I was not familair with the Fret project until I stumbled upon this release, but hey, guess what – I now have even more Mick Harris stuff to go back through and listen to! What more could you possibly want? A quick note: Fret originally surfaced in the 90s but has gone largely unused until recently. This dropped in 2017, two years before the Scorn comeback record. Nearly all of Mick’s projects draw parallels with…

Before Godflesh, there was Fall Of Because, from what I can tell a fairly short lived project when members were also involved in Napalm Death or Head Of David. Featuring a trio of which would collaborate freely in the coming years, Fall Of Because plays bare bones industrial rock, where the incredibly influential noise from New York’s Swans had been trickled through Brum’s own industrial culture. It’s not quite Godflesh yet; think early Swans meets…

This is another promotional vinyl that came out around the time of Ellipsis, which follows after the Earache pressing of “Silver Rain Fell” and its subsequent remix onto a DJ-usable 12″. This particular disc however was put out by Mick’s own Scorn Recordings (a short-lived label he seemed to run with “marketing” done by Earache), containing the Ellipsis remixes of Falling and The End. Check out the full Ellipsis review on Lines In Wax!

This is a promotional DJ-only 12″ from Earache, pairing both the original version of the track from the Evanescence record, and the Meat Beat Manifesto remix of it from the Ellipsis record. As both those releases have been reviewed already on Lines In Wax, I’ll keep it brief here. I’ve included this as I want to be a completist and review the entire Scorn discography. 

With 500 pressed on clear wax, this was a fairly limited run on Record Label Records in 2009. It is only 12 minutes long, but contains two of the best Scorn tracks; the title track and the absolute floorshaker that is “Pin Down”. “Pin Down” is up there as a contender for my favourite Scorn track from this era. All in all, this is probably the best place to start with later Scorn stuff. Phenomenal…

If Super Mantis is a powerful shotgun blast, then Gravel Bed is a lurching mechnical monster come to life, heaving into industrial motion, in order to fire said shotgun. It’s a shambler, dragging and stumbling. A corker. The Bracket (RIP) remix on the flipside is just as good, providing an alternative window into the mind of this dark, twisted dub beast. Gravel Bed by Scorn, Bracket

Combat records did a whole series of remixes off the back of Super Mantis. The two on this 12″ are from Elemental and Threnody. Threnody provides a more sprawling, soaring remix, with sharp, sparkling leads pulling the heavy weight of the Scorn beat through a 7 minuter of electro genius. Elemental’s mix is fucking glorious. All that seems to remain from the Scorn original is the bass growler, reworked into a trippy, busy breakbeat shuffle….

Super Mantis (I think) was the first Scorn record I ever bought on vinyl, back in 2010 or 2011. It absolutely blew me away how massive this thing sounded. It felt like it was a hundred times louder than the next 12″, and “Super Mantis” was the perfect track to showcase such power. On the flipside, the Blackmass Plastics remix draws the the track out to a crawl, allowing the bass to growl like a…

UGH! (BASS COMMENCES!) – Governor, whilst probably not my favourite, is definitely my most played Scorn release. I had this on my iPod when I was back working kitchens, and would often fart this out through the horrible aux connection we had to the stereo kept on top of the microwave. It was released on Germany’s Hymen label in 2002 as the EP which came around the same time as the Plan B record. It’s…

Plan B was the follow-up record to the Greetings… early 2000s era, where big beats and bigger, dirtier bass was the order of the day. In such terms, Plan B does absolutely not fuck around. Whatever Plan A was, well I’m simply not interested my friend, this will do very nicely right here. Words can only do later Scorn releases so much justice. For something that is so “less is more” when it comes to…

List Of Takers is a strange one, in that it presents a bunch of his tracks as one new hour and ten minute mix. It melds these all together into one big flowing experimental dub session. It’s an interesting variation and an interesting choice to release as a full length, originally being broadcast by the Break FM station, but it seems to be a canonical Scorn record. It’s great to chuck this on and leave…

Whistle For It is a one-off 10″ picture disc released in France back in 2007, featuring the title track and the weirdly titled “Born A Fielda Die A Fielda” on the flipside. The record is pretty rare, being a pressing of 500 and coming with a bunch of stickers and shit. It clocks in about £20 on Discogs and admittedly I don’t actually own it at the moment. As for the tracks, they are, of…

