’t help but prefer both the self-titled and Once Upon The Cross to it. Legion is arguably more brutal, but there is more nuance here, and I think the record works better for it. The band are firing on all cylinders here. Thick and chunky with a dry, unforgiving production. Not as viscerally decimating as Legion, but still an infinitely…

Solid later-career effort here from everyone’s favourite Third Reich fetishising grandpa. Even after my own in-depth analysis, I still have no idea where Di6 stands politically, at least not in regards to the music that the project creates, but thankfully the overt and endless Nazi references are somewhat subdued here on The Rule Of Thirds (unless of course I’m just too stupid to notice the dog whistles). Honestly though, after an experimental period it was…

Intense, dusty and archaic black metal from one of the guys involved in Morgue Tar (which is excellent by the way). I love how this thing juxtaposes between lengthy keyboard pieces (not in the Cradle Of Filth way, these compositions feel more in line with horror movies and are buried behind a million layers of dust) and intense, raw black metal. Things aren’t “raw” to the point of being unlistenable or becoming the dreaded wasps-in-a-jar…

Haggus, despite being a fairly new band in the lifespan of “mincecore” have gotta be the ones who are holding that gold standard up high (along with Archagathus and Hyperemesis (RIP)). This split with Fentanyl Surprise is no different: intense, super bassy and chunky production underpins the sickening toilet bowl vokills and insane dustbin drums. It’s just so gooey and disgusting! I love it.  Fentanyl Surprise have a bit more of an old-school grindcore sound…

As much as I want to be a grown-up music reviewer and as much as I want bands and artists to naturally grow and evolve, I simply gotta say: goddamn I miss it when 40 Watt Sun was heavy. Distortion-filled 40 Watt, both live and on-record, is some of the best stuff that I have ever witnessed.  Not that I do not appreciate what Patrick Walker is doing here, of course. I saw 40 Watt…

The earlier Berzerker stuff just got harder and harder the closer we got to the “band” Self-Titled (although, to be fair, Luke has always gone hard). Broken (or Untitled EP, depending on your source), is a harsh and head-pounding listen, where all the speedcore craziness gets dialled up every further.  It’s worth checking out if you’re a fan of the earlier full-band stuff but don’t expect any grindcore or death metal here. It’s straight up…

Malad are great. I had a cassette of theirs once, but I’ve lost it or traded it away. Useless!  Anyway, I love the rumbling noisecore carnage here. Not much that can be said, but if you love warm, distorted, horrible old school noisecore on cassette then look no further.  Inopexia have (dare I say) a slightly cleaner sound, and more of a goregrind vibe, but it’s still car crash noise craziness.

Excellent production, but one that is kinda typical for this 10s era hipster hip hop stuff. Like I said though, excellently done, especially in the beats department. For all the vibes here the beats are consistently great.  Lyrically, things are quite clever, but there are some stinkers (like the forced reference to MBV’s Loveless). Likewise the guest spots are equally so-so, with some excellent verses from Danny Brown, El-P and Despot. I’d never heard Despot…

15 traXXX in four minutes? Sounds about right to me, guvnor. Expect the wateriest, most ridiculous shifter vocals, and y’know what, some actually really well programmed drums. And that’s it. No guitars or bass or anything like that. Just drum programmed blasts and toilet vocals. This is gore (porn?) noise as God intende

Raw, fearless and endlessly unfolding live and free jazz! Everything about that sentence sounds amazing, but in practice, between a third and a half way through this two hour twenty minute chungus of a set, I threw in the towel. There’s free jazz, and then there’s FrEe jAZz. The absolute mental breakdown that is “Desert Dance” had me going spongebob_ima_head_out.gif – like, I’m into some wild shit but who wants to hear a twenty minute…

Interesting take on some of the self-titled stuff, with a completely different running order and some omissions / changes. The funniest thing about this for me is that the original working title for “Ignorance” is “Black Metal”.  This little disc is definitely one for the die-hards to hunt down though, and everyone else should go straight to the excellent self-titled release from 2000.

