Archive for October 2020

Did someone say proto-thrash? You can literally smell the BO when listening to this record. I conjure images of a band of spotty teenagers or twentysomethings playing Flying Vs and wearing cut off shirts; performing before a crowd of greasy-haired, denim jacket wearing beer drinkers bumping into each other in time to the music. Metal is a beautiful thing, isn’t it? A lot of the “bigger” bands either seem to come out blazing; defining their…

I don’t what it is about my relationship with Friday The 13th, but my patience for this series is much lower than others. 3 carries on pretty much where 2 left off, but I cannot bring myself to even care what happens. Jason recovers from his wounds and the bloodbath continues. All in all, bias aside, Friday The 13th Part 3 is a fairly average slasher, and I won’t be rushing out to enjoy the…

Cool, calm, relaxing vapor. Ah, its the musical equivalent of valium. †Nematophy has been in my online playlist for about a year, and I must have played it through now a number of times. Its time to delete it and let some other stuff shine instead, so here I am committing it to the site and filing it away. †Nematophy is another fantastic Windows 96 album, further cementing this project as one of my favourites…

You wouldn’t think it would be easy to top Loss, but Wodensthrone seem to do it with little to no effort. Curse seems like a natural progression; the meandering, thoughtful, blackened metal going further down the rabbit hole, further down the path less trodden. Glorious.

Old Star marks a nice, subtle progression for Darkthrone’s sound. We meander back to the longer songs of old, and are treated to a morose, almost melodic set of black metal riffs. The production is also noticeably cleaner than some of the recent punk metal stuff. All in all, Old Star is a decent entry into the Darkthrone discography, of which there have been many peaks and troughs.

UUUGGGHUHHUGGGHUHGGHHHHH! Panzerfaust sees Darkthrone applying the breaks a little after searing through a trilogy of some of the grimmest and most frostbitten fucking metal in the history of music. Yes, the shoddy production and insaaaaanely cold riffs are still front and centre, but one cannot shake the absolutely atrocious vocal performance on display here. It’s easy to forgive bad vocals in something like black metal, but this is Darkthrone’s Nocturno Culto we’re talking about here;…

Power Trip has been on my to do list for fucking years. I have no shame in saying that it was the grisly reminder of Ryan Gale’s untimely death that led me to finally taking this record and listening to it. I can only offer my condolences to his friends and family; he seemed well liked and of course loved, and after listening to this record I can attest that he was a brilliant front…

Head Cage is a solid (yet decidedly not grindcore) offering from all-round good eggs and metallic riff kings, Pig Destroyer. Immediately, I’m taken aback by how “compressed” and artificial this album sounds; it’s like everything is fighting for competition and the drums sound treated and false. I’m sure this is some technical engineer’s wet dream but honestly it sounds like complete shit. Thankfully, after the initial adjustment to this production style, it gets a bit…

So this is it, the grand daddy of jazz fusion. Now over 50 years old, it was the perfect time to return to this record and give it another run through. I first heard this in I think 2008, a friend gave me some high-end mp3 rips of it, and on the recommendation of my uncle to check it out, I tried my damnedest to get into it and understand what was going on, but…

Anticapital is my favourite out of the two main Assuck releases. I love the sound, not just in terms of the incredible production but also in terms of the blend between death metal styles and incredibly fast grindcore speed and precision. It is a match made in heaven, and whilst Assuck haven’t always been “up there” on my list of favourite grindcore bands I have a lot of respect for them, and for this record.

How does one critique an album like Reign In Blood? I often ask that of myself when I start to write about something that is often considered legendary, timeless or even just historically important in regards to the genre at hand. This time, the genre is thrash metal, or arguably even just metal as a whole, and the impossible album to analyse is Slayer’s magnum opus. I’ve never really been that big a fan of…

What surprised me the most about this split is how great both Rectal Smegma and Cliteater sound. I’ve not really been feeling the output by either band recently for a number of years now, but on this split they both sound like bands which have been energised; in the boggy world of “groovy” “goregrind” there are acidic oceans of absolute drooling shit, but both sessions here sound incredible. The shame however is that the same…

Thangorodrim is amongst the more well known dungeon synth artists of modern day, and rightly so; the project took Mortiis worship to a whole new level on the first debut album (not a bad thing in these circles) but on Prologue, Thangorodrim strikes out into territory I would comfortably call entirely it’s own. To my knowledge, Prologue combines a few of the older tape releases together onto one collection. Prologue is not a short record…

