I’ve long been a fan of Pilotredsun’s insane animations (my favourite of which I’ve linked below for your viewing displeasure), so it was an absolute pleasure to find out that the animator had dropped this full length album of bizarro electronic tuneage. Honestly, the “cartoons” are waaaay weirder than any of the tracks here, but its a wobbly and pleasant listen, like visiting old friends and familiar places for the first time in years, after…

Imagine how hyped I was when I found out that this 5th episode of Doom was a thing! As someone who has played through the first 4 episodes countless times as a kid and then as a teenager, this WAD, billed as the unofficial 5th episode of Ultimate Doom, but created entirely by John Romero, was the icing on the cake when I started looking for reasons to play through Doom again. Those of you…

Haggus is on top form as usual. The Agathocles cover is a nice touch, and there’s a sillier vein running through the tracks here, which is refreshing to see in some ways. A brilliant quality recording too; the bass really pops. One criticism I could give is the snare is a little quiet. Otherwise, all good! Weedeous Mincer sounds like complete arse in comparison, but I’m OK with this. I really enjoyed some of the…

I’ve had this knocking about for years on cassette, but fuck knows where its gone now. Early days NxVx meets the noise holocaust of Smersh on this (also early days) release from the now legendary Bringer Of Gore records. For true grimy noise fiends!

Picked one of these up on cassette recently as I couldn’t remember the last time I bought anything noise-related on tape. Plus, y’know, its always good to support new labels. This is wall noise at its finest, you really don’t need to look past Vomir when it comes to this subgenre (not to undersell everyone else involved – myself included) – but White Widow is worth a goose too. For the most abstract noise fans…

Human Atrocity is the bigger, better sounding brother to the band’s self titled release a year previous (its also the name of the 12″ record released not long back that includes both of these releases – confusing!). This is, unless I’m wrong, where the pitchshifter sound first was heard for LDOH? Which is cool to know, considering how much of a staple it would become. There still doesn’t seem to be any descernable riffs or…

Uilos is an interesting project. It is dungeon synth to its core, but with the added element of guitar playing thrown into the mix too. Sounds simple no? It probably is, and I’m a cretin. Nevertheless, this is a fantastic full length and there are some truly haunting and mesmerising tracks on it. Hey, if it makes me wanna dig out TES III: Morrowind then that can only be a good thing.

A under-rated classic of synthesizer music, in my opinion, and one of the first electronic albums I heard of this nature. I love the stepping synth sounds and the real drums which accompany it. I also love the art, and I love that whilst visually it harks back to the past (as does the whole premise of this kind of album), the album doesn’t sound like it was recorded 40 years ago. Instead, it sounds…

Tbh when I was a teenager I only checked out Lacuna Coil because Christina Scabbia was (2021 edit: and still is) all kinds of gorgeous. Off the back of such shallow interest, I never really got much further than the big singles, two of which are included here in the form of “Swamped” and “Heaven’s A Lie”. Yes, these do give the impression to the casual listener that the record is stacked at the front…

Revelations is the last in the original run of albums to feature bassist Youth. It is strikingly different from the two previous albums, and perhaps on first listen doesn’t seem as good (also, what even is that fucking record sleeve?), but it has grown on me. I will say however, the last but one track “Good Samaritan” is probably the worst Killing Joke song I have ever heard. Its absolutely abysmal. Youth is on record…

Hyperdontia are fucking great. Hyper-intense, whirlwind death metal, where nothing and everything makes sense all at once. Yeah? The drums and guitars are absolute carnage, but not to the point where its like war metal and things become an intelligible mush, no – there is a coherent edge to Hyperdontia’s brutal attack. That is, partly, what makes this new breed of super intense metal so exciting; this is a wall of confusing, brutal noise, but…

Crisp, cold black metal is the order of the day, summed up perfectly by what I initially considered to be a strange choice of cover art. I stood on the roof of my work place and listened to this, 12 storeys high and gazing from the cityscape out the coast, the wind freezing me to the core. Kampfar, you have won over a new fan.

