TWELVE YEARS OF UNWANTED OPINION
2 sick tracks from early muddy Brujeria? What more could you possibly want? I love this band’s unique mix of hardcore, grindcore and death metal, all with their unique spin and immediately recognisable vocal. Production is a bit primitive here, but that’s absolutely fine by me.
Wow. There’s something humbling about listening back to old noisecore stuff. There always seems to be an element of fun involved with just getting into a room, or switching on your board setup, and giving everyone’s ears hell. When I listen to raw rehearsal recordings, which is the case here with the Final Exit stuff, I feel like I’m given an unique window, a fly-on-the-wall look into a rehearsal room full of friends messing about and causing chaos. Maybe I project my own feelings of missing those kinds of days onto sessions like this. But I think anyone who’s ever been involved in noisecore in some way should understand what I’m trying to say. Napalmed round off this split with some good ol’ analogue noise terror. Bleeping, blooping, shrieking, crawling, buzzing noise. This split is well worth a listen if your into the noisy shit. Be warned the Final Exit stuff is mixed super low so when Napalmed comes in it blows your head off.
Doom The Way id Did is a community WAD pack that intends to pay homage to the original “classic” Doom mapping trio of Romero, Tom Hall and Sandy Peterson, by emulating their design philosophies and – literally – make a new Doom campaign, but the way id did. The problem I have with this is that outside of pigeonholing Romero into his now-famous, tech-base-based (lol) design criteria (you just need to look at Sigil to realise that this has gone the way of the dodo), Hall and especially Peterson are harder to pin down. Specifically when it came to his contributions for Doom II, Sandy’s maps are all over the shop. Granted, the man was under an intense amount of pressure to deliver on a tight deadline, but the worst thing about Doom II is the inconsistency and half-arsed feeling of some of the levels. Anyways, at the end of the day – does this have anything to do with the quality of the WAD? Absolutely not. This is gonna be high on the list of WADs that I’ve played. I love the episodic nature of classic Doom, and these folks have nailed the progression nicely, and even though these levels were culled from a smorgasbord of entries from tons of contributors, there feels like there is a genuine flow and purpose. Another refreshing element of this WAD, is that even on Ultraviolence setting, this wasn’t astronomically difficult. Yes, of course it was hard, but it felt fair. Some of the WADs I’ve played recently are beyond stupid in difficulty. I was able to put Doom The Way id Did down with only four deaths, on UV in Brutal Doom, and all of them occurred in the third episode, with two of those being on the spiderdemon boss map. As a fairly useless / casual Doom player, I was quite impressed with myself lol. Anyways, if you’re new to Doom community WADding (lol), I can’t recommend this enough as a starting point.
I was turned onto Havohej by the Punk Rock MBA YouTube channel, of all places. I love how fucking weird some of this shit gets, but in the grand scheme of things, Dethrone The Son Of God is pretty straightforward as far as black metal goes. The vocals are fantastic, and so are the riffs and drums to be honest, and the whole thing comes together nicely and the production isn’t too abrasive. If you’ve come for punishing black metal, stay for the duration. If you’ve come for Havohej’s unsettling and weird reputation, maybe look somewhere else.
Well then. Wild card listen of the week award goes to this…. record? Honestly, it’s a stretch to even call it that. Baphometal is almost indecipherable, whatever thrashy blackened metal we should be enjoying here is buried beneath decades of grime and dust. It truly must be one of the most unlistenable and barely audible tape demos that I have ever heard. And hey, trust me when I say folks, after over 20 years in the metal game, I’ve heard more than my fair share of horrendously recorded shit. This however, takes the biscuit.
Is there any type of death metal that is as bland and as boring and disinteresting as this? The answer is no. Fuck, these guys suck. Fuck them and their fucking bullshit music. Just gonna stop this here before I go off on one, but I listened to it so its on the site, thems the rules. Lowest common denominator trash, weak even for Sevared Records (and they’ve released some absolute shite over the years).
This is arguably the catalyst for the initial destruction of the original run of the band in the 80s. I’ve seen it called a band unravelling, a misled attempt at a solo project, or also the work of intense vanity from certain members of the group. But how does it sound? To my knowledge, Geordie and Jaz go it alone on this effort, with a hired band of session musicians. It sounds… like a really super polished version of Night Time. To be fair, the songwriting is pretty good, and whilst this is easily the most wishy washy release the band ever did, the instrumentation and vocals are spot on for the kind of genre and atmosphere the record aims to create. The one place where Outside The Gate fails however, is it is missing that Killing Joke identity. Whatever style of music the band has put its hand to over the last several decades, it still sounds like Killing Joke. Outside The Gate does not. Sure, Jaz Coleman is unmistakable. But that’s it. And that’s a big deal. So, in conclusion, this isn’t anywhere near as bad as some people make out. I would however definitely start elsewhere if you are new to Killing Joke.
