Archive for 2024

What a gem! I’m I randomly stumbled upon this one (thanks to Ken’s Death Metal Crypt). This demo / EP is incredibly good. Immediately I draw parallels between this and Akercocke, is it possible those gentle brits (lmao) took a lot of influence from this? The clanking bass and subterranean low vocal screams yes to me. An easier comparison would perhaps be Deicide, but the two bands don’t quite match up aurally. Anyway, my shitty…

Colour me surprised when I went back to this record to review it and found out it was now 7 years old this year (lmao). Like, we need a Wizard to fucking rewind time because that shit is fucking bizarre! This shit only came out last month, right? Right!? Anyway, Electric Wizard’s “latest” studio effort seemed to have been met with a resounding “meh” and whilst I initially wasn’t super into the pared back sound,…

The Sarcastic Terror material here is a bit clearer than their debut demo / EP, but I can’t say that they have evolved much musically in the 3 years between the 2 releases. I’m not knocking it though, their decrepit grinding death led with demonic pitchshifter vokills is well worth checking out. In-Quest are a new discovery for me, with this split, and they are a bit busier and more energetic than Sarcastic Terror. The…

I’ve gotta give props to Choppin Headz zine for pointing me in the direction of Sarcastic Terror (I can’t remember which issue, sorry!). This is some true underground sickness right here; some proper off the beaten path shit. Sarcastic Terror toe the line between grind and death, with the muddy, chugging riffs of the latter meeting the sensibilities and pitchshifter vocals of the former. Take Fascination With Mutilation era Agathocles and throw them in a…

Don’t fuck with the Prehistoric War Cult. True derivative war metal served right up for your fuckin’ ears! Bashed about the head with clubs! Like a fuckin’ axe through your skull, lodged in your brain like dropping a knife in a stick of butter. Production where you can FEEL every hit of the drum, the rumble of the bass, the ear-shredding mess of the guitar. Truly uncompromising extreme metal, strongly fucking recommended.

Sado Grind Metal is an unofficial compilation bringing both the self titled EP and Moloch EP into one session. They are quite awkwardly jammed together, but it’s a good way to experience all the “ancillary” Naked Whipper releases with ease. You could do this album and Painstreaks in one single session and inhale the band’s entire discography in one sitting.

Probably the washiest Naked Whipper session but earns bonus points for lack of watery flanger bullshit. Straight up grimy cassette session ass “sado grind metal” to appeal to your most base and primal musical lusts. Look no further, come in and enjoy the carnality!

Sadistik fukken war metal that’s gonna whip your fanny off, if you give it half a chance. Production? Who cares! These tracks hit you in the face like a lead weight over and over and over again when a suited and booted dominatrix kicks you in the balls at the same time. Yeah.

Ugh! Wishy washy lo-fi fuggen war metal is the order of the day! Can I get a side of extra flange with that please, drive? Tidy! Because nothin’ more Satanic and fukken evil than sounding like you’re under water, boss, ya dig? Cosmic aqua terror incoming! Hold onto ya fuckin’ dickpipes lads!

This is one of those records which I have put off writing about for years and years. I think I could go as far as to say that this is a cult classic of the whole grindcore genre; once you’ve explored the recommended gems, and start to go off the beaten path, Nyctophobic’s first full length should be somewhere on your list of albums to check out. It’s easy to miss, and therefore it is…

Dopesick was the first Eyehategod album that I bought, although I didn’t really get into them until I heard Take As Needed For Pain. There was much more groove there – painstaking and agonizing groove but groove nonetheless – whereas Dopesick just seemed tortured to me; drawn out, unpleasant. I also found the production to be rather muddy, which is OK for drug-addled sludge, but the 2007 remaster rather refreshingly opens up Dopesick without losing…

Barrington’s soundtrack for the original Broken Sword haunts me in my dreams, and the sequel is a continuation of that excellence. However, it should be said that the follow up is far more ethereal and atmospheric, with only a recurring leitmotif holding the whole thing together. Aside from that, breathy synths are the order of the day, with stabs of instrumental punctuation reserved for important plot or gameplay points. There’s a collection of “worldly” music…