Woods 5 is probably my favourite Woods Of Ypres record. As a band I’ve been meaning to check out for years now, I finally made the journey through the discography backwards. Perhaps it was because Woods 5 is my starting point, or perhaps its because Woods 5 comes across like a black metal influenced Type O Negative, but I love it regardless. Either way, we have a journey through somewhat melodic, and somewhat epic compositions…

Blue Sky, seemingly in some sort of weird knee-jerk reaction to how slow, creepy and difficult their original Jurassic Park adaption was, followed it up with this insane sequel where Dr. Grant is turned into a machine gun toting maniac hell bent on killing every solider or hired mercenary that moves. A new, just as pompous and ridiculous soundtrack was required then, and so this was dialled up to eleven. Its nowhere near as good…

I remember people going crazy for these in the 00s era. Some of my friends idolized them but I never so much as ever looked their way, I’m unsure why. Anyway, today is the day I finally listened to The Gallery, and what a record it is! I expected it to sound like At The Gates, but first impressions are more along the lines of Cradle Of Filth meets Children Of Bodom, but with a…

Probably one of my favourite hip hop records of all time! Much like Dre’s own The Chronic, this sits as a stand out from that era, and even has similar production (both being done by Dre of course). Snoop Dogg has never been as good as he has here. Personally I find the man (legendary as he is) has an overall weak discography, despite he rap skills. Doggystyle is an exception to this rule, being…

The fuck did I just listen to? It’s over in about 30 seconds, so it really is a bizarre assault on the senses. I think, at that length, I’ll just leave this here for you to click on, if you dare. https://archive.org/details/AAR00035

Ah, gotta love this. LDOH’s recent record and reformation had me looking back at the old stuff, and I went all the way back to the first demo. Its just bass, vocals, and horrendous noise. Sounds like Fear Of God meets 7 Minutes Of Nausea and is a far-cry from the gore stuff that would soon follow. Noise history here!

On Crystal Sun, Lost Cascades conjure an atmosphere as lush and as relaxing as the cover art promises. Heavily drawing from vaporwave, but without becoming trapped in the style, Crystal Sun is a uplifting and positive listen. Perfect working from home music, or even to unwind to. Brilliant stuff.

Faces Of Gore is an old Marc Palmen project (LDOH / Urine Festival). Here, reprinted as a split with Biocyst is the almost impossible to find demo entitled Bradyurethrorrhoea. Its not a far-cry from Urine Festival, or one of Bobby Maggard’s infinite gorenoise projects. It is sloppy, disgusting, and fantastic. Biocyst on the other hand, seem really familiar to me but I don’t think I’ve ever heard them before. Honestly, its more of the as…

Ah, good ol’ Libido Airbag. Testosterone Zone was a welcome return after a number of years in absence. If it could be compared to any earlier works then the closest would be the massive techno headfukk of Miss Melanoma. My own criticism of this thing is the crap cover art, but y’know, you can’t really complain in these circles. The production is honestly the best the duo has ever sounded, Sleaze Servant aside (or on…

Seemingly revered, but I’m not really vibing this. It sounds like any old band rehearsing in their garage. The riffs are awkward and the band doesn’t seem to gel all that well. The quality of a lot of cult demos is questionable, but this is just plain rubbish. Sorry. (Edit: this may seem very harsh a review, and this record isn’t as bad as I’m making out, absolutely not. But, its not for me)

It always pains me when it comes to doing negative reviews of a band that clearly has their shit together. If the band was downright awful then it wouldn’t be so bad. Unfortunately for Black Tomb, who are seemingly proficient musicians, they come across as a poor man’s Electric Wizard, and not as much else. I mean, this is doom metal folks, nothing is original here. But, there is nothing endearing, memorable or even interesting…

This kinda shit is where I go in my happy place. Sometimes I wonder about what the fuck is the point in all of this, the effort with the site etc., but fuck, when I die, bury me with goregrind tapes please. I’ve never heard this before, which is something I feel that I’ve snoozed on because I love both bands. LDOH stuff seems to be two sessions, and I’ve lost track of if I’ve…

Well then. This is dank as fuck. I’ve heard some miserable excuses for music over the years, and the whole world of depressive black metal prides itself on being able to make the most horrendous sounding albums with wanton disregard for production and audible clarity. Not that black metal is the genre inside which I die on a hill regarding sound quality, but this is so unforgivably bad that it gets to a point where…

This project is a cracking and volatile little collaboration between the members of (I think) Deflowered Cunt and Anal Cunt drummer Tim Morse. Abrasive, micro-blasting noisecore is the order of the day, living up in its entirety to the project’s name and its choice of art style. This is available on a limited run of cassettes for the true noise freaks, on which I can only imagine has a warmer sound than this digital version.