Covenant sees another slight shift in the Morbid Angel sound. The blistering death metal is of course still here, but the sound is warmer and the subject matter is more on-the-nose in regards to the occult. I mean, just look at that album sleeve! Altars… was echoic and cavernous, Blessed… was dry and brutal, Covenant seems like a tidy mix of both of these things actually, with some slower, sludgier elements thrown in for good measure. I’m no Morbid Angel scholar so I won’t spend hours dissecting this, but Covenant is another stunning death metal record from these legendary dudes.
I’m not the biggest club guy, Londoner or even electronic music enthusiast (although that does grow over time, judging by the burgeoning ‘electronic’ tag here on this site), but Untrue has to be one of the greatest albums ever made, all the same. I’ve read many stories about its inception, but the general one I like the most is that Burial is trying to pay tribute to the sounds and atmospheres he grew up in. That makes a lot of sense when you realise a lot of this album sounds like you are standing outside a nightclub in the rain, waiting for the night bus or stumbling hazily to a Maccy’s, or flashing back to various fragments of the night’s debauchery. However, this is one problem with this analysis, as fitting as it is for Burial’s fragmented and echoic compositions. It simply does not do Untrue justice. Untrue is so much more. It was Burial’s EP Truant / Rough Sleeper that really got under my skin, but Untrue is much the same in that it is a personal experience for everyone who listens to it. So much emotion, weight and feeling is conjured in this set of tracks that its not even funny. Anyone, musician or listener, from any genre, should give Burial a shot at least once. What we have here in this artist is pure, unfiltered magic. Untrue is a fantastic document of that, and it should be cherished forever.
You gotta love 7MON. In fact, one time, their addition to the OEF 2015 line up swayed me to buy a ticket and make a solo trip from the UK to the Czech Republic. Whilst I was watching this band play their ridiculous noisecore on stage, I couldn’t shake the feeling I’d travelled 100s of miles to watch a band dick about for an hour haha Noisecore, I know, isn’t everyone’s bag. Personally, I love it, it takes me back to why I fell in love with all things grind, but I don’t listen to it all that much. Unearthing this EP, with its 87,000 tracks (a bit of an overestimate perhaps) (ed: it’s 452 songs) was really a shot in the arm for my love of this stuff (on the same day as my COVID booster no less). Its only 11 minutes long, but 7MON can make that feel like a lifetime.
Across the decade of the 80s, a period of the latter years saw a thawing of the Killing Joke tribal post punk sound into a more accessible, new romantic or synth pop direction. The pinnacle of this was Outside The Gate, which seemed to alienate a lot of fans. The icing on that cake was the spoken word album that followed it, and Killing Joke almost seemed like a band that no longer knew its own identity. Thankfully then, the following year, all of the above just seemed to be dropped, with the band U-turning back to their roots, but with a heavier undercurrent carrying them along. Of course, listening in 2021, you can see how this record informed the direction the band would take from here, but at the time, this must have been a startling change of pace for a band that had been mellowing out for years. “Money Is Not Our God” is super angry, and sets the pace for the album to come. This record is a must-listen from the Killing Joke catalog, in my eyes.
Wow, I can immediately see what the hype is for this record. It topped a lot of lists last year, and the artwork is quite striking. Aurally, Pale Swordsman is an exercise is raw black metal, but mixing elements of DSBM (I’m in particular drawn to the slow piano overlays that remind me of Lifelover) with more traditional, unholy trinity era Darkthrone (in regards to both the riffs and the production). It also manages to sound like a dusty 90s tape recording, but without sounding like a pile of garbled shit. There are gentler moments too, even though the harsh parts almost always have their own undercurrent of melody. A haunting, striking piece and I look forward to seeing what else this project has to offer, past and present.
The Lengthening Shadow is the debut full length record from North Wales black metal project Defod, which follows the EP/demo cassette the project released through the FHED record label. What was good then has now been honed to become great; it is here where the shadow does indeed lengthen – the title is very apt! The songs are lengthy, intricately woven and very well produced (especially for black metal!). I’m reminded of certain aspects of earlier Cradle Of Filth sounds, as well as the more refined Gorgoroth output (think G-man on vocals), but Defod stands alone without mimicking either of those two bands. I am using them here for descriptive reasons, of course. This is well worth a listen, and a welcome addition to the growing UK black metal scene.