Leave It Out was a sneaky little four track 12″ EP dropped by Mick’s Possible Records in 1996. I suppose it could be seen as a companion piece to Logghi, as it has that same dirty beats-to-the-wall focus, where the ambient low-key beatwork of the Gyral era is smashed up to 11 on the beat-o-meter. Leave It Out isn’t particularly easy to get a hold of, but its going for about £13 on Discogs at…

Lick Forever Dog was a little single (?) / EP that came out in 1991. It had a crappy edit of the full-length track off of Vae Solis, but was accompanied by some stunning re-dubalubs of “On Ice” and “Heavy Blood”, which are some of my favourite tunes off the accompanying Vae Solis record.  The original 12″ version isn’t worth hunting down unless you are a collector of Scorn records, as all the tracks here…

Quiot is another (phew!) alias of Mick Harris, known primarily of course from drumming for Napalm Death and the dubby Scorn project. Quoit’s Lounge record sees more of those awkward, unsettling synth atmospherics from Scorn meet a more drum and bass inspired beatwork. There are breakbeats and busy drumming aplenty, and enough going on here to keep even the most ants-in-your-pants electronics fan busy for quite some time. Maybe you always appreciated Scorn but found…

I believe the duo here collaborated somewhat also on Eraldo’s SIMM project which is more in line with Mick’s Scorn sounds, but the second record in the line of this particular collab series expands on the d’n’b / breakbeat (kinda?) template of the first record and brings in more atmospheric or moody soundscapes. Couple that with the addition of Eraldo’s guitar work on a few tracks and this is a nice mix of styles and…

A cracking little collaboration, showcasing a more drum and bass style than what I’ve heard  so far from Mick Harris. The rhythms and tracks in general are erratic and constantly moving, but not to the point where it would be considered “fast” or chaotic. I’m not much in the know about Eraldo Bernocchi, but this has been a great little introduction.

Boom! This particular release that I’m looking at is a reissue of two tapes released originally on Hospital Recordings. It brings JK Flesh deeper into techno territory, far from the guitar-laden chugfests which began the project. Each release has been kept fresh and interesting, and Suicide Estate is not different. If you like dark, heavy beats that get inside your head and never leave, then I would recommend you give this a go.

Well this is a noisy little badger. A completists item though, most definitely. “Lament” is a disturbing wall of noise recorded in Italy, and “Soliel Noire” is some sort of live or early version of “Black Sun Rising” (I should have seen it coming, with that song title) or one of its seemingly endless Deliverance variants. All in all, nothing new, but it’s nice to hear these tracks all noisy and grimy.

Ah son, this is fucking class. Greetings From Birmingham, Governor, Plan B etc. etc. leading up to Stealth was a fucking stonking time for Scorn. Man, these beats, THAT BASS! It’s enough to make you lose your mind. It is so simple, yet so genius and perfect. The brooding may be dialed back a bit on this release, but the bass; that fat, greasy, wobbly STONK is dialed right up. Fantastic stuff. 

Like an upbeat, punch-packing version of Greetings From Birmingham. Some of the beats here are surprisingly quick, which is a rarity for Scorn. Being the associated EP for the Greetings… era though, Imaginaria Award has fucking moosive woppity woppity bass wobbles and stonking beats. It seems almost derivative for me to describe a Scorn EP in such a way yet again, but it is what it is! BIG BEATS GET HIGH ALL THE TIME! imaginaria…

Zander is fucking great, to put it simply. It’s the little things that count: digging deep and paying attention will bring this album to a whole new level. There is a meticulous level of detail beneath the seemingly repetitive bass and beats; variations and fills and… fake outs? Whatever the technical term is, Zander keeps you thinking, keeps you on your toes, and keeps you stimulated. Another brilliant record from a timeless project. 

Whine is a live album covering the Zander era of the Scorn project. Imagine tracks from that era (Zander is brilliant) but mashed up a little; the beats holding together a structure for additional sampling, noise forms and synth moods to unfold. Not an essential album, but one for the Scorn deep divers. 

