Posts by SeanO)))

The Bug is fuckin’ great. I can think of few artists who jump from style to style so seamlessly and pull it all off – with fireworks – at every turn. This record, as with the previous one, could just have easily been a jarring, unstructured mess, but its just a searing work of bloody genius. The jungle / garage kinda vibes are kinda dialled back compared to London Zoo, but this allows the sonic…

Year of the Snitch sounds like the logical development from Bottomless Pit; more of the now somewhat refined chaotic electronic surges meet bizarre blasting cut-up metal pieces, all the while MC Ride lords over proceeding with a cheeky rasp and knowing scorn. Death Grips have always been abrasive, but if some of the “noisier” elements of Bottomless Pit put you off, I’d probably avoid this one too. 

It is easy to dismiss Necro as just churning out pure filth and dropping heavy metal references just for the sake of it, but I Need Drugs has reminded me that this guy’s flow is just absolutely fucking unreal. Mix that with some dingy subject matter and the odd clever sample and you have a bona fide hip hop classic. This is Necro in his OG rawest form. Top marks from me. 

Falling into the ‘shit dance music for goths’ subcategory of industrial, the album Burning In Water, Drowning In Flame does very little to tickle the right parts of my brain (although I must admit the synchronising of machine gun sounds with the drumming is very entertaining). Skrew come across as a mix of latter-era Christian Death, Alice Cooper, Godflesh and Ministry, without being a fraction as good as any of them. However, if you ever…

Blind River is a release going back a few years from the absolutely savage grindcore band Cloud Rat. This release is a compilation of sorts, and I’ve heard parts of it before on the split 7″ with Orgullo Primitivo. I don’t want to water down Cloud Rat’s entire thing into one descriptive passage (edit: I have wrote about Cloud Rat in more detail before), but imagine a female-fronted Pig Destroyer and you wouldn’t be a…

I think my girlfriend saved this record to my Spotify playlist, because I can’t remember ever showing any interest in listening to it. But, in the interest of enjoying artists like Grimes or Nicole Dollenganger, I thought fuck it, let’s give Lana a spin. My first impression is that this is some kinda Adele with manic depression shit, but it soon clicked with me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wouldn’t call myself a fan,…

This haunting classic still sounds fresh and relevant today. Jazzy, snazzy and well, just a bit creepy, if I’m honest; it is easy to see the influence of Roxy Music on a large majority of bands that I love. The stand-out tracks for me are the droning “In Every Dream Home A Heartache” and the funkier-than-thou “Bogus Man”.

Death Side are a Japanese crust punk band that hark back to the glory days of Discharge / Exploited era crossover, thrown together with some of the grimier aspects of the more upbeat skate punk kinda sound. This results in lightening fast thrashing riffs and a metallic hardness meeting a chaotic blend of hardcore and catchy sensibility that comes from the other genres. Some of the messier bits really bring Hellbastard to mind. It is…

Surely this is the benchmark by which all gorenoise is measured? In our bizarre and unfair world, I remember this thing getting some heat when it first came out. “Since when were LDOH a noisecore band?” etc. etc. – true, the ‘groove’ which permeated earlier slabs of noise is well and truly buried in the ground, but like… who gives a shit? There is plenty of moronic groovy gore out there (not that I would…

Once you’ve heard Necrocannabilistic Vomitorium once, you’ve heard them a thousand times. Their noise is consistent. Sure, some sessions are tighter than others and some sessions are studio-clear whilst others are just abysmal. On this tape, more bowel-churning bass-driven porno groove is the order of the day. The OG vocalist for this band was 10/10. Damage Digital on the other hand… well I can’t make head nor tail of this, I’ll be honest. Their side…

This dropped fairly recently to masses of hype. Personally I was not too impressed on the first go around, I found Kamikaze to be more of the “hey, look how fast I can say absolutely nothing at all” deal that MM has been working with on his last few records. But, of course, when he’s not wasting his time chasing after fucking mongoloids like Machine Gun Kelly, Eminem is an enormously talented rapper capable of…

I’ll admit that I didn’t have high hopes going in to this; its a 90s industrial / hip hop style pop album that isn’t exactly concocted out of the best elements of the era, but after the first few tracks I really found myself getting into it. The penultimate song, “RSVP” was the theme to the horrendously gruesome 1995 shoot ’em up PlayStation game Loaded, I remember absolutely loving the song at the time, even…

I can’t really remember what possessed me to buy this record as a teenager. I was never really into grungy / desert shit, but I really found myself digging Blues For The Red Sun. It is easy to overlook just how heavy this record is. The band were still finding their feet, I think, but some of the heavier bits just grind out perfectly. Some beginning of an era shit right here. Best track: “Yeah”.

