Archive for 2023

Sometimes the tag “atmospheric” can be used as an excuse to wander off into the wild green yonder, never to return. Such trips often leave some sort of musical credibiity behind in the woods too. Not Yellow Eyes, and not Sick With Bloom, which blends atmospheric density with the weight of a full-on black metal attack.

Wolfnacht is not a band that I had heard before this split, but after listening to this a whole bunch of times over the last few months I have to admit that their material is my favourite on this thing. Wolfnacht’s material here is majestic and grandiose, but also with that harsh bite that you want from good black metal. The vocals are rabid and fitting, and additional synth work over the top varies from…

A brutal, blunt thrash attack with hallmarks of the proto-death and black styles abound at the time. Couple that with some iconic art and you’ve got a tough record. The production is robust and the songs pack a hell of a punch. Sodom would go on to change fairly quickly into a different style of metal (whilst retaining their heavy punch), so Sign Of Evil is a special entry into their discography, as well as…

Easily one of the most boring pieces of music I’ve ever had the misfortune of hearing, and I take no pleasure in writing such words out for all to see. The trouble with Harakiri For The Sky, is that they are not a band which immediately strike you as bad. Like a deep, penetrating damp resulting in black mould, it takes a while to unfurl and destroy. It took me a while to realise that,…

Fucking more like it. Immortal’s debut is awesome but lacks in the sheer blinding speed that the group would become renowned for. Pure Holocaust is the true start of that trend, but without lacking in atmosphere or dreadful intent. Every song is fucking killer on this thing. Blast!

Did anybody order any blastbeats? Because Immortal are having a sale right now. LOL. Whilst the band have retained that intricate air of chaos across its different eras and lineups, the early Immortal records were a different beast altogether. Frenetic cold energy is here by the truckload; frozen riffs propelled by batshit drums and the croaky vocals that we all love. This is absolute carnage. I love it.

What the ever-loving fuck is this? I checked it out because the cover looked like a Radio Free Innsmouth YouTube thumbnail. Expecting some low quality NSBM, instead I stumble onto a… a… what is this exactly? I suppose it falls into the neofolk category, especially with the reworking of a Death In June song towards the end. I must comment Atlantean Blood for conjuring a wholly unique atmosphere with their record here but damn, this…

What a hidden gem! One that not only rewards those who go exploring “off the beaten track” as it were, but one that continously rewards its listeners upon repeat visits. On the face of it, Aspid are a typical thrash metal band, but you can peel back the layers on this thing and unravel some amazing technical feats. The drumming in particular is my favourite but this whole thing hangs in the balance of exquisite…

Brutal, blunt old-school proto black metal, in the style that blends so beautiful with elements of what would become death metal. In parts United Evil Forces channels the misanthropic atmosphere of stuff like early Sarcofago or Deathcrush-era Mayhem, but also has its own unique atmosphere and raw energy. All in all, this is 12 minutes of intense metal destruction.

Asides from the hissing sibilance of the hi hat cymbals eating away at my inner ears like some giant mastoid, Of Medieval Graveyard Frost is a fabulous second-wave black metal offering. Underneath the grime and hiss of the tape, the songs sound very solid and well assembled. They are led by a maniacally riffing tremolo attack mostly, slowing into more sinister riffs periodically to really hammer home the atmosphere. The drums, as in, the actual…

I took one look at that cover and there was no way in hell that I was not going to have a listen to this thing. Great riffs here, really cool melodic compositions, if not a bit rudimentary, lead the way ahead of snarling, howling raspy vocals. Unfortunately the drumming is very loose, but not to the point where it adds some sort of shambolic charm to proceedings. Sure, it is servicable, especially considering this…

Is it as good as the original? No, no it’s not. I am often a listener who is at odds with bands who choose to do this kind of re-recording (or total remixing) of older albums. I respect and honour their right to do so, but more often than not it is a pointless excercise. Nokturnal Mortum however, while they do not drop the ball, fail to really enrapture me with this modern re-recording of…

The debut from Nocturnal Mortum is a stunning, ice-cold black metal affair, with fantastic keyboard work layered over the frosted, often melodic riffs. The cover art itself is beautiful and a huge part of summoning the ethereal atmosphere that this record enthralls you in. A slightly more “off the path” gem of the 90s releases in this genre, for sure.

