death metal

Killing Joke argueably hit their commercial peak with Night Time, an album that contains a lot of the dissonant sounds of their earlier works but also a much more accessible style of songwriting. Songs like “Eighties” and “Love Like Blood” put these guys into the mainstream, if only for a short while. It’s odd because, well, other than the softer side to Coleman’s voice (when he’s not using his gravelly growl), none of the music…

(Originally written September 2022) One of the sickest things I’ve heard in ages. Taking that Entombed-core guitar sound to new depths of cavernous old school death metal darkness. Out of all the death metal that’s about right now, this has gotta be one of the best bands from the UK (they hail from Scotland).

As I’ve no doubt said before, it seems almost ridiculous to try and review all of the Revenge albums. They are so similar that it’s almost funny, but the saving grace is that every single fucking album is just absolutely fucking unstoppable. Seriously, this shit is just so fucking relentless. The sound is huge, and the music is savage as fuck. It is hard to criticise this level of consistency across all outputs.

The one outlier in the Repulsion / Genocide canon. Throughout the band’s history you can track the development of the sound from start to end. On the Final Demo however, things take a turn, perhaps in line with changing of the gaurd musically, in regards to the zeitgeist. Musically, things take a turn towards what can be compared to shit like Impetigo; that loose thrash sound with the heaviness of death metal. Scott is growling…

My guys, if you like compression, you will love Brutally Deceased! Take lightning fast death metal, give it melody and a few black metal riffs, run it through a HM2 and give it a huge, “modern” production and you’re basically right on the money. Brutal music with a lot going on for sure, but it’s kinda lost a bit behind the wall of noise. Don’t get me wrong when your ears adjust, it’s totally fine,…

Sad to say more of the same downtuned mush from Fluids, love ’em or hate ’em this split LP does nothing different. Pharmacist on the otherhand are dominating the grinding death metal (ie: Carcass Worship) world right now, and with good reason. The stuff here posesses a clarity that most bands in said style fail to capture, but Pharmacist push it to the next level.

Ugh my brothers this shit fucking slaps. Ultra down-tuned, sewer dwelling “modern old school” death metal is the order of the day, with beyond stunning cover artwork to boot. Like a horde of mutants rising from the radioactive waste deep below your homes and cities, Supporation Morphogenesiaque shuffles and shambles right up to your front door, dripping flesh and slime, before eating off your entire face.

Don’t be fooled by the shitty tape cover. This is legendary tier death metal. It sounds older than time itself but so many bands owe Timeghoul a fucking ton of dues. The riffs are complex and engaging but the overall production is grim as fuck and really brutal (an overused term, but fuck it).

Not gonna lie to you, this is pretty good. I went into it with low expectations and ended up really enjoying this comeback record. Granted, the start is a little shaky (track one just doens’t have the “fuck yeah, Torsofuck is fucking back, fuckwads” feeling that you’d expect after such a huge gap, but the record soon finds its feet and away we go. The drum machine is a bit hollow-sounding, and some of the…

Cradle’s first (second?) demo – with a raw, warm sound. Keyboards by Ben Ryan playing a small part still. No Paul Allender yet either, just Paul Ryan (Gate Master!) on guitar. Much more in the death metal style than what would ever come from Cradle, with the last vestiges of that sound dying out on Principle Of Evil Made Flesh.

Cut up and fed to the dog! The difference between Desecration and many other death metal bands riding on the cheeky / fun / silly / gross subject matter train is that Desecration are actually really fucking great, and Cemetery Sickness is no exception. Everything here is razor sharp and on-point; riffs, vocals and drums (man, the drums!) Speaking of the vocals, there’s a bit more of a range here than usual, which is always…

Shaky beginnings for everyone’s shrieking banshee led symphonic black metal band (yes, I categorised them as such, fucking deal with it). Expect instead of fragile, glittering hymns of erotic vampirism a hammer to the face in the bluntest fuzzy analogue way. If you love tape trading and early death metal demos then you’ll love this, otherwise you probably won’t find any value in this unless you are perhaps a crazed CoF superfan frothing at the…

As far as slam goes, then this should tick all of your boxes. Unreadable logo? Check. Late 2000s Visual Darkness album sleeve? Check. Absurd song titles? Check. We’re off to the races, guv’nor! I’ve got this fucker on vinyl and I gotta be honest it packs a hell of a punch. I’ve often had the complaint that the drums on this thing (whilst performed incredibly well) have a cardboard kind of sound to them, rather…

