I fell in love with Priest’s debut single, “The Pit”, and the album which followed it. Unfortunately, the kinship with their cold and awkward techno pop ends there. 2020’s sophomore effort lacks in just about every attribute that made the original so interesting, which is a true shame. I hear there may have been line up changes in the band? Either way, this is pretty disappointing, truth be told.

Dusty, hiss-filled dungeon synth compositions of lost lands and endless dark imaginations. Like, this is so fucking good its not even funny. Some of the vocal performances on the latter track(s) leave a little to be desired, but this a golden gem of dark dungeon music.

Blind listen of the day award goes to the madfolk in Psudoku, which despite the slightly silly name live up to the head-scratching promise of their moniker with this epic cataclysm of mathematic chaos. Owing more to certain experimental metallic genres than anything too far into the grindcore camp, Space Grind is however an excellent and perplexing listen. If you like your metal absolutely bonkers, then come one come all.

An absolute classic of the thrash genre, but it is also so much more! Voivod are the Swiss army knife of the thrash metal world, and Killing Technology pinpoints the turning point, where Voivod’s primitive, brutal thrash morphed significantly into something far wider and more experimental in scope.

The Thought Gang moniker has cropped up here or there on Twin Peaks soundtrack records (and the show itself, lets not forget). From the bizarre, softly spoken offerings on the FWWM OST, to the frenetic jazz given to The Return, it was awesome to finally listen to an album’s worth of material from this Lynch / Badalamenti collaberation project. As perhaps predicted, this is a mixed bag of tunes, more of a collection than a…

Pink Flag is one of those albums that holds its own kind of mysterious cult status. On the surface of it, Wire is not a particularly groundbreaking group, but on repeat listens one can appreciate some of the more subtle undertones to the music. At first it appears to be an interesting approach to the punk rock template but then when you realise the song structures are based entirely in repetition, almost to the point…

A mammoth of a record, pulling from a myriad of styles and influences. Can’t say I’ve ever been massive on BTBAM but I heavily enjoyed this album.

I was very sad to hear that Cookie Monsta passed away. Whilst not so much a part of the original gestation of the dubstep sound, he was part of the original wave of artists pioneering this new, dirty style. This early EP, on Circus Records, is a perfect example of that. Cookie’s bass work is massive and interfering, and thats how it should be. Great stuff.

Another record that is vying for the place of first ever death metal record. Whether it wins or not, Seven Churches is a classic record, one deserving the attention of any metalhead, and not just for its historical status. On Seven Churches, Possessed end up mixing styles of proto-death metal with thrash and something that’s a bit more reminiscent of what Repulsion would do on Horrified. Take all this, and give it an almost blackened…

Make my shit The Chronic! I love this album. I hadn’t listened to it in so many years, so went back to it for the purposes of this entry. In hindsight, its weird how so close together in time The Chronic and its follow-up, 2001 (released in 1999 lol) are. When I was younger, these two eras of rap felt like worlds apart, with The Chronic in particular sounding absolutely ancient in comparison. I wouldn’t…

Terria was my first taste of Devin’s up and down world of solo work. I vaguely remember Syncestra (is that spelt correctly?) coming out, but this goes back even further. I’m not sure what it was about Terria that made it stand out amongst some of the others, but its a bizarre, airy trip through some long and dense tracks. If I had one criticism of Terria it would be that it doesn’t really go…

Booming Words From Hell is the sprung as fuck debut from everyone’s favourite bogeyman, Esham. Our man here bolted out the gate with an amateur yet now legendary record. All the tropes and themes that Esham would continue to explore over the course of his legendary original acid rap / horrorcore run of records begin here, but Booming… also contains a more “street” or gangsta rap sensibility to it. Either way, if you like abrasive…

I’ve had good experiences with ExCx in the past, but here the rehearsal room feel is a little too rustic. The riffs sound fuckin’ great – when the rest of the din stops and you can hear them. But hey, this is sloppy goregrind, can I really complain? Biological Monstrosity are the most solid band on this split by a country mile. They play extra dirty, lightening fast goregrind topped with disgusting watery vocals. They…