I was lucky enough to discover this band for the first time after catching them as the support act at a Pixies show. I mega enjoyed and was intrigued by them. “How have I not heard of these before?” I asked myself. Purchasing this album was then an absolute no brainer for me, and I immediately got into it; what a cool sound we have going on here, cracking melodic harmonies, and a big dreamy…

There’s a whole bunch of bass n drums two piece grindcore bands these days, but Reeking Cross have to be amongst the best, if not taking the crown entirely. As 2015’s short, sharp and fucking chonky Cloaked In Vermin shows us, Reeking Cross’s frenetic, batshit crazy powerviolence is not to be scoffed at. CLOAKED IN VERMIN (Septik Brain 2015) by Reeking Cross

Children, for my lack of any understanding of the noise scene, appears to be a project between Genetic Noose and a fellae named Gaeme Baillie. I had a chuckle to myself thinking the Children material here sounds a bit like Arab Strap recorded an album whilst in the middle of a severe bout of alcohol-fuelled manic depression. Either way, it’s miserable as sin and fucking angry as fuck. What more do you want from your…

Yob is all kinds of heavy. I’ve never been the biggest of fans, but there has been that understanding, that appreciation; the musical equivalent of giving someone “the nod” across the room. I see you Yob, I see that you’re heavy, meandering out there in the crushing cosmos of the unknown. I appreciate you. Atma is a perfect example of what Yob are all about. Atma by YOB

I knew about Lord Gore’s debut for a long time before I actually heard it. That shocking cover art, even as a cartoon, was often splattered across death metal MySpace pages and internet forums, so when I finally got a hold of this during a trade with Razorback Records, it felt like I had reached some sort of holy grail of underground death metal. Lord Gore are a fantastic band. On the surface of it,…

This is the record that angered the Nigerian government so much that the army stormed Kuti’s compound and threw his mother out of a third story window, resulting in severe injuries which led to her death. The title and overall theme to proceedings seems to call out those blindly following orders before they went and did just that as the result of such a calling out. Like, what the fuck Nigeria? Way to prove the…

I’ll admit, first impressions of this were not amazing. It sounded almost lazy, but I was listening to it in a car park in the rain. Recently, I have returned to this record to give it a second chance, and whilst I must admit that Douglas P sounds a bit tired, there are some beautiful tracks here. Whether its worth making new Death In June records at this point is not up to me to…

I’ve been coming at Miles Davis from both ends recently (oo er), eager to broaden my horizons in both his discography and in forms of jazz. Fusion was my way in, and from there I shall worm my way through all of these records like a dirty little badger! Yeah. Doo-Bop unfortunately, is not a particularly great record. Miles’ final offering, it saw the legend once more trying to branch off into something new and…

My introduction to the world of plunderphonics happened the best part of 20 years ago, when The Avalanches’ ridiculously catchy “Frontier Psychiatrist” was all over the TV and radio. I didn’t really understand back then exactly what it was that was going on, but The Avalanches stood out to me as whacky and different, even alongside other big electronic acts dominating at the time, like Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers. Unfortunately, that lead single…

What happens when you cross Godflesh’s Justin Broadrick, The Bug’s Kevin Martin and ATR’s Alec Empire? Well, you get Curse Of The Golden Vampire of course, and I assure you, this project is not the punchline to a shit joke. This self titled record is not a million miles away from some of the sounds and textures experienced on Techno Animal records, or even on Godflesh’s Us & Them record. Its an interesting, and rather…

Oh shit fam, Mike Patton, that guy from Faith No More? Yeah, he’s done a suuuuuper weird record on the side! It sounds nothing like FNM LOL he’s bonkers! Adult Themes For Voice was recorded on tour by Patton in a series of hotels rooms or whatever, and is a record built entirely out of vocal samples. Yeah, it sounds like complete shit at first but yknow, maybe I’m growing my Covid19 hipster lockdown beard…

This is the debut solo release here from Hayley Williams of Paramore (despite other current members of Paramore actually having a part to play in the album at various points throughout). An unique and refreshing sound – and move away from Paramore – adapting a clever and dark sort of indie pop vibe. A fantastic selection of songs here, and a really tight bunch that fit perfectly together as an album and compliment each other…

Aura is a suite of “songs” written as a tribute to Davis by a Danish composer called Palle Mikkelborg. Legend has it that Miles loved the songs so much, he offered to collaborate and make it a canonical Miles Davis record. It would eventually get released several years after recording, in 1989, and would be the last Miles Davis studio album to be released when he was alive. Aura is all over the place, but…

