I have no idea why this is on my To Do list, as this breed of 90s “industrial” really just fills me with rage. I could go off on one here, but I’ll keep it short – how did industrial get from Throbbing Gristle, to Godflesh… to something like this? I often jest how the 90s saw industrial turn from an outsider genre into a tag that basically means “crap dance music for goths”. KMFDM…

I’d like to think it was this record but it may have been another Subhumans record, that was often spun by my mate’s dad in his garage when we hung out. This of course, amongst other punk and rock vinyl of the 80s and early 90s. I was quite taken with the band’s Time Flies… But Aeroplanes Crash, which I even painted onto the underside of my skateboard (not without spelling areoplane wrong). Anyways, enough…

I’m no expert on Nachmystium (only having heard the skull tits album (you know the one) and I saw them live at Roadburn once), I was not previously aware of the harsh, grim and possibly frostbitten beginnings. Less sprawling than their later works, and definitely with fewer external influences, this self-titled EP is cold black metal to the core, with dodgy production to top it all off. Would you have it any other way? Open…

I need to find some context for this. All of a sudden, all these years after Sol Invictus, the lead single gets a bizarre and honestly, awful (lol) remix by the legendary J G Thirwell. I’m not sure what this is or what it is trying to achieve, but the vocal lines from “Motherfucker” seem shoehorned into some bombastic piece of music that is a thousand miles away from any related vibe. Honestly, I’m confused….

Is this a concept album? I should probably look it up but I can’t be bothered. Anyways, I love all eras of Ulver and its been a while since I’ve written about the later stuff so I decided to spin this up. Unfortunately it’s a bit of a toploader of an album, with all the good shit stacked at the front. It also doesn’t really bring anything new to the table in regards to Ulver’s…

I’m starting to notice a shift of some sort in Maiden’s music. A shift away from bombast and more towards the proggier end of the stick. Melodic riffing is more reserved, and whilst the bass has always led the way, the galloping is dialled back and the pulsing, backbone-style playing instead underpins the tracks. Bruce’s vocals are also rather reserved, for the most part. I’m not sure what brought on this change? It works in…

Man this is a classic. I just realised, despite the countless times I’ve listened to this thing, I don’t actually own this record, in any format. I need to sort that out. A cassette or vinyl will do! Honestly, I’m not the biggest fan of Wu-Tang, and whilst I don’t claim to have heard their entire body of work, everything else they released that I have heard just pales in comparison to this absolute masterpiece….

Is it death metal or is it doom metal? Who cares? Immediately from the speakers comes one of the sickest and dirgiest tones in metal history, with a phenomenal analogue production job to capture it. Sparse flurries of synthesizers punctuate the heavy, yet without becoming hammy or overpowering. Why have I never heard Amorphis before? Add in the absolute banger that is the cover art and you’ve got yourself an incredible all-rounder.

Book Of Lore is a massive undertaking, so much so that I originally had this marked down to review on 2nd March 2020, not long before the pandemic changed everything. I have listened to it twice since then, and can confirm that it’s a hefty listen, but probably great if you are into role playing or D&D and want a good soundtrack for those activities. For those of an Elder Scrolls persuasion, one may notice…

What a stunning slice of black metal. Balancing the lo fi and the atmospheric perfectly in a cauldron of misty anguish (lol) Mrtva Vod does in 5 tracks on Flora Of Evil what many black metal artists fail to do over entire discographies. Magical.

One could easily call this album boring, but that would mean one has truly missed the point of such an album as this. In fact, even with its run time, to call it an album feels odd. This is two stand-alone singular tracks (just one in the 1993 release), a single mood in each, left to ring out for an enormous length of time. It really pushes the boundary of what can be considered music,…

Hell To Pay is probably the tackiest Doom WAD I’ve played thusfar, with the exception of The Lost Episodes Of Doom, which was just awful. Thankfully it was one of the first WADs I’ve started with. I’d never be able to make it though it these days, having played some top quality custom levels since. Hell To Pay isn’t bad. In fact, it has a pretty good story and some incredibly ambitious level designs (ever…

