Tunkio are one of my favourite goregrind discoveries of the last few months. You can thank Chopping Headz Zine for that, even though the band have been around for a few years now. Blasting mental shit. Kuvotus are, without sounding too samey, cut from the same cloth of ping-tastic, hyper-blasting gore mania. Honestly, I’m in so deep at this point that this shit almost sounds relaxing. Fabulous. 2023 edit: Apparently I like this so much…

Man I fucking love Negative Approach. Like, hardcore punk really isn’t my strong point, even after all these years, but Jesus fucking Christ, Negative Approach go hard. (As a side note, the fact that Negative Approach was Seth Putnam’s favourite band (who played at his wedding) almost makes me believe he wasn’t a hateful piece of shit and just 110% committed to being a massive fucking cunt of a troll) Total Recall is a short,…

This is one of those records that I have been meaning to check out for years, mainly due to the cool artwork and the age of it. How can something so old be so important to doom metal? Well then, because this shit slaps, is why! For myself, it comes on a bit more trad than doom, but you know… this is the era of trad. Anyways, fuck all this BS genre talk, this is…

Everyone knows Seven Churches, right? (Well, every death metal head, at least). But, Possessed’s continued output seems to fall off into obscurity, for the most part. I know they have had success with more recent albums, but big up to Ken’s Death Metal Crypt for sharing this 1991 demo, of which I knew absolutely nothing about. It’s only 7 minutes long and 2 tracks in length, and whilst its not oceans apart from the Seven…

Viking metal has to be the most boring and uninspiring form of metal for me, even with the seemingly endless array of traditional instruments you could employ to spice up the sound. I’m not even sure if Turisas are a thing, but they were everywhere at one point, and I caught them at two festivals in one year so got a hold of this record. I mean, it’s epic, but that’s about it. There’s a…

Up until now I’ve been avoiding Agathocles split CDs to lower my risk of obtaining duplicate material that may already be on a 7″ that I own. Agathocles have a notorious back-catalogue of re-hashed shit (sorry, but it’s true), and as a collector on a budget I have put barriers in place to lessen the blow of unknowingly buying something that I already have. This was all well and good, until during a trade with…

Goatsnake have always been slow and bluesey, but Flower Of Disease sees them going lower and heavier than before. The band have always had groove, but multiple times through this journey things slow to an absolute crawl, without getting boring or drawn out. Personally, I love Goatsnake’s doom metal meets desert rock approach, the weight of which can only be helped home by the colossal riffs of Sunn O)))’s Greg Anderson. I see Flower Of…

There’s an easy pleasure in listening to old Motörhead. Ace Of Spades is far from my favourite, but it’s just so easy to throw this on, and drive, or something like that. “Love You Like A Reptile” is an interesting cut, and I can’t help but be reminded of David Icke and his moon-lizard craziness. “Jailbait” is a proper dodgy number, one I suspect you wouldn’t be able to get away with writing today, even…

There is nothing more human than Death, right? To live is to die, or so I’ve been told. There’s a sadness (moreso than usual) to Chuck’s death (his actual death, not the band Death) due to the subject matter he dealt with throughout his career. Puns aside, Chuck and company confronted death (not Death) head on, from its gruesome side earlier on, to the more philosophical or esoteric musings on later records. This man was…

One of the most revered dungeon synth releases of recent times and with good reason. There is something magical about these lo-fi recordings; a wonderful sense of adventure as it were, along with heaps of character. This has recently been re-recorded, so I’m interested to see why, as this release isn’t that old, nor can I find any fault with it. I’ve been putting this off since Feb 2020 (lol) but the recent rerecording of…

Another one of those cases where a random listen absolutely blows me away. This is, truly, what it’s all about, why so much time is spent searching, researching, listening, reading…. it all pays off when you go “hey, that cover art and logo looks sick, I wonder what that sounds like?”, and boom – you’ve just uncovered an absolute gem. I am, clearly, late to the party with Weakling, but god damn, this is in…

I believe British Piss Culture is a project of Derek Crozier, the fella behind the Vile Noise label. Deluge then, is vile noise in more ways than one. Expect nought but a single pummelling noise wall that is here to frazzle your brain and force you into submission, or something. Hey, if you’re going to be pissed on, this is a pretty good soundtrack to go with it.

