Archive for February 2025

I’ll be honest with you, when I found out that Phil Anselmo had a black metal band, I thought that it was going to be absolutely fucking terrible. The reality is that Scour’s debut is actually pretty fucking good. Decent production, decent riffs, decent vokills and most importantly, deeeeeeeeeeeeeecent fucking drumming, brah brah. Gold didn’t blow my socks off but it didn’t disappoint either.

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MMmmmhhhmmmmmmmmmmm that sounds like complete and utter shit, brah brah! Just what the doctor ordered! Expect non-stop blasting carnage (drums sound fukken amazing, but beware they are buried in grime and bodily fluids). Vokills are eXXXtra disgusting on this one. 10/10 would recommend this to my gran, if she were still alive.

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Pornography and power electronics go together perfectly, just like a cigarette and a pint of lager. However, if I wanted to listen to a bunch of annoying porn samples, then I’d…well, watch a bunch of annoying porn. Surely we should be letting the noise do the talking here? Let the imagery and titles set the scene, and then let the noise conjure that sleazy, submissive and oppressive atmosphere. There’s actually some great pieces here, but…

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Off the strength of the demos you knew that Hell Returns (the debut album from Dutch speedy blackened metal maniax Bad Omen) was gonna be a bangerooni. Production is even better than the two cassette EPs, and I think only two tracks (from memory) reprise here from the demos. All the rest are new original fuckin’ belters. Top playing across the board. The drums in particular sound really great on this one and the vokills…

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Shorter and sharper than Returns, Hell is instead a more Venom-esque romp through some goddamn motherfuckin’ fuckin’ metal. Production is still top notch, as is the playing and vokills. Awesome bare-bones metal!

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Fuckin’ old school fuckin’ metal from fuckin’ Bad Omens. Heard of these guys from the Headsplit Records newsletter for Jan/Feb 2025 and glad I checked them out. This is a really high quality production demo, more of an EP than a demo. This thrashes hard. It kicks you in the dick with a spiked boot. Tidy!

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A totally different beast from the debut album which came a year after. It sounds like a totally different band, even. This EP is fast, loose and sloppy. You could say the debut album from these guys is also all of those things, but where the album has quite a heft to it, this debut EP is quite slippery.

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This split contains material from Ildjarn that’s so polished I had to look up whether or not I was listening to a friggin’ bootleg. Huh. I did a search, and of course, like other Ildjarn shit, it is disputed. So I dunno, is the shit here on this split legit Ildjarn material? Who even fucking knows. It’s good shit, though. Hate Forest stuff here is deep, bassy and still quite majestic despite its heaviness. All…

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Mad as fuckin’ beef noisecore from the US with a pornogrind tilt to it. Expect nonsensical barrages of idiotic noise, with all sorts of interesting vibes and sleazy additions. From blurs of digigrind madness, to slabs of impenetrable noise, Gruesome Toilet does it with a smile and a slingshotted condom filled with piss right to the face. Tidy.

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Murky, weird, off-kilter, moody, doomy black metal here on demo no. 3 from Barathrum. It sounds hideous as all fuck, but that’s pretty cool in my book.

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Very patchy stuff, especially considering how great the next demo is (Discrimination against the Vagina). Seems to be culled together from various different sessions.

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Chimaira’s Impossibility Of Reason is far heavier than it has any reason to be. This is coming from someone who hasn’t heard this record in over 20 years (where the fuck DOES the time go!?); I had the shock of my life playing through this again. Holy fuckski, brah brah, this thing knows how to throw down! Don’t get me wrong there’s some metalcore-ish parts that aren’t so great and even some leftovers from the…

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Another oddball entry into the Candlemass canon. We are so far right now from what the band is known and loved for (even on records that came after this) that it’s almost funny. What isn’t funny however, and is actually rather impressive indeed, is that this album is still heavy and doomy as fuck, and it’s still pretty damn good. Is it original? Not really. Is it a product of it’s time? Kinda. Are the…

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Without wanting to criticize too heavily, Bulldozer at this point are little more than a mediocre Venom clone. The two songs on this 7″ are a lot of fun, though. Don’t expect the world in regards to production, but things are clear enough that this doesn’t quite fall into demo territory.

