Archive for November 2024

Listening to the Beatles albums chronologically, I found that Beatles For Sale was the least enjoyable of the lot thus far. It took me a little while to put my finger on it; initially things seemed like they were in their right place; that early 60s rock and/or roll sound that I have come so familiar with now after being 4 albums deep was in full effect, and the production is more grounded, with less…

There’s a lot of songs on this thing but it just flies by. I haven’t seen the movie and have no plans to so unsure how they tie in, if at all. I’m assuming this may be the reason why the songs seem a little shorter than usual? Either way, song quality is up there, as in there’s very few moments where I want to skip forward. Not as many stand outs as the previous…

Collection of various demos and misc. tracks from Epäkristus, some are great quality, some are quite raw. It is not the “necro” kinda raw either, but like a rehearsal room kinda raw, like some sort of black metal Agathocles. As almost always with collections like this, the quality is hit and miss. It’s a demo compilation though, so it is to be expected.

It’s wild to me that a band as well loved and revered as Lividity has so little in material that is actually of any substance. Perverseverance is not bad, but I feel like I have heard this done a thousand times before – by Lividity and others too – and done much better too, at that. If you like straight up brutal death with clear, modern production, then check this out. Otherwise, I’d probably skip…

Great tunes but they really suffer due to the muted and rounded production. The drums are reduced to a series of clicks and clatters, the guitars are super scooped and overcompressed and the vocals just sound like burps and farts. Yes, I am fully aware that this is brutal death metal, and in another album perhaps all of the above are plus points rather than negatives, but the sound in which this record is presented…

I am constantly blown away by how consistent Corpsegrinder-era Cannibal is throughout the late 90s and early 2000s. Bands of this prolific nature tend to either run out of steam or wander off the beaten path into experiments that either haunt them or pay off in spades. Cannibal? Nah, just straight up fucking BRUTAL death metal, fam. And I’m not talking about the subgenre. I’m talking about the meat of this thing being hard as…

Heavy, blunt, very angery and very tough hardcore. Short as fuck, but hey, we’re not writing a space opera here. Hard hitting shit that does what it is supposed to do.

Dim, dark, dismal, raw, lo-fi, miserable black metal. Tidy! Not to be confused with the “other” Sort Sind which also plays black metal, this “Sortsind” merges drab, “necro” black metal with tense atmospheric passages and troubling vocal performances to invoke a harrowing and haunting experience. Many thanks to JohnsonBruckheimer on YouTube for the recommendation.

Yo dawg I heard you liked your rhythm section panned hard left? Say no more, say no more! I suppose quality wise this is on par with Please Please Me and it certainly feels like a “part 2” to that album. The songs here though are not quite as good IMO, I really start to lose my way in the middle with shit like “Please Mr. Postman” and friggin’ “Roll Over Beethoven” (what is this,…

Has its moments of genius and inspiration, but also flounders and loses its way in other less inspired moments. As a whole, the record is an ethereal and dreamy approach to hip hop, without entering the “stoned” or zoned-out realm too much. Production is nice, but nothing super special.

Quite probably the best way these days to get your head around the Love & Hate era (with the bonus of the In All Languages DVD). I will say, as nice as it is to have Love & Hate and the In Dub session together in one set (it just kinda works), the extra DVD is cool but it’s still worth hunting down the CD version of In All Languages for all of the “rare”…

When I was a kiddie (well, teenager) still new to all of this shit, I got this CD from Earache Records’ webstore for next to nothing. Back then, I couldn’t decide if the huge 15 minute and 17 minute reworkings of tracks from Selfless was a good idea or a bad one. To be honest with you, today I am in the same boat. The “Psychofuckdub” version of “Xnoybis” absolutely does not need to be…

“Cold World” itself is absolutely incredible. One of the best stand-alone Godflesh tracks, for sure. “Nihil” is a test of the mind, body and soul, especially as it devolves further and further through its various transmutations. Oh, and that art? Total misery.

I didn’t expect much for the first record from the Beatles knowing the “roots” in American “rock and roll” (Beach Boys tae fuck) and I expected very traditional full band pop music. I was very much shocked at how much I enjoyed this thing out of the gate. I was also surprised however that I knew a few of these songs, such as Love Me Do and Misery. I also feel that this thing sounds…

Was runnign through some MF DOOM shit and was surprised to find that I hadn’t written about this one yet. I think, as with a lot of people, Madvillainy was my introduction to both Madlib and MF DOOM, and I instantly fell in love with this thing. Honestly, the production on this record makes me feel like I’m stoned without even touching the green stuff. There are so many highlights, that it would be trite…

I love how the name of this band sums up the sound here so well. Ugly as fuck metallic hardcore drenched in reverb. Vocals are nasty, riffs are disgusting. Eight minutes of stank. BOSH!