Verletzen are a black metal band from my grimm home country ov VVales so it was super cool to check out this demo. There’s a few Welsh black metal bands knocking about now, but I don’t recall any that play in this old school and raw style, which is what I am all about, totally. This three song demo is raw and frostbitten without being completely fucking unlistenable, and has immediately got me wanting more…

Another absolute classic from Jim Kirkwood, this time from way back in 1992. Unsure if it’s just me but this one seems a bit darker and moodier than usual. Don’t get me wrong, Jim can always conjure infinite fantasy landscapes with all manner of vibes and feels, but there’s something oppressive about this offering. One of my favs so far.

This gives me similar vibes to the Agoraphobic Nosebleed split with Converge, in the way that something super heavy and chaotic goes up against something with more progressive punk elements. Napalm Death are, well, Napalm Death, and this is prime cut 90s era stuff, with dry production, busy riffs, and Barney’s trademark low growls. Coalesce on the other hand, are a bit more all over the shop, with dissonant guitar work, harsh vocals and a…

What a lovely and dank 7″. I’ve just got a record player again for the first time in 7 years (what!) so wouldn’t be adverse to getting a copy of this in the flesh. I was afraid for Spectral Voice’s long-form death doom in such a format but they sound great, and Blood Incantation were born to make metal for the vinyl format, it seems.

Eternity! (It’s certainly taken me an eternity to review this album). Black One was the first Sunn record I ever bought. When I was 16 or 17 years old, I didn’t immediately ‘get’ this. I wanted big fat drones in my face, blowing me out of my chair. What I got were intense atmospheric compositions that went over my head initially. I think it took seeing Sunn live with Attila on vocals to truly understand,…

Someone needs to tell Zillion you don’t need a 25 minute sample to set the mood – this is supposed to be some sort of (bastardised) grindcore subgenre, so just get to the point, eh? Thankfully the slow and groovy grind is actually pretty fucking good, sounding more like old Gut or Rompeprop rather than Gutalax or whatever. Patisserie are a different beast completely. Intense death metal riffery meets the tremolo haunting of bands like…

Another record that I have unceremoniously sat on for about 7 years. The Coming Age is a full length from one man noise maker Seige Electronics released on the excellent (and now possibly defunct) Vile Noise label from Scotland. Anyway, there’s some really cool textures here, and the whole thing sounds alive and analogue. There’s some horrible subject matter to confront and some intense vibes, but confrontation in this way is part of what power…

Recorded at Morrisound, not that you’d ever know due to the intense level of grime on this thing. But hey, that’s what we love about 90s death metal demos, right? I have the unique opportunity of having this 1991 demo be my introduction to Solstice, as I’ve not heard anything else by the group at all. It’s like its actually 1991 and I’ve picked up this tape through a trade or something. Anyway, this is…

Super fun, mosh friendly, almost skater-influenced thrash from the legends that are Wehrmacht. Is it as good as Biermacht? Probably not, but it’s cut from the same cloth, as it were. Good stuff, for when you absolutely must thrash out on the beach. Just don’t forget the beer.

Bleeeruuuhhhhhhjjjjjgghhh. This is my first experience with Master outside of the legendary self-titled album. Of course, this is much more polished and modern, but I am missing out decades of evolution here. Honestly, it’s pretty good death metal, but the prize is taken by Paul Speckmann’s vocal performances, which are outstanding. Hideous and outstanding! Haha! Think of a mix between John Tardy from Obituary and Dave Vincent from Morbid Angel.

Trad metal with enough of a sleazy swagger that you would usually find in occult rock and so on. God’s Right Hand is a fairly short outing, but it’s incredibly well made and the production is also fantastic and crystal clear, but without losing much charm. I look forward to seeing what these guys come up with next. I believe the record store (read: crypt) Crypt Of The Wizard helped to put this out.