If you love lo-fi shit but also love a little melody in your black metal then look no further than the controversial / confusing Vothana. Falling very nearly close to becoming an overhyped darling of the limited vinyl collecting elite, Vothana is undeniably a project that is worth your time and attention. Khong… for example is a great archetype for their releases, being overly long yet chock full of not only excellent but really interesting…

Came for the logo, stayed for the lo-fi goodness. I’m a sucker for some raw, lo-fi black metal. Keys To The Astral Gates And Mystic Doors (what a name!) deliver in spades for this style, giving twenty minutes of this on their debut release. I don’t have any stand-out tracks to report per-se, as for the three times I’ve listened to it I’ve just enjoyed the whole thing in one go. For fans of: Revenant…

Unless I’m very much mistaken, this is a collection of older tracks from several early demos, EPs, splits etc. but re-recorded in the Totenlieder / Blutgericht style, with the same excellent production. However, it’s an idea I think which will perhaps only be appreciated by only the most die-hard Absurd fans. Whilst the folk-like simplicity (feel’s weird writing “folk” like that to indicate simple song structuring – just look at Peste Noire’s folk music) offering…

I’ve always found Absurd to be as awful musically as their personal beliefs but after randomly stumbling onto their “second wind” period I was forced to change my mind. Totenlieder, with its powerful riffs and rabid vocals (some of the best in the game), coupled with its folk-simplicity and morose melodic qualities, had me re-assessing my viewpoint on Absurd. Blutgericht is well, maybe not more of the same as what we got on Totenlieder, but…

For all the shit I threw at Arghoslent for being racist, over-hyped trash, I have to admit that Grand Belial’s Key is pretty fucking great in comparison. The motives, themes, and folks behind this are still low on my list of likeable people for obvious reasons, but Kosherat is a solid black metal album. The production is fairly warm and clear, which itself is refreshing for black metal, but if anything this just allows the…

Over the last few months, this debut record from Forgotten Tomb has cemented itself as one of my favourite records in the “DSBM” style. Possessing a crisp, clean production which is the exact opposite of what I look for in my black metal, Songs To Leave is part horrifying / scary and part achingly beautiful. Such is the fragile balance that music in this style is attempting to tread, I suppose. I was going to…

The Last Spire is the chunky but somewhat underwhelming final output from legendary UK doom metal band, Cathedral. The fact that I have avoided listening to this album for over a decade speaks volumes about my apprehension for finally addressing the final nail in the coffin for one of my all time favourite groups. The Last Spire then, is, a relief in some regards, because it is not a bad album. It mixes together a…

I think I am going to have to admit to myself that Peste Noire is not the band for me. As I work my way through the group’s discography, I’ve gone from absolutely astounded to bored to fucking tears. I have no idea what’s going on here, I guess there is some sort of artistic vision that I simply “do not get”, specifically in the mix of French folk and black metal. I’ve given Ballade…

This doesn’t sound like a live album at all. In fact, going in blind, all I could think of was that this was one of those “fake” live albums which are recorded in a studio. It seems I was half-correct, with the vocals being re-recorded at a later date. To be honest, they should have just scrapped the whole thing if it came to this, but whatever, live albums don’t exactly have a history of…

As nice as it is to explore the back catalog of Tony Martin, one of my favourite Sabbath singers, Scream really just misses the mark. The production is muddy, the songs are mostly mediocre at best, and beyond bad at worst (I’m looking at you, “The Kids Of Today”). It’s really cool that Geoff Nicholls is on this thing too, providing keyboards, and I believe some of the songs were built from Cozy Powell drum…

Thorns is the very recent full length album by once-Sabbath vocalist Tony Martin. With Sabbath, and I’m guilty of this myself, his output is often overlooked, which is a shame because albums like Headless Cross have gone on to be my favourites from Black Sabbath. Anyway, let’s talk about Thorns. Thorns has a stacked line-up, and a polished, modern sound. This gives Martin’s rock numbers a shot in the arm, essentially I guess this is…

Gurgling, disgusting, turbid old school death metal of the new-wave variety. Does that make it NWOOSDM? I don’t know, and I don’t fucking care. The production is awesome, the riffs are evil, the vokills are dank. Say no more shall I, read no more shall ye, presseth thy play button!