A decent selection of tunes, with some interesting ideas (nice to see a prominent return of the synthesizer elements from the earlier days). After a couple of listens though nothing really jumps out.

“Running All Over The Wicket” has the sickest bassline since “Beneath The Waves An Ocean”. Generally though, I struggle to pick stand-out songs here compared to the other FOTL full-lengths. Despite this, I find myself preferring the general tone and production (all of which is a little darker than usual). So, it’s a strange balance for me. I will always no doubt be picking an earlier release over this one, though.

The once (and possibly still) elusive companion piece to Various Failures. I never found much value in it myself, because I owned an original copy of The Burning World, but for a very long time, Forever Burned was like the missing puzzle piece for fans who only had Various Failures. You have to remember for a very long time, before all of these recent reissues, the only way to get a lot of Swans was…

Like a transitional album with many elements from Gira’s previous project, The Angels Of Light. I bought the 12″ of this at a Swans show in Cardiff in 2010 and I swear there was like 50 people there. It was crazy seeing them in the following year (We Rose / Proto-Seer era) and how much their sound and audience had developed. I was really gobsmacked! Anyway, My Father… has some incredible songs on it, namely…

An interesting mix of vibes and ideas. From lo-fi beats to the more regular dirging sounds of various instruments such as pianos and guitars and what have you, Disburden Disciple showcases the many ways in which Jarboe can creep the absolute fucking shit out of you. Tidy!

It’s clear that there has always been a streak of influence from Steve Albini in this band’s work (the man also produced an album by Falko’s previous band) but “Prescriptions” is a little too uncanny valley even for me. It’s a tidy song, though. Generally, the rest of this EP is very chilled out; there are no big moments, (as in loud/abrasive), just solid songs played at a more moderate level than some of the…

If anything, the previous two EPs and their extra noisy / unusual songs were a good litmus test for how this would unfold in the form of a full length albums. Several songs from such EPs are reprised, along with a flurry of brand new head scratchers. Honestly, some of this shit is absolutely massive; huge cascading walls of sound crafted from slabs of bass and angular guitars. On paper that sounds like something influenced…

A very long and varied selection of “just about everything left off an album” from more recent Napalm Death recording sessions. Not gonna lie, despite being fairly long, it could be a full length in of itself. There is no lack of quality here considering these are essentially just bonus tracks and “left overs”. This shit goes as hard as any of the more recent records. For once, a compilation worth checking out!

4 songs, 8 minutes, that’s what I’m talking about! Great high quality studio tracks on a short 7” EP. Side A is probably better than Side B but this whole thing is great, with my favourite track being “The Male Gaze”.

Track 2 lets this one down considerably, otherwise this is fantastic, dusty, archaic “proto” dungeon synth. The underwhelmingly-titled “Outro” gets very spacy, where the first and final tracks are far more involving, like a cross between early Mortiis and a Sega Mega Drive video game.

Bosh! Is this reel lyfe? Or is this juste phantasee? I’ve kinda unintentionally managed to avoid the whole “keller synth” movement so I’m massively unfamiliar with the style. All I know is that this sounds like a strange mix between like, 8-bit or video game music, and dungeon synth style keyboard pieces. Oh, and a touch of bad black metal on top! Honestly, this cauldron of a cacophonous creation is actually quite endearing.

After the strange Polymers EP I did not have high hopes for the Man vs. Melody EP. I was therefore very pleasantly surprised by how good it was. “Future Child Embarrassment Matrix” and “He is Not a Hymn” are some of the heaviest FOTL tracks I’ve heard, particularly the former which reminds me of Blackjazz-era Shining of all things. The latter has that Every Time I Die / Daughters kinda anxious heaviness; again not something…

Polymers Are Forever is a short EP from FOTL, released a few years after the previous record and shortly before the band recorded their third album. The first thing of note here is the sheer drop in production quality compared to the first two albums. The Plot Against Common Sense has a similar muffled production but the tracks here seem like demos, if anything. That also seems to make them more experimental, I’d say. FOTL…

This is far from a bad album, but is Candlemass in name only. Leif (bass) is the only remaining member since the previous record, and this album was only put out under the Candlemass name because the label refused to continue with the Abstrakt Algebra project. As I said though, this is far from bad. It is actually pretty good “stoner” doom; the riff styles are drastically different to the rest of the band’s discography,…

Things come together very nicely on America Must Be Destroyed, which is the perfect distillation of the styles present on both Hell-O and Scumdogs Of The Universe. At first, America Must Be Destroyed feels like it’s a rawer album, but the reality is that the production, whilst uncompromising, is very well put together. The drums and bass clank away beautifully, the guitars are razor sharp and Oderus sounds brilliant. There are sillier moments (this is…

Messy, muddy grind of the gory variety – the same is the case for both bands. Neuropathia are here in their pre-rock’n’roll forms, with subterranean demo-tape quality gore being the order of the day. Mixomatosis has a bit more variety, at least in the sonic palette, but is far messier than their split mates.

