Drowned are so metal that I could only dream as being as metal as this level of metal. Metal!!!!!!!!!! Think melo-death, but the raspier, nastier side, married with messy blasts and the odd wiggly riff for good measure. To be honest, I spun Butchery Age on the strength of the cover alone, and to be completely honest, whilst it’s easy for me to take the piss out of just how metal this is, there really isn’t anything wrong with it. That however, does not stop it from being excruciatingly metal-by-numbers. I mean, if you fucking LOVE metal then you’re all set to go, but otherwise, you might struggle getting through this. Musically, I can’t pick faults in this, although at this point you might be expecting me to. The drums leave a little bit to be desired, but this is entirely down to the snare sound, rather than the playing skill or dexterity of the drummer. Drowned are obviously very technically proficient in their chosen field and no doubt enjoy doing what they do. Personally though, this isn’t for me, I’m afraid.
Eastern Front play an interesting, modern brand of grim and cold blackened metal. As claustrophobic yet desolate as a Siberian no-man’s land, perpetuated entirely by a contradictory boxy and compressed drum sound as a foundation for expansive, frosty riffery. It is, quite honestly, a bit of a clusterfuck, sonically. It’s like the album can’t decide if it wants to be dissonant and mysterious, or tight and precise. Therefore it sits somewhere in the middle, not really falling fully into either camp, presenting the listener with an unique listening experience. If you’re into leather, corpsepaint and beards that resemble ancient door bells, then I would strongly recommended Eastern Front. The military thematics add an extra, almost cinematic edge to the already twisted grimness of the blackened metal on display. Fight or die!
Future Of The Left are one of those rare bands that my friends are into that I can also get into. I’m a stubborn fucking dickhead, so when someone tells me to listen to something, I usually don’t. So, the fact that I love this album is nothing short of a total miracle, but the love comes in heaps, and for good reason. I initially gave the whole thing a chance on the strength of “Beneath The Waves An Ocean”, which has a bass riff dirtier than a Tory politician rolling in a mud pit at Reading Festival. The whole thing is a bizarre mix of indie-style rock wrenched into odd time signatures and filtered through a scuzzy lens. I guess it’s kinda like feeding The Strokes into a meat grinder whilst listening to John Zorn’s Naked City, or something like that. “Goals In Slow Motion” is one of my favourite songs here; and if not more straight-forward than a lot of the tracks (think REM meets Green Day, seeing as we are on the subject of ridiculous comparisons), it does however possess a bangin’ chorus hook which more than makes up for it. Church.
Excellent noisecore-meets-harsh noise project (I’m sorry if you are unaware of these subgenres, that sentence must look ridiculous) from the USA. Definitely something that will push the boundaries of my listening patience if all mushed together into one big cube, simply due to the frequency of the distortions used, however once broken up into grinding chunks of noisecore I find it much more humanly consumable, which is just great, folks. This is one of those things that makes 7 minutes feel almost like an hour. If you like the noise-equivalent of someone scratching their nails on a blackboard to a bunch of blastbeats, then I wholeheartedly recommend this 7″ record. Imagine early Anal Cunt overlapped with cripplingly-loud layers of 90s-era Merzbow or Masonna. Your gran would love it, fam.
Nuclear Vomit proclaim themselves as “Anal Fisting Scum Grind Core”, which to be honest does a pretty good job of describing the band’s dirgy, sluggish metal-with-porno-grind-vocals approach. Bludgeoning, mid-paced death is the order of the day, complemented by mainly piggy vocals and back ‘n’ forth dancey dancey bits that are so prominent with shit from this part of the world. Hey kids, death metal can be fun! The Czech Republic is almost like a breeding ground for gory groovy stuff like this. Nuclear Vomit join the ranks of countrymen Ahamudo Granujo, Mincing Fury…. and ….Anal Garland as some of the best sickness that has come out of Europe. Tuck in! (Edit: I’ve since found out Nuclear Vomit are from Poland – my humblest apologies!)