RGTE are one of those bands that steer away from the death metal side of goregrind. Instead, lightening fast blasts and gargling shifted vocals are accompanied by dark, sharp hardcore riffs and fast-paced, rabid d-beat drums. Carnivorous Erection is a must if you are new to the world of goregrind, as is pretty much any Regurgitate release. However, this is probably the creme de la creme of the group’s discography. There is no better place…

Gyral was Scorn’s first studio album without Mr. Bullen on bass and vocals. If you are listening chronologically, it becomes wholly apparent that he is missing; there is a vocal-shaped hole in the music after a while. Scorn have never been lyrically dense, but those washed out, tired, effect-laden bars were just as much a part of the early works as the big beats. That doesn’t make Gyral boring however. The record is sparse and…

This was one of the first pieces of Scorn vinyl I picked up way back in either 2011 or 2012. It is the special release of “Stairway” I think for the Gyral release party. It’s a nice collector’s edition, but is just the one track on the one side of the record. It’s cool to own. A quick note however – the picture above is not my own. Mine is carefully stored away in the…

Ellipsis sees some of Scorn’s peers come into the fold to remix a few of their tracks. The result is a bit hit and miss, but there are stand-out contributions from Coil, Bill Laswell, and Autechre. If you’re into vinyl, there is a box set of this available, which looks absolutely glorious. You could say Scorn belongs on vinyl. 

Evanescence is probably the most popular and well received of the early Scorn records. It featured James Plotkin on guitar duties, and was to be the last album to feature Nicholas Bullen on bass and vocals. From the opener you’ll notice a few things are different here. Hip hop or drum n bass style beats are now starting to trickle into the band’s full lengths, but be fooled not; Evanescence is still a dark, moody,…

Colossus is a trip. In only a year since their debut, this record showcases the sheer progression that Scorn was making as a project. It would perhaps be lazy of me to say that Colossus continues in the vien of the moody, dubby second half of Vae Solis, but truly it is something much more sparse, harrowing and desperate. The songs are length trips, spaced-out and drums are drenched often in reverb. The feel is…

This EP has all of the infernal noise fuckery that I’ve come to know and love from earlier Venetian Snares records. Is it rude? Yes. Is it loud? Yes. Is it like Aphex Twin on methamphetamine? Double yes. It is hard to pick a stand out track per se, but the mind-melting beats are in abundance here. Groovy!  SHITFUCKERS!!! by Venetian Snares

After the release of their album Vae Solis earlier in 1992, Scorn quickly followed up with the Deliverance…. EP? I mean, I call it an EP but its long as fuck. I see the Deliverance sessions as one long sprawling track, more than individual segments. The way the the song titles flow kinda encourage this too; “Deliverance Through Dub”, “Delivered”, “To High Heaven”. At first it seems repetitive and annoying, but you eventually get used…

White Irises Blind has the same kinda lifespan as Deliverance. It started life as a (once again, very long) EP before a reissue by Earache several years later turned it into a ten-track compilation of dubs and remixes. The title track is a bizarre mix of haunting and groovy. The minimal mix that follows only serves to cement this feeling. “Black Ash Dub” and “Drained” are more abstract, and “Host Of Scorpions” is just terrifying,…

Vae Solis the record that introduced me to the Scorn project. It took a few years, but Scorn became one of my favourite musical ventures, and was a massive influence on myself and my own musical production (not that it really matters), whether that was from the older, industrial full-band records like Vae Solis or the beat-led solo stuff that would come later. Vae Solis sees the Side A line up of Napalm Death’s Scum…

Quite possibly my favourite Skinless record. I love how clean the production is, and of course, how crushingly heavy the fucking thing is. The riffs have a slam-tinge to them, and anyone who knows Skinless will know that they live up to their gruesome name. A classic. Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead by Skinless

In 2013, Sigur Rós dropped Kveikur, a much rockier and noiser affair than some of the earlier records. Sigur Rós are not a band that I would expect to sit still and stagnate with each passing record, and Kviekur harks back to memories of bands such as Muse or Radiohead, but with that unique Icelandic feel. Worth a goosey! Kveikur by Sigur Rós

If you wander the path of dungeon synth then you shall of course know the name Old Sorcery. I recently got through a bunch of records when up late playing Morrowind, unable to sleep alongside my girlfriend as I had been working nights. Old Sorcery, and in particular the Strange And Eternal record, helped massively in that regard. A fantastic record, sometimes the compositions hark back to more legendary synthesizer composers such as Jean-Michel Jarre…

I’ve been on a bit of Prurient kick recently, enjoying a few of his records. Cocaine Death however is one that has been saved in my Spotify list for years now. I’m not sure what it is, but I really love the aching melody that creeps below the surface of harsher noises. Cocaine Death toes the line between sonic destruction and ambient beauty.