I love it when you find something that you have never heard before. Yes, I’ve heard Lunar Womb before, but hear me out. The blend of styles on this record are incredibly perplexing. Think dungeon synth mixed with vaporwave. Both are fairly obscure electronic subgenres with little crossover (the runescape.wav (sp?) project the only outlier I can think of), but their unintentional mixture on this 25 year old demo is perplexing and thought provoking. Vaporwave…

I was never that big a fan of Demon Days when it first came out. It seemed to lack the dub stylings of the Gorillaz self-titled album. It could not be argued however, that Demon Days is not packed with fantastic singles. From “Dirty Harry” to “Kids With Guns” to “Dare” or even all the way through to the abstract “Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey’s Head”, Demon Days is loaded with low key banger…

The record title is something that should be lifted right out of bestial black metal, but we are firmly in the camp of The Rita’s intense, steady noise torture here. This record conjures all sorts of unpleasant moods and vibes, and I would expect no less. Definitely for power electronics fans only, however.

As I work my way through some of the earlier WADs that circulated the official main Doom releases, of course a stop on the Master Levels was required. I had the Master Levels on disc, I bought it in I think 1997, along with Doom II and Ultimate Doom. However, in the absence of any Doom loader like GZdoom or the likes, 8 year old me found it immensely difficult to load any of the…

Ah, Haircuts For Men, can this project be faulted? It’s very prolific, yet the bar of quality remains consistently high. 共振 is no different, taking you on a vapor-tinged journey of old school electronics and introspective beats. Like watching infomercials at 3am whilst stoned off your nut. Banging.

Sometimes, album covers are so bad that they become good. This little ditty is one of them. Just look at that thing. Jeez. Anyways, don’t be fooled by the crummy cover painting, Baphomet’s The Dead Shall Inherit is a solid effort in early 90s dry’n’sludgy death metal dirgery (yeah I know, that’s not a word). The production is crisp like a freshly charred corpse, yet with the tunings hanging out down low where the corpses…

I checked this out because it kept cropping up online and hey, the logo looks like Impetigo so it must rock, right? Granted, Ominous Seep Of Putridity is not as boggy or disgusting as its art and name promises you, but it’s still a very tasty slab of metallic goodness. It’s well-produced, which is always a nice surprise in these kinda circles, and is overall a really solid metal album. Good shit. I’ll keep my…

Well then, now I know who does the voice at the beginning of Death In June’s “Tick Tock”. I could never understand why Douglas P would attempt such a bad American accent (like all those 00s post-something bands. You’re from Pontypridd mate, not LA!). Anyways, now that I finally know what Boyd Rice’s voice sounds like, it all makes sense to me. Honestly, this is all kinds of fucking edgy. And fuck if I know…

Cradle Of Filth have been on something of a second wind for the last 6 or 7 years. I personally didn’t really enjoy the previous album, Cryptoriana, but it seemed to be generally well recieved by fans. I’m sure this second wind has been facilitated by the relatively stable lineup (the loss of Lindsey Schoolcraft aside), which in itself is a rarity for Cradle. Existence Is Futile is a surprisingly “meta” offering from Dani and…

Hyped grindcore bands come and go, and it may seem that Six Brew Bantha have had their time in the sun (actually I need to check this), but the band’s self titled record holds up incredibly well. I recently busted out the record player to spin this again, and was still suitably impressed by the audible clout that the group possess. No nonsense, straight up, blasts of grindcore. Love it.

Maiden were one of the bands on my “fill the gaps” project, because as famous as they are, to date I’ve not really heard that many of their full lengths. I tend to go through chronologically, but I made an exception for Senjutsu as its hot off the presses. My first impression is that this thing was going to be slow and boring, and to be fairly honest, the first few tracks were just that….

Perdition’s Gate was one of the commercially released yet unofficial Doom II expansions. From the creator’s website, its hinted that Perdition’s Gate was supposed to be a part of Final Doom, but for whatever reason that didn’t happen. Anyways, dodgy software company Wizard Works eventually released this, on the sly. The thought of that being done in 2021 is really quite impressive. None of this is to shit on Perdition’s Gate, however. I have been…

This is some prime-rib old school dungeon synth from the mid 90s. I love uncovering gems like this. Lots of anxious synths and sparse yet martial drum programming keep things from becoming too dreamy, but La Lune Noire still has its own unique and misty atmosphere. Fantastic. A great find.