Everything I could have wanted from a Billy Talent album is right here. I’m happy that they’ve released yet another solid album from start to finish, as few bands nowadays manage to release cracking record after cracking record with little filler, but so far Billy Talent haven’t let us down there at all, I feel. This is full of catchy hooks – both vocally and musically; the catchy riffs and shouty choruses that this band have mastered so perfectly and what makes them so great to listen to. “Ghost Ship Of Cannibal Rats” is a standout track on this one for me – it literally has all the right amounts of the above mentioned and more. Easily my personal favourite, and I’m pretty sure most fans of the band will agree with on this one too. Another big highlight is “Rabbit Down The Hole”, a very anthemic number. But, as I say there’s literally not a bad song on the whole album. In a nutshell, if you’re already a fan of this band you’ll love it, whilst it is also strong enough to maybe pick up some new fans who might have been late to the party upon checking them out. Very high energy, very fun, very enjoyable! It’s also worth noting the drums on this record were instead performed by Alexisonfire’s Jordan Hastings – who’s also touring with the band too – as regular drummer Aaron Solowoniuk is currently unable to drum due to a multiple sclerosis relapse (both drummers feature in current 2016 promotional pictures).
Esoteric Warfare is (at the time of writing) the most recent offering by the current incarnation of legendary black metal icons, Mayhem. For a band that has always been knee-deep in, well, mayhem, it is perhaps of no surprise that their back-catalogue has been somewhat inconsistent; often strikingly different music styles counteract each other as the band continues to unfurl it’s unholy magic on the unsuspecting metal world. Contrary to this, Esoteric Warfare, despite it’s kinda “meh” (I’m sorry) production job, is one of the more consistent records the band has put out. “Watchers” was the lead single here, representing the mushy, clumsily-brutal atmospherics of modern day Mayhem nicely for the festering masses. With the second most popular track here being “Psy War”, it is with unfortunately ease that one can compartmentalise this album to these first two tracks, and lose sight of the rest of this beast, which is exactly what it seems Mayhem do when it comes to playing anything off of this live, but there we go. The chaos that Mayhem exists in continues to produce unpredictable and unusual results.
The Gorillaz self-titled record was the first album that I ever owned. Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory (unfortunately) holds the title for first record ever bought, but Gorillaz was the first thing that I seriously jammed, and it was instrumental in developing my interest in music as a serious hobby. Back in the day I had this terrible transparent blue Aiwa tape walkman / radio combo, and I played the livin’ fuckin’ guts out of my crappy tape copy of this. Most people are surprised I love Gorillaz so much simply because I can’t fucking abide Blur. But, what drew me to Gorillaz first album was the thick dubby aspect underneath the pop sensibilities of the band’s songs; the thick spine of bass and chunky, dusty drum programming. The dirty, mechanical rumbling holding together the melancholic “Tomorrow Comes Today” is a perfect example of the grimey, almost-VHS-like vibe of the rhythm section on this album. Then there’s, obviously, “Clint Eastwood”, with all that bagged up sunshine, and the bizarre first appearance of Del Tha Funky Homosapien, the rabid “Punk”, the epic “Sound Check (Gravity)” and the downright fucking awful “Latin Simone”. From the raucious rock of “M1 A1” to the introspective, arcade machine tomfoolery of “Double Bass”, the whole thing is dripping in dirty dub vibes, a trend which unfortunately did not continue on later Gorillaz recordings (despite the fucking glorious Spacemonkeys spin-off dub remix album, Laika Come Home). Don’t forget, kids – it’s the music that we choose.