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The vibes are a bit “off” with Anciet, if you’ll permit me using Gen-Z speech for a moment. They certainly have their own unique edge, which is special to me considering that they are part of that early 90s Norwegian wave of bands. On Svartalvheim (what a record sleeve, btw), the usual black metal necro shittery is witheld with a servicable production courtesy of Cato Langnes, and accentuated by unusual and sometimes anxious atmospheres permeating…

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Your one-stop shop for the Anaal Nathrakh demos in modern times. Contains both Total Farking Necro as well as the self-titled demo for your aural carnage needs, but interestingly also includes the stand-alone bonus demo “Necrogeddon”, which is a super-early version of “Forging Towards The Sunset” from Vanitas (sans chorus). Cool shit! Mayhem cover is great too.

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Nasty fucking early demo from Anaal Nathrakh. Pummeling industrial drum sounds are the order of the day, with the blanket of frosty riffs atop them. The now-trademark gargling, howling screeches of Dave Hunt narrate you through the chaos from beginning to end. An aural feast of intense, cold hell. “Lethal, D.I.A.B.O.L.I.C.” and “The Technogoat” are amazing in particular.

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Not as good as the other demo that came in the same year but still a solid slice ‘o nasty, harsh, industrial black metal. The sound is overall far more tinnitus-inducing here than on the debut demo. Interestingly, the sample where the words “Anaal Nathrakh” are uttered is re-used here to open this demo just as it was on the last.

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An incredibly raw and amateur demo from the legendary Asphyx. It’s absolutely great to see where bands germinated from, demos like this are more or less a thing of the past now. Despite the fact that this is very rough around the edges, you can genuinely hear the underlying vibe that the band were going for and this audibly carries through into their early studio albums. It’s well worth a listen for fans of the…

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It is incredible to me just how consistent Cannibal Corpse can be sometimes, and Kill is no exception. It’s place in that incredible run of albums from late 90s to late 00s; uncompromising death metal with brutal vocals dressed up in hard-hitting yet super clear and precise production. KIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!

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Sound quality? Who Cares? Do You? A stormer of a set, with a good mixture of the regular stuff along with some, uhh, less common numbers, such as the excellently-titled “Financial Cris-Ass”.

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Whilst not quite reaching the heights of Love It To Death, Killer is another decent Alice Cooper record. The songs don’t quite jump out at me here on album number four, but the sound is still excellent and the journey is enjoyable for every second. To it’s credit, there are no pacing issues with Killer; it seems more solid and consistent a version of Love It To Death, but is somewhat more generic as a…

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Things take a general uptick for the better on Alice Cooper’s third album. The production, once again, is absolutely fantastic in every possible way and makes this a dream to listen to. Speaking of dreams, opener “Caught In A Dream” (doesn’t Napalm Death have a track with the exact same name? ha) gets us off to a flying start, a start made even stronger by the incredible “I’m Eighteen”; one of Alice’s biggest hits for…

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Truly, this is a stunning album. In a lot of black metal the synthesizers feel either like an afterthought or just a texture that helps fill out the soundstage. On Hyperborea, Ancestors Blood really take things to new heights with an incredible synthesizer addition. They have always been a part of the sound since the beginning, but here more than ever they help to lead the compositions rather than just compliment them. The production is…

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Is this a set of original songs? Holy fuckski, brah brah! Production isn’t TOO shittified either, so fuck a duck, you’d best get on this one! It’s a rare one!  Stupid comments aside, this is a tidy fucking slice of head grinding mincecore, so enjoy that shit!

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Time for some more extremely well produced pornogrind! Anal Penetration is silly as fuck (of course) but really can blast ‘n’ rattle away with the best of ‘em. The sound really packs a punch for a one man project (which are often a bit shit tbh). This is a perfect 15 minute or so EP of grinding chaos. Recommended for sleazy pervs and grinders alike! 

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Thick, chunky production on this! Bass clanks away manically underneath the layers of guitars and fat drum sound. Solos abound – and fucking good ones at that, I’ll be honest. The proficiency on this one is effortless, I’ll give them that. Really cool shit bridging the gap between death and thrash.

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A damn sight better than the previous effort, The Return Of The Northern Moon sees Behemoth actually come into it’s own as a tangible, listenable project. The songs are cohesive, if not quite excellent just yet. There is a large influence from the Norwegian world, but this is probably unavoidable for 1993. Interestingly for all the “black metal safespace” folks, Rob Darken from Graveland plays keyboards on this thing.