It’s hard to shake the disappointment with this one. Beherit returning to their black metal style? Sign me the fuck up! Right? Right!? Unfortunately, Engram not only fails to ignite the spark from the original mystical days of old, but doesn’t really offer anything new in regards to modern black metal either. It fails on both fronts. Throw in a sterile, Watain-ass production, and yeah, this isn’t a winner. Don’t get me wrong, there are…

An improvement in every possible way from Hell-O. Scumdogs of the Universe has a prominent bass backbone; the rhythm section of this thing is tight as fuck, and the production is very similar to a lot of crossover thrash stuff from that era. Whilst leaning far more metal than their previous effort, Gwar’s Scumdogs… is of course far more than just a “crossover” album. There are some absolute classics here, the intro hat trick culminating…

Great shit. Sounds like Impaled Nazarene (perhaps a bit obviously once you know who’s involved here) but a bit more “straight up” – there’s less nonsense here, let’s just put it that way. Also reminds me of Beherit and Blasphemy in its own way. Great little 7” EP.

I know little of Future Of The Left’s music and have only really been into them because of some friends who enjoy their stuff. This has given me a somewhat lopsided “casual” fandom of the band, where I’m familiar with songs rather than albums (excluding Travels with Myself and Another – that thing fucking rules). Curses is of no exception. If anything tbh, it’s “quirky” late 00s artwork style put me off – but more…

Ahead of its time in that it sounds like generic AI generated muck. Patient Number 9 came a good year or so before Suno etc. was made available to the public, so kudos I guess, to the Ozzy machine for grinding out something completely fake before the rest of us could. No number of guest features is saving this artificial crap.

Overproduced, autotuned to fuck garbage. Fuck Elton John, fuck Post Malone, fuck Ozzy and his gang of yes men (oh, and fuck Sharon Osbourne). This is a musical abortion.

Scream unfortunately suffers the same fate as Black Rain, only without the Korn sound. It’s got a heavy “old man tries to stay relevant” sound (insert Steve Buscemi with a skateboard here), and is sadly fairly redundant and without any particular highlight. If I had to pick one, it would be “Soul Sucker” because the chorus is so catchy. Production wise, it’s very thick and dense; heavy on the bass and treble is not skimped…

How can something that came out in 2007 smack this hard of nu metal influence? Hahaha Black Rain sounds like someone in Ozzy’s management team heard Korn’s See You On The Other Side or NIN’s With Teeth and decided incorporating those elements into his music was a good idea or something. Seriously though, this makes the record feel enormously out of touch. The whole thing feels like a series of bad Rob Zombie b-sides with…

Ozzy Osbourne doesn’t owe us anything, and to be fair, he can do whatever he likes. However, was this really necessary? Outside of the firecracker rendition of “21st Century Schizoid Man” and the hilarious version of “Fire” (Paedofinder General did it better), this album is a total self-wankfest and a chore to get through. The cover of Mott The Hoople’s “All The Young Dudes” (famously written by David Bowie) even has fucking Ian Hunter on…

Down To Earth is the first Ozzy album that I was around for “in real time”. I remember this coming out. My friend Mark had it on CD, and the videos for “Gets Me Through” and “Dreamer” were all over the TV. Honestly, I fucking hated it at the time hahaha Colour me surprised, though! It took what, 23 years for me to finally appreciate this! This is another “later” Ozzy album that I’ve enjoyed…

Chronologically, Ozzmosis has been one of my favourite Ozzy albums. This surprised me, because the transition to “modern” “grunge” was forced by the label, and not an organic shift (you can find earlier demos with a different producer where the same songs sound a lot more like No More Tears). I think I can safely say, for the first time ever, thank absolute fuck for label interference! No More Tears was a fucking snooze fest. …

It is perhaps hard to justify the fervour that this album drums up, without placing yourself back at its time of release. Nowadays, fans of this kind of music have been exposed to all kinds of slow and disgusting death metal, but that’s not to say that Infester does not still stand head and shoulders over the rest of it. Notice that I’ve not used the terms “doom” or “death doom”; the Infester full-length is…