(Words by Griefmonger, archivist of blackened aural misanthropies) A brutal black metal record? “What?” I hear you exclaim! “Warm bass and deep vocals?” Shock horror! What would seem at first as your average death metal chunk-and-stop evolves into a black death slugger quicker than water into good red wine. We have the drill of the tremolo layering the typical bellow and breakdown-friendly nod that what would normally be a staple of a death metal band. Sathamel build a song, but very quickly the meat of the mainstay is brought to bear. If you’re into frostbitten kingdoms, you’re not going to get it here; instead of hyperthermia, you’re going to get a baton of freshly smithed nails smashed into your head. Its more on the melodic side of British black metal, but its heavy as fuck. If these guys were born in Poland then they would be held aloft. (Early) Decapitated and Behemoth seem to be the influence. It would probably be a crime not to mention that there is a bit of Belphegor here too but without a lyric sheet I might be wrong…… Tracks that stand out are “Wingless”, “Abbadon” ( c’mon, a song about a deity that brings three versions of the bible into question can’t be bad) and “Eternal Hunters”. It is not to put into question the other three tracks, but like the songs themselves, these tracks are the ones that build the album into a crescendo. Just listen to it, okay! Witnessing them live also I can attribute the blood drenched image they use suites better than the crisp corpse paint. these guys will make you bang your head and none of that is lost on the recorded version. Also, the release is in a nice double cardboard sleeve (wish there was a lyric sheet though), and it has a chained up fat bird with her intestines and serpents bursting out of her so its fucking cool, alright? Look, listen and learn – there is a brutal black metal band (dare I say blackened death metal?) scene in the UK.
So pretty much, if you’re not already a fan of The Beatles, then there’s an extremely slim chance you’ll be buying this record, as a live album is pretty much in my eyes a fan-targeted release. Normally I’m not a fan of live albums, I’ll be completely honest. There are exceptions, however I just feel that some moments you can’t recapture when it comes to this type of thing, kinda like how 90 percent of gigs you go to now there’s someone standing in front of you holding their phone in the air the entire time! And not only that; a lot of live material can just be a quick cash-in or something to bang out in between studio albums or quiet patches (or an easy one for the christmas market). Anyway, that’s my rant over. So yeah, here’s a collection of songs taken from what appears to be 2 separate performances at The Hollywood Bowl (1964 and 1965) in a nicely packaged and put together little bundle, released to coincide with the documentary film that that hasn’t long come out. The constant, piercing fan screaming throughout this record can be very off putting, and I feel makes for an uncomfortable listen here, but it is what it is, as that’s exactly how a Beatles concert was and would have been, so even if you were actually there that would have been an overwhelming thing. Other than that it’s a decent listen and something nice to add to the collection if you’re already a fan, but not something I would go back and regularly listen to though, I’ll be honest. If a live Beatles album is what you were after and would enjoy, then I won’t deny that this doesn’t do the job however and would be a great addition to anyone that enjoyed the film also. Track-listing wise, we have an inconsistent mix-up from both performances, so don’t be confused into thinking you are listening to one complete show as it kinda skips into a mixture of the both. I’m not really sure why they’ve chose to present it in such way. All the early classics are here though, which I’m sure need no introduction, including the odd early cover song they used to perform such as “Twist And Shout”, and “Roll Over Beethoven”. Overall not the most comfortable of listens (that constant screaming and low clarity), and definitely a fan-only thing, although one I’m sure most fans will enjoy regardless. It’s just not the kind of album that I would listen to time and time again, as I would the majority of their studio albums. If I really wanted to enjoy these songs at their full glory I would choose a studio recording rather than seek my enjoyment here of such.
Shackles play chunky, crusty powerviolence with energetic flair and manic vocal displays dripping in palpable rabidity. Maunder re-animates the bloated, festering corpse of punk with the spastic electricity of grindcore and the meaty (yet vegan friendly!) deliverance of modern metal. Imagine Nails meets Repulsion, only on a limited 7″, rather than 5000 copies on Relapse in a variety of fucking colours. Bleak, miserable and powerfully heavy stuff. Maunder was the band’s debut release, back in 2011, released in two pressings by Aussie label Arrest Records. It is quite lengthy for an EP of this style, clocking it around 13 minutes, but boasts enough variety to stay fresh and interesting throughout. Highly recommended listening!