What a thoroughly charming and endearing set of songs. The beautiful, sun-drenched production (as in, it sounds like the tape was left in a Walkman which in turn was left out on a pavement outside the Black Ark studio for two whole days) provides a warm and comforting listen, with Perry’s homely and down to earth lyrics only reiterating this feeling. Truly, this is a pleasure to listen to on almost any occasion, and has…

A beautiful and evocative debut. It took me a few listens to “get” the whispered vocal approach, which felt like a bit of a cop-out at first. Once I had gotten over this personal hurdle, the full impact of Nighttime Nightrhymes could be fully appreciated. For me, it is an embodiment of the perfect neofolk sound; that dark acoustic simplicity augmented by various other stringed or wind instruments helps develop a sound that is fresh…

Cozza Frenzy is a long-ass album. I didn’t really notice at first, listening with earphones at work, but when I went for a round two I found my attention slipping fairly easily. Frenzy has it’s highlights, but also a series of low points too. I guess you just gotta take the rough with the smooth. The production is huge, crystal clear and very, very tidy – to the point perhaps of being somewhat homogeneous, but…

Starts off good but loses me towards the second half, which is stuffed with pointless filler and shitty remixes, taking this “EP” to over 45 minutes long. Timestretch, indeed, my dude(s). Taken on the first 4 tracks alone, or even just “Basshead” (by far the strongest here), this is pretty cool, but as I said the rest drags it down.

Not as fully realised as the album which would come roughly 1 year later but still well worth your time if sleazy, speedy black metal is your idea of a good time (it fucking should be).

Apathy: the album. The analogue production and the bubbling post-punk (to become “deathrock”) is fantastic but Rozz Williams delivers his vocals in such a way that he sounds like he is already done with this band before it has even begun. Yeah I get it, that’s part of the vibe, but things are delivered with such a nonchalance I’m left wondering why I should ever bother give my time in return to listen to it….

I’ve thusfar defended Borgore releases on here but today that stops (lmao). Production is great but the songs are pretty poor tbh, with Borgore’s terrrribbbblllle rapping taking center stage. When the highlight of your record is a song about taking a girl who is so ugly to a gloryhole so you can happily fuck her face without worrying about her looks (but not in a sleazy way, in a cheeky chappy bro its a joke…

I was into “Cyber Waste” when this first came out (“nothing you say matters to us”? – matters enough for you to write a whole fucking song and release it as the lead single to this album LOL) but otherwise I mostly snoozed on this album. I was 13 or 14 years old, and wasn’t really THAT into Fear Factory. Now, as a legit old cunt, one can return to the Fear Factory discography in…

This was my jam in 2010. Back when I first had Spotify (crazy to think I’ve had it for around 15 years now) I would make playlists of all the underground dubstep shit that I could find. Bratkilla’s “Methamphetamine” is not exactly the most inspired thing in the world, and the Family Guy samples are pretty cringe, but the bass on this is so fucking nasty I still play it fairly regularly 14 years after…

Uncompromising, unforgiving… uninspiring? I’ll be honest with you, it was the cover art that drew me in here, and whilst I stayed for the nearly 1hr runtime, I couldn’t help but think this album would have been much more effective if it was just a little shorter. I suppose you could draw parallels to Chimera-era(-era!) Mayhem or earlier 1349, but Through Thick Fog Til Death is nowhere near as good as either of those.

I haven’t heard Bratkilla since the Methamphetamine EP. I remember their tunes being pretty hard but I did not expect the project to go THIS hard. “Nefertitie” is a fucking bop, I’m sure the queen herself would approve. The “B-Side” is a banger too but that first track blew my dick off.

Can I get a reeeeee, a skreee and possibly a breeeee? EarDelete play glacial paced “grindcore” with silly vocals and party atmosphere, and in this case an overarching theme of the devil somehow being involved, for reasons beyond my comprehension. Production is good, but the best thing about this is the guitar; thick and chunky with a dark tone. Tidy.

Both bands absolutely kill it on this split. Talk about high energy! Both sessions have fresh takes on the grind template and the production is clear and punchy enough to let both of these projects really shine. Short, sharp and fucking chaotic.

A little rough around the edges considering the scope and depth of songwriting, but is so in a very endearing kind of way. I’m drawn in by the atmospheric / instrumental passages, and kept engaged by a combination of frantic carnage and shrieking vocals, which is backed with an urgent and triumphant sense of melody that does not let up throughout.