What a putrid pile of perceptively perverse punishingly pummeling porno explosions! From the (f)artwork right down the audible carnage of the vokills, drums and grinding guitars, Septicopyemia have the brutality dialed in and the supreme art of slamming carnage locked down. Expect disgust from start to finish, and a dust-bin lid for a snare drum. 

After being drawn in by the lush album art and the slowly building intro, I am unfortunately having to report that I found this Forest Of Yore record to be incredibly disappointing. Why, you ask? The synths, if not a little slow (which is usually fine, if building such a dense and incredible atmosphere), are jarring horribly alongside sounds of nature. I can’t tell if its sampled or looped or genuine bird song, but Jesus…

Reverence was Emperor’s comeback EP before they dropped their new full length in 1997. Honestly, this is a pretty bizarre release, and kinda pointless. Emperor mad lads will no doubt notice the slightly different mix on “Reverence”, but other than that, this is entirely a completists item and should be treated as such.

Now this is more like it! Four tracks of…. of…. what exactly? Breakbeat / breakcore nonsense meets narcotic-fuelled experimentation. If you can hunt down the CD version, there’s a whole bunch of additional remixes thrown on from various peers of the speedy breaky game, my favourite of which has to be the project named Duran Duran Duran.

This has been on my to-do list for donkey’s years. Bong-Ra has a long and rich musical history (lol) so going back and taking a sniff at the earlier records has been something I’ve been meaning to do for some time. There’s a series of mixed vibes here. A heavy junglist theme carries the majority of the tracks, some more chaotic than others with veins of breakbeat and drum and bass stylings. There’s a bunch…

The artwork on the front of Ágætis Byrjun is very apt; here we can see the gestation of Sigur Rós as they develop their bizarre yet gorgeous brand of unique music first presented to the world on Von. The music is growing; the post-rock moments are starting the sprawl and these tracks are beautiful and progressive. I’m not the world’s biggest expert on Sigur Rós but this is a beautiful release. Ágaetis byrjun by Sigur…

This album is so good that I ripped it and imported it into my game files for TES III: Morrowind. Hliðskjálf builds on the gloomy MIDI-keyboard fantasy realms of Dauði Baldrs, sprawling into more moody and atmospheric keyboard work, which all at once conjure memories of very early Cradle Of Filth, fantasy table-top roleplaying, of course the misty mysteries of Morrowind, and even something altogether more Angelo Badalamenti. I consider the two Burzum prison albums…

Theatric Symbolisation Of Life is a weird one, doubling both as a full length album and a collection of splits. Some of this stuff I’ve already reviewed under other releases (such is the massive pain in the ass that AGx releases can be) but all in all this is a solid record. It is really long at 1hr and 13 mins in length, but if you’ve never heard Agathocles before, its probably a pretty good…

What can be said about this classic of the genre? We can pretend that later Terrorizer doesn’t exist if that makes you feel any better! Ha! Y’know how people always say that grindcore is a mixture between the craziest parts of hardcore punk and metal? Well, World Downfall really perfected the metallic side of grindcore for me. Each song is a ripper, but not in the looser, chaotic ways displayed by stalwarts Napalm Death –…

This is a mixed bag for me, as far as Bong-Ra is concerned. Monolith generally seems to be critically well received, but I am more of a fan of the breakbeat stuff than I am of the dubstep with rapping over it. This rap stuff isn’t a million miles away from what Esham is doing on the Venus Flytrap or DMT records, and the stuff here (featuring Sole mainly) isn’t awful, it’s just when the…

A death metal tinged, blackened thrash exodus of the oldest school variety. Have I included enough buzz words in this review? Fuck yes! Chapel Of Disease runs the gauntlet of extreme metal tropes and distills them into a heavily enjoyable product, one to which you can bang your head and enjoy. A great record.

