Stunning, gloriously dense synth works that unfold and meander through spaced-out worlds and atmospheres. It’s not a million miles away from something that Tangerine Dream would put out, but retains that unique Jean-Michel Charrme (lol, sorry). I picked up a copy of this on chrome/metal tape (ferric eat my dust!) and although the quality isn’t as clear as I would have expected (I have regular cassettes that sound better), playing this on the Walkman, warbles and all, was a magical experience.
What in the nine hells? I suppose I had to start somewhere with The Residents and this was a place as good as any to randomly jump in. I can’t quite put my finger on what is going on here. I feel either I’m missing the greater picture or that Not Available needs a few listens to truly unfurl itself. Its unsettling, a little weird, and a little catchy too. I look forward to hearing more.
Eternal is rather dancable for such a cold and industrial take on black metal. I suppose the black metal element is dialled back quite a bit, but nevertheless, Eternal is a classi of the crossover genre that happened a lot in the 90s. Some great beats here, which drive these misty compositions. Plus, any album that has “Supra Karma” on it is a winner in my book.
Christ! What the hell is this!? Doomy Sabbath? That’s what I’m talking about. In something of a U-turn from Cross Purposes (the heaviest Tony Martin album but still a shitter), Forbidden is a weighty record. It sounds like a mix between 90s Cathedral and Warning, but with a lacklustre vocal performance over the top of it all. As a whole, the album is a swing and a miss, but showed Sabbath on a correcting path, before this line up was abandoned for the final time, with the Ozzy reunions taking favour. For a long time, this was where the Sabbath legacy ended, which was even more bizarre.
Tolling 13 Knell is a peculiar set of metallic tales which I suppose unfurl mainly in the black metal school of thought, but draw inspiration from a wide array of sources. It has taken me a good few listens to get into this, but its a solid album, albeit one with a strange, hollow production job.
Untouchables was incredibly anticipated at the time, even more so on the strength of opening track and lead single “Here To Stay”. Even although in hindsight, the gap between this and the previous record was fairly short (3 years? Ish?), reports in media at the time had Untouchables down as some sort of Chinese Democracy style spiral of ridiculous cost and excess – a record stuck in studio purgatory. When it did drop, Untouchables was seemingly met with a collective “meh”, and while it did have some incredibly strong tracks, the album itself just leaves you wanting more, but not in a good way. Couple that with the – for the time – highly polished sound, and Untouchables can be seen as something of a transitional record for Korn, and sadly, one of the last fully listenable records the band has released.
The Chromatics bring their unique, haunting brand of bubblegum dream pop to the Simon & Garfunkel classic. Ethereal, moody synths and breathy vocals take you on a trip well worth travelling. Not a groundbreaking cover, sure, but still a gorgeous listen.
Ooh, what an stomper. Putting most (if not all) pornogrind and digigrind bands to shame with an absolutely savage programmed attack of the senses. Everything is synthesized, from guitars to blasts, and honestly it sounds amazing. Gets a bit glitchy in parts, but this just adds to the chaos that unfurls. Its a shame that this appears to be a one-off release.
On Katabasis, Vacuous improve leaps and bounds from their demo that was released earlier in the year. True, some of the scuzzy feel is lost in the more clear production, but the songs have much more room to breathe and grow. Ones to watch.
A promising start for this interesting band. The drums are a bit far away in the mix, but that is really my only complaint. The vocals, guitar and especially the bass all sound fantastic. Vacuous would progress heavily with their next release, the Katabasis EP, which is probably a much better place to start.
I understand that one should expect the unexpected when it comes to Mr. Bungle, and I understand that this is a revisit to a pre-self titled world, but I did not expect this to be as metal as it is. Sure, the inclusion of Scott Ian on guitar and Dai Lombardo on drums probably goes a long way in facilitating this feel, but there is not a single saxophone, trumpet, jazzy interlude or glockenspiel to be heard. Does the super compressed world of modern metal work well for Mr. Bungle? Thankfully, on some monitors, Wrath Of The Easter Bunny breathes organically, despite the uniformed distorted crunch of the guitars. The tunes are massively entertaining, featuring a combination of songs from the original demo and a bunch of tracks that were written at the time but never used. It comes in last place as far as Mr. Bungle records go, but if you love Mike Patton’s batshit vocals you cannot go wrong with this new star studded incarnation of the Bungle.