I’ve recently fallen back down the rabbit hole of playing Doom. As a kid I cut my teeth PC gaming by starting out with shooters like Doom. In fact, my original exposure to this terrifying world was the somewhat awful looking Sega 32X port, which culled levels from a few of the episodes and chucked them together. But when I got a pack that contained Ultimate Doom, Doom 2, and the Master Levels, I never…

Deaths Dynamic Shroud are a really interesting duo (trio?). Regret When It Was Lost, which I believe is the full translation, from my limited vaporwave knowledge, appears to be the most well known release from the band. There’s a sort of morose quality coursing through these electronic compositions, which are, truly, vaporwave only in name (its a genuine album, not just 80s pop songs slowed down, for example).

I had to check this out simply because of the name attached to it. Grainy pictures of prostitutes (mangled or otherwise) is a solid trope of the noise or power electronics worlds, but what can I say, I’m a sucker for everything exploitation. Aurally, The Dawn Of Sleaze is rather disappointing in a bash-your-pretty-skull-in way, instead opting for the intestinal massaging of what are almost walls (but not quite). There is some variation, but for…

I recently discovered (through the Steegcast podcast on the History Of Metal) that Budgie were originally from Cardiff, which is of course, just down’t road from me. I figured then it was probably best for me to go back and suss out some of this Budgie business. Solid, swaggering rock and or roll, with hints of proto-metal, presented through the typical analogue production sounds of the day. I do not mean this in a bad…

Thanks to Chris for recommending me Filthpact. Resurrected Under Condemnation collects together a whole bunch of material in one easy to listen format, and the listening is good. The sounds come from all corners of the extreme spectrum, from grind, to d-beat and hardcore punk, to something solid, chunky and more metal. Great stuff. I look forward to keeping an eye out for more Filthpact stuff in the future.

Fantastic record! What a shot in the arm (no pun intended regarding current worldwide climate) for my interest in The Mars Volta and their later work. It is easy to write this off as disappearing up its own arse, but this is spaced out, gloriously complex, Latin-influenced and drenched in saxophone and weird jazz movements. Add all of this to the band’s already interesting songwriting and you have an intense melting pot of gorgeous tracks….

Depending on who you speak to, COF either died with Midian or it is one of the greatest records the band ever did. I fall somewhat firmly into the latter camp, Midian was a stand-out in the gothic craziness that was the earlier Cradle days. I remember reading a review online, which must have been done by a very serious, very kvlt black metal fan, who said that Midian was pure trash and was nothing…

Drawing Down The Moon is a landmark of the more brutal side of the black metal spectrum. Beherit are, of course, a legendary name in such circles, but honestly I had always avoided this album because I thought the cover looked really terrible and it didn’t sell itself to me. I’m glad that eventually I got around to listening to this as its a monster of an album. Expect lo-fi war metal styled brutality, with…

CunningLynguists are a group whose name I’ve seen about the place quite a lot, but I’d never gotten around to checking them out until now. I guess if you’re a frequent reader of LIW (poor you) you’ll notice that this is a recurring theme, what with the sheer amount of music out there to be heard, so I’ll cut to the chase. A Piece Of Strange is a lovely slice of introspective hip hop, full…

Eccojams is considered a classic of the vaporwave genre, or least the initial movement. This makes sense as it has a lot of the tropes of the original projects, and can be compared in many ways to Macintosh Plus’s Floral Shoppe with its choppy, repetitive sampling and use of 80s pop songs playing at half speed (thereabouts). I’m unsure if there ever was a Vol. 2, but Vol. 1 is a fairly lengthy record. There…

This is the first time in years that I’ve taken a punt on a physical purchase based entirely on the artwork. A Discogs seller holding a Lord Gore tape that I wanted also had this, so I threw caution to the wind and bought the fucker. Three-titted toilet monster aside, this is some cracking death metal. Its not all straight up splatter of course, running through the veins of this band the chaotic undertones of…

I’m not super fussed on the production of this record but there is no denying its place in the history of brutal death metal and of course the finding of its feet in the slam world. The riffs are brutal and hardcore-tinged, the drums are glorious and the vocals are sick as fuck. Shame the production is a touch dry, but there’s no harm and no fowl (foul? Ha!)

