Posts by SeanO)))

Incredibly impressive on first impressions! We are dropped into the carnage with absolutely no warning; opener “A Virulent Strain of Retaliation” holds nothing back in brutality. I love how downtuned and mushy this deathly slamming sludge is. Obscene Majesty, as a whole, harks back to the earlier Knupp-led days of Devourment, with pit-opening slam riffs and grooves. Honestly, the riffs on this thing are fucking outrageous. Outrageous I tell you! My only complaint is a…

Today was a good day, for today was the day I decided to sit down and play through the entire Demilich discography. Thankfully, these days the entire task has been made painfully easy thanks to the release entitled 20th Adversary of Emptiness, which not only remasters the essential Nespithe record, but the entire gamut of demos too.  I first heard of Demilich when they were announced for Netherlands Death Fest in 2016 (I missed them…

Savagery is Skinless’ first record since 2015’s Only The Ruthless Remain, which in itself was something of a departure from the bands more slam-orientated roots. Savagery however, strays further from that path into slower, sludgier riffing and a muddier sound, coming across more like Obituary than anything Dying Fetus. It’s still heavy, it’s still fantastic death metal, but forgive me if I feel like spinning Trample The Weak… instead.  Savagery by Skinless

After an 8 or 9 year break, it was great to see Skinless back with another record. I love the approach of lesser songs but with longer track lengths, which was refreshing. The album art leaves a little bit to be desired but everything else is massively on point and Skinless absolutely kill it on this album. Only The Ruthless Remain by Skinless

Wake have come a long way since I last heard them. I think I first came across them when they were announced for OEF during my first trip back in 2013. The band have perhaps unsurprisingly come in leaps and bounds since then, having developed and matured over several records into a monstrous unit of metallic destruction. Think Corrupt Moral Altar or U.K. doomers Conjurer, but mashed into the deepest mires of grindcore and even…

Checked this out on the back of the group’s split with the infamous Cuntgrinder. Raped, Butchered and Eaten will not win any awards for originality, especially with an album title like that, but let’s not forget which genre of music we are currently wallowing in. All in all, massive misogynistic overtones aside (make of those what you will), Cuntemonium present to us a slow and groovy, yet not so easily digestible slab of groovy gore…

Part of what made Blade Runner such a magical experience for me was how all the visuals and audio meld together to create the (almost) perfect dystopian sci fi feast. A large part of that is, of course, the musical soundtrack – a glorious, epic yet electronic and futuristic exploration by the severely underrated composer Vangelis. Nothing quite conjures the mass industrial, uber-capitalist wastelands that we call cities now like this score does. For when…

And here we have the scratchy beginnings of one of the most entertaining dungeon synth projects of all time. Local Portal is a local demo for local wizards, and yes, whilst the scale of production is much humbler here so it’s the overall tone and sense of daring adventure.

I was surprised to see that Cuntgrinder (Cunt Grinder? Which is it?) was still going, so happily tucked into this little split CD. That infamous bludgeoning metallic pornogrind attack takes me right back to their earlier records, complete with hideous sampling and gruff shifted vocals. Cuntemonium have such a shit name. Come on! Haha! But, the band are fucking savage, and honestly, put Cuntgrinder to shame. Cuntemonium play in the same sludgy / groovy style,…

Pulsing, gorgeous, ethereal soundscapes are the order of the day. I’d barely say that this even fits into the genre of vaporwave, having more in common with ambient or even the trippier side of the psytrance movement. A million miles from invoking nostalgia, Building A Better World instead seems to look forward to the future in all its dreamy, hazy synth meandering. A fantastic collaboration and recommended to any fan of electronic music.