Inextricable Zenith is a notable entry into the evolution of the Berzerker because it was on this EP that the cover version or remix of Deicide’s “Once Upon The Cross” first appeared. It starts to make more sense, upon hearing this, and the EP in general, which is super aggressive, as to how the Berzerker migrated from being a gabba project into a grindcore band. If I had one complaint about this EP though is…

I’ve always loved the production on this record and that super chunky yet warm sound works when the band are playing rousing party-doom or even the slowest, bleakest musical creation that they can conjure up. Speaking of both of these styles, II: Crush The Insects is comprised of both of them. Be fooled not by opening trio of “Doom Over The World”, “The Devil Rides Out” and “Cromwell” (watch out for the bass chords in…

I may be something of a novice when it comes to the Handsome Family, getting into them through them being featured as the theme song to the first season of True Detective, but damn, this stuff is unsettling. I’ve enjoyed the band’s misty, unnerving country music immensely, so I was shocked to fire up Odessa and find a brand of music more in line with the grunge. The guitar work hits incredibly hard though, and…

What a dingy composition! I was expecting early black metal but instead got something a bit more, idk, Possessed? Is that a correct comparison? I’m not sure. That’s what listening to random shit at 2am will do to you! I guess this thing predates most black metal anyway so I should have realised. Visio Dei Beatifica has that early tape demo feel about it which is just beautiful. Oh, and I will say, the drummer…

Solo album from ex Mushroomhead frontman, although this was put out when he was still in the group. This starts off a bit like, how are you still making nu metal in 2011 but then it opens up around the half way point into some absolutely fantastic tunes. Well worth a listen and I am massively late to the party on this one. It’s a treat for MRH fans too, as even though the majority…

One of the best bits of grind / powerviolence records I’ve heard in quite some time. I find this channels Gets Worse kinda energy, with incredibly crisp and clear production but without sounding overworked. It really allows the carnage to breathe, and you can feel every blast, every blurry riff and every shredding vocal with equal intensity. Super recommended.

Super turgid, lo-fi grindcore from the faraway land of Japan. Great shit, with a pinging snare, rancid bass and the front woman is on absolute fire with her range of disgusting offerings. One for the crustier side of grind.

Fathomless death metal with a doom influence, all the way from Brazil. Sporting one of the coolest cover artwork pieces of the last few years, Fossilization channel both Disembowelment and Morbid Angel at the same time, but with the aesthetic of Carcass (or the nastier end of the metal stick – just look at that logo!). A promising start and a tidy EP.

Bizarre, almost progressive piece of death metal with jagged, rough edges. When I say “almost” progressive, I mean that Coffin Dust are still chunky and muddy as fuck, living up to their name for sure. But there’s a spark running through this that separates it from most death metal, which starts in the artwork and permeates the whole recording.

Hiss is to grindcore what Cattle Decapitation’s Harvest Floor is to death metal. I appreciate what the guys are doing here, pushing the boundaries of grind in the way that many greats have before them (Nasum, Pig Destroyer, Antigama, Assuck, Discordance Axis and so on). There’s a lot of dissonant guitar playing here, which is lovely. The drums are absolutely bonkers yet very precise, I forgot how good this guy was, and it’s been a…

When you look past Meat Shit’s ultra misogynistic and homophobic subject matter (if you can actually look past it, as some of it has aged like milk), there’s actually a really dank grindcore / death metal band underneath. Definitely these guys have influenced everyone from Gut to Lividity and plenty in between. This is a compilation of old demos and tons of splits, which I’ll cover separately in order to catch the other bands contributions….

Ah, Crypt Of The Wizard. It is of course probably typical for something as nerdy as “Dark Dungeon Music” or dungeon synth to have such a complicated history. Folk will often mistake this for an album, but Crypt Of The Wizard is a compilation of a series of 12″s released by Mortiis over 1996 and 1997. Despite the LP format, these 12″s contained much more short-form style tracks than what Mortiis was known for at…

File under the more dreamy, spacey end of vaporwave. Expect treacle-like synths and dense atmospheres, as if experiencing an acid trip through a 56kbs dial up connection modem. Stunning stuff.

