So now that’s out of the way, I have to be very objective here, considering the link to a person I still have contact with. Well, luckily, there is no need for objectivity, as Hollow kicks all sorts of ass, and I say that indeed to be completely objective.

Crungus covers all sorts of modern death metal realms here, but the nearest comparison I can lock onto is Cattle Decapitation (listen to the riffs in “Hollow”, “Abomination” or “Lost”), especially vocally, as there are hints of black metal, grindcore, old school death metal, new death metal, and a little experimentation. I mean, for starters, opener “Dead Tree” has clean vocals. Didn’t see that coming from a band called Crungus.

Then there is the swampy southern ooze amid “Collapsing”, which also features a nasty little groove at the 1:07 mark. Or the clean vocals that again appear for the sludgy/stoner-y metal “Shapeshifter”, which could be Crowbar riffs with death metal vocals, or the tremolo-picked black metal furor that  fills “The Fear”.

But groove is certainly the main focus of the band, despite all the inherent blasting Floridian and Texan death metal influences at play. Tracks like the aforementioned “Collapsing”, “Undying Ritual”,  “Lost”, and massive, doomy closer “Massacre” are full of nifty little lumbers and grooves amid the death metal blasts, that bring grins and seat-based moshing galore.

A solid, solid effort, and I’m happy Kris and co got signed to a label and are getting some exposure. I guess his years of reviewing death metal at this very site paid off….. just kidding. Check these guys out.

I keed,  I keed What we have here is a re-release of a 2023 effort from this Texas act formed by Jason Ramsey (notably from Baton Rouge’s Suture, who released solid albums on Deepsend Records, Unmatched Brutality and Comatose Music from 2002-2013), and while it was released by a couple of labels on various formats back in 2023, Wormholdeath is giving it another go around.

Now, while I enjoy death metal of the blasting, brutal, technical, relentless kind, I feel death metal in its purest, most classic form is best enjoyed in a more mid-paced, lumbering delivery, and that is what Skulldozer does pretty effectively on their debut.

The immediate and easy comparison is Jungle Rot (and not just ‘cos of the similarly grizzled, grey-haired, veteran frontmen) as Skulldozer delivers a simple, effective 44 minutes of mid-paced, trundling death metal with the occasional blast here and there. Fans of Humiliation, Vore, Cianide, recent Mind Conflict, and other old-school death metal take note. Though Skulldozer never quite veers in the current, pure Bolt Thrower worshipping trend.

The production is OK, though it could be a little heftier, and Ramsey’s vocals don’t have a whole lot of power, but they are serviceable as the 10 tracks rumble and stomp around with enjoyable aplomb. The riffs are simple but get the message across with a simple, groove-laden ferocity. Tracks like “Thy Enemies Driven Before Me”, “Wolves Among the Sheeple”, “Bastard of Zeus” and “Bow to None” are simple, satisfying tracks that won’t change the world, but will get induce stank face and headbanging.

Some blasters like “Kingdom Ossarium” “Scum Beneath the Skin”, “Hatesworn Shitstorm” and “Skullfucking Domination” speed things up a tad, while the 6-plus minute “Deathblessed” is a slower, doomier number, as required by death metal album rules.

Not an album that I’ll really crave or revisit, but certainly a solid release of absolutely no-frills death metal.

Well, it sounds fucking amazing, and certainly, if you are a bit tired of Amon Amarth‘s tried and tested, safer last couple of albums, then Idolatrous is for you, as they add a fresh layer of gruffer, beefy guitars and synths to their exact sound with killer results. Further adding to the obvious influence, Eric Scherzinger has a spot on Johan Hegg’s growl.

But I’m definitely enjoying Sorrow on Midgard more than Berzerker and way more The Great Heathen Army. And it’s not just because of the keyboards which certainly add an almost symphonic black metal air of austere majesty to the thunderous music, but there’s a fresh sense of energizing songwriting to the influence as well. The production is a little overbearing but really carries some heft at times.

Like their Swedish peers, Sorrow on Midgard delivers a mix of rousing, faster, blood-pumping numbers (“Predecessor”, “Prophecy”), and more mid-paced, marches (“Eternal”, “The Smoke Settles”, “The Harrowing Reprisal”) and songs that mix both. Standout tracks like “The Wolf’s Ghost”, “Asgard” (which reminds me a little of “The Pursuit of Vikings”), and the title track, hit all the right melo-death itches, but with something a little extra. The synths are not going to be confused for Francesco Ferrini ( Fleshgod Apocalypse), but they are serviceable and do add to the proceedings.