I slept on this when it first came out in 2018. Like, totally under the radar she went. Sometimes I have this habit of zoning out for months, even years, at a time when it comes to music scenes, and then I find myself playing catchup. Thankfully, this fourth Deafheaven record was worth chasing after. The band push their shoegazy, black metal influenced noise further into more abstract and interesting directions. Can this even be considered black metal anymore? Who cares. It is brilliant.
Oh boy. Easily contender for one of the best albums of 2020. Undeath, as presented by their earlier demo / EP play the old school death metal that you always wanted to hear. Yeah, old school death deals a lot with the realms of fantasy rather than gore, and a lot of it – the big guns at least – had “that” dry horrible production. But, take that fantasy focus and twist it and make it macabre and weird and fucking down right bizarre, and you’ve got the aesthetic of Undeath, if you smash that up into some unrecognisable gore. Musically things are a bit muddy, and the vocals are a tad one dimensional if I simply had to pick a fault (that’s not to say they are at all bad), but strangely enough this just works so well with the overall vibe. The production is great, the sound stage is clear and despite the muddiness each instrument is prominent and explosive in the mix. The riffs on this thing are so fucking sick, and the drumming sounds so organic and makes me wanna pick up my sticks and jam some shit in this style, which is rare. All in all, one of the best death metals I’ve heard in quite some time.
Well this is just absolutely ridiculous. But, would you expect any less from Spermswamp? Absolute digigrind idiocy prevails, and that is perfectly ok with me. On the flipside (it’s a CD so actually I need to shut up), Rigor Mortis practise the divine art of Mortician worship, with a decent Carcass cover thrown in. All in all, a good clean fun listen for the whole family.
Drawn in by the incredible sleeve art and the madness of debut The Key, I am surprised to find an almost impenetrable mush of sludgy death metal. Everything is fighting for air and the mix is incredibly dingy. I almost gave up, but after a few tracks you kinda get used to it. An interesting album, if nothing else. Some decent death metal and some lovely sci-fi themes and keyboard work. You just have to get past the shitshow of a production job first.
Did anyone ask for something heavy? Whether Conjurer are still the darlings of the British heavy music underworld is not really my concern, but there is no arguing that with records such as Mire under their belts whether or not they lack the chops in the long game. Mire shows a sound honed and perfected, and a band who are now masters of their craft.
Time Waits For No Slave is the all singing, all dancing highpoint to the 2000s era Napalm Death revival. I think The Code Is Red… is probably my favourite in regards to having songs that I love, but Times Waits is a monument to grindcore and the many genres and styles that Napalm can mix into it. The most recent release by the band, the Throes… album, has been hailed as some sort of experimental masterpiece, but anyone with a working set of ears can tell that Napalm has been blending all sorts of extremity together for years now.
Like its predecessor The Eternal Idol, this more or less builds on the failure that was Seventh Star, although not in the same level of success as Eternal Idol, which is much more polished. Nevertheless, I am wholly enjoying these Tony Martin records for the first time.
Probably my least favourite of the Dio & Sabbath original era. Don’t get me wrong, this era isn’t exactly my favourite to begin with, but I’m working through Sabbath’s stuff chronologically, and returned to Heaven and Hell in full. I mean no disrespect to Dio, but the swords and sorcery approach to Sabbath doesn’t really do anything for me. Fortunately, this is still an excellently put together record, and its an enjoyable listen all the same. I just don’t think I will ever come back to this one.
When I was a nipper, Filosofem was the hardest Burzum release for me to get into. The super harsh, wasp-like quality of the guitars and vocals, coupled with the deathly pace of the tracks in general, put it low on my list. Of course, as a fully mature adult, one can now appreciate this for the black metal masterpiece that it is. A lot of atmospheric, “transcendental” and one-man DSBM projects owe a great deal to the approach that Varg took whilst recording this.
Mythic Dawn is a small single from Burzum that showcases the man’s skill at the synthesizer style of music. Honestly, outsiding of existing Burzum fans, there is nothing of value here, its super and short and to the point, kind of acting a sampler to what we would get in the very later extremes of the project’s life.