Admittedly I had never even heard of this EP until recently, so I went back and had a very good goose, expecting to find the dusty origins of the intricate death metal that Nile is so revered for. Unfortunately, this 1994 cassette showcases a band of completely different stripes. It isn’t bad per se, but Karl Sanders’ glorious personal guitar tone is missing, as is the stunning Egyptian atmospheres. I would say that this is…

Nasty Face are one of my favourite goregrind projects of the last 5 years or so. Playing in the crusty / old school style rather than the tupa-tupa OEF-fodder style, Nasty Face is garlging sickness down the very core. Expect, of course, pustulent pitchshifters, shredding guitars, and barely audible drums at practice room quality. I would have it no other way.

HKE’s HK record lies somewhere on the more spaced out, introspective end of vaporwave. Few and far between are the tropes of nostalgia and the repurposing of 80s and 90s music (at least, any that is immediately recognisable). Instead we have swathes of crushing ethereal ambience; soundscapes that seem to live their own life with analogue flutter. Its deep, moving stuff, and a listen that I would strongly recommend.

Possibly a hallmark of the industrial genre? Do I even need to prefix that sentence with “possibly”? I read online that someone called this a “random tapestry of sound”. That particular review wasn’t a good one, but the phrase stuck with me. At first, 1/2 Mensch can no doubt seem random, but what this is is a carefully constructed monolith of industrial noise, encompassing all the atonal and rhythmic duality that comes with such a…

Easily, hands down, zero argument: the best Sabbath album with Dio. Released seemingly randomly between the band’s albums with Tony Martin on vocals, Iommi rather unceremoniously sacked off that entire line up to reform with Geezer and Dio to reignite the Mob Rules line up. There seems to be a lot of shit online about Dio’s lyrics on here, but I genuinely don’t think they are particular awful, especially on the usual Dio cheese to…

Khost are a dark, heavy, miserable band and Needles In The Ground is a fantastic record. Expect a few subtle flourishes from Mr. Broadrick. Unsure why he hasn’t just used his own name on this rather than the Godflesh tag? Maybe GC Green was in on this? Hey, maybe it just helps sell records.

Cross Purposes is yet another Sabbath album in the seemingly endlessly bland Tony Martin era. I don’t blame Martin for this per se, but every album he fronts just happens to be some different variation on the theme of boring stadium rock. That being said, Cross Purposes is definitely the heaviest output to feature this line up thus far (not counting Forbidden) and notably includes Geezer Butler back on bass, even though he was not…

Expanding on the epic doomery of the previous material, Nightfall enters new territories of pomp, cheese and theatre. To me, the addition of Messiah on vocals steers this almost into the realm of power metal, but is held into more trad or doom classifications by the songwriting and perhaps more importantly, the pacing.

Volume 1 is another one of those records that got played to death in my teenage years. Listening again as an adult, it seems almost like a jumble of different sessions stitched together rather than a cohesive album, but that isn’t too much of an issue when the songs are of this quality. From the instant mega hit of the opening track, the abstract heaviness of “Rio Bravo” or “Lost In A Contraption”, or the…

Its hard to embody the spirit of the early Mortiis releases without completely ripping them off. This is done with varying degrees of success, but Elffor’s Dra Sad III, my first encounter with the project, manages to weave the vibes of those early 90s dungeon synth masterpieces into tapestries of their own. Dra Sad III, with the full title of Beneath The Uplands Of Doom, evoke longform, dense ambient soundscapes, with the right balance of…

The debut from Priest is far removed from a lot of the band’s later albums, from any of their eras. In fact, Rocka Rolla is a snapshot in time of a band that may not have ever moved into the world of heavy metal. Its not for me, but I’m glad I started from the beginning.

Another stomping entry from the ever excellent Haggus. It is literally impossible to fault this stuff. Totally, utterly insane and on point, crusty, grindy, mincecore. Golem Of Gore are new to me, but make a good impression. I look forward to crisscrossing into their crazy world in the future as I meander through the grindcore underworld.