Gate Master knocks it out of the park once more with the follow up to In Pursuit Of Forbidden Knowledge. I love the black metal here, easily some of my favourite dissonant, barely audible stuff (haha). It sounds like I’m joking but this thing is absolutely dripping in atmopshere. The “dungeon synth” style pieces that punctuate the record also help serve to this function, before closer “My Journey To The Stars” goes off to oblivion….

For all its edgy rubbing up against of controversial subjects (“My Dreams Of 8” much?), Satanic Warmaster is mostly a solid and very well executed black metal project. Some albums are better than others, but Carelian Satanist Madness (sounds like another one of those triple-barrel Dimmu Borgir albums doesn’t it haha) is probably my personal favourite in regards to a distillation of Satanic Warmaster’s perfect sound. Ignore the cringe song titles, just turn off the…

The Garden Of Strangled Roots is a masterpiece of contemporary black metal. The tracks are harsh and cold, yet the whole record possesses a fragility that feels like it could break open at any second. It is hard to pick a favourite track however, due to the record’s length. Instead I just tend to listen to the whole thing in one sitting.

Brutal, dry production sets the stage for bludgeoning, unforgivable riffing and pummelling drums. With Scott Burns at the helm, and Suffocation at the strings and skins, would you expect anything else? Pierced From Within takes the template set by the earlier records and expands on them, heaping on more brutality, more dexterity, more variation in different sections. There is much less here in the way of “slams” but when they do hit they have that…

I’ve fallen through the screen and into some rainy noir TV show set in LA or New York (probably the latter, let’s be honest). Next minute, I’m on the set of a very bad lesbian porno, with cheap tights, suspenders and hairy bushes galore. The next, beamed onto some windy beach where some buff dudes are running out into the waves, boards in hand, desperate to catch some waves. I keep falling, song by song,…

I was a bit young when this came out so I didn’t really get involved with the hype at the time, but I understand how big a deal this was at the time. It is sad in retrospect to see the Tony Martin line-up finally go under for once and for all, but the people wanted Ozzy-Sabbath and the people got what they wanted with this release. Trouble is, I couldn’t give a bloody fuck…

Damn son this makes me want to stand on a street corner in a light drizzle outside some nondiscript cafe or bar in an anonymous western European city. I’ve just lit a cigarette and I’m watching the pretty girls walk by, huddled in their coats and black tights. Inside, the bar man is pouring aperitifs into small crystal glasses for me and my faceless date, who is also impossibly beautiful. Her face is cloaked in…

This is probably the first time that I have felt bad giving a record 3.5 out of 5. Everything Is Good Here is so achingly beautiful that I feel it deserves more, but the reality is that there are quite a lot of songs on this album that just don’t really stand out for me. If Sing Other People didn’t exist, then Everything Is Good Here would probably be my least favourite Angels Of Light…

As much as I enjoy Black Widow every time I throw it on I can’t help but be left with the thought that there are a ton of bands that have done this thing but in much better ways. That aside, this is what it is, which is especially cool considering its age.

Sub-Basement is nowhere near as crummy as its album title or album art would perhaps lead you to believe. Whist Bobby L’s vocal style is an acquired taste, the instrumental end of this thing is some top notch doomery. Heavy, dense riffs and oddly triggered / compressed drums make for an interesting combo (especially with the vocals). Only downer for me is that it sounds like it came from a certain time and place and…

Agorapocalypse sometimes seems to get it in the neck for not being quite like the stuff that came before it (that being, of course, absurdly fast bursts of micro-grind). All the pieces are still here though; the savage riffs, the ridiculous drum programming, and the multi-throated triple vocal attack. It’s just, the songs are longer than a usual average of about 24 seconds, and the influences span the metal world, rather than just the ABCs…

I decided to spice up my life and go for a bit of variety and therefore selected a Vomir live album instead of a studio album. Now, I don’t want to take the piss out of Vomir. It is the project that introduced me to the strange world of “HNW” after all. Vomir has had some real world application for me (it is perfect for meditation, for example), but I fear that despite all of…

I’m sure there are many others out there just like me who have David Lynch to thank for including Au Revoir Simone’s music in Twin Peaks: The Return. Their “performances” were highlights of the somewhat dreary musical acts to appear in the returned TV show, and I made with haste to the very album from which those cuts originated. Unfortunately, I did not process this review with the same haste in which I visited the…

Bloody typical that the first Chaos UK album I decide to check out is a cover’s album, but who cares really? This shit is fucking great. Production is raw but also perfectly balanced, you can hear all the instruments clearly and the guitar/bass tones are fantastic, rumbling along with a lovely crunch to them.