Primitive Force comes at you with quite a regimented and organised sound, which is refreshing for a genre that is usually wallowing in unhinged, boundless carnage. That is not to say, of course, that a fair share of carnage is not present on this record. The Josefsson’s batter you into the ground with their military-grade precision and fathomless brutality. It is perhaps not as unforgiving as some music in the war metal style, but where…

Brutal, blunt old-school proto black metal, in the style that blends so beautiful with elements of what would become death metal. In parts United Evil Forces channels the misanthropic atmosphere of stuff like early Sarcofago or Deathcrush-era Mayhem, but also has its own unique atmosphere and raw energy. All in all, this is 12 minutes of intense metal destruction.

Gurgling, disgusting, turbid old school death metal of the new-wave variety. Does that make it NWOOSDM? I don’t know, and I don’t fucking care. The production is awesome, the riffs are evil, the vokills are dank. Say no more shall I, read no more shall ye, presseth thy play button!

Brutal, dry production sets the stage for bludgeoning, unforgivable riffing and pummelling drums. With Scott Burns at the helm, and Suffocation at the strings and skins, would you expect anything else? Pierced From Within takes the template set by the earlier records and expands on them, heaping on more brutality, more dexterity, more variation in different sections. There is much less here in the way of “slams” but when they do hit they have that…

I’m finding it pretty fucking wild that I’ve made it to 2023 without really writing about Coffins (sans their split with XXX Maniak). I’ve never been the biggest fan but coffins have been a mainstay in the sloooooooooooow side of death metal for many a year now, so just out of pure numbers and math I should have reviewed one of their records. Alas, here we are. Craving To Eternal Slumber is a nice little…

This little fucker has the honour of being one of the first brutal death / underground releases that I ever downloaded off the internet. It is a shame then really, that this just isn’t very good at all. Corpsefucking Art in general are pretty entertaining, but here there’s Mortician worship meets Mortician covers meets Mortician grade horror samples, and I’m not here for it, tbh. Goretrade is just also quite possibly the most boring death…

Oi oi English facking brutal deff metal innit brahvahhhhhhh! Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. All in all, this is a pretty fuckin’ disgusting offering of rancid, turbid, aural slop. It certainly ticks all the right boxes and if you looked up “slamming brutal death metal” in the dictionary you may or may not be lucky to find Engorgement listed under there. Speaking of becoming engorged, death metal perverts may find that Excruciating Intestinal Lacerations is enough to send them…

Whilst you couldn’t really claim that Corpsefucking Art is pushing the boundaries of death metal, it is hard to argue that they are not an entertaining outfit. The aptly-titled Zombie Fuck is home such to ditties as “Beverly Hills Corpse” (completely with parody theme song), “High Skull Musical” (lmao) and “No Woman No Grind (Bomb Marley)”, the latter of which squeezes two puns into one song title for double your money. Musically this is downtuned,…

A Haemorrhage record is always going to be a good time, if you are a goregrind fan (or just a Carcass fan and don’t mind a bit of “worship”). These guys (and gal) have been plugging away for years and Anatomical Inferno is their third album. I have the Brazilian reissue in my hands. Now, being from the UK, I can’t remember for the life of me where or how I got a hold of…

I’ve probably heard this a thousand times on the House By The Cemetry represses but was nice to go back and “isolate” this and focus on the original tracks. The evolution from Brutally Mutilated / Demo ’91 is subtle, the band still employ a real drummer here it seems, but the guitar and bass have already entered into the trademark downtuned-and-impossible-to-decipher mush that would become their wheelhouse. BTW if you’re getting filtered by the overuse…

If I were to give my personal, technical, in-depth opinion: This shit fucking slaps. It is a short demo but a promising one, that’s for sure. Vocally, it kinda reminds me of XXX Maniak’s Harvesting The Cunt Nectar and musically it lies between the precision of slam / brutal death and the sloppier, sewer-dwelling OSDM revival style of the last few years. So there you have it – something for the whole family to enjoy.