I am very much late to the party here. I saw Sigh in I think 2010 at a French music festival. Before that, my only real experience with the group was seeing their albums advertised inside my copy of Principle Of Evil Made Flesh (I think they may have been on the same label as Cradle Of Filth at one point). Anyways, I wasn’t blown away by the live show (particularly how they piped a whole orchestra’s worth of instruments through the PA), so I never really got around to listening to Sigh properly, despite my friend (and once LIW contributor) Gumpy insisting otherwise. Scorn Defeat is intense. There is a lot to unpack here, thankfully however this is a task that is almost fun thanks to the old school yet clear production; yes, headphones on, eyes closed, trying to make sense of everything that is being presented to me aurally. Truly, this is blackened thrash at its core, dare I use the term. I’m talking a backbone of Venom and Bathory and even a little bit of Possessed, but then comes the weird and kooky twists, and not to mention, the stunning, catch-you-off-guard keyboard parts and bizarre vocals.
Wow, I slept on this fucker. I thought this was a new record! D’oh! Opening track “Breath Grease” is one of my favourite MW thrashers – it bolts straight out the gate and lets you know what you are in for. If you’ve heard these guys before then you surely know whats coming here. That’s not to say this is rehashed or boring, I’m just prepping you in regards to: expect some of the best party-tinged thrash metal you can ever hope to hear. Seriously, this band are so fucking good and I need to get into their back catalog. I love this and I loved The Art Of Partying (and the one that came after, that was a little more serious in vibe if I recall). If you’re still hankering for a Pepsi after all these years, then this could be the band for you.
These guys are like the Audioslave of the mid 90s doom scene. When the Principle Of Evil Made Flesh lineup of Cradle Of Filth left en-mass, they teamed up with the ex-Anathema vocalist Darren White to produce what (I thought) was initially a very similar, sombre doom metal outfit. Joined by a new bass and drum section, the six piece wasted no time in dropping two albums a year apart. The first, Awaken, is an extremely well crafted piece of metallic work, although I must say it sounds a bit dated now, if only in the production style. Not to shit on anyone else who performed on this record, but my favourite parts are the keyboard lines by Ben Ryan, whose work in proto and early Cradle I always heavily appreciated, and despite enjoying the direction Anathema took without him, I feel that the band lost a tour-de-force in Darren White. The man is an incredibly strong frontman, with a distinct and powerful voice which lends itself enormously to this mournful compositions.
Strong, dense industrial combining the more harrowing elements of the genre with something altogether more classic (that being the pummelling heave-ho motion and delivery of early Swans). It uses such as a backbone to create seemingly lawless noise, which is often allowed to run rampant and unstructured with abandon, but here it is pinned down like a worm on a dissection plate and we are able to peer into it. You’ll surely remember what Nietzsche said about the abyss…
The Bleeding is the final Cannibal Corpse record with the uhh… legendary (I guess that word is still applicable despite everything lol) Chris Barnes. When I was a young’un, making my way through the brutal mires of Cannibal’s discography, I would often give up around The Bleeding, never making into the Corpsegrinder territory. I don’t really know why this was the case, because The Bleeding is just as good, if not better, than the albums that come before it. Sure, Tomb Of The Mutilated gives this a good run for its money, but otherwise, this is peak Cannibal Corpse, and therefore, peak death metal. The production, which sounds to me like an analogue affair (I could be wrong), is absolutely perfect for this kind of brutal sound. The drumming, the riffs, the intense popping bass, which clanks and shreds away, bubbling beneath the surface. Barnes’ inhuman lows are the icing on a rather brutal and disgusting cake. Truly, this up there with some of the greatest extreme metal records ever made.
I saw Uiutna supporting Jarboe on one of her solo tours, I think back in 2013. I picked up this cassette because the dude’s set was really cool. Splitting here with Druss, both artists present something in the form of long-winding, experimental electronic fuckery. Not quite as out-there as say, Tangerine Dream, but allowing the same sort of droning electronica to morph and shape in its own unique, dark way. I think the Druss side is a live recording. I think these cassettes are pretty limited, so it’s cool that I’ve held onto this after all these years.
Gore Beyond Necropsy have this wacky edge to their tunes. I can’t really put my finger on it, but it doesn’t make it silly like, idk Sloth and stuff like that. If anything it just adds to the angular weirdness that is GBN’s early grind output. On the other side, “legendary” pornogrind outfit Gut pummel us with some dirging filth. I have a soft spot for Gut even though pornogrind is somewhat ridiculous. The sleaziness adds to proceedings here, rather than detracting from it, or being the main focus, as it is in tons of the derivative shite we get spewing from these genres in modern day.