I wish that I had some sort of big brain take on this record, only because it offers far more in its lyrical content than I can hope to ever analyse, but I only truly stumbled upon this because of the Death In June connection. Nevertheless, In The Rain is a beautiful record, one that I have listened to many, many times over the last few months to truly acclimatise to the songs it possesses….

Arrrrghhhh both versions of this thing are fucking savage as fuck. Raw, loose, infectious, terrifying fucking metal, just the way it is supposed to be. Think I prefer the dryer mix (not sure which one was released in which order sorry) rather than the drenched-in-echo Venom-esque mix, but both are well worth your time.

I need to get myself a copy of this. Born Again is one of the better latter Sabbath albums (fight me), but the mix is a fucking abomination. The Manor Tapes not only clears up the production so that the record is appreciatable in its definitive form, but we also get extended / different version of “Stonehenge” and “Zero The Hero”, and on top of that we also get the unreleased track “The Fallen”. This…

Perhaps a bit silly, and a bit flimsy on the production end, but damn is this a classic. Stuff like “Living After Midnight” is what I’m referring to here, but there’s a place for that kind of thing (shit rock bars hahaha). I’m joking of course, but I’m more interested in some of the other songs on this record like the amazing “Grinder”, “Metal Gods” or the legendary “Breaking The Law”. My most recent listen…

A bit of a weaker entry into the extensive Judas Priest catalog, but not an album without it’s charms. Supposedly written after Halford relocated to Arizona, Point Of Entry is the perfect driving album. I decided to try that out, and being stuck in traffic on the M4 wasn’t exactly the perfect vision I had in mind, but I could not deny the tunes coming from my car stereo. My biggest complaint with this is…

At the time of writing I’ve yet to have the pleasure of hearing every single Priest album, but I’ve heard enough so far to comfortably say that Painkiller is my favourite by a long shot. That isn’t to say that I dislike the other material, but there’s something about Painkiller, like it is some sort of perfect culmunation of the band’s sound up and to that point distilled into one LP. I really wish Halford…

And just like that, it’s as if the 90s hadn’t even happened. Gone are the absurd genre experiments, back are some of the classic players. Peace and harmony is restored to the world because Discharge are playing d-beat again. There are some metallic holdovers remaining in the sound but generally this is punk as fuck and an absolute relief to hear after a trio of listless, rudderless albums. Take away the remixes at the end…

Is it possible for a band to ape themselves? To rehash old shit into new shit? Of course it is. But in the case of Discharge, there’s the peculiar fact that there are hundreds (if not thousands) of bands the world over (many named Dis-something) who have happily gouged at the niche that these guys carved for themselves in the eary 80s. So I think we can give Discharge a pass then, for revisiting the…

I first heard Barn Owl when they were announced for (I think) Roadburn 2012. I’ve been in love with Lost In The Glare ever since. Combining smoky, laid back rock with soul-gazing atmospheric drones, the album is an instrumental journey that is at times low-key and at other times all-encompassing atmosphere. Comparisons to Earth are apt, but Barn Owl really are their own interesting beast and one that I would heavily recommend checking out.

I find it mad that in the 70s it seemed almost common place for big mainstream acts to drop more than one album in a year. It is the only time Priest do this (I think), and the slight drop in quality perhaps shows, as this was a bit of a rush job? IDK, it’s really not that bad, and quite endearing, even though they would hit the nail on the head with this style…

Pretty great boot, which showcases some of the cuts from the Gillan era in a live setting but with good quality sound. It is a shame that this was never officially released, as Gillan was in Sabbath for such a short time. Heck, the entire rest of the band are on Born Again so Gillan’s era is as valid as Dio’s / Heaven And Hell, so even the nay-sayers who quote the Sabbath revolving door…

I had this live album as a kid because I was obsessed with Cradle and wanted to collect all their CDs. I remember also queuing up at HMV or Virgin Megastore (I forget which) with a copy of 11 Burial Masses in my hand. I was nonchalantly reading the tracklist on the back when I realised: “shit, I already own this!”. I have absolutely no fucking idea why Live Bait For The Dead was rereleased…