This record haunted me. There’s a reoccurring motif that I just couldn’t place. It hit me after a while, it was a sample used by Gorillaz for the track “M1 A1” on the self titled record, which was the first album I really spent any decent amount of time with when I was a kid. I’ve also seen the Day Of The Dead film so I have no idea how didn’t put this together before….

Brilliant, meandering, dusty old world rock and roll with proggy elements. Considering such, the tracks are actually surprisingly short, but either way, I feel like I’ve cracked open a forgotten time capsule. Not my usual cup of tea, but a great listen none the less.

I’ve had this on my to-do list for donkeys years, but finally got to listening to it after hearing a recent Earache post from Al explaining a bit of the goings on. I chose the Full Dynamic Range reissue, which was a solid re-release. I’ve not heard the original, but even on a flat monitor signal through some IEMs I absolutely could not fuck with any bass, which is a shame. Would it be lazy…

It took me quite by surprise when I turned on Radio 1 one day whilst in the work van, and was treated to a single from the up and coming new record from long-time heavies, Mastodon. Wait, like, they play this shit on the radio now? Since when? But I digress. I’ve been meaning to check out some “later” Mastodon stuff for a while, and the cover art for this thing stood out to me…

Oh, she’s a depressing one! Dialling back a bit from the slightly more sparkly offering of October Rust (an album made to attract female fans), Pete’s doomy wrecking krew instead hit us with tales of death, depression and drug abuse. How cheery! Of course, that wicked Type O humour is there, but as a whole this is back in the Bloody Kisses realm of misery. Good stuff gents!

Keyboards in death metal is usually a something of a turn off for me. Even in black metal, it works probably about 50% of the time. Nocturnus however, are something of an exception to that narrow minded rule of mine. The debut record from this excellent band, The Key, is not as muddy or confusing as its follow up, but is still a maddening and punishing descent into some glorious sci-fi tinged metal ov death….

Undeath is one of the more heavily hyped death metal bands around right now, and its easy to see why. Sentient Autolysis is a perfect showcase of the sickness that was to come on the Lesions… record. Dirty, horrible, disgusting death metal, the way it should be.

This is my first foray into the world of Pestilence. Right off the bat, everything sounds fantastic, with tbe exception of the drums, which sound flat and horrible. I’m sure there’s a grainy and decent analogue recording buried somewhere in there. Perhaps one for the remaster treatment?

Satyricon gets a lot of shit. Personally, I would say most of it is completely undeserved. I suppose that is the nature of the beast that is black metal; anyone who transitions or meanders out of it (or blends it with something else) is unavoidably going to catch flak from genre purists. Brass tacks: Deep… offers very little in anything new, but is another solid offering in the bands now almost two decade long vein…

Plasma’s second album is a lesson in how to take goregrind influenced metal seriously. Punctuated by disturbing samples about body snatching (and reminding me of The Berzerker’s Reawakening album in the process, if that album had just been any good eh), Dreadful Desecration is a solid and well made production that doesn’t stray too far from its sloppy gore roots.

Jim Kirkwood is something of a father to the dungeon synth world. His compositions bridge the gap between electronic soundtrack music and even – dare I say the buzz word – Berlin school kinda synth fuckery, but its the Tolkien inspired backdrop to these fantastical compositions that really is the icing on the cake. Middle Earth is a long album. I took it out with me and walked a few miles with my dog, burnt…

This is… different. I appreciate the sentiment and meaning behind it, but after two tracks I’m sick to death of it. Dungeon synth or any fantasy based electronic music is niche enough as it is, at this point it seems almost like a joke to narrow it down to “comfy” RPG interior music. I’m sure there’s an audience for this, but I’m not in that audience.