Voïvod have a special place in my heart. They’ve slowly grown from the Lost In Space of thrash to idk, the 2001: A Space Odyssey of thrash. Ha! Is it derivative at this point to pull together a bunch of purposefully dissonant riffs and awkward tempo changes and call it sci-fi thrash? The answer is, of course, fuck no. Especially if you’re Voïvod. For me, I feel the band have been on something of a second wind since Target Earth dropped in the early 2010s and The Wake is proof of this continuing perfection of the space-thrash sound. Sure, there may now be faster or more technical bands playing in this style, but nobody does it quite like Voivod, and their awkward, nerdy metal a la The Wake will always be special to me.
D.O.C. can fuckin blast! Production is thick and chunky and the drums are probably triggered (legit kudos if they aren’t because they sound clear as day). Aural carnage is of course the order of the day, with several tracks of frenetic, chaotic grindcore to liven up your day. On the contrary, Agathocles offer something slow and disgusting, which is an interesting angle for these kings of mincecore. Despite the drop in production quality compared to D.O.C., I’m down with this bizarre brand of Agathosludge and would love to hear more from the guys in this vein. Tidy split!
Okay, so – before I begin, how tf is this 10 years old? Damn! The time, she flies! The Money Store is the record that brought Death Grips into the mainstream, introducing the band to a new generation of music rabid fans, who no doubt lapped up the aural carnage and abrasive experimental hip hop like rabid dogs. I find a lot of the later Death Grips records get a little too obtuse, but here the mix between bizarre, intense electronics and beats and legit catchiness is perfect. The number of bangers on here is a testament to that fact. Look no further than “The Fever (Aye Aye)”, “Lost Boys”, “Hustle Bones”, “I’ve Seen Footage” or “Hacker” to see my point. Truly, I could most likely present to you the entire tracklist as evidence as why this album is so good, but The Money Store presented such a fresh sound back in 2012 and continues to be an album that stands up even ten years later. Many of the tracks I mentioned above are still a part of the band’s live set and that speaks volumes. If you’ve never heard Death Grips then this is probably the best place to start.
One of my favourite elements of Agoraphobic Nosebleed is Richard Johnson’s vocal contributions. Why then, has it taken me so long to check out Drugs Of Faith? The only answer – and this is a recurring solution – is that I am an idiot. Anyways, I picked up the 12″ of the band’s debut and off we go, spinning that grind on the platter! It’s grindcore alright (would you expect anything else?) but there is plenty of breathing room for riffs and interesting instrumentation passages. Discogs has this down as “grind n roll” but a.) I fucking hate that stupid idea and b.) this sounds absolutely nothing like, idk, Blood Duster. This is more in the line of something altogether more hardcore punk, with interesting artistic flair to the riffs, like Cloud Rat or Full Of Hell. There’s a dissonance, but also an analogue warmth (unsure whether it has analogue production though), and it sounds like I’m listening to an old powerviolence record more than it does anything else. Which of course, is something I can definitely get behind.
You’d think the market was already saturated when it comes to ancient Egyptian themed death metal? However this interestingly named project show us that there is room for more than one leviathan obsessed with said subject matter. Ruins Of Gubla is a dusty, down-tuned tape demo style approach to gloriously muddy death doom. The riffs are absolutely huge and are of course the centrepiece of this 4 track work. Imagine if Disembowelment and Nile had a baby. Oh, and the name translate to Thoth. Tidy.
Another excellent band/project I have had the pleasure of recently unearthing, Offermose offer the most (lol) stunning mixture of Tangerine Dream style Berlin School synth meandering, punctuated with vibes and call backs to the dungeon synth movement of the 90s, with shimmering, moving passages and spooky, almost black metal style vocals. Stilhedens Tårn presents a cold and morose atmosphere, but one that is peaceful and beautiful in its own way. One in which you can get lost and reflect, rather than one which fills you with sadness and despair. A brilliant record and I will endeavour to listen to more from this artist if the opportunity presents itself.
Very old school, early-days style vaporwave, but which didn’t come out until 2019. It’s nice to see folk still making good shit in this vein and not have it become derivative or what have you. That being said, Gateway 2000 is intensely treacle-like in its pace and runtime, and I find myself nodding off or drifting away, even in the middle of the day whilst working from home and drinking black coffee. Unsure if that is the desired effect, because its quite nice to have this kinda stuff carry you away on a pillow of winds, but if not… lol
I love this shit. I can’t believe I’ve not already written about it. Some things just slip through the cracks I guess. Anyways. This predates the 2nd wave of black metal, but is considered a classic and a grounding for the bestial / war metal movements. I guess as it predates the 2nd wave, the influences these guys were taking in surely must have been a mix of death metal and shit like Venom. There’s only so much I can say about this noisefest, it’s one of those albums that’s best heard rather than described. Expect half hour of dirty, disgusting riffs and erratic drumming, coupled with flurried and intense vocals. The art, whilst basic, sums up this sound perfectly.