Building on the strong debut of Kill ‘Em All, Metallica, ahem, electrify their sound with new found depth and songwriting chops. The compositions on Ride The Lightening are, for the most part, dense and experimental (for thrash at least), and possess a new level of maturity. This is a sound that Metallica would arguably perfect on Master Of Puppets, but Ride has it’s own set of incredible tracks. “For Whom The Bell Tolls”, “The Call Of Ktulu” and “Creeping Death” are all time favourites of mine, but the less said about “Escape” and “Trapped Under Ice” the better.
The Sleeping Green is a “lost” Lunar Womb release from back in the 90s. There’s not much to say except that this is a stunning collection of synthesiser compositions. Lunar Womb excels in the dungeon synth style, but the music is much more one with nature than it is with some made up dungeon full of goblins. I enjoyed.
Oi oi, savloy! Donkey Rhubarb is a short but interesting listen, and includes some mad Philip Glass orchestrated reworking of “Icct Hedral”, which is worth the price of admission alone. “Pancake Lizard” is also a favourite of mine. Short but sweet!
Is it possible for a soundtrack to be OP? Like, there’s a mood for every occasion here. Are you exploring the wilderness, a dungeon, a desert, or a quaint village? Daggerfall got a tune for that, yo. My post on the game of Daggerfall will follow at some point, where I will go more in depth into what I think is the philosophy one needs to apply when playing a 24 year old RPG. But I will say, it is no secret to how fucking goddamn huge this game is, and this is the huge soundtrack that accompanies it. Its no easy feat, having a soundtrack that won’t get old on a game that could technically last you forever, but the unique atmosphere of dread and exploration (in equal measure no less) is the perfect companion piece. Shit, walk up a mountain IRL and chuck this on as you do. You’ll feel like you forgot to pack your staff and pipe. These days, Elder Scrolls is synonymous with the works of Jeremy Soule, and rightly so, his compositions are glorious, but there is something about the lo fi madness in Daggerfall’s songs that is endearing. Sometimes music nerds and vinyl purists argue over the pros and cons of a stereo or mono mix of a classic recording, here they bicker over which soundcard renders the MIDI best; are you a Roland guy or no? There’s also some Daggerfall OST remasters, but these are almost universally shat on for stripping away the atmosphere of the originals. What I wouldn’t give for a physical copy of this, on something like a cassette. The analogue warmth would lend itself beautifully to such a piece of work. Then again, it might make me break out my installation and fall back into the massive, misty world of Daggerfall, and I’m afraid if I go back again, I may never leave.
My favourite of the Sabbath 80s output. Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan is a bizarre choice to succeed Dio, and whilst these two worlds collide awkwardly, it results in the most interesting post-Ozzy album I’ve heard thusfar. There are no stand-out tracks for me, per se, but rather Iommi’s guitars have real weight to them once again, and Gillan’s warble adds a quality that has been missing since Ozzy. I’m not an Ozzy fanboy at all, but most of the post-Ozzy output has left me feeling rather wanting for more. I do love however how thick and muddy the production is on this. Born Again sounds as evil as the record sleeve looks. The only real let down is a fucking shambolic performance from Bill Ward on the drums, but there we go, you can’t win them all.
What a lush series of compositions! I got this cassette for literally pennies and was surprised to find out how much of a good condition it was in. The analogue depth lends itself infinitely to Mike Oldfield’s bizarre, arty, synth-led compositions. Admittedly, it gets a bit shit towards the end but up until that point I found myself lost inside these dense soundscapes.
Welcome to hell. Another series of 4 20-minute-plus slabs of terrifying ambient noise from The Caretaker marks the next step into the hell of dementia. Stage 5 is easily the most aggressive, opening with what is more or less harsh noise; the musical memories from earlier stages are now mangled into nightmarish visions that bear zero resemblance to their original form, instead present themselves as a collage of frightening… shit. It’s just noise, and its horrible. At over 80 minutes, Stage 5 is a challenge to sit down with headphones on and listen to all the way through, but it is worth it, if only to fully understand and appreciate the project that The Caretaker has set out on. I await, perhaps nervously, to get stuck into Stage 6.