It would be wrong to say that Internal Rot’s Mental Hygiene flew under the radar, as it did receive a high amount of hype from impressed grinders, but personally I believe Internal Rot should be up there alongside Magrudergrind, Wormrot, Insect Warfare, Nasum etc. – what we could possibly conceive as the “grindcore mainstream”. Mental Hygiene is such a great fucking album, and one that I heavily recommend.

This is one of those things where I cannot remember for the life of me where I picked the recommendation up from. Musically, its not something that I would usually listen to, but I found myself falling in love with Black Magick SS’ occult rock swagger. Hey, maybe its just everything I ever wanted Ghost to be, except not shit, and with a black metal influence. Whichever way you cut it, this shit fucking rocks….

Another few days or weeks, another Miles Davis record. Since the beginning of lockdown I’ve made a good effort (considering how much other stuff there is to listen to) to go back and work through a fair chunk of this man’s discography. Truly, it can be intimidating in scope, so I’m glad I finally got to grips with it. Blue Haze is a record from the classic era (I mean, isn’t it all classic? But…

I love Cradle Of Filth. I love classical music. I love hammy keyboards and the dungeon synth genre. Why then, if you smush all of these things together, as is the case with this record, are the results so resoundingly poor? This two disc set is so categorically the very definition of disappointment. Its the same tracks on both discs 1 and 2, the only difference is that on disc 1, the songs have new…

I love Immortal Technique. I have a lot of respect for his contributions to hip hop and his constant “revolutionary” attitude. No doubt it has caused many rap and hip hop fans to think outside the box on a lot of different issues. The 3rd World is no different in that regard, Tech is on point with his flows and his deliveries (as are the majority of the folks doing guesties), but the same issue…

Stunning, hypnotic electronic synthesiser soundscapes in the vaporwave aesthetic, however you could say this kind of thing borrows just as heavily from Berlin School and more traditional forms of electronic experimentation. Misty Eyes in the story of a man reflecting on the past 100 years (unless I have misunderstood that) and brings up all those powerful feelings of nostalgia and loss that reflection can touch upon, whether sad, bittersweet or even in a heartwarming way….

Is it black metal? Is it death metal? Is it grindcore? Such is the beauty of this particular blend of ‘bestial’ or ‘war’ metal. The guitars are a downtuned mush, the drums are a mess, the vocals are horrendous (some are even pitchshifted), but what a glorious cacophony it is! I’ve been checking out a lot of bands of this nature recently but Abysmal Lord has to be one of my favourites so far. Now…

By the order of the ancient underground tape trading kings of Old school death metal, I proclaim that Jungle Rot can and shall keep pumping out full lengths like its nobody’s business. You like war and death? You like metal? Throw ’em together and watch the fireworks show. Is it classic Rot? No probably not. Is it still a banger? Most definitely.

Wodensthrone are the masters of intricatley-woven black metal, taking instead a meandering, journey-like approach rather than a necro, slap you in the face with a stereo full of wasps approach. The keyboard work is fantastic, and really lends an epic edge to proceedings.

Good ol’ fashioned 90s-style bleeping blooping electronic music, from the days when this kinda thing felt all fresh and interesting. Autechre is, of course, more than this movement, although some of the warmer, soft synth sounds do remind me of AFX-related musics. LP5 is perfect however, right through there are stunning beat compositions and busy electronic works. I particularly like the repetitive first few minutes of the final track, which has a heavy industrial feel…

Iselder’s controversial first EP is not the strongest black metal release of the year, but it is an interesting listen and I did enjoy my first run through the works of this project. Unfortunately, I was a few days late when it came to the tape release, and missed out on a copy, which I would love to have. The artwork on this thing is something that has been a part of my life for…

And so ends the journey into the world of dementia, as led by The Caretaker. Part 6 is utter chaos and confusion (for the most part, at least), a fitting end to this harrowing project. How accurate is this? Who knows, especially for a story told entirely through the medium of sound. Either way, one must heavily commend The Caretaker on his monumental effort, and of course, for the light and focus that he has…

The guitar tones on this are just absolutely filthy. Overall the sound is massive yet a little dry, but the guitar fuzz is absolutely perfect, as are the strained yet often drenched in reverb vocals. For slow, stoned and treacly riffs, there really is no need to look any further.

