Posts by SeanO)))

Walkin’ is fantastic. It is one of those records that embodies its title and lives up to its name. I feel like I’m walking down the sidewalk of a busy American city. Maybe I’ve got a dame on my arm, maybe I’ve got a small cigar in my hand. I don’t know where I’m going and I don’t suppose it really matters. The late 50s era of “true” jazz Davis stuff is not something I…

Fantastic, moody, old school style dungeon synthesizer music. My one complaint is that there is some sort of effect added that makes the recording sound like its come off an old cassette tape, which clashes badly with some of the busier compositions. This results in a few messy, confusing moments. For the most part however, Nameless King channels some great vibes and ideas, and I would recommend this record to other fans of the dungeon…

What an absolutely bloodsoaked whopper of a record! I was recommended Sulfuric Cautery by a friend and quickly set out to check them after the description I was given. Featuring members of Couple Skate and Pizza Hi-Five, I was eager to check these guys out. Imagine blasting chaotic goodness from say, the more legendary LDOH records, with the new world (lol) viciousness of projects like Hyperemesis, all distilled into one dustbin lid tinged assault of…

This is just glorious. I have, admittedly been snoozing on Earth recently, so I was energised to go back and find that this solo record brought so many of those classic 90s Earth vibes with it. Conquistador is a smokey record, carried with that wild west swagger, but delivered like a low voltage dose of electricity coursing through your body. These riffs are simply alive and it is nothing less than an absolute pleasure to…

This is probably the busiest and most involved ambient record that I’ve ever heard! Haha! I suppose its due to the sheer number of ambient producers who create a stunning custom patch and then just put a book on the lower end of the keyboard for 55 minutes and call the resulting dirge a new record. I’m being obtuse of course, but hopefully you get what I mean. Laswell has pulled together a small world…

Dogs Blood Rising was my first experience with the work of Current 93. The record threw me at first, as there are no songs per se, just large, meandering passages of sound collages. “Falling Back In Fields Of Rape” heavily scratched my de ja vu (turns out the Death In June song with the similar title / lyrical layout to this is a “cover” of this ginormous undertaking of a track). All in all, Dogs…

It’s rare that an album’s title helps define the sound in such a way that is present here. These two tracks creep and slowly unfurl into movements of incredible musical restraint. The two pieces were cut from much longer sessions, and present a unified, mellow front to a band that was heavily in sync. I can only say so much in words about this one. Something to listen to at night, perhaps when the rain…

One of my favourite dungeon synth releases of the last few years. Granted, I’m not as deep into the genre as some, but unearthing gems like this is what makes this particular world of music so rewarding. What I love about this kind of thing is the unique worlds and visions that just listening alone is enough to conjure. Truly, it’s an art form and very evocative. Expect heavy winter based themes and vibes of…

Now this is just great. Mysterious, occult-heavy acoustic hymns are presented in the form of washed out guitars and the deep baritone delivery of the King himself. The whole thing is bathed in reverb, to the point where the album sounds like it was recorded down a well or something, but I’ll be honest with you: it works.

I stumbled across this forgotten gem one day and on a random Saturday shift, I made my way through the whole thing. First off, let’s put all our cards on the table here. Hopefully, I’m not offending anyone when I say that The Mist (or at least the Gottverlassen album) are a pure Sepultura clone. I mean, just take a look at that record sleeve for a start! If you can look past that however,…

Holy shit, this is nihilism distilled into raw sound! At about 6 minutes in length, Money Hater really doesn’t fuck about on this 2016 EP. I was expecting some sort of powerviolence (by looking at the sleeve) but the harsh noise here melted my face in the best possible way. 6 minutes of sheer armageddon, get in!

Ah Carpathian Forest, for when you absolutely need some creaking, sexually charged black metal in your life. Admittedly, there are a lot of mixed vibes on this record, compared to some of their earlier records, but Black Shining Leather is a nasty little album that I have come back to several times when the mood strikes me.

Demo 1991 looks like just about any other early 90s / late 80s underground demo, so its easy at first glance to dismiss this as an early record, but no – this came after Horrified. The noticable difference is that the songs are a bit pacier; a 12 minute record consists of 4 tracks, with the blast dialled back a little in favour of grime-chocked thrash metal.