Onwards to Golgotha is probably the most prominent musical equivalent of the words ‘blunt force trauma’. The music is an assault on the senses, and that assault is being carried out repeatedly, over and over, but some fucking maniac holding a blood-drenched brick in one hand. The other hand is around your throat, btw. Using such a ridiculous descriptive situation to describe a death metal record is usually done to convey how brutal the record…

UUURRGHHHH I recently got a copy of this on cassette. Whether it’s a legit repressing or a bootleg I’m really not sure nor do I really care, because this shit fucking slaps. To call any era of Mortician’s music “primitive” would be fucking lazy, but the earlier gestations of the band are not quite as streamlined as what would come on the full length records, or even EPs like Brutally Mutilated. That may sound rather…

Less of the slamz and more of the high quality production death metal ting. Which y’know, is absolutely fine with me. Variety is the spice of life and all that – and hey, it’s fuckin’ great to listen to some some fuckin’ brutal death metal every now and then when the production is good enough that I can actually understand everything that is going on! Blood Oath is just that. It won’t win any awards…

Guitar tuning is so low that it almost sounds like it is artificially pitchshifted, like Libido Airbag were about to mix these guitars into some sort of techno-pornogrind bullshit. Alas, once one’s puny mortal ears hath adjuste to thon brutallic onslaught of disgusting noise that is the tuning ov Drop 666, one can appreciate the ants-in-yon-pants old school brutal death that Bowels Out are finest purveyors thereof. Such beautous movements as “Gourmet Vaginal Stew” and…

Holy fuck, this is fuckin’ brutal; easily one of the best brutal death records I’ve heard in a hot minute. Dat bass, fam – dat bass. Fuckin’ drums on this are out of control though, mans can blast. Roger, perhaps best known for Mortician, is on point here with these drums. He can also be credited for producing this absolute monster of a death metal album. I feel however, writing endlessly about this would be…

The solid, first major entry from the now-legendary Cattle Decapitation. The band that made this record is a long way from the band that is putting out albums today, but this is still well worth checking out, especially if goregrind or grindcore in general is your bag. 18 songs in as many minutes, Human Jerky is frantic and messy, both in musicality (although Serbian (RIP) and Astor hold it down) and also in voice (Travis’…

Oh my fucking goodness gracious me (as my nan would say). I think I may have just found my favourite Nile record. I came onboard the goodship Nile (sailing towards the duat, or perhaps to Orion, if Robert Buaval is to be believed (probably not)) with the release of Annihilation Of The Wicked. That album blew my mind when I was a teenager – I really hadn’t heard anything like it, in regards to that…

Quality.Consistency.Brutality – You can always count on Revenge to deliver the full-blown headcrashing sledgehammer of unstoppable war metal goodness. Infiltration.Downfall.Death is no different to any of the albums that have come before it (sans as many groove parts as its predecessor, perhaps, but we are splitting hairs), but the quality of the sonic madness offered is so high that one really does not mind to be fed the same carnage over and over and over…

Love that fuckin’ album cover! Nice to see something from Locke that isn’t total fucking gore and evisceration (lol). So – onto the album itself. Sitting somewhere between the bludgeoning sounds of old and the more treble-heavy Rutan-produced sessions, A Skeleton Domain hits really fucking hard. There’s something about the riffs here that makes them extra dense and thick and sinister as all fuck. “Kill or Become” will melt your face off and turn you…

Skreeeeeeeeeeee I hope you like brutal fuckin death metal because yknow, that’s what you’re gonna get here. You can say a lot about Pathology but the main thing to take away I think is that they are damn consistent. Production variations aside, as well as natural evolution of sounds, I think it is fair to say their output has been consistently solid over the years. This more recent studio album (currently placed in the second…

The problem with Autopsy, is that you’re always going to be comparing anything that they do to their absolutely legendary first few records. There is not much out there that comes close to that sludgy, disgusting and unique blend of death metal that the band made their own. However, Autopsy are also a band that have safely avoided tarnishing their reputation with unneccessary and pointless and well, downright awful studio albums. Most bands cannot say…

More or less the same stuff as before, just a little different. Illegal Aliens does have however, quite possibly the worst cover art that I have ever seen.