I’m finding it pretty fucking wild that I’ve made it to 2023 without really writing about Coffins (sans their split with XXX Maniak). I’ve never been the biggest fan but coffins have been a mainstay in the sloooooooooooow side of death metal for many a year now, so just out of pure numbers and math I should have reviewed one of their records. Alas, here we are. Craving To Eternal Slumber is a nice little…

I have a soft spot for this thing, as I do with most of the earlier Slipknot records. When I was in school, I think 13 years old, my friend Ross burned a copy of this thing off the internet for me, as well as a few other tracks from the supposed “Crowz” sessions. Some of us like to look back at the glory days of the internet as if things were actually different back…

The Devil You Know occupies an interesting space. It is – by far – the heaviest Sabbath album with Dio on vocals, with epic, doom-laden guitar playing (Geezer’s bass is off the charts here, fair play). Iommi’s relationship with Mike Exeter means of course he is at the helm here, and there can be no denying that the record sounds absolutely huge. However, my issue lies with the songwriting. When it hits, it hits, and…

Man this fucking rips. Mortician-grade mush for guitars, 90s goregrind vocals, and trashcan drums that are played at blisteringly fast speeds. Putrid Stu is a man after mine own heart, and this four minutes of detuned slop is just absolutely fantastic.

I have absolutely no fucking idea how I stumbled onto Zheani’s music, but Spiritual Meat Grinder is something of an aural palate cleanser. Insane, headache-inducing electronics meet absolutely manic vocal performances from sweet singing, yelping, growling to auto-tuned warbling. It’s like witnessing some sort of aural overdose of sugar. 19 minutes later and I’m sat here like “WTF was that?” but for some reason I want to listen to it again.

Man O Man is that fuckin’ cover art something, huh? I’m not sure what it is about it exactly that is so endearing to me but I really like it. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about Stained Class, for as brilliant as it is, it fails to strike a chord with me as much as Sin After Sin or Sad Wings… did. Despite this, this is fantastic record with that lovely 70s rock production….

Completionists item showcasing some rough cuts from the early three piece post/martial punk days. Unless you are absolutely madly, deeply in love with the Guilty… & Burial era, then there’s nothing really worth checking out here. An interesting listen all the same.

I have this DVD (bootleg) and it is actually a very good set. Recorded in 1994 and released in 1995, the line-up is Geezer and Tony, with Bobby Rondinelli on drums (I think this is when Cozy Powell was still recovering from accident with the horse). Tony Martin is back on vocals after a brief stint with Dio back in the band for one album. So we get Martin here performing songs by all eras…

This little fucker has the honour of being one of the first brutal death / underground releases that I ever downloaded off the internet. It is a shame then really, that this just isn’t very good at all. Corpsefucking Art in general are pretty entertaining, but here there’s Mortician worship meets Mortician covers meets Mortician grade horror samples, and I’m not here for it, tbh. Goretrade is just also quite possibly the most boring death…

Oi oi English facking brutal deff metal innit brahvahhhhhhh! Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. All in all, this is a pretty fuckin’ disgusting offering of rancid, turbid, aural slop. It certainly ticks all the right boxes and if you looked up “slamming brutal death metal” in the dictionary you may or may not be lucky to find Engorgement listed under there. Speaking of becoming engorged, death metal perverts may find that Excruciating Intestinal Lacerations is enough to send them…

Wait, is that Motorhead? No, it’s long-running and legendary Czech goregrind outfit Malignant Tumour on a bizarre death’n’roll’n’Motorhead’worship trip. Does it work? Well, yes it does. It is very, very well made, if I may say so. But, it is not what I come to Malignant Tumour for, so it’s taken me 15 years to muster up the energy to even write this short paragraph about this album.

Intestinal Disgorge, here bringing their usual, dense digital goregrind with intense blasting mayhem, farmyard vocals and putrid subject matter, are (literally) music to my ears. I need to get into more from these guys. I was super into them years ago but need to fill in the gaps in their discography, as I’ve yet to hear a bad thing from them. Smallpox Aroma I remember from the MySpace grindcore days (lol) but I don’t think…

You could argue for days whether the songs here “landed” or not, but one has to respect the effort involved here to cover different songs from all these different genres. It’s mad to listen to “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” and think, damn this is the same band who released Bestial Devastation lol, at least in name. Despite not really liking any of the songs here, I don’t hate Revolusongs (man, what a…