Well then. This is certainly on the fringes of the bizarre. Not your typical noisecore, the uhh, lovely-named Abortion Breath instead employs electronic elements in their noise. I knew this before hand, thanks to Choppin’ Headz zine, and I expected some sort of Gorgonized Dorks approach to pummelling your senses, but this is totally, completely different. Pulsing, headache inducing electronic beats are used as “songs”, often accompanied by short bursts of anguished vocal barks. File this under: outsider art.
Pirate Doom has to be one of the most ridiculous yet ambitious custom Doom WADs that I have played. It comes across more of a total conversion than a level set, with a complete overhaul of the entire game to feature pirate-based landscapes and levelling, weapons and most hilariously, demons. Fighting the swashbuckling hordes genuinely had me in stitches at points, especially when a new monster was introduced. Some of the new game mechanics are class too, like the underwater movement for example. Some of the levels are not far from TES II: Daggerfall in their labyrinthine scale, which made finding keys etc. a bit of a slog, but for the most part, this is an amazing example of what the Doom community can offer.
Considered a classic of the vaporwave genre, I was surprised to find the original version of this “album” is only 19 minutes long. North Point Mall falls under the initial, original arm of vaporwave, where 80s classics are warped and moulded into reimagined versions of themselves. North Point Mall, I believe, is from one of the Grand Theft Auto video games, which is a perfect vibe for this kinda shit that’s going on here. There’s only so much I can say about slowed down 80s tunes – give this a go, its class!
Ah, more lovely electronic weirdness, just what the doctor ordered. I love this thing. It’s a strange mixed bag of vibes, with some being pleasant and others being a bit more disturbing, which is par for the course considering who is involved. The production is an absolute marvel to listen to however and the sound leaps out best whilst listening on headphones. It’s a bit strange, but it’s worth sticking with, consumed as a whole is the best way to enjoy this album.
Revelations Of The Black Flame is an unusual entry into the 1349 discography. The band are no strangers to atmosphere and eeriness, as this often permeates their blasting, unstoppable black metal. However, the usual carnage takes a back seat here. Granted, its still here, just in less quantities. When it rips, it rips hard, but for the most part, this album is filled with unusual sonic atmospheres and haunting, cavernous ambience. The sonics crawl more than they leap forward in blastbeat abandon. Oh, and there’s a Pink Floyd cover. A strange one!
This is just simply fantastic. Two of jazz’s greatest musicians, from two different eras even, converging on one record, with a cohort of additional excellent players, of course. The first and last tracks are probably the prime examples of how Coltrane’s sax and Ellington’s piano play off each other so brilliantly. The drumming here is also particularly of note. Great album. Need to get it on 12″, I think.
Gorgeously spooky, amazing, fantastically composed old school dungeon synth from 1997. Coming across like a mix between the instrumentals you’d get on early Cradle Of Filth records and something altogether more Age Of Empires II, Mordenheim is a stunning journey through synthesised orchestration. I find it wholly bizarre that this (and the following Grabesmond record) were never released on cassette. This stuff belongs on an analogue format. Brilliant.
As my Iron Maiden journey continues for the first time, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son has quickly cemented itself as a contender for favourite album, alongside of course the legendary Powerslave. There’s just something about the vibe, the feel, the general pace here that’s a bit different than what came before. I can’t really verbalise what it is exactly, but it’s a little bit special. Like lightening in a bottle, as they say. Production wise things are always on point with this band (I’m pretty sure they had the same producer for over a decade), and the album is packed with solid hits, such as “Can I Play With Madness”, “Moonchild” and “The Evil That Men Do”. The closing track is a bit meh but that’s the only misstep for me.
Do I really need to explain what’s going on with an album title and sleeve art like this? For a band with such a terrible name, Funeral Rape have a fantastic logo. A Chainsaw To The Cunt wins no awards for originality but you can’t deny the band are not wearing their colours honestly here. Brutal death metal with gore/porn grind tinges is what the doctor ordered. You’ll either love it or hate it.
You can always count on Waco Jesus to produce solid slabs of brutal, bludgeoning death metal. Mayhem Doctrine also probably has the best attempt at the sado-sexual artwork the band always strives to attain; there is always some sort of nude woman on their record sleeves and this picture works quite well. It’s understated, unlike some of the others. Seriously though, whilst maybe they will not win any awards for originality, they make up for it in keeping it real, and keeping it on the straight and narrow. Experimentation? Get the fuck out of here. This is no nonsense brutality. If you want that, look no further.
Spooky, dark yet somewhat blissful and meandering ambient tunes are the order of the day. To say they don’t really go anywhere would possibly be a low blow – this is ambient music after all – but I can’t get rid of the nagging feeling that I’m listening to a boatload of build-up and then not much else. This is despite the mixed bag of different vibes and textures that Rapoon throws at us. However, I must admit the only track I actually really got into was the near-15-minute closing title track. Rapoon has a long, loooong and prolific discography. Perhaps I just picked the wrong record to start.