A spooky, unhinged entry into the Cernunnos discography. The synth work is spot on as always; a bizarre, kooky whirl of tones that remind me more of German expressionist cinema (of all things) rather than deep dark woods and dungeons. My gripe with this release lies with the vocal performances, which are too loud and if anything, detract from the synth work below them.

Dec 2017: To somewhat paraphrase the legendary Devin Townsend, the sound on this album is as heavy as a really heavy thing. Like, really really heavy; a collapsing neutron star, or some such. Dopethrone is a monument in modern day doom metal; easily one of the albums that re-invigorated the scene and brought new life to the (at the time) fairly stagnant genre, all the while re-setting the benchmark for what heavy music can be. It is…

Sketches Of Spain seems to rank high on many Davis’ appreciator’s lists. I can not fathom the musical skill involved in pulling together such an album, but this ode to Spain is somewhat lost on me. It has more in common with big brass band movements than anything particularly jazzy, and whilst it is far from awful, it’s not something that I’m all that interested in, despite how beautiful it may be.

Holy shit this is bad. The “goth” end of the industrial spectrum has never ranked highly for me, but Mine is a perfect example of all the awful tropes that the genre perpetuates. The guitar playing is lazy and dated, as is the harsher vocal styles. The clean vocals are pretty good but are mixed awkwardly. Percussion wise, we’re clearly in drum machine territory here (if not, then that’s some stale-ass drumming, guys). A prominent…

I meandered into the works of Jean-Luc Ponty during my recent trips into the world of jazz. Jean-Luc’s Aurora however appears to be something completely different. This violin-led electric orchestra of madness is something that sounds so 80s that it hurts. Considering that it was recorded in the mid-70s, I can only attest that it was – actually – years ahead of its time. I don’t know enough about this kind of music right now…

Images And Words is, I believe, the second Dream Theater album and the first where the really cringey album sleeves began. Touching more into a power metal vibe than I am admittedly usually comfortable with, Images And Words is an upbeat yet often cheesy romp through some serious musical dexterity. Its nice to see the origin of “Metropolis Part I”, and closing track “Learning To Live” does unfold to be rather epic, but on the…

I feel like I’ve been here before, and I suppose that’s exactly the point. Stage 2 of the gargantuan Everywhere At The End Of Time series on dementia sees mostly a rehashing of the themes and tunes of Stage 1. But, if you’re listening carefully, now and then Stage 2’s compositions will throw you out of the loop. Every now and then, through the record crackle and swinging 30s numbers, The Caretaker works in a…

Now this is an interesting window into the pre-grind, proto-formation of Napalm Death. In all my years of Napalm Death fandom I’d never gone back and checked out the early demos, so this was a learning experience for me. There is a lot of misinformation floating about online about this record. Miles Ratledge (the OG drummer here) has cleared it up in some YouTube comments. The TLDR is that a lot of uploads claiming to…

Well this just fucking blew me the fuck away. Chepang’s name is spoken of highly in grindcore circles and now I can totally understand the muted hype that this group has generated. A low key sleeper for sure, Chepang can match any grindcore great in ferocity and speed. Truly one for the hardcore speedfreaks out there. DADHELO – A Tale of Wildfire by Chepang

Uncle Acid sit in that mire between lazy indie rock and that stonery, Sabbath-worshipping area of proto-metal, which explains The Deadbeat’s recent support slot with the aforementioned Sabbath nicely. As much as I enjoy Mind Control I find nothing original or special here, which to be honest, probably sounds really harsh, but its nice sometimes to just enjoy a record without losing my head over the intricacies of such; this is rock and roll, and…

Another stunning offering from the truest and grimmest of northern musical miscreants, Gorgoroth. Granted, the drums have a case of the 1349’s (being that the drums sound like wet fucking cardboard – I had to check that it wasn’t Frost playing here!) but otherwise this record is incredible. There’s really not all that much for me to say; this is blasting, evil black metal at its very best.