Solid drum machine grindcore with a bizarre, almost occult feel to it. I remember Grind Block re-releasing this like it was yesterday. Anyways, the original Death To Pigs cassette is expanded on with various additional sessions, which definitely bolsters the release and makes it feel like more of a long player. If the song titles don’t throw you off, some of the off-kilter vibes surely will. Come for the blasting grind, stay for the sleazy…

Sin After Sin, sounding absolutely massive and glorious in all of it’s golden-era analogue production, is another fantastic early offering from the legends that are Judas Priest. Personally, this doesn’t reach the heights of the sheer VIBE that is Sad Wings but I will note the stunning production (as above) as well as Rob’s vocals sounding particularly incredible here, case in point being “Here Come The Tears”, which is just absolutely phenomenal.

Dirge takes the aural carnage of Abuse and streamlines it into a more focussed, primal grindcore attack. Don’t get me wrong here, Abuse is fucking amazing, but is a little rough around the edges compared to its slightly younger brother, Dirge. Here the production is smoother (without losing any of the “edge” needed for grindcore to work), and the songs hit that extra harder. The band were arguably at their original peak during the release…

Not bad by any stretch of your twisted imagination, but definitely falls flat compared to the likes of what came before it. In isolation, Possessed is an enjoyable album, but has its predecessors to live up to and therefore kinda lives in their shadow a little bit, if I’m honest. Production wise, its par for the course for an early Venom album. Musically, the band seem a bit more put together, perhaps after the epic…

Uhhhhhhh OK, then. So. Off the bat, this isn’t anywhere near as bad as Grave New World. In fact, it is, on a sliding scale, probably quite a bit better. The general style of “funk” / groove metal (think the more “fun” end of thrash meeting Faith No More and Helmet style stuff) is a massive improvement on the Motley Crue shite they tried to do on Grave New World. At least you can make…

My God, those vocals….please make it stop! Holy fucking Mother of Kazan is this bad!??? Like, I knew Discharge had some less-than-popular albums in their illustrous career but this really takes the biscuit. Grave New World, honestly, has to be one of the worst albums I have ever heard in my entire life, and that really is saying something. Gone is the punk / d-beat that the band pioneered (and gone is the band, mostly),…

Ahhhhh fucking hell! I wanna put on a (vegan) leather jacket and go out into the street and headbutt a racist neighbour. I also have a strong urge to wear Dr. Marten boots and start drinking cider for the first time in my life, both of which I can only attribute to over-doing it with the d-beat madness of this record as of late. Honestly, this thing is fucking great. I look back now –…

I was searching RYM on the off-chance it had a listing already in place for Sam Powell’s work on the Sega Genesis Jurassic Park soundtrack when this DJ session came back in the search results (it samples one of the tracks from the Sega JP OST). What a happy little coincidence then, because this opened up an impromptu 4 hour journey that I listened to over the course of the rest of the day whilst…

Bulldozer gore groove! And lots of it. Listening to shit like this is one of life’s simple pleasures. However, I will say, for gore/pornogrind and the reputation that this band itself has, the levels of degeneracy here are fairly low, as is any unfavourable sampling that you wouldn’t want coming out of your stereo at full pelt for the neighbours to hear. Similarly, production is not only fully audible but actually packs a hell of…

What a clashing, clattering cacophony of cantankerous claustrophobic compositions, culled credously of criteria concocted by contemporary carnage constructors called Nasum (sorry about that, I got stuck in some sort of literary loop). The aptly-titled Funeral March is a blast and a half through blistering high-production grindcore (think the aforementioned Nasum and stuff like Rotten Sound, later Wormrot etc). Expect total aural carnage.

Whilst you couldn’t really claim that Corpsefucking Art is pushing the boundaries of death metal, it is hard to argue that they are not an entertaining outfit. The aptly-titled Zombie Fuck is home such to ditties as “Beverly Hills Corpse” (completely with parody theme song), “High Skull Musical” (lmao) and “No Woman No Grind (Bomb Marley)”, the latter of which squeezes two puns into one song title for double your money. Musically this is downtuned,…

Chronologically, Sad Wings Of Destiny is infinitely better than it’s predecessor. For a start, it sounds more like the band we all know and love today, and well, if I could make such a bold statement, this feels like the true debut album for Judas Priest.  Production wise, this is absolutely perfect. Perhaps a symptom of the times, but it’s so well put together that it doesn’t matter if it sounds a bit aged now….