Ah, wow. Now this is just a glorious fucking mess. I mean, the cover art kinda tells you that before you even press play. Morgue Tar mix the bottom of the sewer style goregrind with d-beat , which is just glorious. I’m not talking about a bit of mince here that’s leant a little heavily into it’s punkier roots, I’m talking 100% d-beat crossed with gore. They should have called this Dismorgue.

Massgrav are fast as fuck. I first came across them on a split 5” with Yacopsae but then I forgot about them until I saw them live and was blown away by the speed of things. This War… is the first full length I’ve checked out and damn it’s amazing. Super fast hardcore punk on steroids. Fastcore is a genre I have neglected for some reason, in my life. It’s brilliant.

I did a lot of digging into Death In June’s politics recently and a lot of people pointed me at Current 93’s “Hitler As Kalki”, which is on this album. It contains a lot of wishy washy references to Kalki and places Hitler in there as the one who will come to destroy the world (or whatever), but for the most part this stuff is so esoteric and dare I say rambling I see no…

Relapse is probably the most “modern” Eminem record that I look on fondly. A lot of the songs are recorded in this weird accent (just check out the first track “3AM”) but that aside, this is pretty solid. The misogyny and homophobia is enormously high as per usual. The bonus disk, Refill, isn’t really up to much (as soon as I heard Lil Wayne my expectations plummeted). Also, for all the years I’ve listened to…

Macabre have a strange and twisted genius to them. On the surface, it seems like silly, childish takes on the disgusting and horrifying works of serial killers, much like Pungent Stench and their comedic view of sex and violence. However, listen just a little closer, and you can appreciate the true genius of Macabre. True – if you don’t like grindcore or death metal you’re fucked out of luck before you start, but this stuff…

Absolutely banging thrash that doesn’t let up from the start to the finish. Really lovely production too, where everything is clear and day and the drums pop through nicely. Disgusted to say that after 20+ years of being a metalhead this is the first time I’ve heard Tankard.

Rainbow’s Rising perfects the formula (or should I say recipe) that was put down in the 1975 self-titled, and builds and expands on the excellent song writing that we saw there. Adding the legendary Cozy Powell on drums, Rising is more ambitious, and is wrapped in a warm analogue production that really signs, seals and delivers this thing across the line.

Festerdecay’s demo was amazing old school gore, so I was pretty stoked to get around to listening to this split, which has more of that gooey sickness. Blasting away with a better production job, it’s still easy to get lost in the primordial soup that is Festerdecay’s riffing. What a glorious, dusty mess! Really great stuff. Crash Syndrom I’ve come across before (one of their EPs, I think), and are noticeably sharper and more dynamic…

In 2007 locust released what would be their final studio album to date. It’s actually incredible how much time has passed since this final studio album and it still even now feels kinda weird to be talking about the band in the past tense. Even from the first few notes, you can tell that New Erections is a different beast to what has come before. The record is full of the bleeping blooping batshit crazy…

I’ve never been too hot on Guineapig, as at first listen it seemed like a much more polished and easily digestible version of what CBT has been doing for years. But this was narrow minded and stupid. Bacteria is a very chunky album, slow and chuggy, but with a few blasting passages too. What makes this thing pop for me though is the insane pitchshifter vokills, which are some of the best I’ve heard in…

Dirty, drab, rehearsal room feel hybrid of death metal and grindcore, with an amateurish edge that actually lends a lot of fun to proceedings. Despite the production quality, everything is audible here, but the drums do get drowned out now and then by the guitar. I don’t think Organ Grinder (at least, this particular French band with the name Organ Grinder – its a popular name it seems) went on to do all that much,…

This is one of those cases where the record sounds like it was recorded in the early 90s, rather than in 2020, year of the ‘VID. Sunken Grove then, obviously have the classic DS vibe pinned down. In a similar vein, the compositions are not intricately involved, instead forming and morphing from simple yet pure satisfying melodic progressions, lapping over in a meditative state. There is a layer of darkness here too, but it is…

Arguably the definitive Impetigo record? It’s hard to say. I’ve struggled to get into Impetigo in the past but with Horror Of The Zombies, that all changed. This has to be one of my favourite sounds in all of metal, punk and grind. It’s just so dirty, grimy and dusty. I just want a million cassettes of this thing, so you can bury them with me once I die. Impetigo perhaps need no introduction, but…