I have chastised LDOH several times recently for phoning it in when it comes to splits; Agathocles’ing it to the bank with crappy live records and old shit that should have stayed old. Despite this, one must admit that this live session from Eindhoven is a very enjoyable romp through classic LDOH material, and with a decent sound to boot. When the shifter comes in, sometimes it eclipses all in a muddy gloop, but hey,…

Later Darkthrone is like a fine wine to me. I wasn’t initially into stuff that went past The Cult Is Alive, but it has started to grow on me like moss on an old tombstone. There is something of a simple pleasure to F.O.A.D.’s analogue warmth. That of course, and that it’s an absolute riff machine, marrying black metal and crust punk with old school heavy metal stylings – a glorious combination, give or take…

Hammy, hammy metal for everyone! I was drawn in by the cover, and stayed for the Candlemass worshipping silliness and epic / silly vocal pompery. The riffs are solid, and the production is quite lovely, but this is a one off for me, I think. In the Shadow of the Inverted Cross by Sorcerer

I caught Coldworker’s last ever show, I think at probably OEF 2013. At the time I thought to myself, “Shit, I never checked out the Contaminated Void!”. Several years later then, it’s time to commit Coldworker’s debut to the site. Let’s not mess around with long paragraphs here, as the band themselves are certainly not fucking about. Featuring the same drummer as Nasum, the opening track quickly sets the pace on a breakneck trip through…

NxVx bring that dirty grinding bass romp that we all know and love, where the Nunriders offer a more, how should I say, “nuanced” approach to the noisier side of life. This is one of those more interesting split release combinations, where you wonder how the two bands even got together. Interesting stuff. 

Fuck, what a trip. Gabba techno at its finest! On We Are From Rotterdam, the Nightraver takes the gabba template and takes it to hypnotic, mesmerizing territories.

How it’s taken me this long to address any Graves-era Misfits I’m not entirely sure. Growing up however, before I become an obsessive music collecting freak, the 90s Misfits albums were easily my favourite output by the band. Afraid not of heavier music, I instead found them better to listen to due to the incredibly awful recording qualities on a lot of the Danzig stuff. I won’t enter the endless pit of comparing Danzig and…

Being the 33rd anniversary of this now legendary album, I decided to give the whole thing a spin. It has been quite some time since I got acquainted with this genre-defining record, and I can’t say that it has aged all too badly, especially considering its age. There are no words really that I can say that will do this record any justice. I think for something that is so important to the history of…

Necromantia are one of those bands that immediately divided my opinion when I first heard them. This record (with its appallingly bland cover art) is no exception. I can’t decide whether what unfolds here is pure genius or an absolute car crash put to tape. Black metal can be dense, or too abstract, and in both extremes it can be far too messy to be appreciated. The Sound Of Lucifer… is neither of these things,…

Ascenseur Pour L’echafaud is full of beautiful phrases of jazz that invoke that glorious noir cinema imagery. It sets the mood through a series of tones and passages; almost like a series of small vignettes, rather than the sprawling jams that one would expect from a performer like Miles Davis. Of course, this is earlier work, but its dark and beautiful all the same. I need to hunt down this movie and give it a…

A relaxing and introspective journey through the bizarre world of Flying Lotus, Cosmogramma was my first introduction to this guy’s work. A lot of the sounds are jazz based; smooth, sophisticated, robust, but then fed through some bizarre electronic machinery, creating a distillation of both old and new. The swing of bop and the style of the saxophone meets mathematical beat composition and AFX-style synth trickery. A doozy.

Beautiful, gorgeous, stunning compositions in the dungeon synth style. Expect to get lost in deep woods, misty moors and dripping wet caves (oo er). Also, it has the ever fantastic bonus of soothing my baby to sleep so seems to be the perfect addition. This record is 21 years old at the time of writing, but really, stuff like this, when done so well, is absolutely timeless. Kauan koskematon by Jääportit

Uumenissa is an incredibly dense and atmospheric journey through richly woven worlds of ice and unknowing scale. The record is adorned with fairly abstract watercolour paintings which help you envisage the scapes being conjured by the music. I wouldn’t say it was strictly “dungeon synth” but shares a lot of similarities with the genre, if you are a fan of such things. Uumenissa by Jääportit

Is there really anything as skunky and soaked in acid and visually drenched in the sleazy exploitation movie vibes as early Electric Wizard? Couple that with the weight of some of the world’s noisiest and heaviest music, and you have some absolute must haves for the fans of extreme music out there. Everyone knows Dopethrone, and rightly so, but Supercoven is a whole other beast. Instead focussing, in its original form at least, on two…