Regurgitate fandom often seems split into two camps; that of the old, grimy, demo-tape quality goregrind, and that of the well-produced, Relapse-backed, d-beat and buzzsaw guitars goregrind. Personally, I prefer the former, but I will of course never turn my nose up to any record that bears the mark of Regurgitate. Deviant is a 2003 full length effort from the band, where – as mentioned above – the band’s dusty demo-tape d-beat reaches new heights of sonic clarity. Which, to be fair, results in what is still an intense blast through a shrieking, gurgling hell. Tidy!
I just listened to this album for the first time in a long while. It had absolutely blown me away how heavy it is for something that came out in 1981. I always harp on about how incredibly heavy Swans’ Filth was for 1983, and although these two things are completely different, Venom’s intense dirty heaviness is a marvel for 1981. Talk about being ahead of the times! I recently had a conversation with an older colleague who was given this album in the 80s and really didn’t like it, which was a funny conversation to have. He said it was one of the worst things he’d ever heard at the time. Anyways, this thing fucking slays. If you’ve never heard it, its heavier and better then the group’s famously-titled Black Metal album. Imagine Motorhead but faster and heavier. Banging. (This is so good I reviewed it twice; here’s another review from May 2023): There is no question that Venom were incredibly noisy, messy and I suppose heavy for 1981. If you think about what else was going on at the time, nothing really compares to these Northern noisemongers in the kind of racket that they were producing. Of course, by 2023 stardards, 43 years later, things may seem a little tame, but this is one of those cases where you really need to take the release date into account. I think I might prefer Welcome To Hell to Black Metal. This one is certainly more stacked with raucous tunes, like the opening title track, “Poison”, “One Thousand Days In Sodom” or “Red Light Fever” to name but a few. The production is pretty horrible and the instrumentation is pretty fast and loose but that’s what it’s all about, right? This is great shit, and I could listen to it on repeat. It makes me want to dust off my leather jacket and drink some cider in the park, or something.
One that’s been on the to-do list for a fucking decade, would you believe? Anyways, I missed the 12″ release of this but have heard it many times over the last ten years. Street Halo (the song, as well as the EP in general) is super danceable for Burial, but still retains that dark, urban sprawl. The music conjures mental images of street lights, rain on the bus window, clandestine clubs, and walls covered in graffiti. Tidy.
Intense, blocky old-style vaporwave is the order of the day, although there is an extra sense of mystery to this project. I’m starting to wonder when bad 80s music slowed down and warped beyond recognition will start to get old for me? But hey, whilst the neon sun shines, right!? I have absolutely no idea what the name of this project is, but I love the vibes, and I love the production, which is fairly clear for all the broken-VHS vibes you get coming from this thing. Lovely.
I stumbled onto Kim Larson’s White Chamber after hearing her contribution to Offermose’s Stilhedens Tårn record (the first track, I believe). As with many times before, Discogs led me down the garden path, where I found this little EP resting next to a (digital) pond. Similar to Offermose, White Chamber is initially coming across like a mix of a foundational base of Berlin School, coupled with the spooky, folky electronics of earlier Death In June (only, seemingly, without any overtones of fascism, which is always a good thing). Pale Tears is two tracks, and about 12 minutes long, but its well worth a listen.
Disposer was the start of my torrid love affair with the putrid project that is Tumour. I got a slab of about 20 of these through a trade with Bringer Of Gore back in the day (I’d put out a grindcore compilation on 7″), and I had them sitting around for a while because my distro’ing game was not particularly strong. Any band that crams 20+ songs onto a 7″ EP is worth checking out in my book, and Disposer is a perfect example of the trashy, gloopy madness that Tumour gives the world. Expect mince-inspired bass noise, spasmodic drum machine programming and effected vocals that are more flange/phase than pitchshifted (lol). If you love messy, sloppy shit that is the aural equivalent of a gory B-movie, then I implore you to give this a spin. It’s cheap as chips and is extra nasty on vinyl.
Flux is a sublime journey through laid back and mesmerizing lo-fi electronic soundscapes. Robert Turman is an expert at conjuring moods from minimal and subtle sound design. Flux is not a hundred miles away from Selected Ambient Works Vol. 1, an album that is often praised as one of the greatest electronic works of all time. However, to compare the two to give some idea of the sound here, Flux lurks more in the shadows, with sub-bass and looping, almost sinister grooves. Definitely worthing checking this one out if electronic music is in your wheelhouse.