With a name like PrismCorp (is that a Watchmen reference maybe?) Virtual Enterprises, and of course the artwork displayed above, one surely could not be accused too harshly of heavily assuming what kind of tunes that are in store on Home(TM)? Think 80s television mixed with The Sims or that weird upbeat music you’d get over porno on VHS, and you’re on the right track. Home(TM) meanders in its own way, sometimes to jazz, sometimes…

Just look at that art! Despite the heavy nostalgic tones, Diskette Park instead wallows in oceanic waves of moody, melancholic synth work, rather than your more [ t y p i c a l ] vaporwave. In fact, as time goes on, and whilst I agree that the genre does have its own solid base, I find that these days it is more of a marker for a starting point; a pointer as to the…

Beautiful, glorious, dreadfully obtuse acoustic guitar strummery, wallowing in the depths of the avant-garde and the straight-up pretentious. But hey, its okay, because you surely must know that going in to this record or you wouldn’t be here in the first place. This record offers 13 rituals of dark, atmospheric musings using the acoustic guitar partly as a conjurer of atmosphere, and secondly as a weapon. For fans of the strange and the occult, I…

I suppose this could be categorised as true industrial music? I am instantly reminded of the group called Stomp that we used to watch videos of as a kid. All sorts of machinery and noises are utilised to create bizarre mechanical soundscapes. Fireworks (I think? Ha!) and the scrape of metal on metal is the order of the day, resulting in the beauteous song of the furnace at work. Good stuff. 

Odyssey is… well… a near 50 minute odyssey (I can only apologise) through vaporwave style and gorgeous electronic production. HOME doesn’t seem to fall as hard into the trappings of the genre, for better or worse, and the music just sounds more original and inspired, rather than “hey, this is just slowed down 80s infomercials!”. I was building my home work rig (an overstatement if I ever wrote one) whilst listening to this and I…

The Hellraiser movie is more than disturbing enough without having to think about all the juicy goodies that were scrapped before the final product was released. Among many changes made to Hellraiser as it went along was possibly the greatest casualty of the lot – the original score by Coil. There seems to be a confusing array of formats and releases for these tunes, which thankfully saw the light of day eventually. But, I’m pretty…

I’ve always had a lot of respect for Ed Snowden, and this account, not only of how the powers that be are watching us all, but of the personal journey through his entire life leading up to the point where he decided to spill the US Government’s secrets to us all, echoes that aching question that has always been in the back of my mind when it comes to Snowden. If in the same position…

Well, I absolutely snoozed on this, that much I can tell you. Imagine my shock then, when chucking this on and thinking “oh, cracking, a remaster should even out the rougher, more heavily compressed edges of A Grand Declaration…” – the difference here is staggering. It sounds as if the record has been completely re-recorded. I half expected Attila to crop up and do some throat-singing. The immediate notice is the absence of the overblown…

Lightening fast black metal a la Thorns meets the more blockier, Matrix-influenced techno of the late 90s. Where Thorns has that cold air to it all, Aborym has the energy and vibrancy of the soundtrack to something you’d hear in an exclusive sex club full of vampires wearing PVC, or something. That is, at least, when the electronics are playing. When the group focus on things more black metal-ly, one must admit that the scale…

Lush, gorgeous, unfolding electronics and ambient soundscapes driven forward by pulsing and catchy beats. Oh, and you’ve got the Salad Fingers music in there too, just to shit you up out of the blue if you associate that tune with Dai Firth’s menacing creations. I’ve never been one for the hipster hype train of Boards Of Canada but it is hard to deny their genius, and Geodaddi cements that.

I picked up Annihilation because the film struck something of a chord with me. I couldn’t tell you exactly what it was about the movie, but something about it had me wanting more, wanting to peel back more layers, or more-like, consult the source material in the search for answers to this intriguing puzzle. In book one of the Southern Reach trilogy however, there are no answers. Or, no significant ones. Where the movie channeled…

I’m not entirely sure what it was that made me watch Annihilation for the first time. It might have been Alex Garland’s work with Ex Machina, which I really enjoyed. I didn’t really know what to expect going in to Annihilation, other than mostly everyone I knew that had watched it had hated it. And I suppose, I can see why. Annihilation isn’t a bad movie per se, its just that I had no fucking…

There have been many retellings of the Dracula tale since the classic silent-era Nosferatu (1922). Not all of them have been particularly amazing, and I suppose you can count 1992’s big Hollywood stab at the tale in that camp. This movie hits the mark about half of the time. The atmosphere, the imposing danger and creepiness, and most importantly, the casting in these timeless and crucial roles. Hopkins as Van Helsing is fantastic, as is…