Cattle Decapitation have definitely morphed into their own entire league in the last few years or so. There are no bands that come close to imitating the group’s lightening fast death metal blend. For me, they stand unique amongst a sea of endless death metal artists. This, on the previous few records, has been a shining plus point. On Death Atlas however, I can’t help but feel that Cat-Decap are becoming somewhat formulaic. Death Atlas is, by all accounts, a savage record. The songs are stunning; the guitar work is out of this world and the drumming is absolutely insane, as are the incredible vocal performances by Travis Ryan, who is easily one of the best in the business. The trouble is, is that after initially surprising people by blending batshit-fast death metal with huge melodic choruses and chugging breakdowns, the band have now chosen this formula as their status quo. A lot of the songs here follow the same pattern of intense death metal comprising of neck-breaking speed, followed by some walloping clean-sung chorus. And honestly, the closing track aside, it all kinda starts to blur into one. I can see what’s coming before I’ve hit the next song in the track list – and as amazingly well put together Death Atlas is, being able to see this isn’t a good thing. To recap, Death Atlas is a solid album and another great entry into the band’s recent output of records. However, there is a very real chance of stagnation on the horizon if the band continue down this path.
Haircuts For Men is one of my favourite “vaporwave” producers and 壊滅悲しみ is of no exception. Despite the title, the vibes are not quite so downbeat or depressing as some of the other records, but in general this is a morose and chilled out journey through some fantastic electronic music.
My first – and long overdue – foray into the genre of sovietwave. Can’t say I’m really sold on it just yet, but eery ambient electronics is the order of the day, sounds from the past representing a future that was promised.
Celestial, dense, wandering black metal comes down from the astral planes above and enchants your ears with a rabid yet sophisticated racket that can only be done so much justice by words. Expect almost impenetrable atmospheres. Best listened to with headphones plugged in.
Dio fans will most definitely disagree with me on this one, but Live Evil is the most interesting recording from the original 80s Dio era of Black Sabbath. That’s not to shit on the two studio albums that they did together, but this live album is an incredible window how the band operated in those times of change, blending their original legacy whilst creating a new one. Hey, let’s be honest, Dio singing Ozzy-era Sabbath songs is super cool.
How fucking savage is Blood Will Be Shed? Dodgy band name aside, this is lightening fast, savage metal at its absolute best. Zyklon B leans towards the black metal end of the spectrum, but I hear influence from both the death metal and industrial worlds. Shit name, shit cover art, incredible record.
Spooky, authentically exotic ambient music from this well constructed side project. I recently played the Daggerfall OST through and honestly some parts are eerily similar. All in all though, if you like your synthesizer soundscapes to have an ominous Eastern lean to them, I would heavily recommend you Call To The Deep.
Admittedly, I’m no aficionado when it comes to this kind of depressing, jangly acoustic business. My knowledge of the existence of Mr Cohen only came from Godflesh’s many title-stealing tributes to his work. Songs of Love and Hate is gorgeous however. The opener, “Avalanche’, is purely phenomenal. There is a lot of variety, but the overall theme, to me at least, appears to be rather morose. All in all, this was well worth the listen and I’ll be digging further for more stuff from this brilliant artist.
Mongrel was the only full length record that we did as the Judas Cradle. It kinda turned out to be our Chinese Democracy, even though it was a combination of reworked tracks off our earlier EP or splits alongside a whole bunch of newer thrashier kinda tracks (Agathocles the 2nd over here). Mongrel then went through a protracted period of mixing, and by the time it came out, we had all but broken up, which was a shame timing-wise, but I’m still immensely proud of this album. Fun fact: I recorded my drum parts separately to the rest of the band. We’d done everything as a live recording beforehand so this was a bit different for me. The session time we had was between the switch over from days to nights on my shift pattern, so I was absolutely knackered before the session even began. If I could do it all again, I’d have picked a different day; maybe there’d be harder hitting blasts on this thing haha
Bitter Suites For Succubi is a strange stop-gap EP / mini album between the release of Midian and the band’s epic Damnation And The Day. I’m not entirely sure of the reasons why they decided to release this as it is, but I expect it was something to keep the fans happy and busy when the band were no doubt in the long negotiating phase of being signed to Sony records. I loved Bitter Suites… as a teenager. As an adult, I can appreciate the muddled mess that this record truly is. For starters, the production has a strange hollowness to it. An interesting choice, for a band as complex in sound as Cradle. Secondly, there are a slew of re-recorded classics here, which I can only imagine have something to do with Paul Allender’s return to the band. On this note, why is “The Black Goddess Rises” given a new title of “The Black Goddess Rises II: Ebon Nemesis”, when the other old tracks are not given new titles, nor even a sorry “II” for their trouble? They are all complete reworkings of the originals, so this puzzles me. As for the new tracks on offer here, they seem unsteady and almost unfinished. It’s like listening to a demo. Its not that they are particuraly bad, but instead just rough around the edges. There are some diamonds here, like “Suicide And Other Comforts” or “All Hope In Eclipse”. All in all, a bit of a Mixed Bag To Succubi, if anything.