I’m not entirely sure what struck me to finally listen to Motörhead. Over the years I’ve written them off as a band that sounds exactly the same for decades, peddling the same muddy rock and or metal as the years go by. Several times have I seen Motörhead live, mainly at festivals, where I have remained in much of the same school of thought. I’ll admit, starting at their self titled release from 1977 has…

Listening all the way back to The Guilty Have No Pride, the first thing I notice is how different this album sounds from the rest of the band’s discography. The only hint of this being Death In June is Douglas P’s unmistakable British delivery, and of course, maybe the odd synthesizer sparkle here or there that calls forward to some of the stuff that would appear in Nada! But that’s it, and for the most…

I recently discovered that there was a trigger-free mix of this record, so I went back and spun it again after all these years (I think 2011 I listened to this last – wow!). Unlike Mayhem’s Grand Declaration…, Master’s self titled breathes new life with the triggers removed. Whether you’re in camp Master, or camp Death or camp Possessed when it comes to the death metal race, there can be no denying the influence that Master’s boggy…

Vol. 4 is often regarded as one of the very best albums that Sabbath put out, but I’ve always found it kinda hit and miss. It seems to me like the album is arse-backwards; side A for the most part being rather weak, with the hideous “Changes” and the irrelevant “FX”. Side B completely outguns it however, with a veritable bevy of sonic titans in its arsenal. As a whole though I love how dirty…

Satanic Royalty is a beautiful record from the ever excellent Midnight, leaning more towards the blackened metal sound than the punk side of things. Satanic Royality is dark and fucked up (I mean, just check out that incredible artwork). I can’t fluff this post up any longer, just play it already, and bang your head!

I don’t know what it is about Manowar, because I usually can’t stand this kind of thing, but there is something about Battle Hymns (and a few of the other earlier Manowar records I’ll no doubt cover at some point) that is really endearing to me. For one, the bass playing is fucking fantastic, as is the drumming, but these bare bones, cheesy as fuck tunes are just too enjoyable for me to pretend otherwise….

Bags of groove is present (I’m sorry) in this older, more bop orientated record from Miles Davis et al (hey, look at me with the jazz terms over here). Bags Groove is not my favourite Davis record by a long shot, but is a beautiful foray into that world, with some excellent tunes and vibes. Thelonious Monk plays on this too, which is a pretty big deal.

Ah, Cold Lake. I’ve been avoiding this one for a while, and for good reason. Cheeky chappy glam metal is not what I am particularly looking for when it comes to spinning Celtic Frost records, but I gotta admit, after a few tracks of adjusting to the sheer absurdity here (just compare this to Monotheist lol), I actually started to get into it. This won’t be winning any awards any time soon, but Cold Lake suffers…

I was recently turned on to the disgusting world of Fluids, who are masters of both pulverizing death metal and of posting horrendous gore footage on their Instagram account. Fluids Of Death (I’m loving the very fitting reference) is a compilation of tunes culled from several different releases and captured, here in my case at least, on a stunning transparent red cassette released by Grindfather Productions just down’t road. Imagine Undergang, Mortician, disgusting shit like…

Telekon is a diamond. I won’t claim to be versed in the history of Gary Numan’s career, but for me, Telekon is one of the early solo records that saw Numan continuing his dreamy, robotic synthesizer compositions on from his time with Tubeway Army. Following on from the excellent Pleasure Principle, Numan and his band channel Kraftwerk-inspiried sterility into more stunning rock-based pieces. 

A short sharp shock of slamming shlock from this excellent death metal project. The songs are tight and the sound is fantastic. I’m still trying to figure out the inspiration behind this band. Either way, it works for me. It’s hardly a reinvention of the wheel, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s brutal and heavy, and that’s all that matters here. 0.00 Apocalypse by 7 H.Target

Are you ready for a bleeping blooping analogue party? Of course you are. What can I even say about this? AFX is nothing short of legendary and this second entry into the Analord series is entirely a reason as to why that is the case. Press play, marvel at the genius at work.