Basket Case is a bizarre low budget horror movie from the beginning of the sleazy 80s. I’m not sure if this would count as body horror (probably not), but the little monster in the basket (spoiler alert) has a very Cronenberg kinda feel to it, if just a little tackier. This movie seems infamous, and I suppose it is – with good reason – but I can’t help but point out my issues with pacing…

This Hedge Wizard record is probably one of my favourite dungeon synth records of recent times. It’s not necessarily the tunes themselves, as there are many projects out there producing quality compositions of varying intricacy, but Hedge Wizard has that special magic ingredient in spades: atmosphere. From the minute I press play, to the completion of the run time, I am cast back into a world of 90s DOS role playing games and hokey high…

Utilitarian is a solid later-career effort from Napalm Death, with experimental variations on the group’s usual ferocious grindcore template. We’ve got clean singing (I’m getting an 80s industrial vibe) and a saxophonist guesting on one track, which is just all kinds of horrible and lovely at the same time.

As much as I yearn for the raw beginnings of Lifelover’s sound, I also love how it developed and matured over the band’s later albums. The anguish is more restrained and doled out across tracks that almost sparkle with their own morose beauty.

Age Of Consent is a beautiful film from the arse-end of the 60s which I am so so glad I took a chance on. The plot is a bit wet, following an artist who lost his muse as he returns to the wilderness of a desert island, where he meets a young and nubile Helen Mirren. She becomes his model, and their relationship develops, but the problem is, is that he is a man in…

After Now, Diabolical the Age Of Nero feels like Satyricon’s “if it ain’t broke…” moment. Which is fine, in all honesty, as the album is fucking super solid, if not a little predictable. The songs are tight as fuck, from Frost’s drumming to the razor sharp guitars, this is the perfect balance of rock n roll swagger and lethal black metal precision. There’s too many good tracks to list them all, but “Black Crow On…

I made the decision to take this rare opportunity to listen to both of these records back to back, and post each one in succession. I started with, of course, Covenant’s OG In Times Before The Light; a hissy, hollow black metal experience. Not as necro as some entries in the genre, but there is an echoic hollowness to proceedings that even a layer of frosted synths cannot cover up. There is a magic and…

I’m unsure if anyone has ever used Times New Roman on a record sleeve and gotten away with it like Cathedral have here. Honestly, it seems like the guys were stoned as fuck when they signed off on that artwork, and the same goes for the EP itself. This is a gloriously mad little thing, which reeks of early Cathedral vibes, but hints at the psychedelic madness that would come on later records. “Cosmic Funeral”…

Noisy, grim and endlessly bizarre, Abruptum occupy a strange space between the words of noisecore, black metal and something altogether more avante garde. This mammothly-titled record is of no exception to this, and is a pretty challenging listen.

Forest Of Equilibrium is often written about as Cathedral’s slow and miserable gestation into the world of doom, but, I find that in more than just scratching the surface of this dusty tome of fantastical worlds and weeping riffs, it is very distinctly Cathedral, from Gaz’s riffs to Lee’s unique vocals. Yeah, this isn’t spaced out on 10,000 strong mushroom tea (lol, a bit OTT there), but this is nowhere near as depressing as people…

Super tight, ultra brutal and lightening fast brutal death metal is the order of the day. Ominous Bloodline lacks in originality but instead brings instead spades of slashing death metal intricacy, rabid energy and solid production values.

It seems a lot of people think that this is a bit of a bummer for Burzum to go out on. I’ve only listened to it a couple of times since it was released and whilst it is an easy listen, my first impressions – which have stuck with me until now – were that it was a cheap imitation of the earlier synth work from the same project. Sure, he’d upgraded from horrendous analogue…

As much as I initially enjoyed this reworking I still don’t really understand the whole point of this record. Like, why does it exist? It seems entirely un-Burzum to want to re-record past material in a more clear and well produced way. I suppose if the songs you released initially, even if loved all over the world, don’t match up to the vision you had as an artist, then that can be pretty frustrating. It…

The sounds of industrial landscapes are sourced and re-purposed into collages of weaving, constantly collapsing slabs of freeform noise. This is the second such collab between Merzbow and Davis. Bonus points from me for using the title “Inland Empire” for the final track.