Trust Sikfuk to further devolve an already disgusting death metal reference into something even more puerile and gross. Do not be put off by the childish album title however, as Sikfuk do not fuck (or is that fuk?) around. It may take you a short while to adjust to the hollowness of the production, but once that little bit of trouble is aside, the sheer brilliance of this technical yet messy brutal death metal album…

I was well into ICP when I was in my teens but I don’t actually recall buying this. I think it was from Play.com or some such archaic method of acquiring physical media. For the most part, these songs are ICP cutting room floor grade of hip hop / horrorcore cheese. I use horrorcore in the lightest sense also, despite this being one half of one of the genre’s most defining acts, the link here…

This is probably the best live album I’ve heard from this project so far. It seems to offer something interesting aside from the usual 1 man acoustic renditions of all the hits. The recently deceased Albin Julius is a part of the live show, providing a layer of electronic sounds. This live document was taken around the Operation Hummingbird era, so that makes sense. But yeah, a lot of classics from various eras of Di6’s…

I believe the name of this group more less translates to Path, and the record is called Death Songs, which is very fitting with the excellent cover art. I find the metal styles on display a collaborative form between black metal and progressive. The songs are often long and weighty, and the vocals and production are excellent. It’s not really my cup of tea and I went in on the strength of the sleeve alone,…

I was a huge fan of others works by this project but Vid Himinsenda fell to the side somewhat. I listened to them both for the first time in the summer of the 2020 lockdown, but whilst Fjällets Gyllene Slott stayed with me, this was lost on me a bit. Everything sounds great, but its a bit derivative and plodding in parts, playing into the safe area of dungeon synth that basically just rips off…

Short, fragmented visions into a static-filled future (or past). Each track acts as a snippet into a different world, each world punctuated by its own version of a dreamy or somewhat haunting synthesizer mood or melody (I use melody in the loosest sense of the word). It’s kinda like channel hopping, or band hopping on the radio, and finding nothing but floating synthesizer soundscapes on every channel. One for the small hours. (Also, if that’s…

I was thinking recently on the mystery of Revenant Marquis and I went over to Spotify to see if any of the records were there and what do you know, turns out the project has a new(ish) release that I haven’t heard yet! Eagerly excited for more muffled kvlt metal that I can’t make head or tail of due to the extra rubbish production, I instead was met with a very invocative series of atmospheric…

I’ve always preferred electronic/experimental Ulver to the black metal era of the band but you cannot argue with the sheer genius that is Bergtatt. Easily my favourite of the 3 original “metal” (or folk) records, this is up there with the other classics of the genre in the early 90s. Do not expect intense harshness; the mix is fairly balanced, but the record is all the greater for it.

These guys catch a lot of shit for their association with Mikko Aspa, having all of their records so far released on his label, Northern Heritage. But anyway, I’d downloaded and listened to this thing before I knew that so – how does Mgła sound? These guys are intensely hyped in the scene, and to be honest, I can kinda see why. Exercises In Futility is an intricately woven blanket of sound. Broken into six…

A random suggestion (cheers Ifan!) was one I couldn’t turn down once I’d checked out that cover art. Some solid death metal is afoot, played in the “new” old school style, but with the clarity of a modern production. There’s a ton of this stuff around at the moment and its becoming increasingly difficult to stand out in the bog. Thankfully however Sarcoughagus do just that, with a tidy delivery of disgusting death, released (of…

Mashing slam and death metal with the boisterousness of the UK hardcore scene, AOAA exploded onto the underground circuit with this EP. I remember being a little pissed off at all the core and emo kids all of a sudden being into heavy shit (I was a battle-jacket wearing dickhead back then), but I was also low-key super into the slams, bro. Especially after seeing these guys live. Some of the lyrics have aged like…

Probably high time I reviewed this as today I got the news that Betty Davis had passed on. RIP. (This review was written in February 2022 – Ed). Her voice is something else, really pushing that cracked, strained and from-the-soul delivery, even if most of her songs are about getting dicked down instead of having a broken heart (perhaps both? Haha). Honestly though this thing is absolutely dripping with style, funk and passion. I bet…