Burial has always been sparse, low key and understated. This double A side (at least I believe its an AA due to the title) 12″ is Burial stripped back even further than I have ever heard before. I am, yes, slowly catching up with the man’s discography (I have fallen off in recent years), but this is easily the most bare bones thing I’ve heard him do.

Man, this is some good shit. Thick, dense production is the order of the day, which really really lends itself to the dub sound. I’m no expert, but my experience with dub reggae sounds is the same as metal: lots of scooped mids, fat bass and tickling highs. This fucking thing is fat across the middle, just like the ape on the cover. Serious big tunes here, so kick back and enjoy.

A solid entry from TFD, even though a bunch of these songs repeat on a ton of the band’s split 7″s (something which I hate, lookin’ at you Agathocles!). The production really comes into its own here and whilst Hater is probably still my favourite TFD record out of those I’ve heard, you really can’t go wrong with this if insane, scatter-brain grindcore is what you are looking for.

Personally, I blame this EP for the entire existence of ICP. I’m sorry, but there is NO WAY they didn’t model their entire ghetto clown thing off this shit. I mean absolutely no disrespect, but c’mon. Musically, this is oooold school Esham with that trademark sound and delivery, a year or so after Boomin’ Words From Hell dropped. Great shit.

Commune is the second album by hippy-dippy (sorry) experimental project Goat, who burst into the world with the phenomenal World Music record. Commune, in comparison, is a little bit more muted. Things develop at more of a crawl than they did on the rather spectacular debut. It took me a while to realise that Commune isn’t necessary boring or without the spark that Goat made upon their unleashing to the world, its just that the…

Dark, mysterious, atmospheric; three words you would likely associate with the dungeon synth genre. Pafund is no different, with The Grim Abbot leaning more on the atmospheric end of proceedings. The tracks are loose and dense with ambience and conjure distant misty worlds. Cracking.

I love these nonsense multi-band splits. There’s just something intrinsically pointless yet gratifying about them. Nobody has room to breathe usually, and everyone is fighting for air in the little space they have. The bands are allowed a few tracks each on TSTH no. 3, but it’s still more of the usual carnage and I’ve already forgotten who I’ve listened to by the time it’s over. But that just means I’ll have to play it…

I can’t remember where I picked up Jandek as a recommendation. RYM, perhaps? Anyway, these are some intense and bizarre, even unsettling fragments of acoustic guitar and insane rambles. These are some female vocal additions too, but for most of the tracks, the recording quality is quite lo-fi and the sound is abstract enough to invoke all sorts of moods and thought patterns. One day, I will unearth more from this artist. I am intrigued.

I love Boy Harsher. Both their album (Yr Body Is Nothing) and this original demo/EP/whatever are absolutely fantastic slices of dark electronica. Here on Lesser Man, themes and imagery of the dark industrial or noise worlds is used with warbling analogue synthesizer sounds and cold, sparse and tense vocals, to create a danceable yet thought-provoking series of compositions. One of the best!

An interesting take on the dungeon synth formula. Admittedly not one that I would usually be all over, but I appreciate the artistic integrity and boldness involved nonetheless. The guy, Jon, seems to do a bunch of stuff across a ton of genres, a lot within the vaporwave kinda style.

This kinda shits all over my own Welsh dungeon synth project. Haha! Mari Lwyd lays down some serious tunes, obviously composed with genuine musical skill and chops. There’s a lot of dungeon synth that isn’t as musical per se but atmospheric, Y Ddraig Goch (I wanna guess ‘the red dragon?) is absolutely on the musical end, with a record full of dense instrumentation and excellent songs. Highly recommended. Tape is, unfortunately, long sold out.

I’m familiar with Striga’s drumming from Necrosis (and also for filling in for Black Skies Burn) but I’ll be honest I hadn’t even heard of this band until a week ago (Dec 2021 edit: this was written 6 months ago lol). Granted, the UK black metal underground is not my strong point and I am learning about it daily. I got this cassette off the back of how raw and intense everything sounds, this is…

All sorts of dark and evil vibes permeate these scuzzy, noisy compositions. I’ve been meaning to check out Rudimentary Peni for years, and Death Church seemed as good as any a place to start. Its not as “punky” (sorry for using such a stupid word) as I would have thought, but its still great. People truly revere this thing, which is really cool. I love the bass sound.