I recently did a post where I said I was sad that Burzum hadn’t released anything for a while, and BOOM out of the murky waters comes this absolute gem of a double album! Dodgy Thule shit aside (make of that what you will) Burzum conjures the most unique and beautiful of dungeon synth atmospheres. He has his detractors, of course, but I am not in league with them. This could just be a tired…

This dropped a few months before the new Burzum record. I listened to them back to back, so I may be getting my head wrapped incorrectly around things, but the two records definitely share a number of tracks. It seems that this is a prototype for the album that eventually came, which was longer and with a different layout and track list. If Thulean Mysteries never came, then Thule would be an intriguing listen. Today…

AxPx are absolutely killing it on this tape. Channelling the energy of mincecore legends such as Agathocles into their own drum-machine-led barrage of sonic annihilation. I did a show once in Hungary (drumming for DZH) with Chappa’ai, and they are just as mental and noisy here as they were live then. “Z’Tarc Programming Device” is the single track; a long dirge of bleeping noise and harsh vocals. Sad to hear the band is currently no…

There is something relaxing about earlier Burial recordings, despite the morose atmosphere and melodies which are obscured beneath a layer of urban grit. South London Burroughs is not a long record, but it’s 20 minutes or so of fantastic beat work and atmospherics.

Well, this is a little classic, isn’t it? Stumbled upon it almost by accident, but this is a gem in the earlier to mid Agx split 7″ gamut. Agathocles have some pounding mince stomps here, even the live tracks at the end are glorious. The title track just makes me wanna drink cheap Belgian beer and dance around like a muppet. Carcass Grinder are fucking solid too, bringing 4 tracks of lightening fast grindcore to…

A band that rolls in the filth of exploitation film? That’s gotta be a good thing right? Perhaps it is, once I set aside the expectation for every band that write about horror movies to sound like Mortician. Video Nasties have a lot more going on that I ever would have expected. I came for lo-fi splatter death metal, and I left with a new band to keep an eye on. Video Nasties are razor…

Prurient exists in his own class within the noise world. That sounds a bit up his arse, but the project toes a fine line between beauty and chaos, between the fragile and the concrete. This balance of opposites is as clear on Frozen Niagara Falls as it is in any of Prurient’s other work (that I’ve heard), and at an hour and a half in length, it is a mammoth double album journey through ice…

Glorious, glorious, fucking glorious dungeon synth music. Immediately you will notice the classic video game bent to this, not only in the artwork but in the tone and style of the synth patches used. Kobold conjures memories of old school RPG’ing. If I close my eyes I am in the deepest, darkest dungeons. Absolutely fucking beautiful. HDK 02 † The cave of the lost talisman by KOBOLD

This is one of those records that just makes me feel good, so I’m really glad that I checked it out. Honestly, I’ve heard of Mr. Costello but hadn’t ever heard his music until a track from this record was used as the theme song for the second season of HBO’s stunning The Deuce. This Year’s Model is a feel good (mostly!) romp through new-age rock and roll, tinged with the snot of the American…

Incredibly impressive on first impressions! We are dropped into the carnage with absolutely no warning; opener “A Virulent Strain of Retaliation” holds nothing back in brutality. I love how downtuned and mushy this deathly slamming sludge is. Obscene Majesty, as a whole, harks back to the earlier Knupp-led days of Devourment, with pit-opening slam riffs and grooves. Honestly, the riffs on this thing are fucking outrageous. Outrageous I tell you! My only complaint is a…

Today was a good day, for today was the day I decided to sit down and play through the entire Demilich discography. Thankfully, these days the entire task has been made painfully easy thanks to the release entitled 20th Adversary of Emptiness, which not only remasters the essential Nespithe record, but the entire gamut of demos too.  I first heard of Demilich when they were announced for Netherlands Death Fest in 2016 (I missed them…

Savagery is Skinless’ first record since 2015’s Only The Ruthless Remain, which in itself was something of a departure from the bands more slam-orientated roots. Savagery however, strays further from that path into slower, sludgier riffing and a muddier sound, coming across more like Obituary than anything Dying Fetus. It’s still heavy, it’s still fantastic death metal, but forgive me if I feel like spinning Trample The Weak… instead.  Savagery by Skinless

After an 8 or 9 year break, it was great to see Skinless back with another record. I love the approach of lesser songs but with longer track lengths, which was refreshing. The album art leaves a little bit to be desired but everything else is massively on point and Skinless absolutely kill it on this album. Only The Ruthless Remain by Skinless