Arctic Thunder is the latest (edit: it’s 2019 now…) release from crusty black metal behemoths Darkthrone, which marks a colossal (and as if  “as one” with the cover art, an entirely warming) return to form from the Norwegian legends. I understand that a lot of people enjoyed The Underground Resistance, but the overuse of the King Diamond worship turned the whole thing into a bit of a parody, for me at least. There is a…

There’s something desperate about guitars in rap music that reminds me of the late 90s / early 00s. Unfortunately that means we don’t get off to the hottest start with this quick 2015 offering from the legendary Esham. Honestly, all in all, its a very mixed bag of styles that is over very quickly, with nothing that really stands out (also, of note, there is zero dubstep here, after many of his releases before this…

If you compare this stuff to the Christian Death of old, it comes across as a total fucking mess. Granted, that is part of what makes it so great. Female vocals (from the demonic Maitri) really work well with Christian Death’s macabre, sexy approach to industrial and gothic rock. Tracks are filled with punk venom but are delivered with metal velocity and a splattering of electronic sleaziness. Equally sprawling and ambitious as it is puerile…

One of the last recordings we did. This was originally supposed to be a split with Gorgonized Dorks on an 8″ lathe, but it fell through, mainly due to our ineptitude. I love the artwork, as terrible as it is. Above is the original 8″ version, below is the tape version. Neither came out, so its on Bandcamp now. Endless failure! I love the twin guitar sound on this, even though it is (purposefully) horrendously…

This record was my first experience with Converge. It introduced me to their melancholic brand of progressive hardcore (for a lack of a better way of putting it) and whilst it didn’t really resonate that much with me when I bought this CD in a record shop in Padstow when I was 15, I have grown to fully appreciate what is going on here, how it fits into the overall Converge canon, and the importance…

Like, who the fuck actually listens to this shit? I love Lee Perry, but this compilation is a fucking bag of shit. Rushed, thrown together jumble of half-assed dubs is the order of the day. Absolutely, definitely, totally, utterly, AVOID at all costs pointlessness. (PS – I read on Discogs that this isn’t actually Scratch Perry at all… who knows what the fuck is going on with this B.S.). I would also like to quickly…

‘Best Of’ compilations suck 99% of the time, so I’ll skip straight to the remix disc in this case. I guess I should also offer the disclaimer that remix albums are often also just a steaming pile of shit (some people just never learn though – I’m looking at you, Mortiis), but Made In Germany has some solid contributions from some decent names in the biz. Clawfinger’s go on “Sonne” is the first track to…

This is something I have putting off listening to. I was involved in forums online with the majority of these guys and over time was slated to help release some of their other projects, which were, honestly, infinitely better. As much as I want to revel in memories of the good ol’ MySpace days, this album is, just, well, weak. Can’t really sum it up in any other way; the drums and guitars are enormously…

I used to use the 45rpm track off Musique De L’Indifférence during my brief foray into daily meditation; I found that HNW was a distilled account of “I find peace listening to chaotic shit like death metal”, and therefore perfect for shutting off your mind and resetting your aural palate, as it were. Musique De L’Indifférence as a whole though, might be a test of patience for those even into the worlds of noise and…

What a beauty! Pulsating electronics and dark industrial vibrations meet enormous, explosive beats, all led by hypnotising female vocals. I have no idea how I found this, but I suspect it was through the Twin Peaks-inspired track “Sometimes My Arms Bend Back”, but I have walked into a whole new world of modern, fresh, exhilarating electronic music. She The Throne walk the line between a multitude of genres and somewhat defy definition, but I have…

Now this is a heavy one! I sold this record today (at the time of writing) so in honour of departing with one of my most cherished possessions (honestly, it deserves a better home where it will be played / appreciated and not just shoved in a box somewhere) I gave this one a play through for the first time in years. It is easy to under-estimate how skull-rattlingly heavy the tracks on this record…

Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned always stood out like a sore thumb for me in The Prodigy’s history. I was in comp (high school for all y’all Yanks out there) when this came out and I remember in the press / build up to it that there was some sort of uneasy feeling that everyone had because Keith and Maxim weren’t going to be in tow as vocalists (I think Maxim sneaks in on “Spitfire” in…