A cool live album from the RR era of Ozzy’s solo career (as is probably very much indicative by the title and album cover and you don’t need me to remind you of this!). In all, the set is pretty solid and the sound is really clear but still has that “obvious” raw live bite to it. There wasn’t much worth here for me outside of a really cool live set featuring our man Randy,…

Cold Winter Blades is a cool little EP that’s sitting on the boundary of Darken’s fairly savage “solo” Graveland work and the more triumphant and orchestral incarnation that the band would become with Thunderbolts Of The Gods or Hour Of Ragnarok. I don’t know if it’s just me, but the drums here seem absolutely overpowering, but that’s my only criticism really. Otherwise this is solid Graveland stuff.

As fun as it is to hear the very origins of Gwar (at least in regards to full length albums) and how the monstrous characters involved transitioned into this outfit from past project(s), I find myself not enjoying this record as much as I thought I would. Hell-O seems a bit unsteady on its feet. It’s not that the band perhaps are not clear on what they want yet; no band makes this kind of…

Incredibly, consistent black metal with a raw and honest production. Song structures are generally long and quite progressive, which is nice to hear when it comes to rawer more rehearsal room feel stuff like this.

Based and mince-pilled.  MxMxMx got the fatter sound, but Ziplock got that tight groove. Winner winner, (vegan) chickan dinner.

Really struggled with this one; bored me to fucking tears, I won’t lie. At first it’s very obvious that Zakk Wylde is on the scene; the guitar are far busier, riffing left right and center, with friggin’ squealies here and there too. As a whole though, this is a further dive towards the commercial angle experimented with on the previous album. Biiiig fucking AOR / stadium rock is the order of the day, with hideous…

Don’t let the shit-tier art put you off; this is a decent listen. Sometimes, things get lost in the reeds in production terms, but from a songwriting perspective this is pretty good. The duelling guitars (not in the Iron Maiden sense haha) keep the songs interesting, as does the interspersed dapplings of keyboard. The vocals and drums are quite “OK”, but nothing to write home about. Worth checking out if you are off the beaten…

On a first listen of this record, I couldn’t get over the “wall of sound” production. The album has however, grown on me. It is a feverish and chaotic, intense and over the top. Only such a wild and in your face production could house such a barrage of different sounds, right? The highlight of most of this record for me is the vocal performances, which range from impressive to completely feral.

Ahhh my life! Stamp on my nuts and throw me in front of a train. This shit is fucking CLASS. The mince stomps on this fucking thing are RIDICULOUS. The drums sound like homemade bullets made from melted down bin lids. The guitars sound like they are made by poor sap wearing a hat with a Hyperemesis patch, who was pushed – along with a crate full of Agathocles vinyl – into the machine from…

Bubbling analog gorenoise to melt the skin off your face and the eyes out of your sockets.

I got this CD for pennies (it was one of the reissues with the white jewel case and it had the tracklist that included Anal Cunt – for some reason there appears to be multiple versions of this compilation with different tracks, even different covers by different bands! I guess a band like Cathedral has an emergency stash of various Sabbath covers to break out in times of need hahaha). Now, a band like Sleep,…

Fast as fuck, furious as fuck, and FUN as fuck as well! The latter element there is often missing in a lot of records. Like, it’s OK to have fun in punk or metal, folks, it really is!  Anyway, Down The Drain has a clear production that really helps this set of 23 belters hit home. Despite the clarity, the record isn’t overproduced, and it feels like Vitamin X are playing in the room with…

My lord, those drums are sloppier than going last at a gangbang. The downtuned blurs of guitars don’t help either; hammering the songs on this record home with a wet splatter, like being hit in the head over and over and over again by a moss-covered chunk of stone broken off the edge of a grave. Disgusting!

Do the Brits really do it better? For this kind of RAWK (read: metal) Saxon have got it locked down. From the production, to the riffs, it’s popping off over here on Denim And Leather. The songs are catchy as hell. I’m not suuuuper sold on Byford’s vocals at this point but hopefully they will grow on me. Fire in the Sky!!!!

An interesting one. At first note, it sounds heavier than any of the previous albums, but as the songs progress there’s actually less “metal” here than ever before and more so is just “rock” dressed up in a big sound. It may feel like I’m splitting hairs, but fuck it. Also, Ozzy sounds tired as fuck on this one, like he just can’t be arsed. Production-wise, things are still pretty top-tier but the boxed in…