That said, that little extra, as the album title hints, with the synths, is often also a bit of a sorrowful back current to many of the songs, with an almost Insomnium-like interweaving of sadness amid the crunch as heard on “Returning to War”, “Chasing Shadows” and “Sorrow on Midgard”. There isn’t a hint of mead swilling, beerhall tom foolery in sight.

With this and last year’s Exist in Ruin EP, that’s 2 Wormholedeath releases I’ve enjoyed over the last couple of months. It’s nice to see the small Italian label make some waves.

So what does this ambitious project sound like when all those folks come together? Pretty simple really... latter Dimmu Borgir.

That’s pretty much all you need to know really. Just listen to the opening bars of the EP’s title track. Weingarten delivers some very nice, dramatic, theatrical orchestration to a decent mix of blackened/death metal and when Jessy Christ comes in with her witchy vocals there’s a definite vibe of Agnete Kjølsrud on “Gateways” from the Abrahadabra album. So use that as sort of a starting point for Exist in Ruin‘s sound.

The 6 songs are all pretty well written, sound superb, and have enough death metal crunch (largely Moreira’s vocals) to go with the blackened/orchestral elements, so much so that it comes close to being more symphonic death metal akin to bands like Godiva or Scepticflesh and Rotting Christ at times.

The songwriting is pretty strong with some nice moments amid the 6 song, 27-minute EP, notably on the EP’s back end such as the standout “Paradigm”, “Scourge” and closer “Although I live, I Die”. Everything is polished professional and enjoyable, especially in my current mode of listening to anything with symphonic or orchestration involved.

A very promising project that Teren looks to be building here. I’ll be interested to see if he keeps a revolving door of folks involved (Weingarten in particular needs to stay involved) and I look forward to hearing more.

After the intro, “Inanis Kultus” the band dive in to “The Temple”, and it’s a bit of a soft opening for the album as I’m not completely sold due to the song’s standard stoner chug, lack of dynamics and heft. But its last couple of minutes show promise and then it’s the next title track where Sumeru truly reveal who they are and it continues for the rest of the album’s 5 songs (interlude “Kali Ratri” not included). The title track adds some real sneer to the stoner stomp and with a really nice bluesy romp and late song heft variety that got my attention.

A little middle eastern vibe slithers into “Embrace the Cold” and it’s more beefed up Mastodon tone, “Durga! Durga!” has a huge groove in its latter stages, and “River of Lethe” is the album’s sternest track. Then nine + minute closer ‘A New Ritual” throws a bit of a curveball with a slow brooding start that leads you to believe a lengthy, moody ballad is coming….and it sort of does, just a heavy, crumbling,  brooding ballad that heavily imbues Crowbar. Pun fully intended.

I’m not a big stoner/sludge/doom metal guy but this and Black Royal‘s Lightbringer from earlier this year have been thoroughly enjoyable releases in the genre and I’ll definitely be looking for more from both in the future.

The album opens with “23rd Circle Bree” and it’s a short little intro song with a nice breakdown coupled with some blackened blast beats and screams that sound like a women version of the dude from Caliban. This is the only song worth listening to on the album. The breakdown on this track is the same breakdown that is used in all ten of the songs. To be honest all of the songs sound exactly alike. There’s no substance and the album is dull and generic.

“The Rise Of Noah” starts with awful clean vocals and it mixes the blackened blast beats but really it just sounds like some shitty goth band with a semi hot vocalist. Put the blasting at different parts, use same exact breakdown as song before, throw in some sparkly weird keyboard part over that said breakdown and the song is complete.

A few spoken word parts are also thrown in and I’m glad they were used sparingly. The lyrics are of the lets get to heaven, mother nature variety and at times she sounds like she doesn’t understand what she’s even saying. I even heard a little adolescent profanity in some of the lyrics that will please the parental advisory sticker loving youth. Pretty badass am I right?

This is the soundtrack for our troubled youth. For people that have Paramore and Slipknot as their favorite bands on their Facebook. This is music for people that cut themselves and dance around playgrounds with their fellow juggalos. If that is your crowd then let me be the one to introduce you to your new favorite band.