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People say to me, “Behemoth used to be a proper black metal band back in the day”. It don’t get much more back in the day than this, and this piece of shit demo is 110% death metal, brah brah! Looks like ol’ Nergal and pals came full circle, eh? This demo is pretty terrible, to be honest. I’d only really recommend listening to it if you are like, madly obsessed with Nergal or something….

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Feels like a demo compilation more than anything, with sessions ranging in audio quality and also seemingly, musical proficiency. Not a particularly great start to a discography.

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Heavy as all fucking shit blasting drum machine gore and or porno grindcore. Yeah! The first session is great, with unfathomable watery vokills, but Pt. 2 has a fatter, nastier sound.

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Fucking oustanding early EP from the mincegore legends that are Agathocles. I’ve heard this set of songs about 4000 times by now, but honestly, when they come across this well, it doesn’t really matter all that much. Production-wise, things are pretty raw but the sound is very warm and it really packs a punch. The session is clear enough that you can hear everything that is going on, whilst also not treading absolutely anywhere near…

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A decent follow-up record and a solid sophomore effort in general. Easy Action feels more grounded, even if it is quite progressive in parts. It is experimental, but not “Zappa weird” (for lack of a better term) like the band’s debut. If I thought Alice (the man) had developed his trademark snarl out of the gate with Pretties… then boy was I wrong, as on Easy Action, right out the gate with the (absolutely excellent)…

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Pretties For You is the debut full length album from Alice Cooper (the band, not just the man) from all the way back in 1969. Other than the bizarre inclusion of a live track about 2/3 of the way through the tracklist, this thing is produced wonderfully for the time and sounds fantastic. Musically, Alice’s (the man, not the band) vocals are distinct even at this early point in time, but as a whole the…

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Unforgiving, non-stop, breakneck, conscious hardcore from 1984. People seem to get a bit panty-twisted over what came first, but who gives a shit? Plenty of people praise modern hardcore bands without bringing up the fact the genre is over 40 years old. Honestly, this fucking rules and if it doesn’t make you wanna get up and move then I don’t know what to say to you.

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Lo-fi but rather listenable demo / early EP from the Belgian legends of mince. You can expect all the regular Agathohits, and the regular disgusting sound quality! This one is of particular historical note however because it comes at the very start of their long and illustrious career. PS – I love the old Agathocles logo, I wish they used it more.

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Dense, heavy, sleaze goregrind from Portugal. 28 traXXX of unstoppable goredozer madness, with old school sexploitation movie themes (generally). Depsite the imagery and themes I would say that this stays firmly in the goregrind camp of sound, so for those of you who think pornogrind is cringe as fuck then please do not let that put you off from checking out this record. Production is mad solid. Do not expect the wheel to be reinvented,…

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The first 25 tracks on this thing are absolutely top-tier grinding mince. This era of Agathocles is vital for grindcore listeners and it can often be buried in a sea of prolific releases that aren’t all that good. This album, however, is fantastic. Deep, dark, crusty grind with the mandatory political / left-wing undertones (which go hand in hand like a Biscoff with a black coffee, to keep the reference somewhat Belgian haha). As others…

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Solid, chunky goregrind from two excellent bands in the Portugese scene. Namek and Pussyvibes share members if I recall, so it’s really cool that they ended up doing a split together, on Chase (MAC)’s label, of all things. I didn’t know about this split until recently, which sucks because of all who are involved. Musically, this is excellent. The production is fantastic; out of the gate, Namek’s gut-churning distorted bass really pumps out of the…

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A blistering session of rough-around-the-edges mince. Can you really fault it though when you’ve got 20 songs in 8 minutes? That’s absolutely tango and cash to me, brah brah. Get into the pit!