From The Cradle To Enslave is a weird stop-gap EP that came before the Midian album. At this point the band was in a serious state of flux, shedding members like a snake with alopecia. I think there’s something like 15 different drummers performing on this EP. It’s a bit of an odds’n’ends collection, but every track is a corker, except maybe the “Pervert’s Church” remix tune, which is just shite. The cover songs are…

Considering this album was made with a fucking washing machine it is really, really good. The sampling and beat creation using the harvested noises is simply second to none, propelling what would usually lull around in experimental music, found sounds or even noise, out into genuinely listenable music. No small feat. This is the 30* rinse your brain needed. 

(Disclaimer: my version isn’t signed, I just bumped these pictures off Discogs. Sue me.) Before Kroh got a female vocalist and walked down the path that they are on now, they sounded like this. I got a whole extra-morose Goatsnake kinda vibe off of this, but always found it jarring how the super heavy Entombed-core guitars jarred with the melodic vocals and almost poppy song structures. Maybe it is just the production, IDK. I love…

Deathcrush is a special part of the Mayhem discography. It is a dank-ass, stank-ass, sloppy, mungin’ tape demo kinda deal; far cry from the band’s lightening fast black metal misery that they would go on to become infamous for. The band might sound like a bunch of teenagers in a garage (which they were, basically) but Maniac is on-point here. The vocals are absolutely mental, and lend a unhinged edge to the atmosphere, as do…

What a trip! Laid back, seriousllllly heavy dub vibes. It is nice to come across some King Tubby shit that hasn’t been rehashed into some piece of shit compilation.  King At The Control actually flows, like a real album (despite the nature of dub), and whilst there is a similarity between the tracks, especially in the first half or 2/3, it doesn’t get tired or boring. I absolutely love dub music, but the genre is…

I’m not really sure what it is about Mac Lethal. I really enjoyed the first record, but since then… I don’t know what it is, I can’t put my finger on it, because this guy can rap, that much is quite obvious…. but, I just hate this shit. I think its the lyrics more than anything. On one track he’s just ripping on Tool for seemingly no reason whatsoever. “Make Out Bandit” sounds like it…

Way back when ICP stood for Inner City Posse, the group dropped their demo cassette, Bass-Ment Cuts (yeah I know I’ve credited them as Insane Clowns in the post title, but what you gonna do?). Before the group “found” their horrorcore style (read: decided to imitate Esham lol) they had a much more gangsta rap style on the go. All things considered this isn’t a million miles away from Carnival Of Carnage, minus the whole…

Heinous return with more slimy goregrind / mince for you to get yourself all wrapped up in. This throws me off a bit actually, because of the title and the fact that there are five tracks on the EP, not four. All in all, subterranean muddy goodness at its very best.

I’m not entirely sure what it is about Die Antwoord’s music that draws me to it. It embodies mostly everything that I hate, but it appears to be done in such a DIY and genuine way that I cannot help but be drawn to it. It may also be because its perfect music for the gym, or because Yolandi Visser is mint as fuck, but who knows. Ten$ion isn’t my favourite record but there are…

Stunning dark soundscapes and atmospheric drones that wouldn’t be out of place in movie soundtracks. Blazed through this on a nightshift. Impressed, and will be looking out for Husere Grav in the future.

Reek is really a turgid bowl of ulcerated offal. Plotting Carcass’ trajectory from this all the way through to Swansong is absolutely bonkers when you stop to think about it. In celebration of finding out that the 12″ vinyl I own of this is actually a fucking bootleg, I decided to spin it up and give it  the Lines In Wax treatment. In a modern era of fucking endless tupa tupa garbage (although I am…

Moody atmospherics and dense guitar-driven passages of almost melodic drone from the lovely lady Sarah Lipstate. Apparently she is also a filmmaker; judging by the quality of the soundtrack on offer here, I should be checking out some of her films too.

I caught these guys live at OEF a few years ago, and found that they were really great; brutal, chunky grindcore, with flairs of inspiration from both the death metal and hardcore worlds (or in the case of some riffs, even black metal). 908 is pretty obscure name, but thanks to the wonders of the internet, I was able to track these down.