I’ve never been much of a fan of Johnny Cash but do enjoy a spin of the covers now and then. There is a morose feel to the whole record, which is known primarily for “Hurt” let’s be honest, but despite this, sadness and perhaps a weariness permeates every second of this thing. The production is simply gorgeous, allowing the rustic Americana of these interpretations to fully shine. A classic record, for sure.

I love the mix of crushing doom metal and more traditional instrumental passages, which use all manner of different sounds to build the atmosphere. Anyone who puts a church organ on a doom record is a genius in my book. The production is also fantastic and the length of this thing, seemingly impenetrable at first, opens up the album like some sort of sprawling journey or concept album. Granted, this type of death/doom at the…

Ah yes, THE Electric Wizard, everyone’s favourite dope smoking fuzz fiends. Not sure what inspired that brief name change, but I am glad they reverted back after this album. We Live! seems to be a transitional period for the band, with Jus moving the band away from their “classic” lineup and still – honestly – having not found their stride with the newer incarnation of the band. This would come in spades with Witchcult Today,…

Dark, moody, slushy, obtuse “vaporwave” from one of the more immediately aesthetically recognisable projects in the genre. Imagine the kind of thing you’d usually hear on a dungeon synth record but chopped, sliced and obfuscated from you in a hazy cloud of what is essentially a blob of hypnagogic sound.

A catchy song but one that doesn’t really sound like Borgore, at least the Borgore I know from Ruined Dubstep etc – this little number is more in line with mainstream electronic music. I wouldn’t call it a club track. It sounds more like something you’d hear in the background of a gaming compilation video on YouTube or something.

You may recognise the name of this EP. Yes it is the name I “borrowed” for my blog, YouTube channel and eventual RYM profile. It also made SEO for the first two things on that list absolutely impossible lmao, but there we go, you live and learn. Lines In Wax is a four track EP that is stacked with bangers, in all fairness. I guess this falls into the whole brostep / dubstep thing, but…

Proclamation often get it in the neck for being “derivative” – but is it possible (at all) to not be derivative in the microgenre that is war metal? Either way, I don’t give too much of a shit personally, because Advent Of The Black Omen is fucking class. Expect muddy, downtuned guitars, endless spastic drumming and vokills to invoke the horn-ed one. Y’know, it sounds like war metal. Don’t forgot to break out your bullet…

Muddy, nasty, gory death metal a la Mortician, slightly underdone, more blue than rare, but still tasty all the same. I have a very (penetrable?) soft spot for Fluids despite calls that they are nought but a derivative copy. I think the success of their “rise” through the “world” of “modern death metal” and the number of vinyl and cassettes these guys have sold would perhaps indicate that the haters are indeed wrong (who would…

Like part 1, but improved. Again, lots of asinine lyrics but the programming has improved tenfold. Tracks like “Money” and the excellent “Broken Rulz” (with metal drumming, no less – do I smell a Drumkit From Hell VST plugin!? Ha!) are pretty fucking experimental, I’ll give the man his due. Despite this, Borgore seems universally hated and this EP will no doubt never win any lifetime awards, but Vol 2 (along with Vol 1) are…

This has aged pretty poorly, but I’m going to try and briefly review it from the mindset I had in 2010. The mainstream dubstep craze was in full effect. Radio 1 after 10pm was full of this shit. However, Borgore, who’d turned some heads with his unique “gorestep” style, dropped his first full EP proper with Borgore Ruins Dubstep Vol. 1. For the kind of stinky drops that we all listened to in my mate’s…

Behold.Total.Rejection. completes my descend into the murky world of Revenge full-lengths. Sometimes I can struggled to think of what to say for certain releases, and Revenge are a band that I’ve noticed this happening for multiple times. I guess once you know what Revenge are about, and you start coming back for more and more, you know exactly what you want and you know exactly what to expect. In that regard, BTR is another variation…

“She Is A Fire” sounds great, to be fair. Dani sounds amazing, the current / new version of the band is on the ball, and Martin is a machine on the drums. Regarding the live session, I’ll be honest, when I heard about this release of yet another Cradle live album I rolled my eyes, but I’d be lying to you if I didn’t say that the band are tight as fuck right now. Like,…

(Review of the 2012 expanded version)  A tidy little record from Absurd, perhaps a little rough around the edges and not as catchy as the 00s period led by Wolf but still lots of great work here. Production is a little raw but complaining about that on a black metal release is just incredibly stupid. Lots of atmospheric intermissions and bombastic interludes cut the metal segments up nicely.