What a journey this took me on. I can’t remember exactly where I picked up on Cluster’s music, but the idea of two men more-or-less battling with analogue synthesizers was right up my alley. This self titled record from 1971 is an incredibly forward thinking journey; a textual treat for those electronically-inclined. The tracks are long and sprawling, possibly even improvised, and I enjoyed every last second (admittedly with a good book and a cigar…

This is, traditionally, in the days before I decided to go through the entire discography, where my Sabbath listening would end. There would be many insults thrown at this album during drinking sessions “back in the day” (and a few defences bandied about too). The main sticking point would be about how high Ozzy is singing on some of the tracks here. Don’t get me wrong, he can get shrill at the best of times,…

I vividly remember not being very impressed with Fuckin’ A upon its release. I was baying like a crazed hound for more nasty noisecore, but instead we got this nonsense. However, I can thankfully say that in my old age I have grown to appreciate this bizarre album. Like, its Anal Cunt but doing hair metal rock and/or roll tracks, of course it sounds awful! But y’know, considering the band in question, the songs are…

Spiders is a relatively short EP from Czech technical grinding madmen, Pigsty. Whilst not as Voivod-y as the full length Planet Of The Pigs, Spiders is still a clanking nightmare in the brutal style of grindcore that almost borders on death metal (deathgrind doesn’t really feel like the right word here, though). Perhaps most surprisingly of all on this EP, is the cover of Rage Against The Machine’s “Wake Up”, which despite best efforts from…

On Jesu’s debut we are faced with 8 monumental tracks of shoegazy goodness. Granted, this self-titled record is not as astral as records that would quickly follow, but Jesu instead relies on the intense weight and pressure of the riffs, coupled with the dark, drab and dare I say somewhat depressing nature of the songs themselves. On Jesu it seems that all hope is gone, and the morose synths gilding the tracks accentuates this feel….

Årabrot play an interesting blend of rock and metal; from the noisy to the soothing, the chaotic to the serene. Their history is long and intriguing, but I start here today with The Gospel, which comes on a bit like Great Annihilator-era Swans through a twisted, modernised and European lens. That trite description of course does them no justice, but I thoroughly enjoyed the record and look forward to listening to more.

Analord is another one of those series that I have given up hope on ever owning in a physical format. Thank heavens then, for the internet and for the lovely people who upload rare and hard to find gems for the rest of us to get a listen to. AFX is one of my favourite electronic producers in the world. I think I may even prefer it to Aphex Twin, but we are splitting hairs…

Well then, its been a good year or so for pure LDOH-worship goregrind. However, please do not write off First Days Of Humanity – they aren’t as typical sounding as you would expect. Yes, of course, it is heavy Last Days Of Humanity worship, but there is so much grinding goodness here. People (read: experts) on the internet profess that Pixel Death is far from the project’s best release. Considering how much I love this,…

Destroyer is a little cunt of a record, to put it politely. Imagine the most distilled form of harsh, disgusting black metal, but remove none of the spooky atmosphere that the relentless stuff usually loses out on, and you’ve got a rough idea of what is going on here. There’s a mixed bag of vibes, with the vocal duties being shared out over a fair number of contributors (including, for the first time with Gorgorogth,…

There are many elements to Tom Waits’ records that are odd or abstract, but The Black Rider seems to take this formula one step further. As far as aural textures go, tonally it is not a million miles away from Real Gone. The difference in this particular little pudding is the songwriting; the tracks are almost vignettes, little insights into bizarre microcosms that are weaved for our aural enjoyment.

The more recently released full session recordings of In A Silent Way are, for me, intensely more exciting than the original release. In a seemingly endless array of “songs”, Davis et al soar through incredible jams and moods. The muted, peacefully restrained final result is far cry from many of the cuts here, making this a super interesting- and frankly, essential – peek behind the curtain.

Turning point is the only real full length from Secret Stairways (unless you count his first release – I guess that could be an album too, for some reason though I just don’t see it that way) and marks a slight departure from the heavier fantasy themes from before. Sure, they are still there (just look at the cover art) but the introspective, pensive and droning synth work seems to be the order of the…

Random Access Memories is absolutely deserving of its Grammy win – not that I put much stock in such accolades, but it does show that “the system” sat up and clapped its collective hands. There was also a small backlash from certain long time Daft Punk fans at the time due to the direction of the record. This week marks the first time I’ve actually sat down and listened to the whole thing in one…

The whole concept of Caretaker’s Everywhere At The End Of Time series was something I found incredibly interesting. The six parts of this series are supposed to document the mind’s decline into the unknowing hell and fear of being consumed by dementia. Stage 1 here, gets things off to an eery but jaunty start; swinging tunes that I’m led to believe are original compositions of The Caretaker himself, but easily sound pre-WW2. Things loop around…