I gave Revenant Marquis a second shot because I love the mystery around the project and this cover art is fucking so great. Unfortunately, what we have here on Orphans is more barely audible black metal that sounds like it’s being played from a third floor study in a haunted house – and you the listener are shackled in chains down in the basement. Honestly, why on earth would you make this so difficult to…

Entrantment? Is that even a word? In fact, I’m pretty sure it isn’t. I’ve tried to fight off and have succumbed to the temptation to make a “Kyle From Entrantation Has A Moustache” joke. LOL. Either way, this kills. There’s some super intense, low as fuck riffing on this mother. Proper slow, proper low! It’s nice to go all the way back to the beginning and check out the origins of this legendary death metal…

I have been borderline obsessed with Morrowind since I got given a copy of the game and it’s expansion packs in 2003 (or so). I think one of the original endearing aspects of that obsession that allows it to continue to this day is the absolutely magical soundtrack by Jeremy Soule. Not to shit on the OSTs for Arena or Daggerfall, but there’s a reason why the game’s creator’s continued to use Jeremy going forward…

I got sent a link to this and couldn’t decipher whether or not it’s a meme. But, either way, there is something in the undercurrent of Curse Of The Lock Master which is endearing. It appeals to that part of me that loves wobbly cassettes and shitty demos from the 90s, and so on. I’m unsure what to make of the project as a whole, but I’d be lying to you if I said I…

I recently started following Viper on Bandcamp. I thought my phone was having a time of it, because during the last day or so, its been spamming with with the notification “Viper just released a new album”. Little did I know, that these were genuine alerts, and not my Bandcamp app losing its mind. I always knew Viper to be prolific, but this was taking the piss a bit. Anyways, turns out all these “albums”…

Nightmares At Dawn is a compilation, which I didn’t realise at first when I started listening. There’s a bit of a jarring change between various textures / sessions but for the most part, this seems like a quality stack of songs, at least when it comes to Xasthur’s brand of drab and depressing black metal. There are several great atmospheres here. Oh, and a fucking Sabbath cover (“Zero The Hero”), which is actually really good…

Well, this was pretty boring, I won’t lie to you. I don’t take pleasure in shitting on bands, especially new ones, but all the bits are in the right places as it were, but there’s just no soul or magic to Eructed (I’ve never heard that word before either, every day is a learning experience!). Very middle of the road and not very challenging. A shame.

This is a massive release, with around 90 minutes of epic dungeon synth fantasy music to take you off to far away lands. Originally this was dropped as 2 separate albums (volume one and two), but has been released together on physical formats such as CD and cassette. I was sold the minute I saw the name Quest Master, and had to check it out. Really good compositions, it’s a high rating from me.

(Please excuse the extra-shoddy picture of today’s post – I don’t actually own a physical copy of this and it was a nightmare getting a tidy shot of it) Oh boy! Somebody had been listening to Carcass a lot, eh? Despite the gore vibes however, this is a true death metal affair, rather than anything more goregrind related. The aesthetics may suggest otherwise, and you even have a meat grinder bass guitar on the go….

Checked this out because the dudes in Halitosis fucking kill it on their demo, so this was a long overdue follow up. Also caught these guys live in both Slovenia and Hungary when I was touring a few years ago. This is some great shit. Vomi Noir though, where the fuck have you been all my life? This is some crushing, crushing fucking grindcore. Outstanding split.

There’s something endearing about the cartoonish horror which adorns the average Gruesome album. It really pops out and represents Gruesome’s sound perfectly. Savage Land is I think the first full length record I’ve heard in entirety from these guys, and it’s a corker. Bright, old school death metal with a little thrashing influence too. Banging.

When my phone broke recently, the first port of call was to dig out some CDs for my commute. I found these old Inquisition records copied for me by once-LIW writer Griefmonger. Magnificent Glorification is a great black metal record. The drums and guitars are absolutely pitch perfect, and would work as an instrumental album alone. The vocals… I just still can’t get used to these. What is all the frog croaking about (and that’s…

An intense, brutal and unforgiving slab of grinding death metal. Everything about this is huge, from the production, to the riffs, to the overwhelming feeling you get playing this at full volume. This has been hyped quite a bit since its release and you can really see why. Expect a dense barrage of total sonic annihilation. If that’s your thing, get stuck in.