It might be the squeaky Despise You on helium vocals that put folks off after the first few songs but The End is Gallhammer at their most glacial and experimental. Worth listening to for the closing tracks alone, “Wander” and “108=7/T-NA”, the latter of which has what sounds like some sort of Zorn-like sax improvisation over it.

Yikes. I’m not sure which of these two songs is the worst. Not sure what I can offer here without descending into just purely ragging on Jerry Only. The production is nice, I guess.

Friday The 13th is one of the better things that Jerry’s Misfits put their hand to. Not that the bar was particularly high with the competition from other releases in this era, but Friday The 13th actually has sessions that sound like the band is trying. The songs fall somewhere between sounding like Devil’s Rain and Jerry’s recent solo outing. The production is also surprisingly rough, but IMO this works in the band’s favour. I…

Not sure what happened here, because Animatronic, whilst divisive, appeared to come off as a successful experiment. I guess what SETI does is double down on the style of that previous album, but maybe the band pushed too far with this one. SETI is like, what, 80 minutes long? 80 minutes of mediocre industrial metal is enough to drive anyone to absolute madness, regardless of quality, but SETI fails to deliver the instant satisfaction of…

Batcave is up there with Belief… and the first demo as some of the best stuff Fukpig ever did. The production on this short EP is fucking MASSIVE, the guitar enveloping you like a giant wall of deadly force. The drums are also fantastic, especially the blastbeats on “One Of A Thousand Ways To Steal Your Liberty”.

This World Is Weakening is the “fixed” version of 3. You’ll find less wooly production, more balanced instrumentation and more audible vocals (which is nice, obviously). In comparison to the modern remaster of 3, This World Is Weakening seems like a bit of a pointless endeavour but trust me this album was a breath of fresh air into these songs back in 2014. Both versions still warrant investigation today, as Fukpig had truly developed their…

Like Misery Index on crack cocaine. Fukpig really hit the ground running and Depths Of Humanity is a masterpiece in my eyes. It is, truly, one of the most under rated and slept on grindcore / crust demos of any era. The band would go on to become something slightly different, but this first view into what they were about is incredibly good and well worth your time.

Bombs Of War takes the same (or very similar) set of songs from the band’s original demo The Depths Of Humanity and reimagines them somewhat. The differences are marginal, but the production is significantly different. I’m not sure if there was a big lineup change or what; I’m not sure what would warrant the rerecording of all of these songs into a second demo which is arguably not as good as first. If you do…

Jerry really set himself up to fail here. In what world would a re-recording of the Graves-led tune “Descending Angel” ever be better than the original? In fact, I’m pretty sure “Descending Angel” is one of Graves’ own songs (he brought many to the Misfits) which rubs salt in the wound even more. But yeah, everything about this single is absolutely pointless, and pretty awful to be honest. The live version of the B-Side from…

I was 22 when this came out. I was a vinyl-buying devotee of Devizes Records, and the very minute it was possible to do so, I ordered the 3 album on 12”. Spewings… was OK, but Belief… was fucking savage, and having seen the band live a few times I was now as pumped as I could be for the next Fukpig installment. 3 came and it was just… there. I can’t really remember thinking…

Finally, Halford returns to his rightful place at the front of Priest. No shade to Ripper, who had a 50/50 track record with Priest albums, but Halford belongs as the group’s front man and from the off this actually sounds like a Judas Priest album, despite the modern production (which is not a problem, just a little jarring if you think the last time we heard Halford-fronted Priest was the legendary Painkiller, an album that…

A gargantuan fecking slab of brick-walled goregrind. Loudness war? Forget that shit, you won’t ever be able to hear another record ever again if you play this little bastard loud enough. Obscene production technique aside, Katana Orgy is the Jig-Ai sound fully matured from the debut era, and kind of the blueprint that they would use going forward for the rest of their work. For that reason, and because this album is just generally amazing…

Nasty little EP from the frantic and chaotic Kreator. The drums are massive on this, and the sound is less messy than what it is on Pleasure To Kill, making Flag Of Hate a concise, short, sharp hit of classic Teutonic thrash.