This self-titled release is a massive leap forward in the evolution of Satyricon. To say the band had become stale would be unfair, but to deny that they have stuck to a tried-and-tested formula for the last few albums would just be an outright lie. Don’t get me wrong, if something isn’t broken, then it doesn’t always need fixing (Darkthrone I’m looking at you here) but the steps forward on this recording made by Satyr…

This is probably one of the more forgettable records in Napalm Death’s “groovy” 90s era. It isn’t awful, but likewise nothing in particular really jumps out and grabs my attention. Without wanting to sound too unfair it really does seem like this was just a bunch of leftovers from the previous studio album. I highly doubt that, being Napalm Death, but this is absolutely a low point in their usually highly regarded career.

Dreamy synth passages and morose piano pieces meld together into just over half hour of relaxed yet somewhat melancholy music; the perfect soundtrack for looking inwards, if there was ever such a thing. There are also a few dungeon synth vibes, if that is your thing. This particular version is a re-release of an earlier tape, coupled with another tape full of extra tracks. You can get it from Vienna Press.

Bizarre yet massive-sounding dungeon synth that invokes mixed memories of all manner of fantasy PC games, Mortal Kombat 3, and those interludes off earlier Cradle Of Filth albums. I can imagine battling Kangaxx to this shit. 10/10.

….And that was it; November 2016 marked a turning point into my journeys through metal – November is the month when I finally *got* Voïvod. (March 2019 edit: shows how long it takes for me to get around to posting half of these reviews, eh?) I don’t know where this random enlightenment spawned from, but asides from the records they did in the 90s with Eric Forrest as frontman, I have always struggled to digest…

This is something that I have had in my possession for the best part of ten years and have never bothered listening to. I’ve got about three of ’em left from some trade from many moons ago, and I guess that fact that they were all shrink wrapped put me off listening to one and I just winged them all in my distro case and that’s where they have been ever since. The split is…

Such misery and death befalls us, such puny humans that we are! Septicflesh channel said misery through exotic and traditional sounds, distilling an interesting brand of death metal that is mournful and morose, yet boasts masterful dexterity and precise brutality. That album cover is something else, though.

I’m unsure if Tom Waits is a genius or a raving madman (why not both?), but Real Gone is my favourite record of his that I have heard thus far. It brings the throaty, terrifying blues that he is known for and drags into into an either dirtier sound with a more modern sensibility. Even though it came out in 2004, it sounds like it could have been made yesterday.

Brutal, blasting, menacing black metal done properly, for once. Wurdulak are a veritable furnace of scorching hatred, and on Severed Eyes Of Possession, that furnace is firing on all cylinders indeed. Severed Eyes of Possession by Wurdulak

Where the hell has this been all my life? This sounds like Agathocles on steroids. Imagine mincing goregrind with Morbid Angel riffs and you are in the right ballpark. Not much to say about such a short old demo tape but definitely listen to this! My eyes are truly peeled for more Germen stuff (of which, admittedly, this is not much).

Ultra heavy grinding metallic noise from Ireland (apparently they are very pessimistic). To be fair to these guys (and girl these days) they have a solid back catalog. Thick, decent production for rabid, fast paced tunes. <a href=”http://candlelightrecordsuk.bandcamp.com/album/pessimist”>Pessimist by Abaddon Incarnate</a>

Ooh she’s a harsh one, Mildred! The Rita batters you with Vomir-esque walls (admittedly with more variation and wobbles) bookended with bizarre samples about Romans and a very English-sounding Cleopatra (lol), whilst Worker (who are new to me) operates on a much more skittish level; like the sounds of the bass from a hundred gorenoise bands running through a substation at 40,000 volts. All in all, these eggs is good.

Hyperemesis has got to be one of the best things to ever exist in the history of the world. Furious Scent Of Dumped Rotten Offals treads the line between blasting rancid putrefaction and stomping mince groove in such a way that the balance of the two itself almost becomes an art-form in itself. There’s a lot of stompy mincegore out there now but Hyperemesis easily remains one of the best. Cassette version is still available…

Hard rock from Carcass’ Bill Steer. Quite a bit of a departure from “Swarming Vulgar Mass Of Infected Virulency”, but who’s comparing the two? It’s pretty laid back and chilled, and it’s pretty decent background music. It does drag a bit, and I’m not a huge fan of the vocals, but it is hardly awful. I bought this on CD years ago but I have no idea where it is.