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(Interesting that this has the nu metal tag lol) Chunky, groovy grindcore from Russia. I first heard of these guys when Seth from AxCx did some shows with them (it was written on his website). I checked this album out not long after. Condom Of Hate is perhaps unsurprisngly a bit silly, but is worth checking out for those who don’t mind some playful riffs in their grind (I say “grind” but it’s not very…

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Chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug chug…

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I had this 7″ on transparent blue. No idea what I’ve done with it. Look after your stuff, kids! Anyway, this shit fucking rules. Absolute audio carnage, but in the most distilled and controlled manner. The drumming on this thing alone boggles my mind, but the whole finished product really is something else. The reissue comes with a bunch of live tracks that are actually not just bolt-ons to fatten the runtime – this too…

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Murder In Mind is quite simply one of the best death metal albums ever made. Don’t get me wrong, every single Desecration record is a banger, but Murder In Mind is just lightning in a bottle. The production is pretty dank, and the group don’t have super-fast drum maniac Mikey in on the kit yet, but even so, this shit absolutely fucking rules. If you even have the most remote interest in death metal and…

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Guess my brain isn’t big enough to understand whatever the fuck it is that’s going on here, try as I might. Yes, I listened to the whole thing. Yes, I appreciate the artist merit involved. No, it’s not good. Sorry, it’s awful.

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Sicko Baby is a lesson in the school of Gut, let’s just put it plainly. It’s funny to me; these guys either knew Gut or were very heavily influenced by Gut’s early stuff. Then, in turn, for their 2006 Cumback album, it’s like Gut decided to do the exact same by taking Mucupurulent’s intepretation of that sound (and mix it with some terrible rapping). Expect silly song titles, farmyard vocals, fairly tidy production and overt…

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So this is what, a re-intepretation of Stones’ Exile album? If there’s a joke (or even a purpose here) then I’m afraid it’s gone over my head. Like… I’ve listened to some shit in my time, I’ll be honest with you. This does absolutely nothing for me.

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Tidy little slice of Oi! – Really short EP, does not fuck about. Production is fucking great, I won’t lie; proper warm analogue sound that really does the songs a service.

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Breach Birth is the first EP by experimental collective God. It is significantly shorter even than some God songs (lol), but it’s a brilliant, if slightly rougher around the edges taste of what would come with the full lengths. Admittedly, they are more sprawling in scope and weirdness, but the experimental carnage was there from the very start. An excellent EP.

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A Short of Mdou Moctar playing live popped up on my YouTube account a few months ago. I have no idea how, or why, it was recommended to me, but I’m sure as fuck glad that it was. Afrique Victime is a fantastic album. It’s a bit outside of my wheelhouse so forgive me this somewhat lacklustre review. The production is clear as day, allowing the ever-flowing inspiration that is Mdou Moctar’s music to unfurl…

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Non-stop, pummeling goregrind which is right up my shit-smeared, corpse-littered alley (lmao). Vomi Noir, as I’ve established in other reviews, as a force to be reckoned with and are really helping to put France back on the map in the goregrind world. Neurovisceral Exhumation are a new experience for me, but they hold their own on a split with one of the best gore bands around right now, so they are decent as fuck in…

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What a fucking treat. This short EP kicks you in the dick and then does a little dance afterwards, before handing you a flyer about a local environmental concern on the way out. Production is good enough to get the message across with a decent whack to the face, but raw enough to still be “punk as fuck”. Oh, it also has one of the coolest sleeves ever, fight me!

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Standing Up For Falling Down is where I came in (a bit late) to the Sheer Terror discography. If I had to come out the gate with picking a fault (of which there are few) it would be with the production, which feels a bit overdone. As for the music, Sheer Terror’s bludgeoning hardcore oozes over you like molasses; either at a neck-breaking skank or a brooding crawl. Some of the song titles are a…

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Quite possibly one of the best black metal records I’ve ever heard. Lucufigum’s debut full length is a magical mix of synthesizers and non-stop, pummeling metal. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a ton of bands that do that, especially in this genre, and I’m not entirely sure what it is about this record that does it so perfectly. I guess it’s the “vibe” (to get all white girl namaste for a moment), which is second…

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Excellent piece of work; one that is unfortunately very short lived, so it’s hard to figure out what this is all about. Obviously, that adds quite heavily to the mystery around this 16 minutes of dark synthesizer beauty. Well worth a listen for anyone even remotely interested in dungeon synth.

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A frosted, bejeweled black metal masterclass. Taking the fragility of 90s symphonic black and throwing it head on into a sea of unstoppable blasts and wasp-like guitars, Cirith Gorgor pull absolutely no punches on their debut release. Excellent stuff!

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