Wake have come a long way since I last heard them. I think I first came across them when they were announced for OEF during my first trip back in 2013. The band have perhaps unsurprisingly come in leaps and bounds since then, having developed and matured over several records into a monstrous unit of metallic destruction. Think Corrupt Moral Altar or U.K. doomers Conjurer, but mashed into the deepest mires of grindcore and even…

Checked this out on the back of the group’s split with the infamous Cuntgrinder. Raped, Butchered and Eaten will not win any awards for originality, especially with an album title like that, but let’s not forget which genre of music we are currently wallowing in. All in all, massive misogynistic overtones aside (make of those what you will), Cuntemonium present to us a slow and groovy, yet not so easily digestible slab of groovy gore…

Part of what made Blade Runner such a magical experience for me was how all the visuals and audio meld together to create the (almost) perfect dystopian sci fi feast. A large part of that is, of course, the musical soundtrack – a glorious, epic yet electronic and futuristic exploration by the severely underrated composer Vangelis. Nothing quite conjures the mass industrial, uber-capitalist wastelands that we call cities now like this score does. For when…

And here we have the scratchy beginnings of one of the most entertaining dungeon synth projects of all time. Local Portal is a local demo for local wizards, and yes, whilst the scale of production is much humbler here so it’s the overall tone and sense of daring adventure.

I was surprised to see that Cuntgrinder (Cunt Grinder? Which is it?) was still going, so happily tucked into this little split CD. That infamous bludgeoning metallic pornogrind attack takes me right back to their earlier records, complete with hideous sampling and gruff shifted vocals. Cuntemonium have such a shit name. Come on! Haha! But, the band are fucking savage, and honestly, put Cuntgrinder to shame. Cuntemonium play in the same sludgy / groovy style,…

Pulsing, gorgeous, ethereal soundscapes are the order of the day. I’d barely say that this even fits into the genre of vaporwave, having more in common with ambient or even the trippier side of the psytrance movement. A million miles from invoking nostalgia, Building A Better World instead seems to look forward to the future in all its dreamy, hazy synth meandering. A fantastic collaboration and recommended to any fan of electronic music.

With a name like PrismCorp (is that a Watchmen reference maybe?) Virtual Enterprises, and of course the artwork displayed above, one surely could not be accused too harshly of heavily assuming what kind of tunes that are in store on Home(TM)? Think 80s television mixed with The Sims or that weird upbeat music you’d get over porno on VHS, and you’re on the right track. Home(TM) meanders in its own way, sometimes to jazz, sometimes…

Just look at that art! Despite the heavy nostalgic tones, Diskette Park instead wallows in oceanic waves of moody, melancholic synth work, rather than your more [ t y p i c a l ] vaporwave. In fact, as time goes on, and whilst I agree that the genre does have its own solid base, I find that these days it is more of a marker for a starting point; a pointer as to the…

Beautiful, glorious, dreadfully obtuse acoustic guitar strummery, wallowing in the depths of the avant-garde and the straight-up pretentious. But hey, its okay, because you surely must know that going in to this record or you wouldn’t be here in the first place. This record offers 13 rituals of dark, atmospheric musings using the acoustic guitar partly as a conjurer of atmosphere, and secondly as a weapon. For fans of the strange and the occult, I…

I suppose this could be categorised as true industrial music? I am instantly reminded of the group called Stomp that we used to watch videos of as a kid. All sorts of machinery and noises are utilised to create bizarre mechanical soundscapes. Fireworks (I think? Ha!) and the scrape of metal on metal is the order of the day, resulting in the beauteous song of the furnace at work. Good stuff. 

Odyssey is… well… a near 50 minute odyssey (I can only apologise) through vaporwave style and gorgeous electronic production. HOME doesn’t seem to fall as hard into the trappings of the genre, for better or worse, and the music just sounds more original and inspired, rather than “hey, this is just slowed down 80s infomercials!”. I was building my home work rig (an overstatement if I ever wrote one) whilst listening to this and I…

The Hellraiser movie is more than disturbing enough without having to think about all the juicy goodies that were scrapped before the final product was released. Among many changes made to Hellraiser as it went along was possibly the greatest casualty of the lot – the original score by Coil. There seems to be a confusing array of formats and releases for these tunes, which thankfully saw the light of day eventually. But, I’m pretty…