This is the third offering from a more matured and developed Jig-Ai. It is still the same blasting goregrind at heart, but with an additional level and nuance and flare that was not present on previous efforts. I think to call goregrind progressive would be a bit daft on my part, but over the three full length records to this point, you can genuinely see the plotted path that Jig-Ai has taken in growing their…

A veritable cocktail of evilness, Panzer Division Marduk is a maelstrom of blasting militant madness. Watching blastbeat videos on YouTube led me back to this viscous classic, which I’ll be honest, I haven’t heard in a while. The record balances sheer brutality with a tidy, all-encompassing sound, much like what I’d except a warfare-obsessed 1349 to sound like, if I had to make comparisons. Marduk have a long and varied discography, but this always stands…

Active Stenosis is genuinely my new favourite thing. I was turned onto them last year by Carlos of CxBxFxExTxCxExTxCx. Channeling the vibe of Lymphatic Phlegm and the watery, disgusting goodness and heaviness of say, Regurgitate, and presenting it for the new generation of goregrind sickos. Final Histopathology Report, and the band’s follow up album are essential listening for this genre. I am seriously late to the party! Tapes were out on Cadaveric Dissolution Records but…

Nowhere near as trippy or “out there” as I thought it would be, from past efforts and from the frankly amazing album cover. Really chilled out, laid back, with long songs and meandering themes. Nice, but not their greatest.

This is a bizarre one, even by my standards. Imagine all kinds of weird lo fi pop meeting drone or noise. Mouthed drums, hypnotic guitar loops, odd synths. Highly enjoyed!

Scorn is generally, all-round, just a really under-rated project, which unfortunately low-key fizzled out in 2011 or 2012 (I forget which). I was lucky enough to catch Mr. Harris performing live under this moniker before the end came, and the remixes on this 12″ are a brilliant example of the type of shit that was pumping out of that later-day set. Props also go, of course, to King Cannibal and The Wee DJ for providing…

I probably haven’t heard this record in over ten years. It is still impossibly heavy, but to the nearly-30-year-old me the lyrics now seem a bit emo (lol). In all seriousness, this album changed my life, and is no doubt responsible for a lot of the direction that my life has taken. A very dark and angry album. Does it hold up today? Fuck yeah, I’d say it does.

Absolutely gorgeous dungeon synth music! You’d never know that this was made only in the last year or so; Thangorodrim captures the vibe of 90s dungeon music to a tee, and then improves on it tenfold. I love mirky, hiss-filled lost recordings of old, but Taur-nu-Fuin is a high fidelity performance that takes the sounds of Era 1 Mortiis to whole new realms of imagination. Taur-nu-Fuin [REMASTER] by Thangorodrim

By the time World Of Lies entered this world of lies (hur hur hur), The Berzerker had become a fully fledged death metal band, shedding their grindcore and gabba roots and replacing them with more intricate song structures. This was hinted at on the skullfuck that is Dissimulate, but the songs here have much more room to breathe. I think ‘melody’ would probably be the wrong word; I’d say ‘scope’ would be the better option….

I checked out Life Index after being very impressed by a few of the singles that I’d come across from the producer. Unfortunately, the debut album doesn’t appear to be up to the same standard. Some of the vocal performances sound like Mortiis trying to break into the mainstream dance scene, and admittedly that leaves a little bit to be desired. Recommend sticking to the EPs for your Maceo Plex fix.

I attended Field Day 2017 with some work colleagues (sadly it was the same day as the London van attacks – mental shit) but I failed to inspect the merch stall and missed this record, which was for sale on this day only. Thanks to the wonders of the internet however, I’ve been lucky enough to not miss out retrospectively. This is, purely, a stunning display of Aphex Twin-erisms. I can’t really say more than…

Commando Mengele, or Angel of Death is an 1987 action movie that is best completely forgotten about. This is one of those films which is totally devoid of action, suspense or anything of any real interest. The plot is fucking dire, the cinematography is just appalling, the acting is unspeakable. The only thing of any redeemable quality is the synthesizer soundtrack, and even that sounds like a cross between the soundtracks of a porno and…

The 2 Minuta Dreka stuff here seems to stand out from the rest of their discography, taking a super-downtuned, 8 string approach to proceedings. Frankly, it is rather jarring, even more so than the difference between their pornogrind and their noisecore. It isn’t bad per se, but I’m glad to see that they did not continue in this direction for very long. Lymphatic Phlegm I’ve never been a massive fan of, but I have come…