If you think dungeon synth is cheesy then walk away now, because this early side project from dungeon master Mortiis is just that. A far cry from the endless unfolding single-track monstrosities which birthed his synthesizer career, Fata Morgana is instead more wondrous, more celestial, and dipped in a healthy coating of a sticky, melted yellow substance that you would usually find on burgers and hotdogs. That said, this is a stunning record, and the…

I decided to start at the beginning with NxVx, so back I went. I had my PayPal password ready to go, thinking I may need to purchase some obscure tapes off Discogs, but alas some kind and wicked soul has uploaded this rare catch to YouTube for my perverted perusal. I’m unsure why this release is marked as Untitled? Surely it’s just a self-titled EP / demo? Either way, It showcases an early template the…

Hocus Pocus is not a film that I particularly enjoy all that much but one that gets played traditionally every Halloween at our house. My girlfriend absolutely loves it. Admittedly, it brings back a lot of nostalgia from when I saw it when I was a kid, but as an adult I take nothing new from it (how fucking hot is Sarah Jessica Parker here, though?).

Well this came from fucking nowhere! After 14 years of mostly inactivity (in the studio, at least), Gut crawl out of the gore swamp once again with the completely unexpected Disciples Of Smut. This record is the sound of a band re-energised. Gut bring their trademark downtuned pornogrind mush to a whole new gamut of influences, from black metal to elements of death and doom.  Honestly, it is fucking astounding that this is the same…

Ut Strepitus play slow, evolving soundscapes of noise and dense atmospheric ambience. The shtick is a heavily Latin-based BDSM theme, something of course which has been seen in noise and power electronics worlds before, but not so much maybe in the atmospheric, ambient or synthesiser worlds. The moods and tones shift from paranoia and dread, to small moments of wonder and contemplation, before oppressing drones of collapsing atmosphere suffocate you under its weight. There is…

What is this that stands before me? What indeed. Imagine hearing this, in the early days of 1970 – I’d love to have a time machine to see how things really went down. I suppose us modern-day hipsters will just have to contend for crackly old vinyl copies of this and be done with it. Whether you think Sabbath invented heavy metal or not, they absolutely took that downering, bluesy sound to the mainstream. I…

Slipknot is one of those albums that I have absolutely played into the ground. My introduction to – and infatuation with – Slipknot began with the follow-up record; 2001’s impossibly heavy Iowa album, something which I do not take for granted. The impact that such a record would have had on a 12 year old me cannot be put into words. I have tried and tried and tried to listen to Iowa again, imagining that…

To my knowledge, this 12″ is where it all began for The Berzerker. Heavily pre-dating the grinding mush of the Earache days, this record is pure speedcore armageddon, and I have to admit that Luke Kenny has serious chops in that department. Some of the sampling is a bit silly but this isn’t a genre that takes itself too seriously afterall. The beats however are sick as fuck and are absolutely pumping. Top notch stuff….

If there is one band that excellently captures the ridiculous side of slam death metal, then its these guys. Many try (too hard), and therefore many fail. But, if its tin-can snare drums and earth-shattering brutality you want, then truly it is hard to go far wrong with these guys, this sophomore record is further proof of that.  If there’s one thing that grinds my gears it’s the fucking artificial bass drops. I can’t stand…

Its incredible what chopping 15 minutes off your average runtime will do to a film, especially one of this calibre. Maybe I’m getting bored of watching low budget horrors, but for me a lot of them just suffer with horrendous pacing. Chopping Mall’s plot is direct to the point and doesn’t drag at all.  As for the movie, a gang of young and sexy party goers are trapped in a mall overnight and are pursued…

Ah, fantastic; it’s time it seems, for another record from Sackhead, Tightshead, Dr. Snore and… Millie from Craniation (here’s hoping I’ve spelt that right). BTK are one of the more consistent and generally well rounded and solid offerings of the British extreme metal underground, and this is despite various line up changes over the years. Lessons In Murder is great, following on in the style of There’s Something About Beryl, albeit with a more natural…

Beautiful, yet somewhat samey ambient black metal from Lustre. Things kinda get lost in the mix for me, there is so much treble floating about that it is unreal. Sure, the synths sound great but the drums are almost non existent and the floating, dream-like nature is more grating than it is enjoyable. Which of course, is a massive shame, as the compositions appear to be of a very high quality.