What a trip! What a mood! Bringing nothing but good vibes through the medium of electronic music, George Clanton excels in this gorgeous and snappy synth pop outing. I only ever stumbled across this due to Pad Chennington’s 107 vaporwave albums you must hear list, and whilst this is not strictly lodged in that genre, there are a lot of tropes from that world, including nostalgic synth sounds and the occassional wobbles as if you…

Good ol’ Annihilator. Sometimes you just need to reach for the cheesy metal, and this nasty little thrash record has cheese in spades. The acoustic intro is a little too Metallica (not that they have a monopoly on widdly acoustic intros to trash records, but still) but the music thereafter is nothing but a pleasure to listen to. The lyrics are hammy as fuck but the music is not to be fucked with. Please try…

The title of this thing is just perfect, isn’t it? And what a start, at least with my experience with Ossuarium. Brutal, chunky death metal is the order of the day. If I had to be critical, I would say the drumming is a little rough, but otherwise this is a great release and I look forward to hearing more from these guys.

Ah, busy busy old timey jazz, just what the doctor ordered. The perfect music it seems, for playing chess on a lockdown Saturday night. I’m sure these musical geniuses of generation’s past could not have foreseen this, however. I hope they don’t mind. Anyway, this is brilliant urban, big-city jazz that conjures up visions of motorcars whizzing along wet streets and lovebirds snuggling into red leather booths at smokey clubs and restaurants.

I often overlook just how fuckin’ good Deicide are. Their self-titled is a classic of death metal barbarity. Its more brutal than say, Morbid Angel, and whilst not as gore-drenched as Cannibal Corpse, Deicide’s debut offers up a ferocity, a feral element if you would that is missing from a lot of classic death metal, and would usually be attributed to war metal and the like. Great record.

This topped a lot of lists last year and I can totally see the hype is deserved. Stormkeep, whilst perhaps on the surface looking more like a dungeon synth project, actually play intense and interesting black metal. All the usual moving parts are here; the hyper-speed blasts, weeping guitars and shredding vocals, but things are twisted and presented in such a way to appear fresh, interesting and dynamic. A whirlwind of an album, and no…

Well then, this is fucking heavy, isn’t it? Been putting off checking out the super-hyped Hyperdontia (and I can see why) for a while now, but the real surprise of this little monster comes from Mortiferum, who are right up my slime-filled alley. Disgusting stuff all round, and some more bands to go on the never-ending check out list.

The Pit is my favourite track by this electronica project, and its easy to see why they decided to release it as a 7″ single (or the label decided, either way). Dark, broody bass and spooky synths are led by a banging beat and a 80s influenced vocall performance, whilst not being the greatest singing performance ever, lends itself excellently to the vibe and flavour being achieved here. If you never listen to Priest, at…

Perhaps I bit off more than I could chew by reviewing the Analord series as seperate entries. I tend to chain them, and they start to bleed into one for me. Even when reviewing seperately, I quickly run out of words to describe them. Guess my limited writing skill actually shows when it comes to this kind of complex electronic music haha So let me be brief then, Analord 04 is as good an entry…

This is really an intriguing album. The title alone promises something mystical and exciting, unknown and terrifying. The art, well, strip away three of those things, leaving terrifying. I think that word is probably the best way to describe this entire album. Like, who on earth allowed this to happen? If the man himself isn’t crooning out awkward ballads or pop numbers, he’s lending his “guitar” “skills” to a bevvy of lukewarm reggae / dancehall…

Outside of the “big four”, Municipal Waste was probably the first real thrash band that I got into. Their beer-soaked antics, which also proudly boasted hardcore punk influences, resonated with the battle jacket wearing metal fiend that I was at 19 years old. The Art Of Partying is a perfect example of that crazy sound, the ultimate party thrash vibe. The late 00s thrash revival didn’t quite go to plan, but Municipal Waste stood the…

I couldn’t think of a better name for this myself: these are Barbaric Visions indeed. Moody, dark, drab, damp, echoic – these are the words which come to mind when thinking back to this dismal and sombre split record. Both Shadow Dungeon and Forest Temple bring their own unique darkness to proceedings. A great split.