What can I say about a record this legendary? Pleasure To Kill is a classic of not just the thrash genre but an integral piece of metal music history. The production is clean and whilst I wouldn’t go as far as to call the band’s playing sloppy, there is definitely a youthful energy to their work here that is barely contained. It feels like each song wants to go racing off as fast as possible,…

I first bought the Mahakali album in 2010 or 2011 and despite being massively into Swans and even some of the guest players here (Atilla for example), the album didn’t really resonate with me. I found it slow, frustrating and directionless. I’m not sure what has changed, but coming back to it thirteen years later and I am immediately blown away by this thing. I listened to the whole thing through for the first time…

I’ve always had a stand-offish relationship with Die Tur Ist Zu because well, what’s the fucking point in this thing? “Helpless Child” (slightly extended here) and “All Lined Up” sang in German is little more than a novelty, and the hodge podge of other cuts and live bits are just… well, just there. Considering SFTB is such a gargantuan and groundbreaking album, this “EP” stands entirely in its shadow. Don’t get me wrong, nothing on…

I fucking HATED this shit when it came out. Little did I know how much worse it would get (looking at you, Devil’s Rain). I’ll be honest, thanks to seeing the Jerry-Fits live a bunch of times and also thanks to the DeA.D. Alive! CD I really started to appreciate some of the newer tracks, especially “Land Of The Dead”. The chorus is mad catchy. Jerry’s Danzig / Elvis attempt on “Twilight Of The Dead”…

Cunnilingus and hardcore punk brought us to this! It says a lot about your relationship with a band when one of your favourite albums by them is a covers album but fuck it, Undisputed Attitude is the shit. Slayer are angry as fuck and it translates perfectly into the world of hardcore punk. They absolutely fucking kill it here. (As a side note I totally didn’t need to hear Tom Araya singing about putting his…

I don’t want to say the first few tracks from the Winnipeg… sessions are “calmer” than the latter, but they definitely do not descend quite as far down the staircase of pure electronic fuckery and madness as tracks like “Die Winnipeg Die Die Die Fuckers Die” or “Winnipeg as Mandatory Scat Feed” from the Vol. 2 but they are still a test of patience for those who are not initiated into the world of breakcore…

Bosh bosh bosh! “Album” which compiles both the Winnipeg 12″ singles, as well as a bunch of new tracks from the same session, into one super mega awesome 45 minute breakcore fuckfest. …Frozen Shithole seems to be one of those albums that gets more and more brutal as it goes on, just pounding you into the shitty, frozen dirt with each passing track. This is something which I do not doubt was a purposeful decision…

The main selling point for Slabdragger, at least on this LP, is the phenomenal guitar tone. Crunchy, fuzzy, chewy, riffy goodness! Unfortunately, Regress fails to hold much attention for the entirety of its runtime and I attribute this to the lack of variety in its textural content; it’s all rather one dimensional, despite the songs being generally very good in isolation.

A stunning debut from this legendary band. Personally, I think the Rainbow sound was perfected on Rising, but there are some frankly excellent songs on this album, including the now immortal opening track, “Man on the Silver Mountain”. The production, seemingly shared between Blackmore and producer Martin Birch, is organic and flows nicely through the various styles of songs present on the album. (Apparently I enjoy listening to this so much that I reviewed it…

Somewhat predictable but immensely satisfying industrial metal that worships almost exclusively it seems at the altar of Godflesh. Expect claustrophobic guitars, punishing programmed drums and robotic vocals. Expect pain, anguish and misery. Expect it to sound a lot like Godflesh!

Stop this crime? What crime? The only crime here is this band’s attempts at ballads. If you wanna go ahead and stop those, I’m with you 100% of the way, my dudes. Toad’s 4th album, released 26 years after the previous studio album, is a bit of a wet fart of a comeback. The production is fantastic, but the album is top-loaded, with excellent numbers at the start, but the record soon meanders off into…

Very atmospheric and evocative black metal, with the riffs wandering through the haze of the mist, and bathing you in their ancient glory. Beautiful undercurrent of synthesizers / keyboards present too, giving these tracks a unique dimension, despite fulfilling many of the tropes of black metal. Good shit.