Bongripper are one of those special bands that can be heavily enjoyed whilst driving or playing games. The absence of vocals seems odd at first, even in such drawn out doomy compositions, but those mesmerising riffs are there to take you on journeys my friend, and on journeys you will go! Things are a bit shorter here than on say, Hippie Killer or Satan Worshipping Doom, but that’s not to say things are not just…

When Sol Invictus came out I struggled to accept it as a canonical FNM record, purely because it sounded so much like ‘X’ Mike Patton project, rather than a record from a band that I have come to know and love. But, I realised eventually (forgive me), that’s what it’s all about isn’t it? When has FNM ever done a record that wasn’t different from the last? I absolutely loved the lead single for this…

Fallout is a pre-Carnivore, pre-Type O Pete Steele project. I suppose it really is just proto-Carnivore, and lays a bunch of themes that would come from both bands (Carnivore in side B and Type O in side A). I love the art, I love the sound and I love the vibe. Perhaps most importantly, I love having the chance to look back at some stuff Pete was involved with “before he was famous”. Good shit!

Banger! As with most things grind-related, it barely lasts 10 minutes, but what’s here is gross, ultra-fast blasting mayhem from both parties. The Nak’ay side is slightly longer, but both bands absolutely kill it on this split cassette. Glad I got myself a copy. Originally released in 2015 on vinyl, and then 2016 on cassette.

I’m unsure why Stalaggh changed their name to Gulaggh. I should do a search and find out why, but I’m not really that interested. The main real difference is that the Gulaggh project, or Vorkuta at least, is far less focused on the noise aspect of the group’s sound, and more so on the screaming and wailing supposedly delivered by patients at a facility for mental health. Or whatever. We’ve all heard the story of…

It’s nice to see Scorn back again with yet another puzzlingly-sleeved record. What on earth is going on here? What a mixed bag of vibes! The art of course jarrs heavily with the intense and paranoid slow-mo beatscapes (is that a word?) that the wizard Mick Harris has cooked up for us this time. He’s back with his mixing-desk-as-a-weapon approach to dark electronic music, and of course I will always welcome more Scorn here on…

Sixth House Is Risen is a little experiment I made out of noise loops, synthesizer apps and a little box of fun called a Korg Monotron. Honestly, there’s hours of fun to be had with one of these, and Varken was a project born to release some of the noise I’ve made. It certainly helped whilst working from home in the original pandemic, where internet issues were rampant and I had a lot of downtime…

Labia Majora play blasting, satisfying goregrind in the old school style, but with the new school production sound. The blasts are fast and rabid, and the whole thing is over before you know it. Golem Of Gore are quickly establishing themselves as THE band to split with, and its easy to see why. Blasting, horrible, nasty shit all round. As always, I look forward to more sickness from these guys, off the back of this…

This was a random listen based off the name alone, and what a record it is. Morose, weeping riffs and moody keyboards – both ingredients you’d expect more in atmospheric black metal – are here employed wildly throughout this otherwise brutal and unforgiving concoction. The vocals are insane, the drums dense and drenched in reverb. One for you if you like it harsh and heavy but also melodic.

Super brutal, sick, guttural, you name the word, it’s probably applicable. If I can be so bold I will say that it all gets a bit much after a while, but I think more than anything that can be attributed to the incredibly dry and over-compressed production. Everything sounds really artificial and after several songs it really brings about some serious listening fatigue. If you are not a wimp like I apparently am, and you…

Never has “live in your living room” seemed so very fucking real. After adjusting to the initial dissapointment that the audio is overdubbed and not raw VHS death metal, one can settle in and enjoy this classic three-piece Undeath performance from the good old days, when only the hypest of death metal heads were bumping gums about this band. Now, rightly so, they are much, much more popular. Get in at the ground level, and…

Is it really time for another Black Midi album? Fuck, I’m old. The years, they fly! Anyways, the band have come a long way in a short space of time, shedding the rawness of Schlagenheim for a more refined, almost jazz approach to songwriting. Parallels to Disco Volante era Bungle are perhaps too easy to make, and also do this album somewhat of a disservice. Whilst it is no doubt complimentary to be compared to…

Due to the success of Doom, id quickly followed with the now legendary Doom II: Hell On Earth. Personally, I prefer the original, and I find some of the levels, especially in the middle, to have really bad designs, but you cannot deny that this not only expanded, but perfected the Doom world. How can I love a game where I think the levels are shit, I hear you ask? Well, for starters, and anyone…

Absolutely legendary but in reality, utter garbage noisecore from Japan’s infinitely-influential The Gerogerigegege. Tokyo Anal Dynamite is seemingly considered a stand-out release from this project (if there can be such a thing), but honestly, I’ve heard better. I suppose, realistically, in this kind of thing, the major difference between albums is the production used to record the carnage, rather than the “music” itself. There’s a fair chance I’m thinking way too much into things. This…

Even S.M.E.S.’s very first demo is not quite as putrid or disgusting as some of cybergrind’s turbid offerings, but there is something heavily endearing about this entirely synthetic band. Here on this first release however, we do get to witness the project in its rawest, most unfiltered form. Long live the abstract weird filth of S.M.E.S.