Stunning, gloriously dense synth works that unfold and meander through spaced-out worlds and atmospheres. It’s not a million miles away from something that Tangerine Dream would put out, but retains that unique Jean-Michel Charrme (lol, sorry). I picked up a copy of this on chrome/metal tape (ferric eat my dust!) and although the quality isn’t as clear as I would have expected (I have regular cassettes that sound better), playing this on the Walkman, warbles…

What in the nine hells? I suppose I had to start somewhere with The Residents and this was a place as good as any to randomly jump in. I can’t quite put my finger on what is going on here. I feel either I’m missing the greater picture or that Not Available needs a few listens to truly unfurl itself. Its unsettling, a little weird, and a little catchy too. I look forward to hearing…

Eternal is rather dancable for such a cold and industrial take on black metal. I suppose the black metal element is dialled back quite a bit, but nevertheless, Eternal is a classi of the crossover genre that happened a lot in the 90s. Some great beats here, which drive these misty compositions. Plus, any album that has “Supra Karma” on it is a winner in my book.

Christ! What the hell is this!? Doomy Sabbath? That’s what I’m talking about. In something of a U-turn from Cross Purposes (the heaviest Tony Martin album but still a shitter), Forbidden is a weighty record. It sounds like a mix between 90s Cathedral and Warning, but with a lacklustre vocal performance over the top of it all. As a whole, the album is a swing and a miss, but showed Sabbath on a correcting path,…

Tolling 13 Knell is a peculiar set of metallic tales which I suppose unfurl mainly in the black metal school of thought, but draw inspiration from a wide array of sources. It has taken me a good few listens to get into this, but its a solid album, albeit one with a strange, hollow production job.

Untouchables was incredibly anticipated at the time, even more so on the strength of opening track and lead single “Here To Stay”. Even although in hindsight, the gap between this and the previous record was fairly short (3 years? Ish?), reports in media at the time had Untouchables down as some sort of Chinese Democracy style spiral of ridiculous cost and excess – a record stuck in studio purgatory. When it did drop, Untouchables was…

The Chromatics bring their unique, haunting brand of bubblegum dream pop to the Simon & Garfunkel classic. Ethereal, moody synths and breathy vocals take you on a trip well worth travelling. Not a groundbreaking cover, sure, but still a gorgeous listen.

Ooh, what an stomper. Putting most (if not all) pornogrind and digigrind bands to shame with an absolutely savage programmed attack of the senses. Everything is synthesized, from guitars to blasts, and honestly it sounds amazing. Gets a bit glitchy in parts, but this just adds to the chaos that unfurls. Its a shame that this appears to be a one-off release.

On Katabasis, Vacuous improve leaps and bounds from their demo that was released earlier in the year. True, some of the scuzzy feel is lost in the more clear production, but the songs have much more room to breathe and grow. Ones to watch.

A promising start for this interesting band. The drums are a bit far away in the mix, but that is really my only complaint. The vocals, guitar and especially the bass all sound fantastic. Vacuous would progress heavily with their next release, the Katabasis EP, which is probably a much better place to start.

I understand that one should expect the unexpected when it comes to Mr. Bungle, and I understand that this is a revisit to a pre-self titled world, but I did not expect this to be as metal as it is. Sure, the inclusion of Scott Ian on guitar and Dai Lombardo on drums probably goes a long way in facilitating this feel, but there is not a single saxophone, trumpet, jazzy interlude or glockenspiel to…

I slept on this when it first came out in 2018. Like, totally under the radar she went. Sometimes I have this habit of zoning out for months, even years, at a time when it comes to music scenes, and then I find myself playing catchup. Thankfully, this fourth Deafheaven record was worth chasing after. The band push their shoegazy, black metal influenced noise further into more abstract and interesting directions. Can this even be…

Oh boy. Easily contender for one of the best albums of 2020. Undeath, as presented by their earlier demo / EP play the old school death metal that you always wanted to hear. Yeah, old school death deals a lot with the realms of fantasy rather than gore, and a lot of it – the big guns at least – had “that” dry horrible production. But, take that fantasy focus and twist it and make…

Well this is just absolutely ridiculous. But, would you expect any less from Spermswamp? Absolute digigrind idiocy prevails, and that is perfectly ok with me. On the flipside (it’s a CD so actually I need to shut up), Rigor Mortis practise the divine art of Mortician worship, with a decent Carcass cover thrown in. All in all, a good clean fun listen for the whole family.