I’ve always had a lot of respect for Ed Snowden, and this account, not only of how the powers that be are watching us all, but of the personal journey through his entire life leading up to the point where he decided to spill the US Government’s secrets to us all, echoes that aching question that has always been in the back of my mind when it comes to Snowden. If in the same position…

Well, I absolutely snoozed on this, that much I can tell you. Imagine my shock then, when chucking this on and thinking “oh, cracking, a remaster should even out the rougher, more heavily compressed edges of A Grand Declaration…” – the difference here is staggering. It sounds as if the record has been completely re-recorded. I half expected Attila to crop up and do some throat-singing. The immediate notice is the absence of the overblown…

Lightening fast black metal a la Thorns meets the more blockier, Matrix-influenced techno of the late 90s. Where Thorns has that cold air to it all, Aborym has the energy and vibrancy of the soundtrack to something you’d hear in an exclusive sex club full of vampires wearing PVC, or something. That is, at least, when the electronics are playing. When the group focus on things more black metal-ly, one must admit that the scale…

Lush, gorgeous, unfolding electronics and ambient soundscapes driven forward by pulsing and catchy beats. Oh, and you’ve got the Salad Fingers music in there too, just to shit you up out of the blue if you associate that tune with Dai Firth’s menacing creations. I’ve never been one for the hipster hype train of Boards Of Canada but it is hard to deny their genius, and Geodaddi cements that.

I picked up Annihilation because the film struck something of a chord with me. I couldn’t tell you exactly what it was about the movie, but something about it had me wanting more, wanting to peel back more layers, or more-like, consult the source material in the search for answers to this intriguing puzzle. In book one of the Southern Reach trilogy however, there are no answers. Or, no significant ones. Where the movie channeled…

I’m not entirely sure what it was that made me watch Annihilation for the first time. It might have been Alex Garland’s work with Ex Machina, which I really enjoyed. I didn’t really know what to expect going in to Annihilation, other than mostly everyone I knew that had watched it had hated it. And I suppose, I can see why. Annihilation isn’t a bad movie per se, its just that I had no fucking…

There have been many retellings of the Dracula tale since the classic silent-era Nosferatu (1922). Not all of them have been particularly amazing, and I suppose you can count 1992’s big Hollywood stab at the tale in that camp. This movie hits the mark about half of the time. The atmosphere, the imposing danger and creepiness, and most importantly, the casting in these timeless and crucial roles. Hopkins as Van Helsing is fantastic, as is…

Basket Case is a bizarre low budget horror movie from the beginning of the sleazy 80s. I’m not sure if this would count as body horror (probably not), but the little monster in the basket (spoiler alert) has a very Cronenberg kinda feel to it, if just a little tackier. This movie seems infamous, and I suppose it is – with good reason – but I can’t help but point out my issues with pacing…

This Hedge Wizard record is probably one of my favourite dungeon synth records of recent times. It’s not necessarily the tunes themselves, as there are many projects out there producing quality compositions of varying intricacy, but Hedge Wizard has that special magic ingredient in spades: atmosphere. From the minute I press play, to the completion of the run time, I am cast back into a world of 90s DOS role playing games and hokey high…

Utilitarian is a solid later-career effort from Napalm Death, with experimental variations on the group’s usual ferocious grindcore template. We’ve got clean singing (I’m getting an 80s industrial vibe) and a saxophonist guesting on one track, which is just all kinds of horrible and lovely at the same time.

As much as I yearn for the raw beginnings of Lifelover’s sound, I also love how it developed and matured over the band’s later albums. The anguish is more restrained and doled out across tracks that almost sparkle with their own morose beauty.

Age Of Consent is a beautiful film from the arse-end of the 60s which I am so so glad I took a chance on. The plot is a bit wet, following an artist who lost his muse as he returns to the wilderness of a desert island, where he meets a young and nubile Helen Mirren. She becomes his model, and their relationship develops, but the problem is, is that he is a man in…

After Now, Diabolical the Age Of Nero feels like Satyricon’s “if it ain’t broke…” moment. Which is fine, in all honesty, as the album is fucking super solid, if not a little predictable. The songs are tight as fuck, from Frost’s drumming to the razor sharp guitars, this is the perfect balance of rock n roll swagger and lethal black metal precision. There’s too many good tracks to list them all, but “Black Crow On…