Swans’ self-titled EP is a far cry from the punishing experimentation that the band would originally become renown for. Gira and his ever-revolving musician friends are no strangers to growth and change, but Swans’ self-titled is probably the only one time where they truly belonged to a scene or movement and didn’t stand out on their own. Loosely associated with many of the tropes of the no wave scene, Swans is an awkward record taking…

Small town girlllllll! Haha! Now, I’m no stranger to weird and wonderful music, and of course one of the sad caveats that come with such worlds: music that is up its own arse, or collaborations that are just doomed to fail but float along on the artistic merit of those involved. I’m not want to shit on these worlds, but what Metallica and Lou Reed attempt to do with this “bold” and “challenging” record just…

There’s 52 ways to be a low key right wing asshat, one or two are the same, but they both work as well. I’m coming clean for the Proud Boys, my chauvinism doesn’t scream as well, and Eric Blair won’t listen all night… LOL. Famous Monsters was the second Graves-fronted Misfits album. Its much more smoother and melodic than the previous one, which is a bit faster and rougher around the edges. There are more…

I completely ignored 13 when it came out. I had no interest at all in the reunion, especially after the damage Sharon Osbourne has done to Sabbath over the years, effectively burying the Iommi solo years, and having Heaven And Hell form as a separate band. This is of course, barely the fucking surface of things when it comes to Sharon and her horrendous behaviour, but I digress. 13 is, simply, not very good. The…

This was a special listen. I’ve come across Telepath a few times in my forays into vaporwave, but this is an earlier record. I had the pleasure of listening to somebody’s glorious double cassette upload, which contains a number of additional bonus tracks. All in all, this is a lo-fi journey through dense atmospheres (similar to genre-mate HKE) and chilled out, laid back beats and sampled tracks. It’s 90 minutes long, but its worth every…

Nonsense of the purest, highest degree. I’m not really sure what is going on here, but this is pretty terrible all round. I love black metal, noise, grind, the lot – but this is MySpace bedroom-era trash. https://archive.org/details/AAR0073

I picked this up from a self-promoting post on Reddit. In what the artist describes as their 5th album, CD cobbles together chopped and scratchy Japanese samples in the true vaporwave / plunderphonics style. I’m not really clued up on Japanese culture at all, so I am not sure what the sources are for these sounds, in my ignorance I could take a guess at TV shows, commercial themes, and fuck knows what else. All…

Ultra pitch-shifted, slow and reminiscent of a bad acid trip. Disconscious is the soundtrack to wandering that abandoned mall in the recesses of your mind. Think of any mall today, and compare it to the glory days that you remember for that mall in the 80s or 90s. This is the soundtrack to those thoughts, which is a lot darker than its palm tree and classy car covered artwork would make it seem.

My pathetic little human brain cannot comprehend the sheer riff fuckery that is on display here. Death metal is getting more and more ambitious and the current “wave” of death revival is super fucking exciting. Enter then, Cryptic Shift, who suck a whole bunch of influences into their deathly whirlwind. This really is something special. The focus when it comes to the Visitations record is the first track, the absolutely gargantuan 25 minute epic that…

I’ve had this vinyl for about a decade if not longer and I’ve never really paid it any mind until now and I can see why. I was correct in my estimations that this kind of thing is simply not for me. Sure, I can take pleasure in the listening to of simple rock and or roll, but I won’t be returning for a round two.

Xasthur is a very depressing black metal project, this I have established firmly over several album listens in the last few years. Telepathic With The Deceased however, seems extra damp and fucking miserable and despite its fairly awful artwork, the music itself is a torrid affair of metal that sounds like it is completely and utterly done with the world. Its worth noting that in the Vice documentary on this kind of music, Xasthur becomes…

Tubular Bells is a fucking mad one, if you stop and think about. Like, I don’t know why the first part of this very uplifting and experimental journey was used in the unsettling as fuck movie The Exorcist (I’m sure Oldfield’s record label wasn’t complaining, sales wise!), but there we go. The “famous five minutes” aside, Tubular Bells is a mammoth release, where variations on a theme are looped over and over as Mike experiments…