Drawn in by the incredible sleeve art and the madness of debut The Key, I am surprised to find an almost impenetrable mush of sludgy death metal. Everything is fighting for air and the mix is incredibly dingy. I almost gave up, but after a few tracks you kinda get used to it. An interesting album, if nothing else. Some decent death metal and some lovely sci-fi themes and keyboard work. You just have to…

Did anyone ask for something heavy? Whether Conjurer are still the darlings of the British heavy music underworld is not really my concern, but there is no arguing that with records such as Mire under their belts whether or not they lack the chops in the long game. Mire shows a sound honed and perfected, and a band who are now masters of their craft.

Time Waits For No Slave is the all singing, all dancing highpoint to the 2000s era Napalm Death revival. I think The Code Is Red… is probably my favourite in regards to having songs that I love, but Times Waits is a monument to grindcore and the many genres and styles that Napalm can mix into it. The most recent release by the band, the Throes… album, has been hailed as some sort of experimental…

Like its predecessor The Eternal Idol, this more or less builds on the failure that was Seventh Star, although not in the same level of success as Eternal Idol, which is much more polished. Nevertheless, I am wholly enjoying these Tony Martin records for the first time.

Probably my least favourite of the Dio & Sabbath original era. Don’t get me wrong, this era isn’t exactly my favourite to begin with, but I’m working through Sabbath’s stuff chronologically, and returned to Heaven and Hell in full. I mean no disrespect to Dio, but the swords and sorcery approach to Sabbath doesn’t really do anything for me. Fortunately, this is still an excellently put together record, and its an enjoyable listen all the…

When I was a nipper, Filosofem was the hardest Burzum release for me to get into. The super harsh, wasp-like quality of the guitars and vocals, coupled with the deathly pace of the tracks in general, put it low on my list. Of course, as a fully mature adult, one can now appreciate this for the black metal masterpiece that it is. A lot of atmospheric, “transcendental” and one-man DSBM projects owe a great deal…

Mythic Dawn is a small single from Burzum that showcases the man’s skill at the synthesizer style of music. Honestly, outsiding of existing Burzum fans, there is nothing of value here, its super and short and to the point, kind of acting a sampler to what we would get in the very later extremes of the project’s life.

Building on the strong debut of Kill ‘Em All, Metallica, ahem, electrify their sound with new found depth and songwriting chops. The compositions on Ride The Lightening are, for the most part, dense and experimental (for thrash at least), and possess a new level of maturity. This is a sound that Metallica would arguably perfect on Master Of Puppets, but Ride has it’s own set of incredible tracks. “For Whom The Bell Tolls”, “The Call…

The Sleeping Green is a “lost” Lunar Womb release from back in the 90s. There’s not much to say except that this is a stunning collection of synthesiser compositions. Lunar Womb excels in the dungeon synth style, but the music is much more one with nature than it is with some made up dungeon full of goblins. I enjoyed.

Oi oi, savloy! Donkey Rhubarb is a short but interesting listen, and includes some mad Philip Glass orchestrated reworking of “Icct Hedral”, which is worth the price of admission alone. “Pancake Lizard” is also a favourite of mine. Short but sweet!

Is it possible for a soundtrack to be OP? Like, there’s a mood for every occasion here. Are you exploring the wilderness, a dungeon, a desert, or a quaint village? Daggerfall got a tune for that, yo. My post on the game of Daggerfall will follow at some point, where I will go more in depth into what I think is the philosophy one needs to apply when playing a 24 year old RPG. But…

My favourite of the Sabbath 80s output. Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan is a bizarre choice to succeed Dio, and whilst these two worlds collide awkwardly, it results in the most interesting post-Ozzy album I’ve heard thusfar. There are no stand-out tracks for me, per se, but rather Iommi’s guitars have real weight to them once again, and Gillan’s warble adds a quality that has been missing since Ozzy. I’m not an Ozzy fanboy at all,…

What a lush series of compositions! I got this cassette for literally pennies and was surprised to find out how much of a good condition it was in. The analogue depth lends itself infinitely to Mike Oldfield’s bizarre, arty, synth-led compositions. Admittedly, it gets a bit shit towards the end but up until that point I found myself lost inside these dense soundscapes.