I made the decision to take this rare opportunity to listen to both of these records back to back, and post each one in succession. I started with, of course, Covenant’s OG In Times Before The Light; a hissy, hollow black metal experience. Not as necro as some entries in the genre, but there is an echoic hollowness to proceedings that even a layer of frosted synths cannot cover up. There is a magic and…

I’m unsure if anyone has ever used Times New Roman on a record sleeve and gotten away with it like Cathedral have here. Honestly, it seems like the guys were stoned as fuck when they signed off on that artwork, and the same goes for the EP itself. This is a gloriously mad little thing, which reeks of early Cathedral vibes, but hints at the psychedelic madness that would come on later records. “Cosmic Funeral”…

Noisy, grim and endlessly bizarre, Abruptum occupy a strange space between the words of noisecore, black metal and something altogether more avante garde. This mammothly-titled record is of no exception to this, and is a pretty challenging listen.

Forest Of Equilibrium is often written about as Cathedral’s slow and miserable gestation into the world of doom, but, I find that in more than just scratching the surface of this dusty tome of fantastical worlds and weeping riffs, it is very distinctly Cathedral, from Gaz’s riffs to Lee’s unique vocals. Yeah, this isn’t spaced out on 10,000 strong mushroom tea (lol, a bit OTT there), but this is nowhere near as depressing as people…

Super tight, ultra brutal and lightening fast brutal death metal is the order of the day. Ominous Bloodline lacks in originality but instead brings instead spades of slashing death metal intricacy, rabid energy and solid production values.

It seems a lot of people think that this is a bit of a bummer for Burzum to go out on. I’ve only listened to it a couple of times since it was released and whilst it is an easy listen, my first impressions – which have stuck with me until now – were that it was a cheap imitation of the earlier synth work from the same project. Sure, he’d upgraded from horrendous analogue…

As much as I initially enjoyed this reworking I still don’t really understand the whole point of this record. Like, why does it exist? It seems entirely un-Burzum to want to re-record past material in a more clear and well produced way. I suppose if the songs you released initially, even if loved all over the world, don’t match up to the vision you had as an artist, then that can be pretty frustrating. It…

The sounds of industrial landscapes are sourced and re-purposed into collages of weaving, constantly collapsing slabs of freeform noise. This is the second such collab between Merzbow and Davis. Bonus points from me for using the title “Inland Empire” for the final track.

When Covenant became Kovenant, I’m not sure if the world became a better or worse place. I love some of the Kovenant albums, but this kind of music hasn’t really aged well and is for me rather corny, and a product of the 90s. Imagine my surprise then, when I finally, after like 18 years or whatever, got around to listening to this re-recording. Immediately there is an industrial hue to it, like when an…

Sometimes power electronics can be a little try hard,  especially when try to capture the impact of the older days.  Blue Rabbit however is genuinely terrifying; a brooding, disturbing entry from a great of the genre. All of the narratives are pretty macabre, but the title track itself is particularly harrowing. Musically, it is a little bit dialed back compared to some of their peers, instead of blasting your face with noise, the band let…

In my younger days I always had a large respect for what Tool was doing, but in the constant lust for what was fast more brutal, or even more offensive, albums like Lateralus fell to the wayside for me. Thankfully, now in my wizened old age I can return to such records and see the beauty in them. Lateralus is like watching the mechanism of a very expensive Swiss watch in slow motion; all the…

Shrinebuilder was the only studio record by the band of the same name, which was a super group consisting of Dale from the Melvins, Al from Om and Sleep, Wino from Saint Vitus, and Scott from Neurosis. It is a fairly polished affair, which is a solid listen, with most of the guys sharing vocal duties. Some of the tracks are quite monolithic, but standing up to all the other projects that these guys have…

Harvesting The Cunt Nectar (yes lol) is the only full length record from bizarre hyper-fast drum machine goregrind unit, XXX Maniak. The band’s linear notes, backstory and attention to gory detail really made this record stand out to me when it was released; the type of thing that perfectly appealed to the grotty 17 year old finding his footing in the world of grindcore. In the seemingly endless sea of digigrind projects on MySpace, XXX…

What in the holy mother of fuck did I just watch? Like, this is a mess. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I honestly don’t know. What starts as a slasher setting quickly devolves into a clusterfuck of Satanic rituals and insane plot twists. The plot can literally go fuck itself, but I have to commend this film on its gore, it’s cast (eyes are now firmly back in skull) and its…