Entertaining but incredibly messy black metal from Germany. The synths and atmospheric elements are fantastic but when the core of the band come in, well shit is almost as shambolic as early Graveland. In fact, I’m pretty sure the guitarist and the drummer are in different bands and they’ve just stapled the unrelated recording sessions together to form songs. I’m joking of course, but the tightness is uhhh, not great. Verdict: A for atmosphere (and…

I was surprised by how good some of the songs were on The Mighty Death Pop. Don’t get me wrong here, there’s a lot of shit floating around on this here disc, but damn I cannot deny that the title track or “The Blasta” or “Bazooka Joey” are fucking excellent. I also can’t speak for the bonus discs including the covers disc because that shit is just too awful for me to sit through, but…

Armed To The Teeth is a fairly uninspired split release from the usually excellent Curta’n Wall and the grimm and grimy Fugitive Wizard. Curta’n Wall’s tracks here are pretty catchy, especially “Castle Spire”, but the quality does not come near that what can be found on the self-titled EP or the Siege Ubsessed full length. Fugitive Wizard falls off the deep end into a bottomless murky pit of horrendous production. We’re talking almost as bad…

Incredibly solid black metal that at first feels quite impenetrable, but gives way to some dense yet mesmerizing songwriting. Equal parts unforgiving and atmospheric, Lamp Of Murmuur’s full length debut ticks all of the right boxes when it comes to modern black metal. This project seems to get a lot of hate, I guess for attracting hipsters or some shit, but who gives a fuck about that when the record is this good?

As a white man in a western country I can only empathise with the themes of this record. That’s not to say Kuti’s music isn’t for me, as music is for anyone who is willing to listen. Knowing the sensitive political situation around Kuti and the severity of the confrontation between him and those that were in power, one can really feel the weight of every word in these epic, sprawling tracks. On top of…

I appreciate the experimentation that Sepultura did with A-Lex. Previous album Dante XXI aside, Sepultura ran a very real risk of becoming stale in the years running up to this record. However, A-Lex is a step down from its predecessor in a number of ways. The first is the production is nowhere near as clear. As a musician I would find it infinitely frustrating having found the perfect palette of sonic clarity for my band…

“Leck Mich Im Arsch” is a mess, I’ll be honest. Nothing about it works, at all. The musical styles are a complete mismatch, and ICP’s lyrics are probably the best thing about it all. “Mountain Girl” on the flipside is appalling, a second-rate continuation of the same-old same-old shit you got on “Redneck Ho” and “Chicken Huntin’”. Aside from the novelty that this was produced by Jack White (like…what? lmao), this is mid ICP at…

I expected a fairly high drop off of quality after Seasons… so I was pleasantly surprised to find that Divine Intervention has aged quite well. Yeah, there’s more of the “groove” sound here than anything that could be called thrash metal, but we are now firmly entering the phase that I like to call “angry Slayer”. It’s a silly term, I know, because Slayer has always been angry, but from here on out they seem…

When I saw the “Cyanide” single on the TV as a teenager I thought it was pretty cool even though it was clearly very cheesy goth music. I wouldn’t usually be super into this sort of stuff, but I was really into The Kovenant’s Animatronic album, after hearing “Mirror’s Paradise” on one of Bam Margera’s CKY dvds (those were the days, eh). Deathstars to me seemed like KovenantLite, and that was OK with me. I…

Dante XXI is the best Sepultura album chronologically in quite some time. There seems to be a fire underneath Dante XXI that has been absent for far too long, despite the band’s best efforts in the interim period. With the metal world crawling out the grip of nu / alternative fads and into some whole other bullshit (metalcore I’m looking at you), Sepultura forged ahead with their own unique sound. The production for Dante XXI,…

Seasons In The Abyss is an amalgamation of the previous few Slayer albums. Good thing that these albums are some of metal’s all-greats, so Slayer retreating old ground here is not necessarily an awful thing in this case. I think they got away with rehashing stuff here for the first and only time, only because the quality of the songs are still very, very high. There are signs of the not-so-great groove / nu metal…

One of the most magnificent pieces of music I’ve heard in some time. I’ve seen this artwork bandied about online / on people’s RYM lists for years (also I’m pretty sure YouTube has recommended me this album about 700 times). The art is very striking to me; a soldier wielding a gun above the clouds has a strange otherworldly feel to it. Musically, I get the same feeling from this as I did from Peste…