This gets thrown around a lot online for being idk, spooky or moving or dense or atmospheric or just fucking great. Reflection is all of those things, but its also a very, very slow burn. Its another one of those things that falls loosely under the vaporwave banner when in reality, its a million miles away, aurally at least. Dense atmospheric textures all round.

Where it all began for the Bungle. Its been interesting to go back to this again in light of last year’s complete re-recording (and more). The first three Bungle demos have never really done anything for me, but I’m looking forward to exploring them again with a new perspective. I can’t say my opinion on them has changed, but its more to do with the fact that the sound quality is so bad that I…

Stunning, dreamy, nostalgic – these are a few words that spring to mind with this album playing. In fact this is so good I threw down on a copy of the cassette release off the strength of the first track alone. I can’t wait for it to arrive so I can listen to it again on an analogue format (dec 2021 update: it sounds amazing). Mixing the treacle-like haunted nostalgia vibes of vaporwave with morose…

I haven’t heard this album in about 18-20 years. The sheer scope of those years alone crushes me with the reminder of the ceaseless march of time, but it’s also a reminder to me that my Limp Bizkit “fandom” belonged in a time and a place, and has, thankfully, stayed there. I have nothing against Limp Bizkit, or specifically Wes Borland, Sam Rivers and John Otto in particular, who are enormously talented musicians, but I…

Piece Of Mind is a classic-era Maiden album that I never really knew about until I started going through the lot. Like, I’d heard of the big guns, Number Of The Beast, Killers, Powerslave and what not, but not Piece Of Mind. Unsure if it has anything to do with the horrendous album cover and title? Unsure. LOL. All in all though this is another solid Maiden effort from their absolute prime. The band clank…

Slam is inherently a ridiculous genre, and the brutally mental Crepitation are a perfect example of how to do the sound justice. The band bring their own unique spin to a genre that is immediately formulaic; insane, farmyard vocals front up jazzy guitar and bass, and of course, dustbin drums. Plus how amazing is that album title? Full points from me!

BFA (sorry, I’m not writing that out for just a paragraph review! LOL) is another one of Bobby Maggard’s disgusting gorenoise projects which he kindly sent me a CDr of back in… I wanna say 2013. Its more of the sick, nasty shit you will come to know and expect from this prolific maniac. Be prepared for intense noise and vocals that sound like the performer has been impaled in the gut and is burping…

Well isn’t this just disgusting? An early incarnation of Don Decker’s Anal Blast (which may or may not feature members of Slipknot depending on which way the wind blows or which forum you read), Puss Blood Pentagram is a beginning of a running theme for the band. Its also super fucking sick death metal, like, some of the best of the mid 90s as far as all that brutal shit goes. I urge you to…

So come on! The Ethereal Mirror is a markedly different album from Cathedral’s debut, but this sophomore full length did kinda set the pace (or more like, the tone) for how the band would progress through the majority of the 90s. Eschewing deathly slow pace, and instead ramping up the groove, we have some all-time classics here, like “Ride” or “Enter World Of Worms”. Doom on, folks.

Mutilation And Death are really cool. Messy, but cool. The Agathocles stuff is reaaallly old, which usually means… yep, it’s really cool! This split has been shelved since the 80s, because it was apparently too noisy / sloppy for the label at the time (I’d love to see who agreed to release this without prior knowledge to how either of how these fuckers would sound? Like, what? Haha). However, step in the now sadly defunct…

Whore is an earlier album by the super-hyped Mephistofeles. Whilst I think Whore is better than Satan Sex Ceremonies I’m still not particularly wild about this project. I love the aesthetic, and the guitar tone, and that’s about it for me. Anyways, I’ve done two albums, I’ve tired to get into them. I guess we’ll just leave it at that for now! LOL.