When Covenant became Kovenant, I’m not sure if the world became a better or worse place. I love some of the Kovenant albums, but this kind of music hasn’t really aged well and is for me rather corny, and a product of the 90s. Imagine my surprise then, when I finally, after like 18 years or whatever, got around to listening to this re-recording. Immediately there is an industrial hue to it, like when an…

Sometimes power electronics can be a little try hard,  especially when try to capture the impact of the older days.  Blue Rabbit however is genuinely terrifying; a brooding, disturbing entry from a great of the genre. All of the narratives are pretty macabre, but the title track itself is particularly harrowing. Musically, it is a little bit dialed back compared to some of their peers, instead of blasting your face with noise, the band let…

In my younger days I always had a large respect for what Tool was doing, but in the constant lust for what was fast more brutal, or even more offensive, albums like Lateralus fell to the wayside for me. Thankfully, now in my wizened old age I can return to such records and see the beauty in them. Lateralus is like watching the mechanism of a very expensive Swiss watch in slow motion; all the…

Shrinebuilder was the only studio record by the band of the same name, which was a super group consisting of Dale from the Melvins, Al from Om and Sleep, Wino from Saint Vitus, and Scott from Neurosis. It is a fairly polished affair, which is a solid listen, with most of the guys sharing vocal duties. Some of the tracks are quite monolithic, but standing up to all the other projects that these guys have…

Harvesting The Cunt Nectar (yes lol) is the only full length record from bizarre hyper-fast drum machine goregrind unit, XXX Maniak. The band’s linear notes, backstory and attention to gory detail really made this record stand out to me when it was released; the type of thing that perfectly appealed to the grotty 17 year old finding his footing in the world of grindcore. In the seemingly endless sea of digigrind projects on MySpace, XXX…

What in the holy mother of fuck did I just watch? Like, this is a mess. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I honestly don’t know. What starts as a slasher setting quickly devolves into a clusterfuck of Satanic rituals and insane plot twists. The plot can literally go fuck itself, but I have to commend this film on its gore, it’s cast (eyes are now firmly back in skull) and its…

There’s a lot of buzz and hype around this woman right now, so I was afraid of being disappointed. I can happily (is that the right word?) confirm however, that this is a dark and disturbing listen. I’m getting heavy Gnaw Their Tongues vibes off this, but the blend of dark atmospheric noise and classical music, along with multilayered vocals, it’s pretty unique. My one complaint is that the album is top heavy, and trails…

Arguably, Toxicity is the record that blew up System Of A Down. “Chop Suey” (or “Suicide” as it should be called) and the title track might be hideously overplayed, fodder to both TV music channels and the flaccid rotations at crappy rock bars, but the album as a whole is a work of bloody genius. SOAD retain the chaos present in their debut recording but bolster that with more solid song structuring, flourishes of different…

What is this? Sounds like Marilyn Manson and Big Black fucking (on steroids) whilst at an Einstürzende Neubauten show. Is that an obtuse discription? Why, yes it is! But, End Position is a dense and disorientating trip through an industrial hell. Pretty nice, if I’m honest.

I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said that Pyroclasts blew my mind. It’s the group’s second record in a fairly short period of time, so I wasn’t expecting the world when going in to this, but Pyroclasts showcases enormous slabs of drone rituals, each one as massive and totem-like as the last. The tones are stunning; avalanches of folding sounds and gargantuan waves of distortion.

Creeping, brooding, claustrophobic. Yet, somehow beautiful, delicate and sprawling. Perdition City came earlier in the band’s discography, as they veered away from black metal to making these contemporary and what I can only describe as urban soundscapes. Glorious stuff.

The First Cumming, is (in perhaps a fairly explanatory manner) the debut record from Laaahdahn surgically precise butchers of death metal, Basement Torture Killings, featuring six tracks of gore-drenched brutality packaged in a DVD case. Weirdly, I can’t find a link to this anywhere except on Spotify, so if you’ve got an account on there, fire it up and have a stream.

I can’t decide whether the abnormality that is Class Of Nuke ‘Em High is either genius or hideously hideously bad. The plot suffers some pacing issues, for me I found it hard to stay focused during the first act (yes, even with all those nude “teens” lol) but the payoff comes towards the end. This is a Troma classic so I won’t go into the story itself, but it’s worth saying that the effects are…

Forecast today is jazzy with a sprinkling of funk, my dudes. This is perfect sitting on the train going out for the day kinda tunes. Fresh, massive dollops of inspiration are heaped on top of good vibes and enough edge of your seat moments to keep things interesting.