I’m new to the music of Sturmpercht, but more or less completely in love with it after only a few short weeks. Geister Im Waldgebirg filters traditional Alpine folk music (a type of music that I am admittedly not familiar with) through the medium of neofolk, resulting in a morose acoustic experience that sounds confident and authentic. The record cannot be dismissed for following repetitive acoustic folk structures however; for each campfire acoustic guitar track…

The Jugulator V Demolition argument has raged for several decades now, but I’m here to finally lay it all to rest: this shit fucking blows ass. This is clearly, unequivocally the worst album of the two, and is a stain on the Priest name. There’s probably two good songs on this thing, the rest of them are either inconsequential or sound like bad Rammstein or Fear Factory b-sides. Cyyyybeerrrfaaacccceeee lmao get the fuck out of…

I’m just gonna say it: Slayer were way cooler when they did Bathory-esque metal (pre-Bathory metal, even!). I’ve coined it “evil Slayer” (original, I know) and it’s better than “thrash Slayer”, “nu metal Slayer” and “legacy band releasing shit for the sake of it Slayer” all put together (thrash Slayer is pretty cool though). I’m obviously breaking bawls here but fuck this shit rules so hard. In layman’s terms this is Slayer’s Kill ‘Em All,…

An excellent set, featuring some of Voivod’s best tunes, and – of course – their Pink Floyd cover. The sound is a bit flat in places but generally the production is very well balanced, especially between Chewy and Rocky. Snake sounds just like he does in the sound, it’s uncanny.

Came for the album art (I mean, just look at it), stayed for the cold yet precise black metal. Arising Realm sounds so brittle it feels like the entire thing could collapse into thousands of icy shards at any given moment. Despite this, a rock solid backbone of tight drumming and deep bass allow hypnotic guitar riffs to weave through frozen tapestries, accompanied by occasional smatterings of frosted keys and evil roars of vocal outpouring….

I’m not gonna lie to you, chief. I have zero fucking clue who or what Ultraman is. I can only assume, this being Voivod, that it is some sort of obscure sci-fi movie or TV show. I did not expect, in any universe or pocket dimension, to ever hear Snake singing in Japanese. Sometimes even a band like Voivod, where you should expect the unexpected, continues to out-pace my imagination. Fair play. But yeah, these…

Of all the tracks from The Wake, “The End Of Dormancy” is far from the best, the first few minutes of it even being tedious, not a word I would often use to describe Voivod’s music, but here we are. The version of the track here, with the additional brass sections, is a fun experiment, but not one that I feel really pays off. The track doesn’t really get interesting until mid-way through and even…

You gotta love it when bands release EPs that almost reach LP status due to their run time. Voivod is one such band; a band that is always bestowing onto us the most interesting and engaging dystopian metal gifts. Post Society is no different. Come for the off-kilter sci-fi thrash, stay for the Hawkwind cover (yes!). As always with the “modern” era of Voivod, production is fantastic and everyone is performing on point. This EP…

Yantra Creating sees 7 H.Target expanding upon their punishing slam sounds. Unless I’ve got this all wrong (I am, after all, an ignorant westerner) there’s an undercurrent of Hinduism layered through the precision blasts and massive riffs. This bleeds into the music too, with not only more traditional elements of religious music interwoven into the brutality, but also introspective passages of melody and moments of calm. It’s an interesting development that has 100% of my…

Mint Jams is a collection of cheeky, sprightly, impossibly complex jazz fusion played carelessly in front of a no-doubt enthralled audience as if it was the easiest and most natural thing in the world. The ease at which the group play in a live environment is truly impressive, although I would be a liar if I said the exact “music” hit the mark 100% of the time. This is an inherent problem I have with…

Calling midnight sloppy does them / him a disservice, but there is a looseness to this EP which gives it a kind of drunken swagger, allowing tracks like “Black Rock N Roll” or “Vomit Queen” to hit that much harder. I don’t want to say farewell to hell, especially if this is what it sounds like. Sounds like Satan smashed on whiskey.