Mesis Mesis Mesis. Hi, I’m Mr. Mesis! I can’t remember where I got this cassette from but I had a bunch of them kicking about for my label/distro way back in what has to be 2013? Hyperemesis stuff is great noisy gore as always, Pyemesis stuff really awesome too, with strange, I guess, kung-fu sounding samples or something, which have stuck with me all these years. Tidy gore! Excuse the shoddy photo on this one,…

Flux Information Sciences were admittedly a band I only ever heard of because they had an album out on Michael Gira’s Young God Records. The Last Mixes is a compilation of well, some of the last stuff the band ever did. Apparently. It’s not listed anywhere as an official release, and one of the band members has commented on the YouTube upload of this saying he doesn’t know where the hell the uploader got these…

Of all the Ice And Fire characters to base your project name off, Qyburn is probably one of the sketchiest. Anyway, Wax Mask isn’t particularly amazing I’m afraid to say. I found it quite disappointing. I’ll leave it at that because I don’t want to take swings at this thing. I wish the Qyburn project all the best.

Black Ark is (was) the name of the studio that Lee Perry constructed himself at his home in Jamaica. It’s – apparently – primitive gear and set up (compared to other big-business owned studios in Jamaica at the time) could easily have been the laughing stock of the record cutting elite, but instead what Lee Perry did with so little is now part of musical history. The dubs on this record seem to include cuts…

I played the fuck out of this thing when I was a teenager. I loved the big beats and the livelier remixes of some of the, dare I say, duller tracks on Love And Hate. Not to shit on that album, but there’s a few snoozers on there. I also had the CD (doubled with In All Languages DVD) and the vinyl version, each of which I think had a different track listing. “Time, Death…

Another solid album from Doom. Is there a bad Doom album? If so, I’ve yet to hear it. The sampling is turned up to 11 here, with seemingly every song filled with hare-brain references to heroes and villains of the past. Doom’s flows are of course, legendary, you don’t need me to tell you that.

Oi oi! A split between Justin Broadrick and Mick Harris? I don’t mind if I do. JK Flesh is fuckin’ top drawer as always, but Monrella is new to me, despite my flurry through the deck of cards that Mick Harris has as projects last year. Head-thumping, cerebral techno is the order of the day (all round actually). So get ready to stomp, but get ready for the tunes to be really dark too. Banging.

Ah yes the uhhh, classic entry from Morbid Angel. Honestly, I’m surprised I hadn’t covered this one yet, as I had the picture disc version for a very long time (pretty sure I sold it however). Anyway, where do I begin with this one? If you’re reading my site then I’m probably already preaching to the converted, but if not, then this is one of the essential death metal albums; one that defined a genre…

I think it would be wrong to say that Fief is head and shoulders above other modern dungeon synth projects, but the name does bring with it its own kinda unique sound, which gives weight to the name. There is a… musicality (for severe lack of a better word) to II that is absent from a lot of sparser, more ambient DS projects. Its lovely. Perfect RPG music.

Pyophagia is a project of MethXCamp drummer Antonis (who always played with me in Dzhumagaliev, which is probably my favourite out of all the bands I’ve played in). Pyo is straight up no-nonsense goregrind, and I can’t ever get enough of that stomp and those vocals. Tolerance’s recording here is from the project’s earlier days, and has a much heavier reliance on the drum machine (think 110% constant flurry of programmed blasts), but its still…

Chiwawawawa are from Manchester and play an interesting blend of noisy rock and a slightly more melodic vein of indie music. Without wanting to be derivative or to put these guys in a box, Violent Architecture has an awful lot of Black Midi vibes, and the final track has parts that sound as if they are lifted directly out of Swans’ “Bring The Sun”, but this is so blatant it simply must be some sort…

Ah yes, more horrible electronics from Godflesh. Just what the doctor ordered, and a welcome distraction from awaiting a new studio album. Pretty sure I’ve heard a bunch of these tracks before on the Japanese versions of “New Flesh” albums, but this release alone is consistent and filled with all sorts of nasty vibes. If JK Flesh doesn’t bring the crushing metal with GC Green, you can of course rely on him to bring the…

inb4 dat bass tho. It was a wild choice mixing this thing the way they did, but for better or worse Metallica achieve one of the most immediately recognisable production sounds in the history of metal music. The story goes they were raging from the death of Cliff, and with newbie Jason Newsted, they shat out this super dark, heavy, angry and bleak album. Saint Anger around my neck, right? This was the first Metallica…