Despite not really being interested in the band’s output for many years, Jeff Hatrix’s departure from Mushroomhead felt like a gut punch, and to me, even with J Mann back in the band, this particular gut punch felt like the final nail in the coffin for a band that was long past their prime. I had little to no hope for A Wonderful Life, and I even considered if I should bother listening at all,…

Slam is a genre that I dabble with now and then, and Abominable Putridity is a band that I have written about in the past. Anomalies… however, takes me by surprise; its lightening fast tunes and chugging breakdowns are reminiscent more of hardcore and deathcore than your average group of tin-can snared brutality dealers.

So, honestly, I only watched this film because I’d Googled ‘films about dachshunds’ with my girlfriend. Seeing that it was on Amazon Prime, we settled down on the couch with our two miniatures and watched away. Man, not even DeVito could save this festering pile of shit. It has this dreamy, faux-Lynchian aesthetic that tries to hold up piss-thin film studies 101 tropes in a series of completely unconnected stories. The shocking ending is also…

2 Minuta Dreka are incredibly hit and miss for such a high quality band. Thankfully, on this split with Pulmonary Fibrosis, the Italian noise masters swing and hit it out of the park. Noisy, rehearsal-room-feel gore, coupled with noisecore-style song approaches and length, make this a tasty slab of underground grind (undergrind?) that makes you moist between the legs. Pulmonary Fibrosis on the other side are just as good, even with the music leaning in…

Archie Campbell is an oddly-titled early offering from The Berzerker, back when the project was one man with a penchant for gabber techno. It appears to be available online only, and was never released on a physical format, to my knowledge. Its a puzzling release, if your experience lies with the full band death metal Berzerker, but what we have on display here is some head-splitting hardcore gabber, which can be just what the doctor…

When I threw this on, I was expecting the usual low-brow pornogrind bedroom-grade electronic mush. That was what I was signing up for, of course – a brief spell in perversion to send me back to the MySpace days. However, PxOxRxNxOx does things a little differently, at least on this release here. Guitars are virtually nonexistent. The music instead focuses entirely on an electronic aspect, which is entirely typical of this kinda stuff but at…

Chop, slice, wank, repeat. Yeah. London’s finest death metallers expand on their first EP/demo with a longer, more impressive repertoire of songs. Grisly death, macabre subjects, and flaying guitar solos are used in abundance. Killing with class, smashing with… sass? Chopping dat… ass? Yeah. Whatever. I’ve run out of steam fairly quickly on this review. Shit is good. That’s all you need to know.  

Bathory…. Bathory….. Bathory. What can I say about a record that is so influential to the black metal worlds? Copies of this have sold on Discogs for up to £1600, which should say a lot for its influence and historical value. However, how does Bathory’s self titled sound? This is proto black metal through and through. It’s not as NWOBHM as say, Venom, whose album helped cement the term ‘Black Metal’, but aurally, this is…

This is so awful that in some ways it is rather genius, if I can say so myself. Recorded all the way back in 2014 and put out online by noise label Red Venice, the aim of Panties was to create a pornogrind imitation that was entirely synthetic. Electrotribalistic Pornitorium, for better or worse, achieves this, being an entirely synthetic record that I recorded on my Sony Xperia Z1 phone. Vocals? Nah fam, that’s just…

Like A Lamb To The Slaughter was the short-lived original direction of my Panties project. It had such a simple name that I couldn’t get out of my head, I had to try and make some noise that was oppressive and fetishistic (is that a word?) to accompany and suit the name. I’m sure others who revel in the pits of noise music have these same itches right? Like, the name comes first, and then…

Chainsaw Dismemberment almost seems like a “part 2” to the legendary Hacked Up For BBQ record. It has almost identical production, and even a very similar set of samples and vibes (there are some samples from the same movies, although I am not an expert in this department and cannot really clarify all that further). It would perhaps do Mortician an injustice if I was to say that there was more of the same on…