Welcome to hell. Another series of 4 20-minute-plus slabs of terrifying ambient noise from The Caretaker marks the next step into the hell of dementia. Stage 5 is easily the most aggressive, opening with what is more or less harsh noise; the musical memories from earlier stages are now mangled into nightmarish visions that bear zero resemblance to their original form, instead present themselves as a collage of frightening… shit. It’s just noise, and its…

Cattle Decapitation have definitely morphed into their own entire league in the last few years or so. There are no bands that come close to imitating the group’s lightening fast death metal blend. For me, they stand unique amongst a sea of endless death metal artists. This, on the previous few records, has been a shining plus point. On Death Atlas however, I can’t help but feel that Cat-Decap are becoming somewhat formulaic. Death Atlas…

Haircuts For Men is one of my favourite “vaporwave” producers and 壊滅悲しみ is of no exception. Despite the title, the vibes are not quite so downbeat or depressing as some of the other records, but in general this is a morose and chilled out journey through some fantastic electronic music.

My first – and long overdue – foray into the genre of sovietwave. Can’t say I’m really sold on it just yet, but eery ambient electronics is the order of the day, sounds from the past representing a future that was promised.

Celestial, dense, wandering black metal comes down from the astral planes above and enchants your ears with a rabid yet sophisticated racket that can only be done so much justice by words. Expect almost impenetrable atmospheres. Best listened to with headphones plugged in.

Dio fans will most definitely disagree with me on this one, but Live Evil is the most interesting recording from the original 80s Dio era of Black Sabbath. That’s not to shit on the two studio albums that they did together, but this live album is an incredible window how the band operated in those times of change, blending their original legacy whilst creating a new one. Hey, let’s be honest, Dio singing Ozzy-era Sabbath…

How fucking savage is Blood Will Be Shed? Dodgy band name aside, this is lightening fast, savage metal at its absolute best. Zyklon B leans towards the black metal end of the spectrum, but I hear influence from both the death metal and industrial worlds. Shit name, shit cover art, incredible record.

Spooky, authentically exotic ambient music from this well constructed side project. I recently played the Daggerfall OST through and honestly some parts are eerily similar. All in all though, if you like your synthesizer soundscapes to have an ominous Eastern lean to them, I would heavily recommend you Call To The Deep.

Admittedly, I’m no aficionado when it comes to this kind of depressing, jangly acoustic business. My knowledge of the existence of Mr Cohen only came from Godflesh’s many title-stealing tributes to his work. Songs of Love and Hate is gorgeous however. The opener, “Avalanche’, is purely phenomenal. There is a lot of variety, but the overall theme, to me at least, appears to be rather morose. All in all, this was well worth the listen…

Mongrel was the only full length record that we did as the Judas Cradle. It kinda turned out to be our Chinese Democracy, even though it was a combination of reworked tracks off our earlier EP or splits alongside a whole bunch of newer thrashier kinda tracks (Agathocles the 2nd over here). Mongrel then went through a protracted period of mixing, and by the time it came out, we had all but broken up, which…

Bitter Suites For Succubi is a strange stop-gap EP / mini album between the release of Midian and the band’s epic Damnation And The Day. I’m not entirely sure of the reasons why they decided to release this as it is, but I expect it was something to keep the fans happy and busy when the band were no doubt in the long negotiating phase of being signed to Sony records. I loved Bitter Suites……

Downward Spiral has never come across to me as an organised, coherent album. Sure, I’m not saying that it sounds like a series of disconnected tracks thrown together for a buck, or anything like that. There was obviously a deliberate creation process behind all of this. But, what I’m trying to say is, is that I’ve never found that Downward Spiral flows. At all. Now, I’m not an expert on NIN. Maybe this is intentional,…

Well this was depressing. Admittedly I’m out of my comfort zone when in the worlds of post punk and its infinite variations of weirdness, but Protomartyr just didn’t gel with me at all. I’ll leave it at that.