I’ve said before that early Brujeria is a raw fuckin beast of a band, and this debut full length is no different. Possessing an exceptionally downtuned and dirging sound, Brujeria’s grindcore is less frenetic and more bludgeoning in its delivery. Overall, the vibe is “I need a shower”, much the same like listening to more modern bands like Fluids. I guess that feeling comes with the territory when the songs are about machete violence and…

I don’t think it would be unfair to call Revenge a one-dimensional band. Their dimension, is, of course, absolute fucking brutality. You come to Revenge knowing what to expect, and if you don’t, then you come unknowingly, you get your wig split, and then you keep coming back for more (unless you are, as Manowar said, a wimp and / or a poser). The uniform cover art across all releases, in the same stark colour…

Fuckin’ wild piece of work, this. Mangles together elements of grindcore and death metal in a swirling maelstrom pit of cacophonous carnage. There are moments that remind me of war metal bands like Blasphemy and Revenge, if I’m honest. Carrion For Worm is one of the few records recently that I have immediately played through a second time upon completing it. I know next to nothing about the band and this was my first experience…

AOAA are another one of those bands who started in the deathcore / slam – influenced end of the spectrum, and decided to change lanes into a more regular death metal approach as time went on. With their second full length, the band are fully in brutal death metal mode, but with enough chugging riffs to not lose all of their identity. The vocals are the highlight here, the loose, gargling growls that are spat…

Fun – and extremely vulgar – brutal death metal, but not as good as the first album or even the demo. My initial thought was to write that there’s a lack of focus here, but in reality the songs are short and sharp, and the brutal misogyny / menstruation themes are as strong as ever (what a sentence to write out at seven in the morning lol). Don Decker’s vocals are absolutely crackers too. It’s…

With a band name like this, and a cover art design and logo in a similar vein, you’d expect Miasmic Ooze to be the most brutal, gory thing on the planet. Instead, the band show immense restraint, playing an old school death metal sound without being afraid to strike us with a little melody now and then. It’s a shame that this thing is only 4 tracks long, as I really like the recipe that…

Early Brujeria is some ugly, scary shit. Like, the band did kinda become a parody of themselves. I know it was always a joke in some way, but fuck if the early shit wasn’t some of the nastiest stuff around. The horrors on the record sleeves only helped strike this brutality home, like a err, machete chop. This thing revolves into weird angular bizarre noisy stuff rather than anything grind or death metal in parts,…

I hope you like blastbeats, because otherwise you’re fucked out of luck with this album. Rutan’s Hate Eternal had always escaped me for some reason, so I was very happy to give King Of All Kings a few spins. The album has a big production, which gives the weight of the strings and the blizzard of the drums both room to breathe. Brutal, yet also very well made and technical. Lovely riffs lads, I’ll give…

Radioactive Decomposition delivers far more maturity and dexterity than a band with this kind of vibe, aesthetic and sound should have any right to. Death metal is the base ingredient, but forgive me for embarrassing myself by saying that Nuclear Remains do to death metal what Vektor do for thrash. That is not to say that Nuclear Remains is just a clone of Sound Of Perseverance era Death, but flexible and original in their compositions…

An improvement on the base sound, Sanguisugabogg step things up a notch with their second record, which has a much better sound all around. The drums in particular, sound absolutely fantastic – both in the initial performance and then in the production. The snare tone is wicked and punches right through the mix. Musically, everything else hangs nicely in the balance but the drums definitely lead the mix, for sure. Either way, if sick caveman…

Depending on what you want from your death metal, you may find Gruesome to be tired and derivative or instead scratching that specific itch that only early 90s death metal can. The excellent cover art (by Ed Repka) should give you some indication of the presence of the “classic” sound here, but by what degree this is a case of the spirit of such being kept alive vs. being aped as a gimmick… well, that’s…

Not as good as the later shit but still intense pathological grinding death metal / goregrind in the vein of early Carcass. A short release of only 8 minutes (the version I heard didn’t have the Carcass cover at the end), but worth every second of your time. Tracks like “Liquidised Gallbladder” (how is that even medically possible? I don’t want to find out) and “Centipede In Ass” are just as digusting as you may…

Vacuous’ debut record expands on the band’s promising sound from demos (EPs?) such as Katabasis. The band have grown from a small unit into a fully fledged 5 piece and the sound has grown along with them. The artwork is fitting; such a messy, confusing maelstrom of what could be flesh but also otherworldly materials is the perfect artistic interpretation of Vacuous’ dense and brutal sound. I’m not going to give you any big brain…