Necroticism is a weird one. It has a strange feeling for me, that despite being a death metal record with plenty of pacy moments or even blasts, the whole thing just feels like it’s trundling along at a snails pace. I’m not sure exactly what it is that causes it to feel like this, but it is what it is. Traditionally, my listening of this band would end here, as the group transitioned away from…

Ah, Pulse Demon. There aren’t many stand out individual noise records. Bands, sure, but individual records? There aren’t that many. Pulse Demon is probably one of the most instantly recognisable, but is it one of the better offerings from Merzbow? And why is it so popular? Well, for starters, its got everything from the Merzbow project. It captures – from the prime era – all of the project’s great attributes. It’s not as intensely incinerating…

This is one of my all time favourite Genesis / Megadrive soundtracks. I found the game impossibly hard as a child (I don’t think I ever completed it), but its soundtrack will stick with me until the end of time. It is upbeat and jaunty, and other times slow, melancholic and pensive. It is often simplistic, yet other times unfolds into glorious chiptune pomp. Really, this has it all, and its a long one, too….

I’ve been meaning to check out Clipping. for a serious amount of time now. I finally got to listen to …Addiction To Blood in the dying months of 2020, and I soon grew to learn what all the fuss is about. The first thing to notice is there is no immediate urgency with this record. The songs creep slow, building all sorts of menacing atmospheres. On the first run through, a lot of the tracks…

Darkly Darkly is a hideously-titled later effort from Cradle Of Filth, in what I refer to as the post-Thornography lull of disinteresting releases (Devil’s Thunder aside). Darkly is just that – dark, almost artificially so. Cradle’s sense of mystery and evil is something that permeates most of it’s musical output over the years, however here on Darkly Darkly the atmosphere seems forced and cheesy, and a little crap, to be honest. Musically, the band are…

There has been a lot of hype around this band as of late. Vinyl prices for Satan Sex Ceremonies (and I’m sure, other releases from them) are nothing short of extortionate. Perhaps then, I went into this album with too much of an expectation. The art too, conjurs up an unique sense of sleaze and evil, of which the sound does not match. Mephistofeles play laid back stoner rock in the vein of Electric Wizard…

This is just glorious in every conceivable way. The legendary Floral Shoppe by Macintosh Plus is “re-imagined” in this recent reworking from the (I’m sure intentionally) similarly-named MACマイナス. That may undersell this record however; this is not just a re-hashing, although some themes from the original do get a reprise. This is much more, this is a record with its own life and its own vibe, although I have to agree that it does carry…

Heavy, dense, dark electronics meet droning, rumbling guitars in this 26 minute oddysey. I’ve had this on my to-do list since about 2014, and I’ve listened to it a 100 times since. Finally then, it gets committed to the Lines In Wax site. How simple yet unsettling is that art? Especially when placed alongside the title of this record? Interesting stuff.

I’ve given this a few listens over the last few weeks. It was one of the records I used to test the Sony WH3’s (I forget the full name), and probably one of the only things that actually sounded good through those overpriced cans. Anyway, I digress. I find Black Saint And The Sinner Lady to be rather inpenetrable, which is unusual, considering the breadth of mental jazz that I have listened to over the…

The start of a highly commercial period for Bowie, I believe Let’s Dance is possibly his best selling album? The title track is great and there are some lovely entries here along with it, but I can’t really fall in love with this the way I want to.

Sketches Vol. 2 is the 2nd volume (you don’t say?) of tunes created using a Teenage Engineering PO-33 device. I’ve recently been checking out YouTube tutorials on these little bits of kit, and stumbled eventually onto Gar Hoover’s compilation here. Honestly, this is really cool and really chill, and a great example of how the device can be used to make beats. I look forward to checking out Vol. 1 one day. Cheers!

Trult, madly, beautifully awful. There is so much manufactured angst in this I feel an inescapable desire to purchase spiked wristbands before the record is over. I wasn’t into Kittie when I was younger and I’m not into them now. Oh well, was worth a go.

Got recommended this as an example of a dungeon synth subgenre that I hadn’t previously come across. Introducing the frankly ridiculous sounding ‘dinosynth’ (hey, its not as shit as comfy synth at least). Diplodocus however, plays very stimulating classic DS-like compositions, with obligatory dinosaur-related sampling. All in all, its a pretty solid synthesizer record.