LOL this record is all kinds of sleazy. In parts, that comes across as pretty evil and sinister, other times just infantile. Nevertheless, the riffs are great, the production is perfectly balanced (that bass hums through the mix), making Ampeauty a nasty metal record for those who like to stroll on the sicker side of life. Happy valentines day from us here at Lines In Wax!

The Angels Of Light took the heavily textured work of late 90s Swans and moulded those sound collages into moving, gorgeous folk songs. It is of course, in reality, a slightly more complicated story than that, and there is a lot to unpack here, a lot of nuances, however there is a beauteous simplicity to the tracks that betrays the denser roots that lay beneath the sparkly surface of these melancholic hymns. I find New…

Nyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaahhhhhhhhh! Asides from the fact that M. Shadows sounds like a goddamn super villain, City Of Evil has aged fairly well. It is a slick yet clumsy monstrosity of a record, with a lot of it’s saving grace lying in the production. This could easily have been a garbled mush of bad GNR worship. The most notable performance for me though is the busybody drumming of The Rev, who was an incredible drummer, and arguably,…

This is a strange one. The movie starts off as one of the more depraved exploitation films I’ve encountered thus far; scene after scene of gratuitous nudity and horrendous violence towards women randomly peters out after half hour and the movie turns into this slow investigation / psychological piece. It is bizarre to see pretty much all of the slasher kills over and done with in one go, and honestly, it really effects the pacing…

Christian Death’s discography has been spotty; and is very hit and miss. Sex Drugs and Jesus Christ pretty much embodies that fact for me, being a meandering journey through a variety of different material, all of which being perplexingly “trademark” Christian Death, yet varying wildly between track to track. This should, in all honesty, showcase the pair’s musical chops, but some of the time, the record just completely loses its way as it jumps here…

I’m unsure if this is a bestial classic or just a total fucking mess. In fact, it’s probably the perfect avalanche of both. It conjures memories of my time listening to Blasphemy or Revenge, so I’m glad I gave this one a go. I’m a bit rusty on thee pits ov black metal outside of Norway so was fuckin’ enlightened to come across this. No gods, no production, no mastering! Ha!

Bitchagram is the somewhat uninspired debut of the groovy goregrind project 666 Shades Of Shit. If bludgeoning chunks of metallic sludgey grind is your thing then by all means carry on and tuck in. Otherwise, I’d probably give this one a miss, or go for the follow up record.

There is an unique charm to the first System record. It is much rougher around the edges than the later offerings, and the vocals employ more shrieks and growls, akin more to metal than the unique brand of rock SOAD would go on to produce. You can almost smell the air and tell which year this was recorded in; the way alternative music was going around then… well let’s just say this record is symptomatic…

I’ll be honest with you, it was the cover art that drew me in here. It reminded me somewhat of the blasphemous inkings of Akercocke drummer David, and it was enough to draw me into Archgoat’s heretical and enormously noisy world. Heavenly Vulva (LOL) is not as abrasive as say, Blasphemy or Beherit, but it is a 15 minute uncompromisingly brutal attack in the style of black metal. It isn’t particularly “grimm” or even “khold”,…

I’ve forgotten how much I love Bowel Rot (what a sentence) or even just the varied works of one Bobby Maggard in general. Gonorrhoea Infection is a gory, super mushy downtuned romp that is effortlessly disgusting and very highly recommended grinding noise. Please disregard the absolutely horrendous cover art, which does this noise no justice.

I love Big Black, but for some reason I never have them in my rotation all that often. A colleague at my previous job swore down that Atomizer was their best album, and I had to admit that I had never heard it, so out I went and got stuck in. I just love those abrasive, hollow walls of guitar noise. It shouldn’t work but it does when you mount layer and layer and layer…

I think if there is one album in the world that I could describe as being “just lovely”, then Air’s Moon Safari would be it. I’m probably being a pleb here, but it invokes feelings in such a way that it makes electronic music sound new, fresh and exciting. I get a heavy “we can go anywhere” vibe off this, for all its 90s cliches.