Downward Spiral has never come across to me as an organised, coherent album. Sure, I’m not saying that it sounds like a series of disconnected tracks thrown together for a buck, or anything like that. There was obviously a deliberate creation process behind all of this. But, what I’m trying to say is, is that I’ve never found that Downward Spiral flows. At all. Now, I’m not an expert on NIN. Maybe this is intentional, and would of course fit nicely with the title of the record, and with the band’s earlier, abrasive, static-driven, nastier songs jarring uncomfortably against danceable, smooth electronics. It was a style that NIN arguably perfected, and one which has been imitated a thousand times over by legions of lesser industrial acts. Downward Spiral takes the whole heroin chic Hollywood rock n roll thing to a deep, dark place. Also, any album that has “Closer” on it is a doozy in my books.
Well this was depressing. Admittedly I’m out of my comfort zone when in the worlds of post punk and its infinite variations of weirdness, but Protomartyr just didn’t gel with me at all. I’ll leave it at that.
Now this is what dungeon synth is all about, if you ask me. Maybe the warbling audio hiss of the tape rip has got me all nostalgic and teary eyed, but Eternal Fear’s 1995 offering is a beautiful journey through misty mountains and unknown chasms. Shit, any dungeon synth that makes me wanna break out Daggerfall is good in my books. Also, its an absolute pleasure to find OG 90s work that I haven’t heard before.
I stumbled upon the second part of this collaboration at the beginning of the year so it was high time to go back and hear the genesis of it. Atsusaku is stacked, 2 huge back to back slabs of droning and sparkling industrial noise to cleanse not only your aural palette but also portions of your brain. Its impossible to tell who is doing what here, but this is a solid noise release if I’ve ever heard one, with a nice smash of power behind it. Heavy yet pensive.
Wowzers! This is a dirty one. Intense, well produced grindcore from French Polynesia with a cheeky mincecore stomp to it. A short EP, but one to watch, for fans on the grindy side of life.
I never realised how truly rare Remix 2000 was until recently. Fuck knows where my copy is, probably buried under some junk in the attic. Anyway, Remix 2000 builds on the original Remix CD that came out in 1997, and features – how did you guess? – remixes of Mushroomhead tracks from the first two records. There’s probably nothing of value here if you’re not a huge Mushroomhead fan, but its worth noting that the remix of the already disturbing “Mommy” turns the track into an unrecognisable and incredibly spooky dark house movement. The isolated keyboard lines to “The Wrist” are added to and expanded into a full piece on the excellent “Hand Of Solo” mix, and the closing track “Bwomp (Nord Mix)” is to me, the definitive version of “Bwomp”, with completely re-recorded vocals from J Mann and screeching, piercing synthesiser stabs which give the whole lurching epic a startling sense of urgency. No Waylon. No lazy-ass redneck metal. Straight up remixed avant-garde shit of old.
Never Say Die is the final and somewhat lacklustre album the band did with Ozzy, before 13 came out a few years back. Sabbath (read: Iommi) can be accused of phoning it in at multiple times in their career, but this is the first time the band well and truly jumped the shark. Never Say Die isn’t awful, it just doesn’t really do anything or go anywhere. Ozzy had already left the band by this point and had rejoined, albeit somewhat briefly, to release this record. It was a state of flux; Ozzy was done, Bill Ward is a shambles and drugs were sweating out of every pore. The result is mediocre at best.