Upbeat, swinging 50s style bop jazz which sounds like its from some lost world. I can imagine this playing in a Fallout game or the ballroom of The Shining. Release date is 1985 for my cassette copy but unsure if the recording came earlier. It certainly sounds like it. It’s not supposed to be, but this is spooky shit. 2021 edit: I can’t actually find a copy of my version online. It has a different…

I remember being severely bored by this release when it came out. I think it was probably impossible to top the gargantuan Annihilation Of The Wicked, to be honest, but it would be wrong if I held a grudge against this follow up for that reason. Whilst it held no real highlights for me when I first heard it, I can now listen to this back and appreciate it for the solid death metal record…

On Gothom City (what is with that spelling?), Esham wheels out all the tropes of his best work; the violence, the sex, the crummy self-production, and the rest of the guys from NATAS, just because. Gothom is generally more polished than say, Closed Casket or KKKill The Fetus, but still has that unique sound. However, at this point in the Esham canon things are starting to become derivative. Is it great, yes – but almost…

Well isn’t this just positively, delightfully disgusting? Before Splattered Entrails went all big production sci fi vibe on us, the project churned out such ditties as this enormously ridiculous opus entitled Choking On The Rot. I idolised this God tier bedroom goregrind splatter when I was younger. As a responsible adult however, it doesn’t pack the same punch for me. On returning to it I’ve found it a bit samey, but all in all this…

Phaedra is possibly the most well known Tangerine Dream record. Its appearance as a path-diverging choice in the mindfuck that was Bandersnatch (Black Mirror’s feature length choose-your-own adventure) has no doubt contributed to its resurgence. Over the last few months I have listened to an original mix and then the Steve Wilson remaster, including the additional outtakes and alternative versions that were presented in that remaster package. I’m not too fussed on the extra takes,…

I still stand by my earlier statements that Cannabis Corpse is better than Cannibal Corpse. An ignorant statement perhaps, when comparing genuinely to the ongoing legacy of Cannibal Corpse, but a testament also to the sheer skill of Cannabis Corpse. A parody in name only, Beneath Grow Lights Thou Shalt Rise is another slab of absolutely perfect death metal. The production is glorious and the music is excellent. I absolutely cannot ask for more from…

It was the announcement of Slowthai’s second record that made me fucking stop and realise just how goddamn fast time is going these days, especially in lockdown life. Here it is then, my somewhat late quick entry for the artist’s cheeky debut. He’s right though, there ain’t much great about Britain, at least not urban Britain, and that disgust, angst and attitude is distilled entirely into the record itself. It’s like The Streets’ Original Pirate…

A cigar in the garden (a cigarden?) on a Saturday afternoon can only be accompanied by such classy yet rough and ready tunage. I’d need to look into the line up here a bit more but Miles and his gang are on top form. Several live variations on the Bitches Brew classics are presented, and then some. A treat.

News At 11 is now something of a legendary release in the ever growing and evolving world that is vaporwave. Evoking somewhat more of a sad nostalgia rather than the warm yet melancholic lost futures of regular mall vapor, News At 11 treats us to a treacle-paced retrospective back to a morning when the world changed forever.

Pharmakon is a lass that knows how to invoke a creepy atmosphere or six. Long before Lingua Ignota brought screaming into the mic under the mainstream light, Pharmakon was churning out gorgeously disgusting power electronics like it was nobody’s business. What I love the most about Pharmakon is that there is no need to wallow in the depths of endless distortion in order to create chaotic or unsettling soundscapes. Yes, these are often clear and…

Ever onwards I go through the Sabbath catalogue. Admittedly, on first listen, The Eternal Idol is a shock, even after Seventh Star. Nothing about this looks or feels like a Sabbath record, from the bizarre, 80s-as-fuck art that wouldn’t be amiss on some sort of dark vaporwave cassette, to the crooning stadium rock that fills the disc. Honestly, I don’t understand why Sharon’s legal team seems so intent on wiping out the post-Ozzy (or even…

Punishing heavy thrash from the legends that are Sepultura. For the most part growing up I only ever really associated Roots with Sepultura. It was only in later years that I went back and discovered their earlier 80s/90s output, which is of course savage as fook and all of which are now mostly metal classics. Beneath The Remains is no different. It is a perfect example of the band’s earlier output, and a stunning thrash-tinged…