Gross, disgusting, beautiful, old school analogue death metal with grindcore elements. In fact, I hate the term “deathgrind” but to use it to describe bands like Impetigo or Blood is very fitting. Things do stray into Mortician territory here and there (as in, massive horror movie sample chunks are thrown in) but otherwise this is pure raw metal Armageddon. I love everything about this. Sick, pulsating production with thick drums and riffs, and barked or…

Cool, calm and clean, Ethereal Tomb first comes on like a fucking Symphony X record or something, until you quickly realise that you are listening to a death metal record, just recorded and presented with a prog-style production. It is a far cry from the muddy yet gratifying CHONK of albums like The Key or Thresholds, but I found Ethereal Tomb to be a very rewarding listen, especially with repeat visits. The drumming in particular,…

Messy, nasty, horrible metal cranked up to 11. You can feel the youthful energy of this thing overflowing throughout the whole record; be it in the raspy vocals, the crazy guitars or the sloppy, scattered drums. This is like combining early Possessed and early Venom in that machine from The Fly and turning it up to 666%. I.N.R.I. almost sounds to me like the accidental template for “war metal” (stuff like Beherit, Blasphemy and more…

You know the score by now – absurdly technical, down-tuned and blurry death metal that is intricately composed yet verging on the possibility of completely falling apart and sounding like completely pointless mush. It is indeed a fine line to walk, and such a constant barrage of Egyptian-theme barbarity can grate on the ears, with or without decent production (Black Seeds… is somewhere in the middle). However, if you are in the mood for have…

When the jump from Gorerotted to The Rotted originally happened, I wasn’t exactly the biggest fan of the decision. After seeing the band live in The Rotted form in either 2009 or 2010, that opinion quickly changed and I got myself this CD. It is, to be fair, a really fun listen if you like your metal injected with the usual energy and bile you would get on a hardcore punk record. The opening one-two…

Decent 7″ record from early Nocturnus. It’s not as great as The Key or the stuff that followed, and it’s really similar to a Morbid Angel kinda vibe, but despite this its actually pretty good. I don’t have a ton to say as it’s only two tracks, but its well worth checking out.

Not feeling this shit, at all. This band seem revered amongst those who are deep down the NSBM rabbit hole, but Arghoslent are not a black metal band. I guess this is NSDM, if I could use such a fucking stupid term. I am genuinely, honestly, all politics on hold, struggling to understand what is so great about this band? All I’m hearing is some mid melodeath with bad production. And that kids, is not…

Interesting debut (and only full length record) from Ripping Corpse, which of course, featured Erik Rutan who is now death metal legend (Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal, Cannibal Corpse etc. etc.) Even in these early daze, the riffs, shared here with Shaune Kelly, are pure precision. The production is a bit of an odd one, but this is a solid metal album. The vocals from Scott Ruth are perhaps an acquired taste for some, sounding like…

This is some historical sick shit right here. Perhaps for its time one of the sickest and heaviest sounds ever, and a precursor to the entire sub-genre that we know today as slam or slamming death metal. There was just something more brutal about a lot of these New York bands compared to shit coming out elsewhere in the country – I guess it was maybe the hardcore influences, I don’t know. I’ve never been…

As I said in the review of the vocal-less Goatlord, the music of this release fascinates me. However, the vocals added later, in an attempt to make Goatlord into a complete album – well, these things are pretty fucking bad. I appreciate the desire to complete the demos that they started many years prior, but there is a whole farmyard worth of different vocal noises here, from the kvlt down to the absolute bizarre. Not…

I can’t help but be captivated by the music that Darkthrone play on Goatlord. It is a true “what might have been moment” where the whole course of music could have been changed. Can you imagine a world without Darkthrone as a black metal band? Think, what would the implications of this be? Black metal would still exist obviously, but it would look different, that’s for sure. I never really got into Goatlord as a…

I’m a listen to a demo in it’s original form kinda guy, but Demon Entrails is one of the exceptions, as it pulls together a pile of Hellhammer OG demos into one compilation. I mean, that’s what demo compilations do, right? LOL I’m not sure what it is about this that I prefer to listen to over the originals, but I think it has something to do with the seemingly endless amount of old shit…

I’m pretty sure I saw Nausea touring this thing at the same festival as Terrorizer LA played, in some sort of Oscar Garcia-related frenzy. I could be wrong, because I find all of the iterations of Terrorizer confusing, but why on earth am I talking about Terrorizer in a Nausea review? Well, this is exactly why – the various iterations / lineups of Terrorizer confuse the fuck out of me and I somehow, probably because…

Colour me disappointed. Can’t remember where I picked the recommendation for this up but I was expecting some seriously evil obscure shit. Granted, this IS obscure evil shit, it’s just not very good.