The Beginning Of All Things To End is a compilation album that puts Mudvayne’s first EP from 1997 alongside some crappy “Dig” remixes and the full 17 minute version of “LD.50”, which is the trippy electronic shit that appears on the album of the same name (y’know, that shit in between songs that has sped up Terrence McKenna samples?). The only thing of any worth here is the OG Kill, I Oughtta tracks. They don’t…

More Aphex Twin is always a welcome. Collapse is a compact EP featuring several fresh new cuts of ticking, bleeping, blopping electronic goodness, blown along with wispy, dreamy synths. I’ve recently got myself some Tin T2 IEMs and this kind of music just absolutely melts my head on that kind of stereo stage. Glorious.

The Arena is a mid 70s exploitation shit show featuring the excellent Pam Greer. The main girls are pretty decent (or at least funny) actors but the supporting cast are appalling. The plot makes literally no sense and the ending is absolute trash but there is something endearing about this awful movie. It has zero redeeming features but there is something about which has put a smile on my face, regardless. I think that probably…

Where does porn end and exploitation film begin? Sometimes the line is blurry, or hard to define. In the case of Behind The Green Door, the line is pretty clear cut. Starring the same lass that was in Cronenberg’s Rabid, Green Door tells the story of a girl who is kidnapped and taken to an elite sex club, where she is fucked in all manner of ways from (and to) Sunday. Apparently, this did so…

This record brings back memories of Red Sun fest in Cardiff, fuck – 5 years ago! These guys played around the same time as Grand Collapse and I mega enjoyed their combination of punky crust and darker elements. Arrest Days captures the band’s energy and vibe effortlessly. It’s not a long record by any stretch, but it’s fucking great. I don’t think these guys have done all that much else, which is a shame. Arrest…

Well this was just glorious. Eery yet hilarious from the outset, what this lacks in Cronenberg’s infamous body horror FX it makes up for with hilarious attitude and plot. A sexually promiscuous young woman and a scientist of sorts have brought an unstoppable parasite to a housing complex. Weird shit, and almost surrealist in some ways, I’m sure there’s a bigger message here that maybe I am missing. Nevertheless, there’s enough nipples showing through tops…

Painkiller is not a million miles away from the early Naked City stuff, if not a little more streamlined – if that is even the right word! Guts Of A Virgin, as you may be able to guess by the title, is a much more brutal affair. The controversy surrounding the album’s censorship aside, this is a disturbing and batshit insane mishmash where the lines between jazz and grindcore are completely blurred.

Forensix is probably my favourite Desecration record. There is just something about the pace and vibe that makes it stand out amongst the other records. There’s a ton of killer tracks here, most of which were live staples of the band’s performances for many years to come. The bass pops and clanks, the riffs are razor sharp and the vocals rabid, and the drums… well, Mikey is an animal, what can I say. Aim! Fire!…

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, that’s some interesting singing there, Varg. Fallen was the first record I heard when Burzum returned. He released a bunch of records in a fairly quick succession, to little or no fanfare, so I was rather taken aback with this record and also Belus and that one compilation of re-recorded oldies. I feel like a lot of people wouldn’t even sneeze at this later stuff. Some of the magic of the earlier stuff is…

Often regarded as a classic of the doom metal genre, on Trouble / Psalm 9 the band take a more traditional rock and or roll approach, encompassing heavy – how should I say – Sabbathisms and elements of drowsy blues to their rocking sound. It’s not as heavy as Vitus or the aforementioned Sabbath, but it’s still a staple in the beginnings of doom.