Classic, early demo from the Czech Republic death metal legends. All the hallmarks of a solid demo are here, and it’s actually quite exciting to explore this band’s primitive beginnings, after hearing later records and seeing them live twice. Good stuff!

Still not having checked out the latest Streets album/mixtape, I’ll have to make do with this chunker of a single. Only Skinner can make a song about the lockdown so fucking chipper, with the usual all-encompassing production and the clever little rhymes we all love so much. The second track’s a good ‘in too.

Earache put out this record so I decided to give it a go, unfortunately for me it’s pretty uninspiring and not very interesting. I’ve never really been the biggest fan of the alt or grunge movements of the nineties, and Fudge Tunnel (at least on Creep Diets) falls quite heavily into that category. I’m glad I gave it a go, but it’s not for me.

Vektor are onto some mad shit. If you’ve never heard ’em, imagine mixing Voïvod with latter Death and you are on the right track. Everything is super intense and technical, the vocal screeching and rabid. Finally, the maddening sci-fi edge just rounds the whole thing off nicely. Like a thrashy version of Cryptic Shift.

I was turned on Hirax after seeing them life at OEF and being blown away by their chaotic grinding thrash. Noise Chaos War is a fine example of this, being something of a compilation, and churning out absolute noise chaos for its entire duration. If the music wasn’t aggressive enough, the vocals take it over the edge, making these guys stand out from a ton of other thrash bands.

This is one of the bands that I ended up downloading off of KazaA or Limewire back in the day. I was presumably looking for Anal Cunt stuff if typing “anal” into a music search (or perhaps I didn’t clear the search box from before after looking for something else entirely haha). I had one song, and I think it had a Jim Carey sample on it. I’d read as 12 or 13 year old,…

Think disgusting, boggy riffs, think snare drums tighter than human skin stretched out as lampshades. Think farmyard vocals, which are a bit unusual in this boggy area of death metal, but are kinda Sanguisugabogg’s thang, as it were. Expanding on the sickness laid down on the Pornographic Seizures EP, the ‘Bogg treat us to a dose of sickness in full length format. Its a bit samey, I won’t lie, and it doesn’t really break any…

I won a copy of this cassette from Chopping Heads zine, so super ultra mega thanks are in order, definitely go and check out that zine, its a really good window into the sick underground world of noisy music and horror movies. My first impression of BTP – imagine goregrind but with a HM2 pedal. Entombed-gore? Haha! It’s a pretty savage blast, whatever you make of that particular distortion sound, with endless blasts and shifted…

When you wanna hark back and lose yourself in “that” 90s British doom metal sound, there are only a handful of albums that really hit the spot. Turn Loose The Swans is one of them, a drab, harrowing affair of doom-laden misery. Heavy riffs, downtrodden drumming, miserable vocals, morose synthesizers or pianos, and THAT dense, dry production with the middle sucked out of it. Chunky, low end guitars and percussion with sharp treble accents. It’s…

I’ve reviewed some sick shit on this site over the last ten years and I can’t help it but when I look at the art for Butchered At Birth I just cringe out. There’s something about death metal paintings that are so overdone anyway (don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of good ones) that when it stoops to mangling up kids and babies to be offensive I’m immediately zoning out. It’s like, on that…

Early Haemorrhage is up there with some of the best old school goregrind. Part Carcass puppetry, part Euro sleaze, Grume is a blasting attack that isn’t afraid to slow to a groove every now and then. The cover art leaves a little to be desired, but in the big picture this doesn’t matter as the record is so solid.

