You’d never guess by taking a glance at the beautiful, landscape beset by sunset album cover that the UK’s William English is a shit rollin’, mud wallowing sludge hybrid band of the highest caliber. Formed by three ex-members of the criminally overlooked A Horse Called War, this crush n’ kill quintet get on your back […]
It is hard to believe that it has been eighteen years since the Hate Eternal/Alas demo was released. Hate Eternal being a blistering technical death metal band and Alas being more of a melodic doom project. Both of these projects showing the song writing versatility of Erik Rutan who had been in Morbid Angel and […]
Ok, this one threw me for a loop. I have a pretty limited exposure to Supuration; my only real point of reference was their 1993 oddball of an album, The Cube; and then bits and pieces of the various Supuration/S.U.P. permutations. I was aware of their trajectory following that path that so many innovative bands […]
So South Korea’s Fallen Angel’s productions has been around since 2010, and based on my recent package from them, they have a pretty distinct niche for international, simple, middle ground, lo fi black metal (Pest, Elffor, Dark Plague, Kvalvaag, Skoll, Krigerewolf, Catacumba) and even some home grown nihilism (Taekaury), but one of the bands more recent releases, […]
Primitive Man’s latest ep is an oppressive, aggressive slab o’ sludge…and a bit of grind…fine, slip in some crust parts too. It’s an anthropomorphic equivalent to the imposing brutalist style housing project high rise that populate the part of town ,as whispered of by parents, “you don’t want your car to breakdown in”. Zooming in […]
I remember there was once a time when I used to walk to record stores and take a chance on a band solely based on the album artwork. In starting this review I must say I was very much drawn into the cover art of New Jersey grinders Organ Dealer prior to checking them out much […]
You have to hand it to Blast Head Records, they certainly haven’t locked into a singular style for their releases and bands. They got pretty well most genres covered from brutal death metal (Hate Division, Nebulous), epic black metal (Valdrin, Eternium), grindcore (Nervous Impulse) and even Swedish death metal (Morbid Vomit). They also like to […]
Creative center, guitarist and vocalist of veteran US stoner/doom act Starchild, Richard Bennett, scores a rousing success with his latest project, Stars That Move. Their self-titled debut from Stone Groove Records finds Bennett relinquishing the lead vocal duties to his wife Elisa Maria and adopting a trio format with her and Frank Sikes. It’s an […]
I usually dismiss the press sheet that comes with a promo out of hand; I don’t need no PR dweeb filling my brain with their hyperbole, before I create my own hyperbole to fill all of yours with. But for once, the press sheet describing Black Queen as “Witch Metal” is pretty apropos. Even the […]
Technical death metal is almost a term that strikes immediate disappointment in my heart these days. Given the complete saturation of this sub-genre, along with the contemporary tendency to employ an over-produced sound, replete with Pro-Tools nuances, and favouring mechanical instrumental bravado over craftsmanship of a well-written piece of music, it is something I now […]
Ok, ok, Dark Descent Records…stop it, really. Mr. Matt Calvert, truly over the last 2 years, especially, is making other labels squirm in their chairs. While obviously having a penchant for the awesome Finnish scene, he signs bands from a variety of extreme genres and goddammit he gets it right every effin time!!! With the […]
Anymore, I do my damndest to either keep to a minimum or wholly eliminate the “I” persona from reviews when I can. This works out most of the time, but whenever you are reviewing a band that you have maintained a long-time listening relationship with…well, it gets pretty fuckin’ tough. Winnipeg’s KEN Mode is always […]
Fuck the Facts is, right off the bat, just the best band name ever. The end. Musically, the band dwells in a grindcore geography, but is not of a grindcore geography. They are more akin to Today is the Day than Pig Destroyer or Napalm Death, and the point of each song is not to […]
OK Mighty Music, THIS is more like it!!!!!!!!!! After a slew of awful rock, Mighty Music has released something that I more expect from the label. Some chunky, beefy European death metal by way of Austria’s Epsilon (formerly known as Side Y)and their second full length album. These guys are new to me, but I like what […]
A “Lychgate” is a gateway covered with a roof found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style churchyard and also a very entertaining ritualistic styled avant-garde black doom metal group from The UK. Lychgate takes a much different approach to song composition and each track on “An Antidote for a Glass Pill” is […]
It’s always exciting when a curiously undiscovered gem proceeds to pound your ears in all the right ways and assert itself as a genuine force you should have been listening too much earlier. Jamming out over the past decade in relative obscurity, Virginian bruisers King Giant are one such untapped gem returning to smack some […]
I’ve been rather enjoying this current run of lighter, melodic, sometimes folky, sometimes ‘Cascadian’, sometimes ‘post’, artsy black metal influenced arguably started by and influenced by the likes of Wolves in the Throne Room, Altar of Plagues, Deafheaven, Alcest and Agalloch a few years back. Recently, the likes of Vattnet Viskar, Ghost Bath, Downfall of Nur, Alda, Soar, Wiegedood, […]
The second album from English groove doom heavies Prophets of Saturn practically screams, “Listen to me while high as possible, please!” The four tracks that comprise the weedy, peer pressuring Retronauts are overloaded with groove, drippy psyche-wah solos, sleepy monotone vocals and a rhythm section that is fresh out of high school. In terms of […]
Any band with 20+ years to its name is bound to evolve, but Fear Factory has never gone through massive upgrades to their OS (band members though, different story). Soul of a New Machine was industrial death metal in its molten form, and Demanufacture refined it into cold blue steel. Remanufacture sent it through the crusher and the chop-shop. […]
Euro-Asia (Orwell fans will get the wordplay) piles on the tonal goodness with their latest EP release A View of the Earth. These Floridian netherworld dwellers gravitate between the Empire State Building tall riffage and trance-y space-outs of heavy/pretty greats such as Hum, Shiner, Floor, Swervedriver and Cave In. Not quite crushing enough to be […]
Steve Von Till, a key member of seminal sludge and “post-metal” legends Neurosis, has pursued a fruitful solo career in recent years and released a handful of stark blues and country influenced albums. Blues and country influence, in this context, certainly doesn’t refer to wang dang doodle or how he stopped loving her today. The […]
While trying to find a video/sample to put into my reviews of Alda’s Passage, and Crom Dubh‘s Heimweh, I keep seeing YouTube suggestions for songs from a band called Vallendusk. Well, eventually I clicked on one of the songs from the band’s Pest Records 2013 album, Black Clouds Gathering, and I was hooked. And not just […]
Chicago’s Immortal Bird made ripples in the underground when they burst onto the scene with their impressive Akrasia EP in 2013. Led by the ultra talented Rae Amitay and featuring in their ranks guitarist Evan Berry from impressive folk metal titans Wilderun, Immortal Bird return with their eagerly anticipated debut full-length, Empress/Abscess. Aside from featuring […]
If judged on the merit of riffs alone, Texan tarnation masters Funeral Horse would be a holy grail of hard-rock. The constant shifts from road-rage solos to dusty blues riffs to pavement cracking noise-rock/hardcore to vintage 70s hard rock backed by a walloping rhythm section will keep you guessing and ducking for cover as to […]
Wombbath is a Swedish death metal band who were kicking it around in the early 90’s but broke up in 1995. Their lone album, 1993s Internal Caustic Torments was a classic for me and grossly overlooked back in the day. Had no idea it was remastered a mere 2 years ago and I snagged it recently from […]