Some hateful shit right here, y’all. Flächenbrand are, and are nothing more than, a consequence of me collecting (trying at least) all the Anal Cunt stuff on vinyl. They are not very good. Which is an odd thing to say, when they are infinitely more musical than their split mates Anal Cunt. I have a soft spot for these twats, purely because of how sick their stuff sounds. Seth’s vocals are mental and Josh’s riffs…

D.H.I.B.A.C. are the powerviolence tinged grinders I remember from their split with CxMxP. There’s more great stuff here from them. I first heard of Saywhy when they were announced for the first Blastonbury festival in Newcastle in what, 2007? I never ended up going, and I’ve sat on this 7″ for about 10 years so it was finally good to hear them! Haha! Good shit all round.

Different Class is fucking great but I’m not sure if it has aged well. Jarvis Cocker’s sexually charged mumbles and whispers give him the air of some creepy-ass sex offender, especially when a few of these numbers have a sting in the tail (tale? Haha). He will get your Mrs. coked up, fuck her without johnny on, and then bail. But, he’ll write a song about it, so that makes it OK, apparently? Like I…

Before Fear Factory decided to rip off Godflesh for a living, they instead ripped off Napalm Death for a living. I mayyyy just a tad be acting a little dramatic for effect but seriously, this band owes a large part of their career to Justin Broadrick. Concrete is Fear Factory’s unreleased original debut, which was shitcanned in lieu of Soul Of A New Machine. Concrete finally saw the light of day in the early 2000s….

In the past I’ve never really seen the point in one-sided records, often finding them to be a waste of vinyl with all that blank space on side B. However, there is something endearing about Bringer Of Gore’s Meltaaargh!!! series (or is it a sub-label?), which is designed to give underground gore and grind bands a shot at being on wax that they may not have had just yet in their career. It basically puts…

My favourite Iron Maiden album thus far (as I have definitely not heard them all! – not even close!). There’s just something about Powerslave which is just a bit more epic and grandiose than other Maiden records; everything from the art to the song writing, I don’t know what it is, but it all seems stepped up just one more notch! I could listen to the rhythm section of this band forever.

World Full Of Remains is Dead Infection’s debut album (demo?). I was after this for years but the tape is really hard to find, so I ended up with a LP repress that I bought in OEF 2013. The LP format makes the art a thousand times sicker, but it does nothing to alleviate the horrendous whoosing / phasing sound that exists across the recording. Not sure if this is a tape dubbing issue, or…

We played this on a night shift last year, after reading online about how its one of the evilist things ever recorded, or some such overblown statement. A Cool Dark Place To Die is, frankly, comical in its concept and delivery. Coming across like a mix of shit dungeon synth and even shitter “death-rock” like Christian Death and the like, Theatre Of Ice ham it up in every way possible, and then obscure everything with…

More Welsh black metal that I only heard because of FHED, but this time it’s not shit and is actually out on the FHED label itself. Defod’s strength is in its mesmerising riffs, which are cold, eery and hypnotic, and thankfully don’t sound like they were recorded inside a cupboard on a Nokia 3310 (I’m looking at you, Revenant Marquis). This album / mini album / EP was put out on cassette, which gives it…

Gar Hoover is a musician from the Detroit area who seems to specialise in fannying about with PO-33s, in amongst, I’m sure, other devices too. However, he has released two albums of tunes comprised entirely of creations from the pocket-sized PO-33. There’s a ton of vibes and grooves here, but the quality is consistent and the craftsmanship is second to none. My tape label Two Man Tape Co is doing a limited run of Vol….

I reviewed parts 1 and 4 of this series back what must be, shit, 8 years ago now, and I figured I had lost parts 2 and 3 to time, but I recently managed to unearth them from a long-forgotten drawer somewhere. The crap you accumulate around you, eh? There’s far too many entries in this series to mention, but at least I can round off the ones that I physically own. Stirner is pretty…

Choronzon was the album that got me into Akercocke, and was a fairly random buy off the strength of the “Leviathan” single (which had about half of the actual song cut out of it!). The single edit did not prepare me for the intense, hyper-speed death metal that was on show. In fact, I don’t think anything could have prepared me. If you take a step back, what an attack on the senses this is!…