What we have hear is a prime example of the genus Metallicus Typicalus. Often, in its natural habitat, the foibles of such can be glossed over by the dedicated elite, but stand it alone, and its blemishes can be seen – and heard – all the more easily. What I’m trying to say is, Beyond The Light is not the perfect metal album, not by a long shot, but it an entertaining one, warts and…

Christ, this is fucking miserable. In the best possible way, of course. Xasthur has this interesting method of making the most damp recordings sound absolutely hypnotizing and magical, and A Gate Through Blood Stained Mirrors is of no exception to that rule. This is a long one, to be honest, but if you’ve got the time, the pay off is phenomenal. This shits on most “transcendent” black metal. A Gate Through Bloodstained Mirrors by Xasthur

Surely one of the most classic rock albums ever, right? The things Alice Cooper has done for the theatrical aspect of rock and metal really cannot be charted or appreciated here in just one review, but Billion Dollar Babies is the perfect example of his (edit: their) early work, balancing the commercial sensibilities of School’s Out with the bizarre horror elements that would later be found on Vince’s solo stuff like Welcome To My Nightmare….

XIII marked the point where Mushroomhead finally had the financial backing to deliver an all-out polished, nu-metal with bells on full length record. Their first “international” LP, XX, was a compilation of tracks the band had self-released in their early years, so XIII was the group’s first album whilst being in the limelight. It is quite the departure from the jumbled, beautiful clusterfuck of XX and the records that came before it, but absolutely nowhere…

With the recent 20th anniversary re-issue of this I was not-so-subtly reminded that I’ve never checked out any of Myzery’s stuff. The production on this is great; proper solid old school street hip hop style, and Myzery’s flow is seamless, darting back between Spanish and English like it ain’t no thing. Throw in a guest appearance from a Milenko-era ICP and that is just the icing on the cake. Great little EP. 

I don’t have much in common with the type of people who relish a yearly visit to the Reading and Leeds festivals, but one thing I do have in common with a lot of them is a seemingly rabid appreciation of the early Muse records. Granted, anything the band has released since 2008 onward has been pretty much a disgusting wet fart to the face. But the early records mixed odd, dark indie a la…

The first thing that blew me out of my chair when playing this record was the drumming performance from Seth van de Loo. Holy shit! That is some insane stuff! Kudos. The second thing would have to be the bass guitar work of Patrick Boleij, which clanks away, underpinning the carnage, akin to the sound on early Cryptopsy records. Feasting On Blood is a solid, solid album, and is a nonstop trip through some of…

Ok, so Smashing Dumplings sound a whole lot more death metal than when I saw them live four or five years ago. I mean, either they’ve given their sound a bit of a more ‘brutal’ overhaul in lieu of spazzy, fast grind, or my memory is terrible and I’m just an idiot. Either way, Side Effects is pretty fuckin’ great. Chunky, nasty death metal that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Infinity is a task of a record, if I’m being real here. Just sitting down and honestly, thoroughly listening to a track of this scope is a bit difficult for me, which is weird considering how much I love harsh noise. There is just something about the pace of Jesu’s music, which is heartbreaking as it is at the same time enormously uplifting, that results in me only being able to ingest it whilst in…

I love goregrind, and I love Autophagia. Unearthing ancient tomes of dusty demos is part of the fun when it comes to this particular sub genre, but unfortunately, Anatomical Septicemia fails to offer anything of any value, to absolutely anyone. Sure, you’ve gotta have a ear for badly recorded demos, but the quality on this cassette demo sounds like your listening to a band rehearse in another room, recorded on a mobile phone. It doesn’t…

More haunting gorenoise from the Big Frog himself. This short EP seems to be compiled entirely out of layered vocal gurgles, like a whole swamp itself is teeming with enough life to create a gorenoise racket. A good place to start if you’re into Phyllo’ but some of the track lengths to the noisier stuff puts you off. (2021 edit: My original link for this died. If anyone has any info on this release, please…

Antigama are a very special grindcore band, in that I don’t really believe that they play grindcore at all. I mean sure, their music has roots of chaotic grind elements, and the vocalist’s roar is reminiscent of Napalm Death’s Barney Greenway, but Antigama draw from all over the musical spectrum. You can probably tell from the record sleeves that this isn’t just another grindcore band, and to the un-initiated, I would describe Meteor as a…

Imagine High On Fire crossed with Mastadon and you should get a good idea of what is going on here. Throaty vocals propell these dreamy, heavy-stoned musical explorations of sound through the infinite cosmos of experimental wonder. It is progressive, but with the underpinning vibe and, I guess, performance lulling in the school of doom metal, providing busy, Sabbath-after-twelve-Dabbeths (lol) drumming and rumbling, chunky bass guitar underpinning the soaring guitar and vocals.