Solid and chunky but with lots of jagged edges, I guess like a club with nails sticking out of it: a weapon that’s gonna cause some ugly damage. Behind this typical artwork is a nasty, disgusting sound that is ugly as fuck – deep, goat-semen gargling vokills, bomb blast attacks on the drums, intense riffs. Yep. Short N sweet ugly brutality.

Came for the ass, stayed for the death metal. NGL that cover art had me immediately checking out this short demo (at just shy of 10 minutes in length). I then promptly forgot about it all under now, so I figured I’d best write up about it. The intro and outro tracks are absolutely fucking pointless, with respect. What’s the point in pushing a two-track demo to being four tracks if only two of the…

I love how Cannabis Corpse are still active, I really do. They have come a long way from their parody beginnings, but still stick to their guns about releasing solid, no-frills death metal. Fuck experimentation, fuck pushing the envelope, Nug So Vile proves that Cannabis Corpse are still about headbanging, riffs and weed. The guitar work is second to none, as is expected when you look at the discography previous to this one. Nug So…

Brutal and enjoyable slam that is unfortunately falling just on the wrong side of predictable. Formulaic songs aside, Fate is a beast of a record, with bludgeoning production that is thick, heavy and dry. In the first instance it reminds me of Cephalotripsy with more chug and less gravity blasts. At 8 songs long and only 25 minutes in length, Fate doesn’t hang around for long but honestly, after two listens it actually felt much…

Gruesome Stuff Relish are probably one of the most under-rated “goregrind” bands. Nowadays, Carcass-worshipping muddy death metal / goregrind is all the rage again, but Gruesome Stuff Relish have always been doing it. This 2013 effort is a good a place to start as any for your fix of giallo and exploitation fuelled grinding gore.

Venom Prison is a band that is fairly local to me and one that has blown up massively and has continued to rise for what is not long coming up to a decade, give or take. Animus is an older album of theirs (how the time flies), and one I missed at the time for various reasons. One of the main things that stands out to me about this on a first listen is the…

With a name like Cosmic Putrefaction I had high hopes but unfortunately this one isn’t for me. Imagine, idk, Disembowelment meets Blood Incantation (again, a sentence to get the blood flowing, no doubt) but with a dark and misty production that obfuscates as much as it bolsters the sound. I can’t put my finger on this one.

Anything with “brethren” in the title gets immediate chuckles from me for reasons I can’t be bothered to explain, but also because its such a stupid and hammy word. Truly, it is the only reason I checked out this early demo from Apostasy. All in all, this is some decent, cavernous old school death. These guys were very obviously worshipping at the altar that was Napalm Death’s transition from grind to death, but all in…

Debodified play busy, chaotic death metal in the school of Cryptopsy and the like. On the Utopia In The Eyes Of The Banished record, and no doubt any other album to their name, the band employ scatterbrain drumming of the frantic blast’n’fill variety, layering on equally jumpy and technical riffage, not to mention globs of disgusting vocals. The band are not afraid to dive into a chugging section every now and then, but endlessly complicated…

Punishing old school death metal for the masses! I was lured in by the candid sleeve art and the related name (lol), and I stayed for the brutal assault. For an early 90s death metal demo tape, this is incredibly well put together, and the production is very clear too. What I love most about Bloodclot’s* songs is the frequent descent into all-out blasting chaos. It reminds me of Harmony Corruption / Utopia Banished era…

Very well produced for a stinky demo tape. Slow death metal is the order of the day, but not slow enough that you’re about to fall asleep in your pint. Great compositions. Vulgar as fuck. Lovely riffs. Final thoughts: is necrolatry even a word? Peace.

Lividity have long been one of my favourite brutal death metal bands, from the swampy, down-tuned earlier stuff, to the well-produced sickness of the later days. Used, Abused… marks that initial departure away from the murkier side of things (at least in terms of studio albums), and instead ushers in a new era of mind-boggling speed and precision. The drumming on this record, by Jordan Varela is absolutely second-to-one. Like, this is seriously fucking fast….