Exploitative Practices was the record that exposed me (oo er) to the dark and disgusting world of Fluids. The striking nature of the clearly legible logo, mixed with the Carcass-esque record sleeve sold me on a listen, and the Mortician worship pushed to 11 sealed the deal, and I was at that moment at one with the hype. This is some seriously brutal shit. If drum machines are your bag, or if you like your…

The dropping of the new FF record reminded me that I hadn’t reviewed this one yet. You gotta love Fear Factory, a band that is more metal than metal itself, that wears melodic vocals and electronic elements like a snazzy overcoat and yet somehow keep the purists happy. Genexus is no different, if only a little djenty compared to the classic stuff.

I love the art on this. The pencilled and photocopied (or even maybe pen and ink) scrawlings are done in such a way that remind me of early goregrind records by bands such as Regurgitate and the likes. Innards Decay however, are from Japan, and played a guttural, brutal approach to death metal. Much of what can be heard here can be found interpreted into the core of what the current wave of sick death…

Urrrgh! Been on a bit of a Gwar kick lately, and this is yet another quality offering from the bands 00s output. Its not as good as Beyond Hell (what an album) but its still got some absolute corkers on it. One of the highlights for me is the final track, which is a fitting tribute to the life of Cory Smoot. What makes it extra heartbreaking is that Dave Brockie would also pass on…

This has gotta be some of the murkiest shit ever, in the best way possible of course. Undergang play slow, sludgy death metal, somewhere between Mortician and Autopsy, but coursing in its veins is the new blood and disgusting sewery goodness of the current crop of new death metal bands. Of course, Undergang actually predate a lot of these new sewer dwellers, but the energy and vibe is the same. Think wet, loose and analogue…

Nothing Lasts…. has always been my least favourite Shpongle release. I’m not entirely sure where the decision was made to split the record into smaller tracks, but I don’t think it paid off. Sure, Nothing Lasts… flows like one giant session more than anything, but the small little fades between track switch overs only damages the timeless flow and feeling of most Shpongle tracks. That isn’t to say that this record is bad by any…

The OG Forgotten Freshness release combined the first two volumes, even though I guess its one release across two discs. I remember my Forgotten Freshness 4 having a second disk, but I think it was a bonus of some kind and not a legit FF inclusion. All in all, what you get out of these depends on your investment in ICP is. If you want out takes and alternative versions and “rare” tracks then get…

For the record, if the band names are not ridiculous enough for you, this 8 way digital split is called 8 Ways For Lesbians To Indulge In Coprophagic Ass Eating. Where does a split end and a compilation begin? Either way, some small and potentially permanently damaged part of me can’t turn down a listen to a MySpace-grade bedroom goregrind / cybergrind compilation or split. It reminds me I guess of better times. Anyway, musically,…

Unfortunately I had played the Plutonia WAD before I realised there was a glorious 90 minute fan-made OST for it. I thought at the time, “damn, why doesn’t this fucking WAD have its own OST like TNT did?”, and obviously I can’t have been the only Doomer to have thought this, otherwise this beautiful creation wouldn’t exist. There’s a mixed bag here, of styles more than quality, due to the number of composers on board,…

Was given a download link to this stormer of an album when I got some cassettes from Dissicated Productions. Taphos has a mankin’ logo, but the tunes are a bit more polished than the image. Well-rounded, death-inspired metal is the order of the day. There’s a small amount of pomp, but this is curtailed by a sprawling undercurrent of darkness to the writing and to the music itself. If you like your death metal a…

I found out about this Bristolian duo through the Instagram account @scvmrat. Turns out she had posed for this record cover and its voyeur / BDSM kinda vibe gave me industrial or power electronics vibes. I was even more curious when I found out the band played “dream pop”, and so added EW to my listen list. Dream pop is a pretty good way to describe this. The term generally makes me think of stuff…

I’ve never really been the biggest fan of Sabotage as a unified whole, but there are some good tracks on here. Things would get a bit muddier with the last two Ozzy-fronted Sabbath records, and you could argue that Sabotage is the last “good” Sabbath album, but I don’t think that is strictly true. The band is almost unrecognisable even at this point.