Once again it is giallo o’clock here at Lines In Wax. The Case Of The Bloody Iris is a slightly awkward and clumsy romp through the sexually-charged early 70s as our titular heroine Jennifer is hunted by a madman living in a block of flats. There lot’s of skin and artsy murder mystery stylings that you would expect from such a title. The pacing is a little off, but overall it is fairly strong and…

XX was the record that began my love affair with the bizarre world of Mushroomhead. It may be a re-issue of older material, which is presented here in various forms of remixed, remastered and completely re-recorded states, but to most if not all Mushroomhead fans outside of the USA, this was the first encounter. My favourite band was Slipknot, so when I was 12 years old, surely you can understand why I gravitated towards bands…

Going back to Brutally Mutilated after all these years, the first thing that I notice is how bright and tight the guitar tone is. Say what you want about Mortician, whether you love them or loathe them, their music is mostly a garbled mush of intense death brutality. Here, the songs almost sparkle in comparison! Haha! It’s a nice change of pace and a breath of fresh air. The drums almost sound real, but I…

If you watch the Scum Story documentary from the 20th anniversary disc (sigh) – which should have really been called the Mick Harris story – and can still muster up enough interest in proceedings after listening to a bunch of talking heads verbally excreting endless fucking shite for 50 minutes, you’ll have noticed that Mick categorically says that Scum should not be fucked with. I wonder then, what he would make not only of the…

Ridin’ across the planes on a mincehorse, right? I always assumed the name was some sort of word play for heroin, but who knows? This record slays, and that’s all that matters. Archagathus have a strong output ethic, and this full length is a solid milestone in their catalog; 20 odd minutes of stomping mince, blasting grind and slurry gore vokillz.

The End Of All Things To Come was released around the time that nu-metal began to tank in the mainstream, so although I enjoyed the single off of this, I totally snoozed on the record as a whole. Let’s be honest too, as much as I loved LD.50, I was far too immature at 12 years old to really dig (geddit?) what Mudvayne was doing at the time. Mudvayne have always had a serious musical…

If there’s a bummer to Mortician’s discography, then it has to be Zombie Apocalypse. It’s not that the songs are particularly bad – in all honesty they sound pretty much like every other session (lol) – it’s actually to do with the production. On Zombie Apocalypse, it seems like the bass police visited the studio during mixing and sucked all fucking low end out of this thing. All the gruesome pieces are in the right…

Metal Pussy is a 20-minute or so EP from French (I think?) techno project Popof. I wouldn’t say that the record is particularly ground breaking, but the warm sound of the vinyl press works well with the project’s slightly distorted and over-driven (unintentional, I’d say) techno beats. Don’t ask me what that artwork and name is about, though. 

Nowadays, thanks to the wonders of technology, if you want to see Jane Fonda’s tits you can just do a quick Google search. Unfortunately for folk back in the 60s, it meant having to sit through absolute garbage like Barbarella. I’ve tried hard to find some merit in this low budget, camp as hell sci-fi romp. Truly, I have. Sure, its better than OG Star Trek, and watching Barbarella sleep her way across the galaxy…

Who’d have thought a sleazy sci-fi b-movie would include cast members that would go on to be in shit like Coronation Street? Yes! Welcome to the world of Inseminoid, a terribly low budget sci-fi horror where a female…. astronaut? Scientist? Whatever!? – Anyway she gets inseminated by alien semen and goes berzerk. Plot! The best thing about Inseminoid however is the acting, or lack thereof. The entire cast showcases a unified level of ineptitude that…

The ironic thing is that a doc about a genre that relies so heavily on speed turned out to be the slowest production in the history of time. Fuck, I have been waiting absolutely years for this thing to come out. So much so in fact, that I had completely forgotten that the whole fucking thing existed. Roll on to the COVID crisis of 2020, and the film maker has been an absolute legend and…

As influential and praised that Assück are, they’ve never really struck a chord with me. That of course is not to say that Misery Index isn’t a ripping sonic tornado of a record (is it a full length at 15 minutes in length?), I’ve just never really resonated with Assück on a level that I do with a lot of other grindcore.

By the time Beautiful Stories dropped in 2010 I’d lost most if not all interest in what was once my favourite band. I remember my mate Pip played it in his car and it seemed like more of the same badly mixed, lazy, phoned in redneck metal with keyboards. However, I’m not sure if it’s because the band has fallen even further into a pit of absolute cess in recent times, but I can now…