Ah fuck I just absolutely love Nick Barker. I won’t say that he is hideously under-rated, because the people who like him love his work but generally, in the wider metal world, he is definitely snoozed on. This man can drum! Anyways, what do you get if you mix Nick with the string section of Napalm Death (RIP Jesse) and put Peter Tagtgren on vocals (he did some Bloodbath stuff but otherwise I am unawares…

Violent Reprisal is the first CD I got from Lock Up, and is a compilation of their first two albums. Personally, I prefer the albums in their original incarnations, as well as with the original art, but if you are looking for a marathon of Lock Up stuff in once place, you can’t really go wrong with this CD.

Never been the biggest fan of these guys but Trevor has always been a bastion in the world of death metal, so spun this in his honour. Its pretty cool, and it pulls from all corners of metal, with I guess death metal being the main course. The production is enormous and this sounds very well made. It’s not my favourite thing in the world but I’m glad I listened. RIP Trevor Strnad.

7 H.Target are quickly becoming one of my favourite slam acts. The other records I’ve heard of theirs are very impressive so the logical step would be to go back to the first full length and see what that’s about. And what do we have? More razor-sharp slam with inssssaaane riffs and incredible drumming. Oh boy. The production is massive, crystal-clear and really gives the slams the absolute brute force that they need, without compromising…

Despite having grind in the title there is absolutely nothing grind about this. Fat, crystal clear digital production leads technical death metal with hints of thrash. It doesn’t blow me away, but if this kinda music is your bag, then it’s worth checking these guys out.

Legion is a dense and difficult listen, especially for old school death metal. Just take a look at the release date on this thing and you can truly see that Deicide were forging ahead with new levels of brutality. These days brutal death has been done a million times, but this must have taken heads off back in the day. Another cool thing about this is the unassuming artwork, which hints in no way shape…

I didn’t realise until today that it was Mick Harris of Napalm Death / Scorn etc. who produced this album. It’s got a lovely sound, one that is admittedly a little bit raw but it works really well. The drumming is outstanding (that snare sound is out of this world). Barney is on point in the vocal department and there’s some really cool sections where his trademark roars are backed up by absolutely disgusting pitchshifted…

Silly slamming death metal mixed with elements of grindcore. Expect a bit of groove to throw down to whilst enjoying the most ridiculous vocals and intense pinging drums. The song titles alone are worth a look at for a laugh, but musically you can squarely and safely file this under ‘party slam’ and the like. Great fun, but there’s a time and a place.

Skeletal Remains play old school death metal in the Obituary vein. The vocalist in particular owes a lot to John Tardy. Skeletal Remains however have a much more modern and cleaner production. Don’t expect the wheel to be reinvented, but if you like to bang your head, it’s hard to find any faults with this at all. Tidy!

Ah, Carcass. How everytime I hear thee, I pine for thoust earlier daze of grinding gore. Carcass at this point is an unrecognisable band, consisting of Steer and Walker and a bunch of other randomers (no disrespect to them – congrats on getting the Carcass gig). Torn Arteries offers me no more than what Surgical Steel already did, and with the reformation hooplah and fanfare having worn off somewhat, I am less than enthused for…

Blood remain one of the most criminally underrated bands in the grindcore world. You really have to peel back the surface layers to find appreciation for them. It’s weird, because they have been around since the genre’s heyday, and as another writer so well put, they are like an amalgamation of both early Carcass and early Napalm Death. O Agios Pethane proves however that Blood are so much more than the sum of their parts….

Today I noticed that the word “spoil” is in both album titles from Guttural Secrete. A pointless fact there for you.  Anyway, this is, much like its predecessor, a razor-sharp execution of the brutalest (is that even a word?) form of death metal. The speed and dexterity here is rather overwhelming; the songs are slick and polished, yet are delivered with the bludgeoning force of a spiked sledgehammer to the back of the skull.  Mike…

I was drawn in by the absurd logo and I stayed for the technical aspects filtered through an old-school death metal production. First off, I just want to say that the bass playing on this thing by Jonas Grønborg is exemplary. Top marks and a “brr brr ding” award for you, good sir.  It is however, perhaps difficult to win awards for originality in this genre but I found Effigies Of Obsolescence refreshing and engaging…