I thought I had lost this to time, but no, it is now found! Nide De Vespe are super punk/hardcore influenced, at least that is how it comes across the sound, which is bouncy and sprightly, rather than the more metallic end of grindcore. There is a lot of energy here, and the sound is fantastic. Honestly, I really miss Merciless Precision, who are no longer with us. Many fantastic projects spawned from their demise…

I’ve had this CDr knocking about for, I’d say, 14 years or so. I used to be in heavy contact with Rob from Malignant Germ Infestation back in the MySpace days, and this must have come from him some shape or form. I shared the stage with these guys (Pain Penitentiary) and also MGI (in a solo incarnation) whilst touring with the Judas Cradle back in… I wanna say, 2016. Anyways, looking back aside, nothing…

I picked up this 7″ for pennies during a Earache Records websale. This is a strange one. It seems to have been another victim of the label’s “fling shit at the wall and see what sticks” phase during the 90s, where they took all their money made from breaking death metal and grindcore, and tried to invest in many new music movements of the time. None of these really were a success, even when the…

Hardcore is not my strong point (actually, doesn’t Strong Point sound like a cult 90s hardcore band from New Jersey?), but I do like to wander in every now and then to check on what I’m missing. Today’s selection was one of the first records by the now-legendary Madball. Set It Off is a doozy, and ticks all the right boxes, especially with its organic production. Get angry! Get shouty!

Napalm Death have a fair amount of live releases. Bootlegged In Japan, either is legendary, or is just hawked to death by Earache, because its been one that consistently pops up. However, its a bit of a plod through mid-career stuff, which isn’t super exciting to me in its studio form either, so this is a completionist listen and nothing more, for me at least.

Brutal, 90s death metal with a turbid yet clarified production. Honestly, it doesn’t stand out from the bunch but the recording is sound enough. My favourite is the bass player, who clanks away ‘neath the disgusting explosion of sound.

Thumpin’ underground techno to get you out of the clubs in the toon and into some rusty, damp shithole of a warehouse on a shady industrial estate 5 miles away, where many sweaty, half naked bodies writhe away in some sort of unison; each like a head of the hydra, unique but connected by one source and one purpose. The center of this hive mind is of course, body-movement commanding electronic barrages by the likes…

Ooh, she’s a noisy one! The intense levels of distortion and gut-rattling bass initially give me the impression of some mad grindcore version of Mortician, which is a great first impression, to be fair. 4 intense tracks follow in quick succession. A perfect taster EP for Meatal Ulcer sound. Original released I think as a first cassette demo / EP, this was then picked up for Bringer Of Gore’s Meltaaargh!!! 7″ series, which is what…

The name of this record sums up the sounds within almost perfectly. What a crazy mess of sound. In the best way possible, of course. Part of it grinds on my patience, part of it feels amazing to be listening to.

There’s something about Ghoul’s cheeky thrash-tinged metal that always makes me feel like I need to get some sort of party going. Its not quite in the realm of beer and/or pizza thrash, instead being somewhat slightly more sinister, but the songs on Transmission Zero are bouncy enough to open any mosh pit.

YOOOOOOOO!!!!! This shit right here be the 2000th Lines In Wax post. I don’t really know what to say other than “thank you” to anyone who is still reading this shit for some reason. Cheers! Here’s a lil something for you bustas. We were recently talking to Viper about doing a UK/EU release of this thing and talks are ongoing, but yeah – anyways, it reminded me I hadn’t done an entry for it here…

A twisted, zany approach to electronic / synthpop! And the best part, is that these guys are just from down’t road, as it were. On the Two Man Tape Co. label we’ve recently done a compilation of these guys’ best material (as picked by them!), which sold incredibly well. Consequential Quasars was the album I listened to when scouting out bands to approach with the label, and it was the record that sold me on…

Ah good ol’ reliable Thanatos, just the ticket when you need some no-nonsense death metal that won’t bore you to tears, yet in all honestly, doesn’t push things too far either. Angelic Encounters is a well made record, and is nothing short of a pleasure to listen to.

A seldom listened early Swans effort for me, which is a shame because there are some cracking renditions here. Granted, Real Love will almost always be overshadowed by Public Castration, but Real Love has, dare I say, slightly more audible and “less punishing” versions of a few of the same songs. Of course, this is 80s Swans we are talking about, and the music is inherently uncomfortable, but these are less tortured than Public Castration….