I’m loathe to rate this lower than a 3/5 because of how inventive it is for what is essentially nu metal. As far as Sepultura goes, this period is definitely a low point in their career, but truly, all elements analysed, this really isn’t that bad. There’s one thing you can do for me, though, and that is to promise to avoid the absolutely fucking godawful remaster of this thing. I don’t know if the…

With an intro speech that is no doubt going to fire up any self-respecting Welshman (I almost went out into the garden and raised a flag myself, I won’t lie to you), it is hard to not be disappointed when the first track “I’r Gad” first pops in through the speakers. The sound is flat, compressed, artificial and well… an antithesis to anything that I would associate with black metal and its production styles. Despite…

What a lovely, lovely release (lmao). I did not expect such amazing music from such a lo-fi and kvlt black metal release, but here we are. Colour me surprised, as always. Without going off subject too much, its discoveries like this, the real special and interesting gems, that makes trawling through thousands of releases worthwhile. Like… what in the actual fuck is going on here? On the surface of it, Curta’n Wall is a medieval…

A Haemorrhage record is always going to be a good time, if you are a goregrind fan (or just a Carcass fan and don’t mind a bit of “worship”). These guys (and gal) have been plugging away for years and Anatomical Inferno is their third album. I have the Brazilian reissue in my hands. Now, being from the UK, I can’t remember for the life of me where or how I got a hold of…

The “Selfdisembowelment” tape fell into my possession recently, and to be honest, without looking into it further I just assumed that it was some sort of bootleg or compilation of outtakes from around the Carniverous Erection era. What I didn’t know is that this is a reissue of a previously almost impossible to find Promo CD from back in 1999. Left Hand Patches (formerly Fat Ass Records, RIP), have done a very nice job re-releasing…

This shit absolutely fucking slaps. The riffs on this thing are outstanding. The drums are, well, bonkers. The vocals: savage. Phobia can be a bit hit or miss IMHO, but on this short EP they are firing on all cylinders, I am very much pleased to report. The production is solid and very well-balanced, without losing some of the charm that a rougher sound can give. Honestly, by the time you blink this thing is…

I’ve probably heard this a thousand times on the House By The Cemetry represses but was nice to go back and “isolate” this and focus on the original tracks. The evolution from Brutally Mutilated / Demo ’91 is subtle, the band still employ a real drummer here it seems, but the guitar and bass have already entered into the trademark downtuned-and-impossible-to-decipher mush that would become their wheelhouse. BTW if you’re getting filtered by the overuse…

I was drawn in by the fantastic cover art (who can resist fog and trees when it comes to black metal) and I was not at all disappointed by what I found. Majestic is a word that gets thrown around alot when it comes to certain elements of black metal, but maybe not so much when it comes to lo-fi one man projects. Primordial Serpent is not lo-fi to the point of becoming unlistenable (and…

I played the absolute fuck out of this record back when I was a greasy 20-something stoner with nothing else to do with my life. Whilst still longer than most band’s tunes, the shorter run times to the tracks, even with the reprising nature of themes here, definitely helps Om keep things more varied and interesting. “Bhimas Theme” is one of the group’s best songs from any era. RYM review writing fun fact: Today I…

Mood is definitely important when it comes to earlier Om recordings. The line between this being fantastic or infinitely boring is indeed a fine one, thankfully I’ve really been craving the long-form meditative qualities of work like Conference Of The Birds recently, so I’ve been returning to this album for the first time in a very long while. 15+ minute tracks built around repetitive bass structures is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea,…

Peak “woah dude” era Cathedral, where the funky, proggy, stoner elements were at their height. This was before they returned to their heavy roots with albums like Endtyme and VIIth Coming, so one does wonder what made the band change direction like this (only to turn back to the trippier side of life with albums like The Guessing Game). Andy Sneap produced this one, so whilst it isn’t the Woolven / Cathedral dream team, it…

Absurd-ly bad (lol, I’ll show myself out). We have to give them the benefit of the doubt (talent wise, actions and beliefs wise they can get in the bin) as they are so young here, but this demo is not one that has stood the test of time, nor is it one that promises a bright future in this particular thread of black metal. It is interesting hearing “Gates Of Heaven” here after hearing it…