Short, sharp and messy! Think something like Pharmacist crossed with Impetigo. If that doesn’t get you excited for this band then I don’t know what will! There’s only three tracks here, so its difficult to go into any sort of depraved depths, but the demo is a brilliant example of what the band is about, and I’m really looking forward to their album dropping for more old school gory grind sickness.  Standout track: “Posthumously Penetrated”

Savage, punishing, unforgiving – the (un)holy trinity of war metal. Not that I want to pigeon hole this fantastic band, but their mix of blasting death and black styles does fall into the “bestial” camp.  The drumming on this thing is absolutely outstanding – you can really feel the power behind it. The vocals sound like a sick mix of FX and clean screams, all curdled together into some disgusting cauldron of spew.  Stoked to…

The pinnacle of Death’s evolution. Oddly enough, this was the first Death album I ever heard, when I was 16 or 17, and I couldn’t understand why everyone thought this band was so brutal. What’s brutal about this? Haha Anyways, I enjoyed it a lot and used to jam this when up late playing WoW. Nowadays I’m a bit more mature and can enjoy it even more. I get that Fenriz from Darkthrone thinks this…

Mystifier do not fuck around. Expect dense, tight metal with a huge drum sound (the snare is out of this world). Balancing somewhere between the production on classic war metal releases and that of early 90s gothic metal, Mystifier use this sound to maximise their long-winded, complex tales of occult and / or generally evil o ongoings. Genuinely brutal shit without being derivative. A great underground gem.

Random YouTube album listens, let’s go! Sharing a name with the elusive sophomore Throatplunger record, Almoranaz’s beautifully-titled Weapons Of Ass Destruction is actually a very enjoyable exercise in brutal death metal. The ridiculousness is dialled up to 11, as of course you would expect, and this also reflects in the unpredictable and chaotic nature of the songs. Messy, but holds together nicely – grand!

Blood Incantation are really starting to grow on me, and I can see why this 4 track banger is bolded on RYM. Perhaps its the slightly smaller scope here that makes this less intimidating, but I chained this thing back-to-back twice, and loved every second of it. If you are reading this review then you probably have some idea of what Blood Incantation are all about, but on Interdimensional Extinction the band mix technical death…

Ugh! (Or should that be, Bleeurururppp?) Undergang are arguably the kings of slow-mo, slurry-churning, bone-grinding death metal; the snail pace allowing the filthy ooze to truly take its most hideous form.  The drums form a rigid, re-animated skeletal frame, where the thick bog of guitars, drums and bile-soaked croaks smear over the top of the percussion like the melted, impostumated epidermis of a nightmarish mutation crawling from the sewer with one thing on its mind:…

What an abominable down-tuned soup of hideous death metal! It took me a few goes to get used to the sordid display of metal oozing out of my stereo. The drums… wow. It’s like a corpse has risen from the grave. They shamble and shift, sometimes staggering. But for some reason, that works really well. The vocals fart and bubble out of the speakers. Some nefarious shit, y’all.

Dune-inspired remix record for the first Fear Factory album. Probably a stretch to call this an album too, it’s more of an EP. Either way, it shows the techno and / or industrial elements have been there since the start, even when the group were more in line with death metal than anything else.

Gateways is some brutal shit. Like Formulas… but turned up to 11. The groove on Domination? My brother in Christ, it is long gone (well, almost). Steve Tucker’s second record with the group saw the guys doubling down on the heaviness, and on the speed. Pete The Feet’s blasts here are ridiculously good. Despite how good his technique is, the drums feel a little quiet, but I think it’s due to the insane technical nature…

I was pretty excited when I heard Bobby Maggard (aka the gore master) had another new project, this time a more “musical” death metal style form of sickness called Clumps Of Flesh. For all the endless forms of gorenoise Bobby has made, I do miss his more listenable exploits from the past such as Corpseinthecrawlspace and Dehydrated Tissues. (On that note I am forever and to infinite shame still sleeping on Gangrene Discharge as of…

I remember walking through my hometown once, many moons ago, Sony Discman rammed awkwardly into a hoodie pocket, the earphones lodged firmly into my skull. A fellow metalhead who walked by too close stopped and turned. I took out a earpiece. “You’re listening to Nihility by Decapitated” he said, all matter of fact. “I can tell by the bass drums.” I’ve never forgotten that moment and I think about it every time I play this…