I enjoyed the previous King Dude record heavily (if you mean Love then that was several albums back – Ed). It seemed to blend the mystique of the neofolk world with that of a more Type O Negative sensibility, if you get what I mean. Sadly, on Sex, King’s stripped down occult swagger is replaced instead with fairly basic rock and roll. There is still a Satanic feel to it, and your Dude here still…

Updated June 2024: In September 2022, I wrote the following about Realm Of Chaos: “I’ve never been the biggest fan of Bolt Thrower. I think that’s entirely because I never really bought into the hype, more than out of any dislike for what I’ve heard. My knowledge of this band however, begins and ends with this album. I’ve never heard any others. That may change however, as I’ve spun this a few times recently and…

This ambient piece seems to be revered online, and I suppose with good reason. Towers presents 4 enormous atmospheric chunks, where the sounds of life and – I guess – the city, are mangled and distorted into surreal passages of relaxing noise. It is as equally daunting in parts as it is uplifting. Words can only do so much for this kind of cerebral recording; it’s best to just listen to it.

We’re about to drop a new Sanguelia album on our label Two Man Tape Co, so it was cool to look back several years to this debut. Inspired by the music present in Italian horrors and giallos, and driven thematically by a similar horror aesthetic, Sanguelia combine synthesizers with real live drumming for a performance that reminds of Goblin or Zombi, if I could make such bold comparisons.

Starting things off with a Twin Peaks sample is always gonna get my attention. To be honest, it’s not needed, because Brother’s self titled is punishing powerviolence from the word go. It’s got that buzzsaw modern PV production but with an old school hardcore punk feel to some of the tunes. All in all, this is a nifty EP.

A pillar of the sludge world, both as a band in Eyehategod and as an album. This record is a pure classic. There is few things that can touch it for pure sleaze and alcohol / narcotic fuelled depression. Opening track “Blank” sets the pace and really, if you are only ever gonna listen to one Eyehategod song, make it this one. The remaining tracks are filled out with such ditties as “30$ Bag”, and…

I got this 12″ free with a Discogs order probably about a decade ago, and I finally listened to it. Featuring a few cuts and extras from his 7 Deadly Sins album sessions, Valuable Game is actually a pretty fun listen. My favourite song has to be “Always Wanted To Be A Ho”, which is tongue in cheek but actually heavily calls out those who prey on vulnerable women, which is nice considering how misogynistic…

Pulse Demon takes the crown – or should I say the spotlight – when it comes to Merzbow’s most famous release. As the man transitions from the worlds of analogue into digital noise, we saw a bit of a shift in the sounds in general. This mid-90s period was specifically harsh. Venereology, which quickly followed that very famous Pulse Demon album, seems to step up the harshness, if you’ll forgive me for my lack of…

The Yacopsae stuff opening up this is clearly pushed to the front due to the underground weight that this act brings. However, it sounds like complete shit, if I can be so bold as to declare that in such an environment. LOL. But yeah, the Gdorks stuff that follows (RIP Katz) I’m pretty sure is the stuff from our failed split, which was also released on its own through Grindcore Karaoke. Here it is again,…

I got into a bit of a shit-slinging incident with a bunch of randos on the internet when Mortiis of all people, posted a picture of himself on his Instagram with who I could only assume from comments was the dude from Blood Axis. The guy had a shaved head, a t-shirt sporting the crutch cross, boots and a belt sporting the reichsadler eagle. Now, wearing boots doesn’t make you a Neo Nazi, but they…

I remember hearing this when it came out and struggling to really get my head around what they were trying to do. Personally, I’ve had a go at this several times over the year but have always failed to make it through to completion. Why am I still trying? Well, the concept of it is right up my street. Longform, intense songs covering a gamut of extreme metal genres, including other stuff like noise and…

I think I prefer the songs on the earlier classic releases but this thing sounds absolutely enormous. Mortician’s intense fuzz hits you in the face like 10,000 dirty hypodermic needles. The production is huge, allowing those buzzsaw riffs to fully be appreciated. What more can I say? It’s Mortician. I bought a Darkest Day Of Horror shirt back in 2006/2007 and I still have and wear it to this day. LOL.