ColdWorld is not a project I know much about. Intentionally or not, that fog of secrecy shrouding the project only helps heap on the atmosphere and drive home the miserable point, for ColdWorld not only plays black metal; ColdWorld is another one of those depressive one man black metal projects. On the surface of it, the DSBM tag brings up all sorts of cringe, neckbeardy associations, but ColdWorld is guilty only of conjuring up genuinely…

For All Tid is the sprawling, cold, blacker than black debut record from Dimmu Borgir. A long, long wintery journey away from their later records and incarnations, For All Tid is a plodding, slow burn of a black metal record, where the keyboards and atmospheric elements take centre stage, followed by a very muddy and densely produced full band. Expect reverb.

This ancient relic of 90s dungeon synth has quite a sad story, as its composer is no longer with us. This does add some morbid weight to the already sombre atmospheres, but let’s not define this artist’s life by his untimely death. Secret Stairways is, for me, an incredibly introspective record. It had a much more suspended, ambient vibe to its morose, glacial compositions than your average dungeon synth record; possessing instead of bombast or…

The battle rages on and on! The battle being, of course, Dimmu’s thrashing black metal and all of its symphonic bombast. Death Cult Armageddon was not my first taste of Dimmu but it was the first full length album that I ever bought by them, I think randomly staring out at me in Poole’s HMV (alongside Impaled Nazarene’s Death Comes In 26 Carefully Selected Pieces). I remember always been shocked by how polished this album…

Another witchy/satan/black magic exploitation movie thats very thin on plot and acting but very stacked on nubile young beauties and gobbledygook. I mean, what does one expect going into this? The imagery is fantastic even if the cinematography is somewhat lacklustre and the lighting is appalling. The acting? Well, surely you know what you are getting yourself in for if you are interested in this kind of thing.

Pissgrave’s first record was a disturbing slab of relentless death metal, and Posthumous Humiliation seeks to continue in much the same way. Bludgeoning, ugly, disgusting music is the order of the day; music, which even I, after two decades of listening to this shit, find almost impossible to penetrate. Gaseous, livid, and catastrophic, Pissgrave are one of metal’s genuinely terrifying bands.

This is probably not a term used to describe goregrind very often, but this delicious little record is simply divine. I only played it because the artwork / theme reminded me of Dead Infection’s Corpses Of The Universe, but I got more than I bargained for. The mix here is near perfect; the sickness of the instruments dance together in some sort of gracefully macabre unison – like, you could say, an exploded cadaver floating…

Selfless was the big, shiny offering that Godflesh dropped for Columbia, when Earache proffered up a bunch of bands to the mainstream. Ultimately, the gamble failed, but this move no doubt gained Godflesh a whole world of new fans from the industrial metal world, especially in America. Selfless is noticeably much cleaner than what came before it. Even against the precision of Pure, Selfless soars, with melodic riffs, uplifting synthesisers, and the largest amount of…

I have a lot of respect for most Psychopathic Records artists but this EP is utter dog shit. Imagine the Dark Lotus staff taking on the subject matter of Necro’s The Sexorcist. And yes, there is an aspect of cringe to any hip hop that deals entirely with sex, but when ICP – under aliases of course – are rapping about fucking bitches in they booty holes, we reach a whole new realm of uncomfortable…

Floral Shoppe is the oddity that defined the genre (or shall I say movement?) of vaporwave, which is still passed off as a meme by some. But hey, it’s their loss. Floral Shoppe hosts – or birthed? – many tropes of the style; pitchshifted beats and vocals, fluttering synths, a treacle-like atmospheric consistency, and a distorted window into the realms of either the past or the future. Am I dreaming about a past that I…

Going in to a record named Vaginator, you have to expect certain things – there is a checklist of items that are often present on records in a genre such as this. Most are accounted for on Namek’s debut (and I believe only) album, but what I did not expect was the incredibly high end production job, which allows this muddy full band pornogrind romp to breathe and to be delivered with all of its…

Space Is Only Noise is one of my favourite chilled out, down tempo, ambient kinda records. I’ve heard this described as deep house, and whilst I see where the bridges are built, I wouldn’t have ever classed it as such.  Being a genre Nazi aside, this is such a relaxing record. The sampling is on point, and with headphones the stereo stage is massively utilised to its full capacity. It is at once all encompassing,…