An interesting blend of styles, taking the savagery of blasting black metal and mixing it with Lamp’s (lol) flare for extravagant synth work (we’re not talking Bal Sagoth levels of pomp here, but the synthesizers are at least more dynamic and interesting than a lot of other black metal), as well as sprinkling in the aesthetic and vibe of dark 80s pop such as The Sisters Of Mercy, which should be entirely evident from the…

The first couple of tracks on this are phenomenal, but with repeated listens I continue to trail off as the EP goes on, which isn’t a good sign as it’s under 20 minutes long in total. I thought initially this was a symptom of my own concentration but after several attempts I’ll have to admit defeat. Not bad by any means, because when it hits it hits hard (the production on the opening track makes…

If I were to give my personal, technical, in-depth opinion: This shit fucking slaps. It is a short demo but a promising one, that’s for sure. Vocally, it kinda reminds me of XXX Maniak’s Harvesting The Cunt Nectar and musically it lies between the precision of slam / brutal death and the sloppier, sewer-dwelling OSDM revival style of the last few years. So there you have it – something for the whole family to enjoy.

A sloppy yet endearing entry into the Graveland catalogue. Granted, it’s probably not fair to use “sloppy” as a descriptive word for this thing as every early Graveland record I’ve heard has some degree of wonkiness or amateurishness to it. Here however, the balance is struck where it definitely lends to the music’s favour rather than detracts from it. What happens when you mix Nazis, Bathory-worship and dungeon synth? You get Immortal Pride! (inb4 “ackshually…

The 7th Coming possesses a strange duality in that it is both underrated and also somewhat mediocre. It takes the heaviness that the band brought back on Endtyme and then mixed in some of the more “totally cosmic, bro” vibes that the band had on Supernatural Birth Machine etc. I will say that the production here is a bit better than Endtyme, with Kit Woolven back on engineering duties. Kit (RIP) and Cathedral are a…

Bathory’s ever-changing sonic palette is taking me to places that I never thought I would go. Honestly, when I think of “viking metal” I think of idiots at festivals with their plastic drinking horns and cringe shit like Amon Amarth’s stage shows, but honestly, Bathory are leading a much more genuine charge and I’m fucking here for it. Maybe I’m just forever bitter than Skyrim is infinitely more popular than Morrowind and I will forever…

Infinitely more well produced (and sung) that most neofolk that I’ve heard in my limited lifetime. Le Ceneri Di Heliodoro sounds like 00s Anathema, the first Bastille album and Death In June all rolled into one confusing ball. Sprinkle in some mixed vibes and hey, presto! Despite everything that Rome has going for them in regards to their talented frontman and extended palette of musicality, then let themselves down with the uniformity of their music….

Onwards to Golgotha is probably the most prominent musical equivalent of the words ‘blunt force trauma’. The music is an assault on the senses, and that assault is being carried out repeatedly, over and over, but some fucking maniac holding a blood-drenched brick in one hand. The other hand is around your throat, btw. Using such a ridiculous descriptive situation to describe a death metal record is usually done to convey how brutal the record…

Ah, now this is more like it! Previous forays with the works of Lustmord have left me wanting, but I should have started with the classics from the start. What a brooding, horrible noise! Such spooky, such creepy, wow. I decided to listen to this with headphones at night whilst in bed but admittedly it was infinitely better blasting out of my stereo the next morning at incredible volume. Embrace the all-encompassing noise!

I went through a phase where I was super into this duo, but I kinda let that obsession fall to the wayside. Returning to Yr Body Is Nothing (the title reminds me of Swans, “Yr Property” etc) was long, long overdue then. As soon as this record starts thumping out of the speakers I’m wondering to myself why it is I let listening to this pair slide in the first place. This album is fantastic….

Oi Oi Oi – let’s have a little dance then, shall we? If you want one of the fastest hours of your life to pass you by, throw this thing on. It has wall-to-wall bangers (some of which, as I’m sure most of you know, ended up as enormous chart-topping singles in their own right) and a stunning big sound. Not sure what sure I can say that hasn’t already been said, and I’m no…

The seemingly compilation-like nature of Varg’s “final” release as Burzum, Thulean Mysteries, coupled with the spaced out, almost relaxed tone of most of his ambient music, makes it very difficult to ascertain whether I’ve heard this before or not. It feels more familiar than it does new, and whilst that is rather welcoming in some ways, its also a bit underwhelming that this random “return” (whatever it means long term) is not something a bit…