I got given this tape by someone at Leeds Deathfest in either 2009 or 2010. I can’t remember who it was, which is really annoying – it may have been someone from Lazarus Blackstar. But anyway, it was one of the dudes who played in this band too. I never really played it all that much, always losing interest after a few songs. I decided this week to finally play through the whole thing and…

Following on from my recent foray back into Oxygen (a classic), I followed up with Chronology, which is perfect music for keeping your mind sharp whilst reading or engaging in some other task of concentration. To say Chronology is not “spacey” would be a lie, there is just a different vibe here.

The 2021 remaster of this cold classic is admittedly my first brush with Borknagar. I’ve known the name for seemingly aeons, but as is the way with this game (as with many others), time is my greatest enemy. The production was a little too crisp for me, if I could be so bold in announcing such; I had to turn down the treble a bit on my stereo to stop the harshness of the cymbals…

As I covered in the review of the band’s demo, Verletzen are a local black metal band to me here in South Wales. The demo was great, with a very traditional yet clean approach to weaving tunes of blackest misery and grimness. Evil Will Triumph continues this trend much in the same vein as the debut demo, but with a bigger studio sound. For the most part, this works quite well, and it is nice…

Quite possibly the stupidest thing in my record collection, which is definitely the whole point of this thing. I remember, in the early 2010s, a race amongst the noisecore / experimental projects and labels to release the smallest record possible. Technically, RxTx’s Bleached Anus takes the win, being fully playable (if only for a few seconds) at 1.5″ in size. Esion’s 1.5″ however, is actually not playable at all, and is in fact, designed to…

VRV are one of those projects that is fairly awful on record but absolutely amazing live. Unless you have a particular penchant for drum machine fuelled noisecore with no direction or purpose, then please do not let me stop you. This 2008 CDr (I believe, from the man himself when I bought the VRV split with Agathocles) contains 2 sessions of improv madness, followed by an unlistenable live final session.

I had this when I was a kid but I don’t know what the fuck I was listening to because that was some 2 x CD set I pirated off a Russian website that had tons of bad demos and crappy synth passages. Satanica, not to be confused with The Satanist by the same band (way to go for original album titles, Nergal my guy hahaha), is none of the above, instead it is, of…

Low key, posthumous release from Godflesh during their initial break up, or just before. I think it was recorded in the early 90s originally. Anyway, here are 4 tracks of stunning introspective industrial metal, followed by 4 dub remixes of those same tracks. It gives Messiah a circular feel, as themes you hear at the start are reprised in the dubs at the end. It’s a great mix of stuff.

Stunning recent outing from Darkthrone, with a robust yet natural production and the usual predilection for slaying riffs. Expect slightly longer songs, I suppose Eternal Hails is not a million miles from Old Star, but the vibe is much different. The closing track here in particular is a tidy slice of epic metal. Long live Darkthrone.

Where do I begin with Tomb Of The Mutilated? I mean, just look at that art work! Just when you thought music couldn’t get heavier, couldn’t get more brutal, couldn’t get more disgusting, the 90s brought the wave of death metal full on and with it came Cannibal Corpse. This is a beast of an album.

This “album”, at just over quarter of an hour long, marks – for me – the point where The Locust “became” The Locust we all know and love. Granted, the line-up which made some of the greatest records of all time didn’t solidify until 2001, but this self-titled record is an absolute explosion of grinding synthesizer madness. It is hard to explain really, but there’s just something about the frantic energy of The Locust that…

This is the first of two self-titled releases the band did. The first is called, technically I guess, just Locust rather than The Locust. As a historical listener, the most striking thing for me about this 7″ is how the band’s sound develops from the more rudimentary powerviolence approach of the 1996 splits into what we could consider the more recognisable Locust sound. Hydra-headed jackal-like vocal attacks punctuate intense stabs of grinding noise. Most importantly,…

I’ve been meaning to check this out for a while, and to be honest it wasn’t bad, give or take the fairly weak story line. Musically, I think the soundtrack manages to strike a good balance between modern and nostalgic, with more callbacks to the original run of 90s games happening in the gameplay rather than in the audio. On the downside however no particular artist here stands out, especially as I pored over the…