Having finally watching this uhhh… “movie” I can see why it remains unrated. Ilsa is essentially a porno, with dump trucks of full frontal female nudity, and even more horrendous torture and “snuff porn” in the way of nubile young beauties being put through a series of increasingly disgusting medical “trials”. It’s a tough watch, even for a seasoned gore or sexploitation nerd, but it’s definitely one for the history books. In my opinion it’s…

I’m unsure of what to really make of this one. It seems to pre-date all the awful cyber grind of the 2000s, instead being a product of the 90s where hip hop and nu metal douchebaggery bled into the extreme music worlds. That being said, Cybergore has some decent riffs, and some interesting variations on the theme of techno shit mixed with metal. This sounds like a soundtrack to a long lost 90s shoot ‘em…

Animosity provided no great step forward from the material presented on World Of Lies, although I will say that the riffing is slightly less mournfully melodic as its predecessor and the programmed drumming is a little less chunky. It is however, as a whole, more refined and to the point. To some, it may just feel like another album being dropped, but to me it doesn’t fuck around, and is entirely savage as fuck. It…

I’ve probably heard this CD a hundred times, but for the purpose of (finally) committing it to this site I gave it another run through, and boy does it sound absolutely magical. Perhaps I’ve grown up a bit, but I can feel so much more going on here. These sweeping, all-encompassing drones simply have to be heard to be believed. 

I think I’ve listened to this album about 15 times with the purpose of doing a review for it, but it always falls apart and I don’t really know why. However this time I absolutely made myself power through, in order to finally commit this one to the site. It’s been on the to do list for 5 years for fucks sakes. I think I know what my issue is. There is absolutely nothing wrong…

Someone needs to tell the director of this movie the importance of pacing. The 100 minutes or so of this film were some of the longest of my life. The plot is absolutely nonsensical, with the most asinine twists imaginable. Its a good thing really that you want the insufferable cast to all fucking die. That aside, Slave Of The Cannibal God is the usual concoction of cannibalism, tits and staged animal slaughter that comes…

There is only so much that can be said about Cemetery Rapist, and I think I probably covered it all in my review of his Plundering… record back in 2015. You’ll cowards want some phresh slices of mad-ass porno-tinged slamz yo? Then, truly, fine and esteemed gentlemen, look no further, the Rapist has you covered. Trademark vocals skitter across four tracks of tinny programmed drums, and thicker-than-bong-grease riffage. Drill full, and ascend!

Vespertine is another classic in the original run of stunning Björk albums, and a welcome return to form after the miss that was Selmasongs (unsure if that counts as canon, being a soundtrack album). Vespertine is looser, much more abstract and flowing than Homogenic that came before it, and I suppose you could say that initially it suffers, lacking direction, however this formula turns out to really work well for Björk, and many of the…

I’ve been putting off this listen for as long as I remember. Thanks go then to one of my fellow night shift colleagues for pumping this out through the communal sound bar. I’ve never sat down and listened to Radiohead before, so it was an eye (ear?) opening experience to hear what all the fuss is about. Is it for me? I’m not sure, but this is a solid and at time morose album that…

Lucio Fulci’s swansong in the director’s seat, in which he bizarrely plays himself as he goes mad, unable to tell what is reality anymore after donkeys years of directing gore and exploitation. To top off his deteriorating mental state, people are starting to die gruesome deaths, and Fulci begins to suspect that he is the killer. Despite this awesome plot summary (and the fact that the BBFC wouldn’t rate it), this actually is a pretty…

Upon its release, Antichrist quickly became one of my favourite releases by the band. It retained the experimental, proggy edge of the previous record – which featured much more lighter songwriting and meandering exploration – and mashed that head on with brutal old school death metal. Akercocke have always had a death metal element to their sinister sound, of course, but the style here is totally different; you’ve got d-beats, more grooves, and more sludgy…

I’ve often heard of this film referred to as the “forgotten slasher”, where people imply that it fell into obscurity, when similar film such as Halloween or Friday The 13th went on to be powerhouses of cinema. Unfortunately, this effort can not be put in the same ballpark as the others mentioned here. Think of this as a combination of Scream and a Friday The 13th sequel. Throw in a bunch of medical mumbo jumbo,…

Chunk on chunk on chunk! Take Bolt Thrower and run it through the gamut of modern metal production and you’ll wind up with a sound that isn’t a bazillion miles from this. At first, it comes across as massively uninspiring, but maybe its the old school metalhead in me, because this was a grower.

Ah, my brain, she melts! I’ve always found Molting a strange name for a project. Like, it sounds more horrible than it actually is (lol). That aside, this full length release on the netlabel Torn Flesh is a true exercise in harsh noise. Aurally punishing, but that’s why we’re all here, right? 