Amazing split cassette featuring two of my favourite goregrind discoveries of the last year or so. Tolerance pummel you with beats that are almost danceable, if they weren’t buried underneath a layer of grime, mirky guitars and shifted vokills. Tunkio is more into the “ping snare” school of gore, with looser production and a lighter sound than the suffocation of Tolerance, but is still a lethally fast bout of grinding menace. Tidy darts!
Tyr seems to ranked high amongst the Tony Martin era Sabbath records. Personally, it’s one of my least favourites, coming along like a second-rate Headless Cross, if I could be so bold. The later Martin stuff, although much more critically reviled, seems heavier and more in the spirit of Sabbath than something like this. It doesn’t help here that it sounds dated and out of touch, even for its release date. This is a fault of the production more than anything.
I’ve started a bit randomly here, coming in at number 5 of (so far) 6 dungeon synth records by the beautiful Darken Wood. Honestly, the first thing that springs to mind several minutes after letting V unfold is memories of exploring both the Imperial lands of Cyrodiil in TES IV: Oblivion and traversing the wilderness in TES II: Daggerfall. That’s what I love about good dungeon synth, is the ability for it to take you away to a magical world that is a brighter than ours. Perfect if you’re sat on a fucking train and its raining, or something like that.
Once I was lost, now I am found! Some shit from Anal Penetration (what a sentence) that was apparently lost, is now presented to us through the interpretive medium of pornogrind. I love grind and all of its ridiculous subgenres, but pornogrind is where I am most thin on the ground, thanks mostly to the legions of tupa tupa dickheads with songs about rape and fisting and so on. I’m not saying Anal Penetration, especially on The Lost Shits, is some kind of high art that is above all of this x-rated and somewhat misogynistic business, but at least the project grinds – and grinds hard. Often the “grind” elements of pornogrind are at absolute zero. Here that is not the case.
What I would define (if possible) as Killing Joke’s “poppy” period is probably my least favourite era. That being said, Night Time is a banging album, but Brighter Than A Thousand Suns continues in this vein, but with less urgency and with more sprinklings of New Romantic style pomp. That’s not to say the songs aren’t sprawling or lush or anything like that, but elementally, things just come together differently, and therefore hit differently, especially in this time period of releases.
H A Z E uses the vaporwave feel and aesthetic as ground work for building excellent and chilled out electronic offerings. However, like many modern entries into the genre, calling Internet Explorer simply vaporwave does the record a disservice. There are many forms of electronic meandering present here, and I’m reminded a lot of the more spacey and ambient stuff Mick Harris did in the 90s with Scorn, specifically here in the tracks “Connected” and closer “Flashback”, which have a much more urgent, driving beat structure than the others. A great record.
This is a short yet rewarding release from Terrace Martin and a revolving door of collaborators. It’s warm, comfortable yet snazzy music that is summed up perfectly in its name. I’m reminded how Miles Davis’ Doo Bop tried to mix jazz with the emerging and extremely popular hip hop styles of the early 90s. Whilst that might not have gone to plan, here such a thing is achieved to a dazzling effect. Kamasi Washington crops up too, which is always a treat.
This has to be one of my favourite vaporwave / future funk releases. I’ve always shyed away from using the term future funk but I think it certainly applies here more than vaporwave. Specifically, I think, because there seems to be zero repurposing of existing artist’s work; Buy Now appears to be entirely original compositions that are absolutely gorgeous in capturing that late 80s / early 90s synthesizer sound. There is also a prominent funky bass line, which has that future funk tag popping to the front of my brain every time. Just listen to the opening track here; its an total pleasure and evokes so much nostalgia, but that isn’t the only reason to check this thing out. Honestly, the compositional skill is second to none and the production is clear and incredibly well balanced. None of this would be out of place on the soundtrack for the Sonic 2 or Sonic 3 video games, or some sort of documentary from that era (How Its Made, perhaps?). Stunning, stunning stuff. I want a cassette and a vinyl, please!
This is a fantastic collection of tunes from the 90s, which YouTube insisted on forcing down my gullet. Honestly, this thing has been in my recommended for what seems like a year or so. Now that I’ve heard it, I want to go out and get a copy of the actual cassette. This is some chilled out shit. It doesn’t quite fall into “house” territory, but the drum and bass beats are more a laid back affair, in leui of your more acceptable stomping and or stonking beats and bass. I initially thought Bailey was the sole contributor but this plays more like a DJ set than an album, with cuts from all sorts of artists across the scene at the time. Honestly, it’s really nice. Plus, I heard an actual cassette rip, with all the analogue imperfections. Lovely! Takes you back to a time and a place. This is clearly a sought after piece of nostalgia for a lot of folk, judging by the Discogs wantlist and comments section.