Everything about this album is looooooonnnnng, including the amount of time it has been on my review “to do list” (about 7 years – my bad!). I first became aware of the Samsara Blues Experiment after a trip to Roadburn Festival in 2011, and I fell in love with their excellently balanced heavy / psych approach to prog. The songs are meandering, jam-like, but held together by an underpinning heavyness with stops the record from…

I’ve had something of a bloody rekindling love affair with Mortician as of late. I’ve been jamming some goregrind stuff and I guess some of the slower riffs resonated with me and I went digging through my Mortician stuff. Finding only Hacked Up For BBQ and Zombie Apocalypse on CD, I went straight to Spotify and devoured the entire discography (sans Re-Animated Flesh), of which this House by the Cemetery re-issue stood out to me…

Nightmare city is a decidedly average yet somewhat quite enjoyable zombie horror movie from the 80s. It tells the story of a radioactive army plane returning from an unknown destination, bringing with it an army of crazed undead. As unfortunate for the viewer as it is for the victims trying to escape in near slow motion, the pacing of this feature is somewhat dire. This even makes the most chaotic or gory scenes seem boring…

Cradle really seem to be firing out albums lately, or perhaps I’m just getting old and time is sailing by with the pace of say, a methamphetamine powered Concorde. Stylistically, Cryptoriana is not dissimilar to the excellent Hammer Of The Witches; it is nimble and well-produced, with the band still enjoying its most reliable and consistently strongest line-up in quite some time. However, I cannot shake the feeling that the band are just going through…

This is just pure analogue noise heaven; bleeping, blooping, leaping, looping fun for all of the family, or something like that. Dancing along the line that zig zags haphazardly between a harsh noise auditory palate cleanser and the type of soundtrack you’d get in a b-movie about aliens invading the earth, Disregard Your Life is a refreshing and almost relaxing trip through the world of electronic noise. The first track, at just shy of nineteen…

This is a digitally released EP between two pornogrind bands, one from Thailand and one from Mexico. Pornorama are the latest addition to the Bedroom Pornogrind Club, offering a plodding, somewhat tedious approach to proceedings. It is, honestly, not that good. The riffs are pretty interesting but the vocals are crap and the drumming is thin. Lord Piggy have a slightly more filled out sound, but fall into the Cemetery Rapist school of crickets-meets-chugga-chugga death…

Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle, I forgot that I owned this. I dug it out for a trade recently and realised I hadn’t covered this for the site. Bobby M sent me this back in 2012 when my girlfriend was in New York, so I had a week long goregrind and pizza binge, really getting to grips with the depths of the genre. RSWC incorporates spooky, echoic production into the gorenoise style, bringing all…

After returning to this after some time, the first thing that strikes me is how fucking massive those drums sound. Yeah, the kit is triggered out the wazoo, but this is symphonic metal my dudes, not acid jazz. Nicolas Barker plus triggers equals percussive armageddon. Piledriving blastbeats and mind-warping double bass is the order of the day, leading Dimmu’s razor sharp twinkly goth heaviness from the rear. The band got a bit “poppy” on this…

Everything Anal Whore puts out has this somewhat endearing (lol) analogue quality, as if it has been recorded onto tape or using an old school drum machine. It adds a warm edge to the project’s insane pornogrind approach, taking the maniacal, noisecore-direct path rather than the groovy, plodding variant. Sexual Perversion is the first EP under the moniker and was released way back in 2001, cramming 22 nonsensical tracks into 17 minutes of mush. The…

This looks like something of a classic, but unfortunately fails upon delivery due to excruciating pacing issues. The plot follows a series of characters as they squabble over the estate of the late John Carradine (who plays yet another useless mad scientist / professor type). Basically, Carradine’s character was about to sell out to an American, and have the contents of his wax museum shipped to New York. The wax creatures of his museum are…