Now this is what dungeon synth is all about, if you ask me. Maybe the warbling audio hiss of the tape rip has got me all nostalgic and teary eyed, but Eternal Fear’s 1995 offering is a beautiful journey through misty mountains and unknown chasms. Shit, any dungeon synth that makes me wanna break out Daggerfall is good in my books. Also, its an absolute pleasure to find OG 90s work that I haven’t heard…

I stumbled upon the second part of this collaboration at the beginning of the year so it was high time to go back and hear the genesis of it. Atsusaku is stacked, 2 huge back to back slabs of droning and sparkling industrial noise to cleanse not only your aural palette but also portions of your brain. Its impossible to tell who is doing what here, but this is a solid noise release if I’ve…

Wowzers! This is a dirty one. Intense, well produced grindcore from French Polynesia with a cheeky mincecore stomp to it. A short EP, but one to watch, for fans on the grindy side of life.

I never realised how truly rare Remix 2000 was until recently. Fuck knows where my copy is, probably buried under some junk in the attic. Anyway, Remix 2000 builds on the original Remix CD that came out in 1997, and features – how did you guess? – remixes of Mushroomhead tracks from the first two records. There’s probably nothing of value here if you’re not a huge Mushroomhead fan, but its worth noting that the…

Never Say Die is the final and somewhat lacklustre album the band did with Ozzy, before 13 came out a few years back. Sabbath (read: Iommi) can be accused of phoning it in at multiple times in their career, but this is the first time the band well and truly jumped the shark. Never Say Die isn’t awful, it just doesn’t really do anything or go anywhere. Ozzy had already left the band by this…

Baptized… is yet another re-release of the band’s first two demos. That initially sounds impressive, and necessary, but when you realise that the bands first album Knee Deep In Her Pussy is literally just these two demos stapled together with no changes, this re-release becomes infinitely more pointless. Knee Deep… already has a CD release and a (granted, now very expensive) vinyl re-issue, but still. I digress. I’ve included this release on Lines In Wax…

Spermswamp is one of those bands that sets the gold standard for how ridiculous pornogrind should sound. For example, if fellow genre-mates S.M.E.S. is the equivilent to one of those automatic fucking machines solemnly pounding away at a low level, humming mechanically as it bores methodically into your orifice of choice, then Spermswamp is one of those machines but fused to some mecha-octopus technical fuckmonster. What I’m trying and probaby failing to convey is this:…

The perhaps excellently titled Lust For Feculant Orgasm is the first (and still rather low key) released album from goregrind mainstays Spasm. The album itself is very well put together, the tone of the bass (acting here as a lead guitar) is so crunchy and sick. This dirty little three piece has more weight to it than more fully fleshed out bands. What makes this record so long is the inclusion of the Spasmatic Secretion…

Real Life Death was the low-key death rattle final release from infamous Shredded Wheat loving death metal band, Waking The Cadaver. As chonky as both Real Life Death and its predecessor, Beyond Cops Beyond God, both are, the charm of the band for me was lost on both of these recordings. Gone are the abysmal, gore-drenched slams of old. I’m not saying WTC were just another slam band; their first album was absolutely manking in…

I’d never really bothered with XXX until a work colleague of mine implored me to check out some tracks from this album, but I ended up listening to the whole thing. There’s a lot to unpack here; the opening track acts as fair warning, as trumpet blowing as it is (“my genius!”). I wouldn’t necessarily say you need an open mind to digest a weird mish-mash of hip hop and screamo or acoustic songs, but…

This is, objectively, one of the worst things that I have ever heard. Its been saved on my Spotify albums list since 2014, where I was recommended it by some absolute arseclown it seems. So what we have here is beatdown music with techno elements. Everything about that sentence makes me want to die inside, but the techno elements are actually pretty good. As far as beatdowns and slams go, well, this isn’t dirty enough…

The downward spiral continues with Leprechaun 4, where the quality descends even further still, but to the point where the plot is now so goddamn ridiculous it almost gets a pass. In this 4th offering, the Leprechaun makes it into space, where there is scantily clad princesses, trigger happy marines, Nazi scientists and terrible CGI spacecraft. A huuuuge drop in quality and budget from the 2nd and 3rd entry in the franchise, but incredibly entertaining…

Leprechaun 3 has none of the endearing characters present in the first two movies. Everyone is pretty awful, or drastically flawed in some way, to the point where you don’t really give a suit about what happens to any of them. Luckily then, that the Leprechaun has conjured some creative ways to dispose of the cast, before culminating in yet another awful conclusion. It is what it is, but Leprechaun 3 is pretty shit.