Well then….. lol. I got this from a charity shop I think in 2013 or at the latest 2014. I used to work part time collecting dead peoples clothes that charity shops couldn’t sell. They’d sell the clothes to my company by weight, so the money would still be going to good causes, and we’d collect the clothes in high volumes and take them back to HQ to be pulped and turned into fuck-knows-what. This give me access to multiple CD bargain bins per day, and I got me some classics (and some stinkers) for next to nothing. Snoop’s Malice N Wonderland is probably closer to a stinker than it is to a classic. I remember listening to it at the time and thinking, damn now I’m gonna have to Lines In Wax this awful CD haha! Well, 8 or possibly 9 years later, here we are folks. Forget any notion that this is as good or even comparible in sound, both in production terms and vocal delivery, to classic Snoop Dogg. Granted, the legendary rapper has adopted a smoothness over the years which heavily plays in his favour but this is so undeniably bland nothing I can say can really save it. There’s nothing wrong with the lyrics per se I just don’t really find any of the songs interesting and for that reason it’s also probably time to wind this review up because there’s nothing more I can really add, positive or negative.
Vomi Noir are quickly becoming one of my favourite goregrind acts. Colour me surprised then, when I found myself listening to their debut full length with a furrowed brow. To call Vomi Noir “polished” in the same way that Nasum or Pig Destroyer is polished, would be a complete lie. However, this record comes with a much more shinier punch than I ever could have imagined it to. Is that a bad thing? Can I truly, on the face of it all, criticise a goregrind band for having good production? (Regurgitate pulled it off alright). No, I shan’t be criticising Vomi Noir in this instance. But it took me a few minutes to get used to the adjustment. Anways, production aside, Les Myasmes De La Deliquescence is a meaty effort, and its always good to see the newer grindcore darlings of the scenes take shots at a full length, after winning over everyone with short-form sickness on split releases. I maybe a few years late to the party, but I hope these guys are here to stay.
Harmony Of Difference, at “only” 30 minutes, is of course, never going to reach the sprawling, gargantuan payoffs of The Epic or Heaven And Earth, but its still an enjoyable slab of meandering, busy jazz that’s up there with the all-time greats. 13 of the 30 minutes are taken up by closer “The Truth”, which ramps up the saxophonic carnage (yep) to batshit levels of warbling goodness. That sentence does the rest of the ensemble a disservice, but hopefully you can envision what I’m talking about here! Ha!
There are few bands that create goregrind as cut and dry as The Day Everything Became Nothing. Its almost a sick, twisted opposite to what the genre usually contains – that being splattering, sloppy, gloopy music which admittedly has a blasting, precise backbone, but often gives the impression of total sonic sickness and chaos. On Brutal however, the band expand on their razor-sharp sound, bludgeoning you to death with perfect and rigid slabs of dense metallic gore. Its all very tidy and to-the-point, but the sheer sterility of it, in the face of all that disgusting gelatinous gore that shares this genre, is its own form of unique brutality.
What can I say about Infest? At this point the band is beyond legendary in both the hardcore punk and grindcore / powerviolence circles. As much as I love the band (live they kill it) I’d never actually heard this self titled 7″. Shame on me, because its fucking incredible. This thing is the pinnacle of hardcore / powerviolence. The sound, the mix, the anger. Shit! Absolutely incredible record. Well worth checking out as its only a few minutes long really.
I don’t know what I can say about Gets Worse that I haven’t said before. They are, easily, one of the best powerviolence groups out there right now. More of that fine metallic carnage is lined up for us here, alongside Endless Swarm’s more unrelenting grind savagery. Truly, a fantastic split EP.
I’ve never listened to Genesis before. Of course, their shit is all over the radio, but never to the point have I sat down and enjoyed one of their albums. I also can’t help but feel like Patrick Bateman listening to this shit. Anyways, it’s a very poppy, very synthesizer-heavy roundup of songs from Genesis. There’s some absolute bangers, and then there’s some tracks that just kinda blur on by with nothing to say for themselves. I’m not sure what I went into this expecting, but I found it quite pleasant, in most cases.
Since September 2019 I’ve had a private Telegram channel in which I keep track of everything that I listen to. Once I’ve done a piece on LIW for that particular release, I delete the entry from the Telegram channel. Etienne Daho’s Pop Satori has been on that list since September 2019 lol. In fact, I remember listening to it, headphones on whilst lying on the sofa, my girlfriend not long pregnant with our son. She’d gone to bed early so I stretched out and enjoyed this. I get Bete Noire / Taxi era Bryan Ferry vibes (perhaps this is the sort of thing that he sought to imitate?), and whilst some of these vibes and textures do tend to repeat themselves over the course of the album, it’s still an enjoyable listen. It’s on the gentler side of the 80s synthesizer and pop movements than I would usually partake in, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