Tu Carne play boisterous goregrind in a groovy style. Despite this, there is nothing groovy about their pitchshifted vocals – that shit is, how can I put it – evil as absolute fuck, yo. There is also something of a hardcore punk sensibility, particularly in the production sound of Culto… and especially in the riffs, which at first results in an awkward mesh of styles. One of course, which works rather well once you have…

Party Cannon are a somewhat legendary band on the British underground. They wallow mainly in the slam sub-genre of death metal and hail from misty Scotland. It is refreshing to see a band bringing some colour and humour to the drab and excessively gory bogs of the death metal world (without, of course, losing anything in ferocity or musical dexterity). Clean and precise production has allowed Party Cannon a clear canvas to err, be able…

This was one of those little gems that I accidentally discovered via Spotify. Maceo Plex’s Conjure Infinity EP/single seems to tread the line between deep house the more hypnotic stylings of the pystrance genre. Throw over some dark electronic passages and you’ve got yourself a recipe for success. The two tracks almost meld as one (the second may even be a re-working or a remix? What do I know…) and have a chilled, subliminal feel…

Welcome to a world of dark, dense, atmospheric horror. The title of the split, for both acts, is Domestic Goddess, and coupled with some The Rita-esque artwork, delivers a seedy yet subliminally disturbing romp through the, dare I say, usual tropes of the power electronics genre. That is not to tar the artists here as “usual fare”, but [Gone Dark]Bleach offers a much more variant and interesting approach to the subject matter at hand. Survivalist…

This band’s discography varies in quality for me, especially as time goes on. Perhaps amazingly, there are no massive, bulging stinkers, which is pretty impressive considering the length of their career and the apparent “simplicity” of the ingredients that make up their music. I feel that a dirgy, analogue sound lends itself to Cramps records much better than the clear, professional production jobs on their later albums. Stay Sick strikes a good balance between the…

We played a show with these guys in Bruges (ha, geddit?) earlier this year (edit: nearly a whole year ago! I need to get through my posting schedule quicker, jeez) and I thought it would be a pretty clever idea (always full of ’em) to check these guys out before we went over. As with all things that I touch, Lines In Wax temporarily fell to shit and it took me a gazillion years to…

Orifice play sloppy, burpy, bottom-flapping pornogrind, which, refreshingly, does not get stuck into the endless tupa-tupa snoozefest. Better Than Sex comes across as almost identical to early Anal Whore, but with more, er, melody in the mix. It all sounds a bit lo-fi at first, but the guitars are churning out some interesting riffs, and the drum programming is fucking spot on. Lazy drum programming is the downfall of many a bedroom grindcore outfit, but…

Welcome to a world of cornier-than-corny rock and/or roll. Sacred Few few play metal in the metaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal sense of the word – metal so metal that it is basically bad hard rock. You know what I’m talking about right? Songs about riding bikes and coming and playing your town and all of that shit. But, there is something about this that is so deliciously more-ish, like a crap children’s cereal. If female fronted rrrrawk is…

Its no small joke how long the world (well, the goregrind world) has been waiting for a new 2 Minuta Dreka record to drop, and now that it actually has, it has seemingly taken me a whole age to get around to reviewing it. The first thing I notice about Porno Bizzarro is its fairly polished production job, which gives the whole thing a massive fucking gut-punch. The sampling has become more obscure, and lends…

Gothic, oddly melodic death metal from Sweden, played in the style of say, Disembowelment meets Vital Remains or some such ridiculous statement. The Ending Quest seems to have that welcoming analogue quality, which is accompanied by that production sound that kinda falls into a wall of hiss (y’know, like how a vinyl record sounds when you reach the tracks pressed closer to the label in the middle). This gives the riffs a wasp-like quality, but…

There’s something just downright cheery about this record. Blag Dahlia seems to have this twisted way of making songs about being a violent, jailbait chasing punk seem all sunshine and roses. I mean, the album cover is kinda a give away to the true nature of this upbeat, poppy punk record, but there we go. The first seven tracks of this thing are pure unstoppable, sleazy, violent punk sang through gritted teeth and an insane…

(Hats off to the artist of this record sleeve – 5/7 would commission art) Paediatrician offer us medical sloppiness portrayed through the brutal death metal medium. Deformed Premature offers bludgeoning riffage, meeting ants-in-your-pants drumming and the usual scatological farmyard range of vocal rituals. It draws a little blood (virally infected, no doubt) from the slam genre, specifically in more of the choppier guitar playing and the higher vocal sounds. All in all, it is solid,…