A beautifully composed album from the mid-90s, led by Satyricon’s Satyr Wongraven (I guess this dude loves naming bands after himself, huh?). Discogs credits Norwegian percussionist Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen as having contributed to this record, as well as Ihsahn from Emperor, but for the most part, this is a solo outing. What we get is a solid 30 minutes or so of excellent ambient / dungeon synth music (before the term really existed, remember) that…

I was recommended this off the back of finding Lunar Womb’s Planets record. There I was in awe of the vaporwave-decades-before-vaporwave sound mixed with dark ambient (or dungeon synth to you modern kids). Watering A Flower is however, a different creature. There is a similarity in floating synthesisers and dreamlike pacing, but otherwise Haruomi Hosono invokes an entirely different listening experience. One I admittedly enjoyed in all its minimal, trance-inducing goodness, and I will seek…

The World That Summer is the third album from Death In June. It still retains a lot of the dance / drum machine elements of Nada! but Douglas’ experimental and acoustic sides are starting to flourish more. The album as a whole has a treacle-like pace, despite a few popping beats here or there. The music doesn’t match the pitch black cover art. It’s super chill, though.

Godless Savage Garden seems like something of a stop-gap after Enthrone Darkness Triumphant. I see it as more of an EP than an album, but its not a million miles away from CoF’s From The Cradle… EP or stop-gap Bitter Suites record. It would perhaps be callous to call these songs leftovers from the Enthrone… sessions but they do have the similar excellent, spoopy vibe with plenty of reverb. The band in this time dealt…

I feel dirty because a few of the black metal related things I’ve touched recently have leaned more towards the unsavoury (both Clandestine Blaze and Deathspell Omega which I’ve covered contain the unsavoury Mikko Aspa), so it was almost with a sigh of relief that I remembered I had a Feminazgul record to check out. I can’t decide if the name is pure genius or just downright awful, but either way, it certainly turns heads…

A 7” I’ve had for about 15 years and have listened to multiple times with a purpose to review it, yet I can never remember what the thing sounds like. It’s not bad, but the fact it’s so forgettable hardly looks good, does it?

I downloaded a bunch of Nargaroth records 7 years ago when they were coming to my town so it’s probably a good idea if I actually listen to them. Spectral Visions… is as much introspective electronic music as it is dingy black metal. When the metal does flow, the songs are slow and atmospheric. Personally, I prefer the electronic passages here, which come across like a techno version of Tangerine Dream drowning in dusty dungeon…

This was originally recorded and released digitally in 2018 but the tape eventually came from Haunted Hotel Records in 2020. Sulsa are at the absolute peak of what decent goregrind should sound like. There’s a little mince stomp (only just), but otherwise this is punishing gore with a fat, disgusting bass leading the way. The vocals are putrid as all hell, and I cannot recommend this band heavily enough. Cystoblastosis have some good old school…

Lurker Of Chalice is a strange concoction of vibes. The over-arching plot is black metal, but many different fathomless depths are plumbed to bring you this record. Atmospheric electronics interwine dissonant, almost DSBM tracks in their purest form. Towards the latter end of the record, the metallic structure falls away and the more drone-like tracks swarm forth to suffocate your brain. A mixed bag, but some dark shit. A side project of the dude behind…

This is one of those things where the title should give you an adequate clue as to what to expect. Purile, nonsensical drum-machine grindcore is, of course, the order of the day, so I hope you’re down with that or I’m afraid you’re fucked out of luck. Where do I start with this? The subject matter is prime 2000s MySpace-era “grind is offensive” fare, but the songs are actually pretty savage, with intense bashings from…

Someone in Marduk must have been deep into some shady porn at the time this was put out. Its a bit outside of their wheelhouse in terms of artwork and vibe, at least visually. This was released on a variety of formats with a variety of different front covers, some perhaps complete reworkings that include no nudity or BDSM. Musically, this is OK, the cover track is the best thing on here IMO. Here’s a…