I’ve always wanted to like Ascension but I’ve always found the mix to be impenetrable. Outside of opening track “Fools” I’ve found the whole thing blurs together into one forgettable haze. I can’t be the only one who had thoughts similar to this, as a completely new mix has been released by the man himself, JK Broadrick. It’s called a remaster but they clearly went back to the drawing board on this one. I know…

I love me some Miles Davis and the 60s into 70s (seemingly) free-form experimentation phase was my absolute favourite era. Sorcerer however, seems a bit listless and lacking purpose. Sure, there are passages like this on some of the more out-there Davis records, but Sorcerer suffers from this ailment for most of its runtime. Couple that with the horrendous closing track which just kills the vibe, and you’ve got a contender for least favourite 60s…

I have no idea where I got this CD from, but the contact address is from South America. I can’t ever remember recieving any parcels from South America, so truly, fuck knows how I go this. The beauty of trading, eh. So, after fuck knows how many years in my possession, I finally span this CDr. Unfortunately, at 2:48, the thing obliterated itself inside my car stereo. How my car’s CD player is still working…

Miss Melanoma is probably the best stand-alone Libido Airbag release. It was the first time, I think, where they stepped away from murky sounds and production and went for a full studio-quality production. Honestly, this is fucking huge, and the electronics are so fucking nasty. The vocals… well, I guess those are up to the individual to decide on! Haha

I’ve had this split knocking about on the to-do list for a while. Initially, for some reason, I thought Blood Incantation were on it, possibly because of the spacey artwork, but I digress. Side A: Cryptic Shift kick things off with probably the most polished song of the four on display here. Progressive, impossibly technical death metal is the order of the day and the sound is crisp to convey such goings on. Replicant are…

Did anyone say Carcass worship? Mmhmmm that’s some tasty gore! Boasting a far cleaner and well produced sound than most medical grinders, Medical Etymology have more in common with The County Medical Examiners than they do with say, Pharmacist or Pathologist. On The Vitruvian Dissection, a warm, clean and sanitised sound is present as the practitioners allow us into their theatre for half hour or so.

Shpongle’s sophomore record is a lot more texturally rich than its beat-focussed debut, and would define how the group would go on to evolve in their subsequent recordings. The artwork is a bit crap on a scale of 0 to Shpongled-as-fuck, but in a way it kinda suits the chilled out psytrance on display here. In fact, calling Shpongle “psytrance” almost feels like forcing them into a narrow box into which they don’t really fit….

I’ve done a good run through the early Killing Joke records recently, and Fire Dances cements everything that I didn’t like about them into one tangible listening experience. Fire Dances was the first album with bassist Paul Raven, who is, from what I can tell, just as proficient as the legendary Youth, but the band pull a Metallica and mix the poor fucker incredibly low in the mix. It isn’t until later in the album…

I got turned onto XTC when the song “Making Plans For Nigel” was used in the Black Mirror episode Bandersnatch. I’d heard it before but something about hearing it again made it stick with me, and it wasn’t long before I got this album on the go. It’s a strange affair, a lot of mixed vibes and bizarre songs, the weirdest one has to be “Complicated Game”, which seems like a mix between Adam Ant…

Sodom are such a good fucking band. Agent Orange is probably their most well known album, and for good reason. Being one of the “big four” of the German thrash bands, Sodom have influenced countless metal musicians the world over. Their punky thrash is often imitated, but there’s no better example of it than here on this little blast of goodness.

What can I say about this? Its an absolute classic. Merging the stinking themes, sounds and lyrics of what was explored on Scream Bloody Gore into a more coherent package, Leprosy isn’t as blunt-force as its predecessor, but is still an essential death metal album. Too good for me to describe!

Crap name, crap artwork, crap vocals, but my god what an album otherwise hahaha – Lividity have been a bit hit and miss for me over the years (but slayed it live to be fair), and the weirdly dry production on Clitoral Decay works wonders for the drums and even for the riffs, but plays havoc with the vocals, which sound unnaturally loud in the mix. The “shouted” vocals in particular, rather than the gurgles/growls,…

Kudos to whoever put 2 pence in this guy and brought him forth kicking and screaming from the misty underground. This shit right here is like the second coming (or third, more like) of raw black metal. You don’t believe me? Would that cover art lie to you? Words can’t do this one justice. An absolute banger. Just give the first track, “Imperial Saison Noire” a listen if you are a black metal fan. I…