The Dad from Home Alone (haha) leads a cast of Misfits through this entertaining but incredibly low budget mush. Nuclear waste is being dumped in the sewers of New York (honestly, that would explain a lot IRL) and the CHUDs have come to wreak havoc. Hilarious spots for me were noticing bit parts played by Commissioner Burrell and The Greek from HBO’s The Wire. 

What a mixed bag of craziness. Think classic / occult rock vibes meets prog weirdness. Refreshing, but definitely a bit meandering in places.

Oooh she’s a nasty one! This is fucking class, fair play. I was expecting some half arsed slam at worst, but fuck this is great! It’s more in the brutal death metal ballpark, but with grindcore-style song lengths and structures. Think asinine sampling, insane tracks and a fuckin’ mad time all round. Purulent Jacuzzi, I am ready to enter you! 

The Low End Theory is a classic hip hop record. Just listening to the beats on this thing is an absolute pleasure. The rhymes from everyone involved are sharp and precise, and remind me of the days when hip hop wasn’t all about excess and debauchery (granted, there’s a lot of modern MCs who don’t rap this way, but you know what I mean). A stunning exercise, from start to finish.

Clanking, barking mad death metal for the entire family. I remember constantly seeing this record sleeve at a local HMV whilst growing up. I never really got into death metal until I was like 17 or older so I often wonder how different the trajectory of my musical fandom would have gone if I’d bought this when I was 13 or something. They, quite simply, in boomer talk, just don’t make death metal records like…

I’ve always found that Mudvayne were an underrated band. I can’t speak of what they became, but LD.50 was bristling with promises, and underpinned by a technical ability that left most nu metal bands significantly wanting. There is something altogether more Tool poking out through the stupid make up and early 2000s tropes. I could listen to that bass and drum combo all day. “Dig”, “Death Blooms”, “Nothing to Gein” are all incredible tracks and…

I came to this world with nothing, and I leave with nothing but love. Everything Is Borrowed is a wildcard in The Streets’ canon, and absolutely one of my absolute favourites of theirs. The street-level rapped antics of the everyday pulse of the city is swapped in lieu of introspective philosophical musings and lyrics that are almost riddles. The scope of the sound is opened tenfold; gone are the banging garage beats, in are full…

I watched this around the same time as Sweet Sugar and therefore muddle them up in my head quite a lot. Honestly, it hard to tell which one is more morally wrong but this sleazefest, whilst a bit slow-paced, is very enjoyable. I mean, as far as the ‘women in prison’ subgenre of exploitation film goes, I genuinely don’t know what more one could expect from a movie of this kind. Arguably, Big Bird Cage…

Jesus Christ on a cross, this is a long boi. I mean, I’ve heard much longer albums than the 80 minutes or so going on here, but when the record is built up of djent 7 minuters showcasing little to no variation, peppered only by seemingly mandatory instrumental breaks, then holy fuck it feels like I’ve taken a whole ice age to listen to this thing. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, depending on how…

White Light, despite being heavily appreciated by the Swans fan community, took a long time to unfold for me. It wasn’t until I got the vinyl version (paid out the nose for it, but it has since been remastered) that I could truly appreciate the songs as they unfold. Now the remaster is also on Spotify, so I’ve been able to spend some more time with these tracks. Honestly, its like listening to a different…

Darkthrone’s trio of early albums are legendary the world over for their contribution to the second era of black metal music. Transylvanian Hunger has always admittedly been my favourite, but A Blaze In The Northern Sky has its charms. Denser in sound that it’s follow up, I find that Blaze meanders somewhat, wandering lost through the frozen crags of a hellish wilderness.

Well, this was just lovely. Imagine something like a game soundtrack come alive. Reminded me a bit of Carpenter Brut, if only more driven and less sparkly. The Perturbator wasn’t high on my list of listens, but I’m glad I gave this a go.

Considering the weight that both of these names bring in the noise, industrial and power electronics world, this collaboration record is unfortunately a bit of a mixed bag. The noise is brooding and atmospheric, with the odd ear piercing flourish. Genesis’ “vocals” however, massively take me out of the whole thing. I get it, it’s noise. It’s not uncommon to have vocals distorted. But when the pace is so slow and deliberate, as with most…