I’ve probably heard this AxCx session a thousand times as I had a download pack of all the old AxCx shit (I think from Agz’ (is that name right?) Crustorrents blog). Its abrasive, nasty and an absolute mess. Everything you want then, from a noisecore band – one of the genre’s founders, no less. It really says something about 7MON, when back to back to classic AxCx, you can truly appreciate just how noisy and…

Haggus are still the undisputed kings of vegan mince carnage. I feel like I say this about a lot of goregrind-based bands, but they truly do have one of the best shifted vokill attaxxx in the whole game. Just spin this up and find out. Of all places, the voxxx really shine on the Mob 47 cover (lol) that closes this thing out. Hardcore punk in a goregrind style? Yes please, drive. Glob offer a…

I got into Gorguts through the more technical explosions of Obscura, so it was great fun to go back and unearth loved classics like this one, which are more in the traditional vein of death metal. Personally, I can’t think of anything more that I could want from old school death metal. Everything about this is just amazing, from the art to the production, the instrumentation and the vocals (which are a bit in the…

I love earlier Exhumed, and their stuff on this split 7″ is no different. Bark n growl, Carcass-baiting, thrashing death metal is the order of the day. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. The jewel on this 7″ however is my discovery of Pantalones Abajo Marinero. Shit, these guys are fucking awesome. Really fast, savage grindcore. Which is, of course, forever in my wheelhouse. Stunning.

It’s time! I recently did a video review of my cassette of this which you can see at this link. Undeath keep their momentum up with their second record. The production is slightly different, but the riffs are chonky as fuck and the band are clearly on a roll so hey, let’s let them keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ (I’m sorry). “Necrobionics” is probably my favourite song, if I’m honest. I love the Doom video that…

I opened this review to start writing before the 5″ started, and it will no doubt end before I am finished. You gotta love 5″ records. They are ultimately pointless, but are so perfect – never has a format been more fitting to an individual genre, in this case grindcore. I’m not sure if this was recorded before or after the stuff on the MITB split, but this, whilst a lo-fi affair, is much more…

(Excuse the crappy thumbnail on this one. This release seems to have fallen through the cracks of time into perma-obscurity. I can’t find my copy of this CDr anywhere, so the shitty thumb it is (oo er), apologies folks) I got sent this CDr by the dudes in the band, because we worked together briefly when I ran a label. They appeared on a compilation 7″ I did (where does a multiple split end and…

Cold, harrowing black metal from the UK. This one has been on the to-do list for a while (I wonder how many times I’ve written than exact sentence out?), but I’m glad I finally got around to it because its everything that the cover art promised and much more. The production is a little hollow, leaning heavily into treble territory with buzzsaw guitars and percussion that is drenched in reverb, but the songwriting is superb….

For all the farmyard variety in death metal and grindcore vocals from around the globe and across modern history (lol), few are as animalistic and primal and disgusting as John Tardy. Your man here sounds like Taz on bath salts with one leg stuck in a bear trap. The art is a bit pants, but it is a classic after all so that can be forgiven (no shade at the artist, I’m just not sure…

The final release from the seemingly defunct Intrepid Corpse. More intense mincecore stomping goodness, in the vein of Haggus, Hyperemesis or earlier Agathocles. I remember the first release from this project and how it had that mince element underpinning it, but here, this is all-out stomp. Love it! The perfect soundtrack to blasting heads off on Doom. 2022 edit: This, along with Intrepid Corpse in general, appears to have disappeared off the internet without trace.

Honestly, I don’t know why I do it to myself. With the absolute meltdown that is I No She Hot She No I’m Rich 5, I believe my time with Viper has come to an end. I just cannot invest any more time in listening to this absolute dreck. It was fun when it lasted. Like… this is so fucking bad, with absolutely zero endearing qualities. Plus it’s 1 hour and 40 minutes long. The…

Clandestine Blaze is the one man (I believe) black metal project of Mikko Aspa. If that name doesn’t ring a bell, then its probably a good thing. Mikko is linked to all sorts of unsavoury right wing garbage, and Clandestine Blaze is also linked to this kind of ideology. Its something I usually avoid and don’t tend to cover all that often, as it’s not something I agree with or like to shine a light…