Leprechaun 2 is probably my favourite of the original 90s run of movies. A loveable simpleton and his on/off girlfriend incur the wrath of the Leprechaun who of course, fancies her for his bride as she some direct descendant of some poor sap that crossed the Leprechaun in the past. Anyway, it has a creative set of kills and situations, before a fairly useless showdown in the Leprechaun’s lair. It ends on a bum note…

There is a lot to address with the original mix of Cradle’s Cruelty And The Beast record. The real question however, is whether or not this recent remaster attempt brings out the best of a frequently misunderstood (yet still critically acclaimed classic) record. I have reviewed the music itself in the previous post, so will focus entirely on the remastered elements here in this post. The first thing I expect everyone is going to notice…

I haven’t listened to Cruelty… in donkey’s years. In fact, I didn’t even know there had been (finally!) a remaster of it either, so I decided to listen to both back to back for the purposes of commiting the records finally the vaults of Lines In Wax. What surprised me however, was that I heavily preferred the first mix to the remaster, despite the heavy shortcomings of this original release. But anyways, I’ll get to…

The mob ruuuuullllllleeessssssss! Or, so I’m told. Not an awful album by any stretch, and is given an injection of new energy what with Bill Ward bowing out and Vinnie Appice coming on board for the drumming role. I just can’t buy into the Dio ham factor. Other than that, to me, the uninitiated Dio listener, Mob Rules is more or less a continuation of the themes on Heaven and Hell.

Blacks and the crackers! Brothers and the whities! Everyone has heard “Move On Up” but I only got into this record after falling in love with the opening track after it was used as the theme for season 1 of HBO’s The Deuce. Honestly, my knowledge in this era and in these genres is severely lacking so I’m probably going to struggle describing this record, but it sounds fantastic. It’s funky, soulful and pumping with…

I’ve been a fan of the hyperblasting froguencies of Phyllomedusa for some time now, so it was excellent news all around when I found out they would be doing a split with the lovely chaps in Catastrophic Blunt Force etc. etc. etc.  The Phyllo stuff is harsh and perfect for inner skull excoriating or some such horrendous practice. I may be biased in regards to my relationship with CBFx, but they offer something different to…

It’s nice to see something that bridges the gap between industrial, power electronics and harsh noise so perfectly. Often these terms are bandied about wantonly, with several terms being used to describe the same thing in a pedantic circle jerk of an already restrictive genre. Whilst I still don’t quite know what the fuck Witch House is supposed to be, I can literally feel the industrial vibe pouring out of this record, like steel girders…

I added this record to my to do list when Young And In The Way were announced for Temples Fest, easily over 5 years ago, maybe even 6. Either way, I never got around to listening to this until now, and was blown away by the mix of hardcore and black metal, which admittedly isn’t a mix I’m all too familiar with hearing. The production is quite typical of things in this trendy corner of…

(2020 edit: This review was written several years ago, I just dug it out from the lost drafts on my old Blogger account). And the award for quickest maturing member of Odd Future goes to Earl fucking Sweatshirt. Doris has always stood apart from most of the other Odd Future stuff I’ve heard, and now this… well, this is something truly special. On the strength of “Faucet” alone, this record is fucking outstanding. The beats…

Machine Violence is a breath of fresh air. Don’t get me wrong, if I wanted to be a cunt I could say that Realize sound like a mix of Decline & Fall era Godflesh, and something like Static X, but this is industrial metal folks, and it’s pretty difficult to not be derivative. When I say a breath of fresh air – I mean, when was the last time an industrial record was pushed by…