I firmly believe that Type O did something incredibly unique with their music, even if it touched on many of metal’s tropes in the process. Steele et al clearly didn’t take themselves too seriously, but the musical chops are there all the same. This record is surely timeless now, especially in the annals of doom or gothic rock, even if somewhat falling into the category of ‘parody’. The mammoth opening track is a work of…

Another year (or thereabouts), another stage in Caretaker’s magnum opus. Stage 3 is where the changes are not so subtle. At this point I’ve kinda figured that the old, jaunty 30s-style tunes from parts one and two are supposed to be memories, and as we descent through each stage, the memories become more and more fractured and broken. Stage 2 introduced minute differences; small fractures and unsettling off-colour compositional changes. Stage 3 is a bit…

One of those awkward, weird things that sits between noisecore and just kids fucking around. Then again, FWTKM has always had an unusual streak. I traded away this tape many, many moons ago (it was the Sludgesicle Records re-issue).

This dual-EP (its like the band has done a split with itself!) was one of the only early Gut pieces that I ever got around to owning on vinyl. It has now gone to a better home, but I do miss it. This is classic Gut; dirgy, barely audible snails pace “grindcore” with disgusting vocals and harrowing horror movie samples. This may not win any awards for recording quality, but makes it up for it…

Seriously poor fucking effort from LDOH – this live set is fucking useless. Like, this level of bad live recording thrown half arsed into a 7” split would put even Agathocles to shame (lol). Absolutely pointless in every sense. 2 Minuta Dreka on the other hand are killing it here, expanding on that funky, groovy sound that came with Porno Bizarro. 2MD have never sounded so alive. LDOH though, fucking sort it out guys. I’m…

I’ll admit, Tutu was a shock when I first heard it. I’m not an expert on the 80s fusion scene, but not totally blind to it either. Its not so much the marriage with synthesizers and drum machines that puts me off here, but the restrictive and muted nature of the tracks in general. Most of the time, Davis is in the background, while his more-80s-than-thou band are doing all of the work, fantastic musicians…

Did anyone say Carcass worship? Anatomical Amusements is medical goregrind turned up to 11, with insane drumming, gorgeous production, and sickening riffs n’ vocals. A short EP, but every second is enjoyable. Anatomical Amusements by Crash Syndrom

What in the sweet holy fuck did I just watch? I’m not a film writer so my language and terminology is not developed enough to really do this film justice, but Midsommar was a twisted, genuinely disturbing journey into the world of off-grid cults. I’m not entirely sure of every message that the creators were trying to convey, but its very interesting watching how things transpire, if not a little (a lot lol) terrifying doing…

Pulmonary’s session is a little thing aurally, but musically its on point. Rehearsal room grind with that dirty shifted bubble vocal sound! Cakewet are a bit louder, and a bit more precise, mixing sloppy grindcore with elements of death metal. Raspy low vocals and lightening quick blasts throughout. Vomitrocity have a bit more of an old school death metal vibe (demo tape vibe of course), but Flesh Disgorged and Copremesis kinda just blur into one….

If you read my ongoing reviews of this series you will no doubt surely be able to tell that I have something of a love/hate relationship with the Leprechaun movies. They are just so atrociously bad in every conceivable way. The funny thing about the original Leprechaun is that I managed to convince my girlfriend to watch it with me, off the back of Jennifer Aniston being cast as the lead. Let me tell from…

What Mega seemingly has over 0 and 1 is the instant glossy hit of electronic shine. Out of nowhere the record is in your face, all colours flashing, and from then on out you are enraptured in the world of the Blank Banshee, and have no choice but to go on the ride. Is it possible to improve on the cult status and legendary electronic work of the first two records? The answer, of course,…

Blank Banshee is another one of those projects that gets lumped in with vaporwave when in reality the sound reaches across several styles of electronic music. I’ll admit that 1 often gets overlooked by me, either by the sheer gloss of Mega or the instant classic status of 0. The compositions are glorious however, ranging from banging 80s pop to drawn out ambient soundscapes and synths. Lush. Blank Banshee 1 by Blank Banshee

The material on display here is quite possibly the definitive NxVx sound. It is a shame really then, that the limited nature of lathe cut releasing (both a pro and a con) allows only a small number of people to hear this properly. Thankfully, it’s on YouTube, which isn’t quite the same, but it gives the rest of us a chance at experiencing the noize. Apologies for the mega lo-fi art on this entry, I…