Gorgeous sounding, dense hard bop jazz with ants-in-your-pants constant-shuffling percussion meeting ear-piercing solo sax leads. I feel like I’m sitting in a Michelin Star restaurant enjoying a starter of gravadlax with pickled cabbage and dill. I’m about to try and stab a stray caper with a very expensive fork when actually, it turns out I’m on mushrooms and a waiter has appeared to my side and is blasting Ornette Coleman out of a portable Bush…

If you absolutely LOVE Unholy Grave then life must be an absolute cake walk for you, musically. These guys pump out records like its nobody’s business, and for the most part, they are all of the same consistent quality. The Grind Anarchy 7″ is no different, giving you another ten minutes or so injection of DIY grindcore goodness. This one comes in a gatefold with all the lyrics written, out as standard these days for…

You gotta fuckin’ love Nunslaughter. Is there a purer form of metal than this? It strikes me as something Fenriz from Darkthrone would be proud of. Think blackened thrash but in the grimy, crusty underground vein rather rather the polished HM-2 big sound vein. Murky sounds, murky vibes, encompassed perfectly by that art. Top stuff.

I have come across Tolerance before, when I dubbed a few of Pyophagia’s copies of the Pyo / Tolerance split for them. I know they have a few splits and stuff out now, so glad to finally come full circle and hear these guys on wax. Frenetic, chaotic, murky sound is the order of business, with pitch-shifted sickness for vocals. The riffs are super tight even though things get mushy now and then. Great goregrind…

Ever wondered what Mortician would sound like with a real drummer? Like pure shit, it seems! LOL – I’m joking. It’s just you get so used to the duo’s enormous and all-encompassing studio sound, that for me, the initial rough rehearsal room feel of this recording threw me for a loop. Once you’ve adjusted, it’s an absolute treat and the guys really pan out the 44 minutes with a veritable bevy of Mortician classics. Mad…

Before pressing play I am already intrigued by that artwork. How spooky is that shit? It isn’t a million miles away from what Uberkvlt (Justin Bartlett) does with his stuff, although I suspect that this may be before his time, as it were. Cadaver Symposium’s demo is a dry affair of grinding guitars (think early Carcass), heaving drums and a set of perplexing vocal performances, from your usual death growls through to your more unusual…

Gnolls! Those dirty bastards! One has conspired here to make a dungeon synth record, it seems. Leaning towards the video game / RPG worlds of inspiration rather than lore / history etc., Gnoll ticks two boxes: one for awesome dungeon synth and one for invoking some sort of analogue nostalgia from a better time.

Dirging death metal is the order of the day, with that “evil” vibe that you get with a lot of 90s stuff. Its not as slow and sludgy as say, Autopsy, nor is it as gothic as say, Gorment or even Altars… era Morbid Angel, but it travels a way down both of these kinds of paths nonetheless. The cover art is pretty cool too, but as a whole, I’m not that big of a…

I had a recent dabble into what could be called proto-metal (basically anything that pre-dated Black Sabbath’s self titled record yet was also very heavy). Sir Lord Baltimore are often a name thrown about for contenders who pipped Sabbath to the post for starting the heavy metal genre. The only thing available on Spotify is the complete works so I figured I’d give the whole thing a bash. Honestly, Kingdom Come (1970) is great but…

Boom! This is sicker than I remember! Hell of a production, such incredible beats and sick sounds, and of course, those amazing bars that introduced Twiztid to the world (House Of Krazees, who tf are they?). Mostasteless is the start of a long career for this duo but its arguably one of the best records they have done.

Carcass worship out the ass! Dark, mirky riffs and clandestine production cloaked in deep vokills and gory subject matter. Its like Symphonies Of Sickness had never been made, eh? The stones on these bands to mimic it so! All in all, a great listen, but you won’t find anything original here.

I was recommended this by @cassette_goblin and I can’t for the life of me put my finger on what the actual fuck is going on here. Is it black metal? Is it jazz? Shit, RYM has it listed as vaporwave, which is in an interesting intepretation. Honestly, do I like this?… Not really, no. But fuck if I’ve ever heard anything like this in my entire life, and for that, Winterquilt has my undying attention…