When I first heard Inquisition I just couldn’t get my head around those vocals. It seems to me, if say, Immortal is the stiff, erect cock of Satan, ready to fuck everything in its path, then Inquisition is that same cock, but flaccid and floundering; its possessor riddled with anxiety and dysfunction. All the parts are there, as it were, but they aren’t much use to anyone whilst swinging about with such half-arsed delivery. Musically,…

So, I finally confronted what is, in my opinion, the worst Cradle record. The band was reduced to a 3-piece at this point, and we’re more or less listening to the Paul Allender show. Cynically, I could suggest that Manticore (and lets not forget its various other horrors) is like listening to Thornography Part 2, but I think that would be an insult to even Thornography. Make of that album what you will, but at…

Iron Maiden’s debut is a class affair. The band were about for a good few years before this dropped so I guess they had plenty of time to hone their craft, but what a debut this is! That warm analogue sound is perfect, the bass pops from the word go, cementing Steve Harris as a legendary player from the very beginning. That isn’t to detract from the rest of the band however, all of which…

The fact that I listened to Mail Dominance within the last few weeks yet can remember absolutely nothing about it doesn’t exactly speak volumes about its quality. Musically, its not a million miles away from Gothom City, but isn’t as silly as that album. A solid mid-career effort from Esham, but it can’t beat the old shit.

Cold, echoic and dense death doom is the order of the day, with an intense gothic edge. Not gothic as in, say, My Dying Bride, but more so than your average doomy death metal act. Good stuff here from Spectral Voice, even if slightly outside of my usual enjoyment realm, as it were.

The uhh, subtly named Barrel Blow Job was the first Libido Airbag record that I heard, I think when I was 16 or 17. Honestly, it really spun me out, as it was like nothing I had ever heard before. Sure, I’d heard reams of crappy pornogrind / cybergrind on MySpace, stuff which I suppose ripped this kinda thing off but just really badly, but I’d never heard anything quite so dirgy and heavy, with…

When it first came out, it took me a while to get used to the sound on Black Masses. The entire thing sounds like it was recorded in a wind tunnel. It wasn’t until I heard a vinyl press over at a friend’s house, that it made a little more sense to me. Granted, it still sounds a bit hollow, even on IEM earpieces, but there are some great songs here. Try to listen to…

When I bought this, I was 15, and I didn’t realise that it was a live album. I bought it because it had 26 songs on it, and I figured it may even be a grindcore record! LOL – it was in 2005 and I was on holiday and didn’t have access to the internet. It certainly turned out to not be a grindcore record, but it was still a fucking great live album. I’ve…

Fuck, how good is this? Easily the best later Gwar record with Oderous on vocals, and thats tough competition. There really is so much more to Gwar than the gimmick and this record is the perfect example. Technical, concept-heavy thrash, with insane vocals and incredible instrumentation. One of the best thrash records I’ve heard in a while. RIP Oderous and Cory.

I remember this record coming out as if it was yesterday. It marked a turn in direction for Björk, who I understand was going through a lot of personal stuff at the time. Not only is the tone and content darker, the songs are impenetrable and sprawling. Björk has released plenty of difficult or challenging records, but this album is almost painful an experience when listening from start to finish. I guess in some regards…

There is no denying the sheer musicianship on display here, from Devin and all of his collaborators. Everything hangs perfect in the balance, and even the man’s famous wall-of-noise production style is dialled back to allow the songs to breathe a bit. However, if I had to describe Ki with one word, that word would be “listless”. Honestly, this is one of the longest listening hours of my life, and the fact that I’ve had…

Oddfellows is probably one of the tamest Mike Patton releases I’ve ever heard. Here the legend fronts an almost stonery outfit who play decently catchy numbers, mixing elements of punk rock, even grunge and a bit of classic rock. The record seems longer than 40 minutes, but it doesn’t drag. Its a decent set of tracks but not really my thing. If it wasn’t for Patton’s involvement I wouldn’t have ever listened to this.

Gross, obtuse, unforgiving and deafening noisecore is the order of the day, in what is a series of incredibly short blasts of noise. Honestly, its been a while since I’ve heard some noisecore as good as this, so its a rare treat. The final track, in stark contrast to the countless others, is 13 minutes or so of absolute carnage. 10/10.