Pretty incredible that this came out in 1995, when you think about it. Not that it was particularly far ahead of its time or anything like that, I’m just a simpleton and I’m easily amazed by the crushing certainty of the passing of time. Anyway, Ai is a busy slice of noise, with all sorts of punishing sounds going on (and some great cover photography to boot). If you like your noise more involved rather…

Side A is a blisteringly fast and chunky “HM2 hardcore & death metal smoothie” (that doesn’t actually sound like it utilises a HM2 pedal lol) but where An Unexpected Reality really shines is Side B, with the ten minute “Emptiness”, a doom-laden masterpiece that earns every second of its run-time.

Slightly muddy sound, but an excellent set that covers the first four (read: the only decent) Berzerker albums. I saw them live on this tour and it was fantastic, so to have this disc come out not long after was a nice little treat and reminder about how good they were live. For this line-up Luke had long-time Berzerker collaberator Sam Bean on bass, recent (for the time) Akercocke recruit Matt Wilcock on guitar and…

Biiig, biiiig production for black metal. The drums sound fantastic but the guitars almost have a HM2 fuzz to them which is an interesting choice. I don’t wish to disparage the riff writing or excellent vocals but I find this entire record a touch uninspired. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but it’s just not grabbing me. The Poisonous Path is not equalling the sum of its parts.

Leave it to Archagathus to make completely inhospitable landscapes of downtuned grinding mush into catchy songs that are easily digested and heavily enjoyed. Truly, they are masters of the mincecore craft. Bangsat are a more straightforward grindcore affair, not that this is to their detriment; ample carnage awaits you on side B of this short disc.

Projects like Old Nick should always be taken with a pinch of salt but it is astounding how good this record actually is. The songwriting is fantastic, and some of the ways these songs turn out is just incredible, with these fantastic riffs or synth passages just coming out of nowhere and blindsiding you. Honestly, there’s a lot of talent here, and a real knack for writing catchy and engaging music, its just that its…

Random find of the day goes to this fantastic little split EP. Both bands are new finds for me. Ulcer are on the more brutal, “grindcore” end of the powerviolence spectrum, with a bludgeoning production intent on smacking you into the ground. Failure Face on the other hand have a bit more of malleable nature to them. The songs are tightly sprung and bounce around with that undeniable hardcore punk energy. The vocalist is on…

My first boogie with Failure, and hyperspeed, manic powerviolence is the order of the day. Clear, organic production allow the riffs to breathe over the barrage of vocals and blasting drums. Ona Snop are another beast altogether, absolute savage fucking unstoppable barrages of sound paired with riffs that could make a corpse get up and mosh.

The perfect balance between Sorcery… and the debut full-length, Pentagram. I love the denser “treble” sound to the production here, which is admittedly much more atypical of the style at the time (brb, tying an onion to my belt). Both tracks sound absolutely massive on this promo, despite the limiting production, but the riff leading us up to the conclusion of “Måneskyggens Slave” is just absolutely spellbinding (but better before the flanger effect hits, I’ll…

Hat’s vocals on this are absolutely insane. I also really like the production, its not that much rawer really than the debut, but still has a good balance. It begs the question, is (slightly) rawer better? Also, whatever “Sexual Bloodgargling” is about, you guys can count me out. The song rules, though. A great demo, all in all. I really wish it was a little bit longer.

Division Triad have some really good riffs, and some excellent production values too, at least from what I’ve heard on this split. The drums sound fantastic and there’s a really good balance between all the instruments, which is always nice. All in all, nothing super groudbreaking, but a good set of songs. The imaginatively named War 88 (no dogwhistles there, eh) have dare I say more of a traditional black metal sound, with wasp-like guitars,…

Solid debut from the legendary and influential Gorgoroth. I love the “dank” production and the organic sound, might sound a bit silly but it feels a bit rare to hear this kind of thing in black metal. The riffs are just fantastic. Hat’s vocals are a bit strange (kind of weird effect on them sometimes) but otherwise this a great album. Short and to the point at less than 30 minutes.

Pretty uninspired, straight forward d-beat style stuff with that “dark” edge that was trendy as fuck around maybe 2010 or whatever. My only real surprise here is finding out that this wasn’t put out by Southern Lord. If that were the case then my “dark and mysterious modern hardcore” bingo card would have been well and truly full. I’m being facetious of course, and Usurpress are hardly a bad band. It’s just I feel like…