Lines In Wax

TWELVE YEARS OF UNWANTED OPINION

Day: April 1, 2022

Abruptum – Potestates Apocalypsis (2011)
noise & power electronics

Abruptum – Potestates Apocalypsis (2011)

Abruptum’s initial legacy ended in the mid 2000s, but after a few years hiatus, the member known as “Evil” returned without founding member “IT” (Information Tech? – these fuckin’ names, man) and released new material under the Abruptum name, even though, realistically, this should have been called something else entirely. However. This is fucking great. Potestates Apocalypsis (you know its grim and evil if the name is in fuckin’ Latin) is actually really, really good. Dark, dense, terrifying, atmospheric, blackened noise. Samples of warfare penetrate through the mud, but for the most part, this thick bog of echoic lava drowns you and consumes your soul. Comprising of four huge tracks, totally around 45 mins or so, this is a stunning work of atmospheric darkness. I highly recommend!

The Blood Divine – Mystica (1997)
doom metal rock

The Blood Divine – Mystica (1997)

This is the second and final album from The Blood Divine, the band featuring several members of Principle-era COF, as well as Darren White from Anathema. Mystica is a refreshing journey, actually. The first album is a solid and fine lesson in 90s British doom (arguably the best doom?), but Mystica goes off in several unpredictable directions. There are a lot of rock and blues parts, and the keyboard playing is absolutely excellent in this regard, with some really suave organ sounds on the go. It’s odd for a gothic doom metal band to go this way, but honestly it really works and this lost gem is a fabulous listen.

Blood / Impetigo – Split 7″ (1991)
death metal grindcore

Blood / Impetigo – Split 7″ (1991)

The Blood stuff here is great. Its raw, its nasty, and it really shows the styles that the band flirted with, bridging elements of death and grind with even black or war metal stylings. Love it. Unfortunately for me, I’ve heard the Impetigo side a thousand times because I got the Giallo / Antefatto complication CD through a trade when I was a teenager and these songs are already on there. Plus, the version of “Boneyard” on Horror Of The Zombie is 1000 times better than this. Still, grimy as fuck, get in!

Kamasi Washington – The Epic (2015)
avant-garde jazz

Kamasi Washington – The Epic (2015)

I’ve approached The Epic multiple times since release and have struggled to find the words to do it justice. Therefore, I’ve decided after another recent listen through at the beginning of the year, to throw all pretense of “doing it justice” to the wolves and just commit this monster of an album to the site. Is it too overblown for me to state that The Epic is the Bitches Brew of our generation? Possibly. Bitches Brew is a record that defined an era of new heights in jazz experimentation (or at least represents it). The Epic has many callbacks to that kind of meandering madness; obtuse time signatures, lengthy songs and outstanding soloing from various members of the group. The Epic also however has roots in many genres outside of jazz – or at least, from outside of fusion and the avant garde. There’s a lot here that reminds me of big band music, soul and funk, and even show tunes. Regardless of what I say, The Epic is one of the most ambitious albums to be released in the last decade and its something I cannot recommend enough to any music fans.

XXX Maniak / Lymphatic Phlegm – Split CD (2005)
grindcore

XXX Maniak / Lymphatic Phlegm – Split CD (2005)

I snoozed on this when it came out, and I snoozed once more when the 3XM side was re-released on 12″ vinyl. In fact, why did the vinyl re-release only include the 3XM stuff? Seems a bit shitty. Anyway, I digress. This is a pretty solid effort from 3XM, which farts hyperspeed drum machine grindcore over you in their “original” full length style – i.e. the production is decent, the vocals are weird and the DIY samples are hilarious. Lymphatic Phlegm are, of course, legendary by this point. On this very blog, over the last ten years I’ve gone from writing them off as a crappy goregrind that sounds like bedroom black metal, to simping for their spooky, gore-drenched tunes and aesthetic. Whichever camp you fall into, you know what you are getting with Lymphatic and the side they bring here is as solid as anything they’ve ever done. For when you like your gore spooky, give this a goosey.

Video Nasty – Pizza Tits (2013)
noise & power electronics

Video Nasty – Pizza Tits (2013)

How is this 9 years old? The time, she flies! I used to trade a lot with the Fuck The Industry label from Japan, who at the time were putting out some of the highest quality home made releases I’d seen. It goes to show how much difference can be made by investing in a decent printer (lol) – all of FTI’s stuff looked the part, both on CDr and cassette. Video Nasty (not to be confused with UK death metal band Video Nasties) is as far as I can tell a solo noise project (2022 edit: its a two piece according to Discogs). Things here are a bit hectic and all over the place and the CDr doesn’t last very long but it was cool to dig this out to fill in a review I should have written nearly a decade ago. Better late that never, eh?

Voices – Frightened (2018)
avant-garde black metal

Voices – Frightened (2018)

I’m not sure why Voices’ output fell off the radar in the mid 2010s, after the quickfire one-two of albums in 2013 and 2014, but I’d have to assume that it had a lot to do with Akercocke becoming a functioning entity again. In a running theme with a lot of the posts that I have made here recently, I completely missed this record around the time of its release, finally catching up with it in 2020 and only now listening again to commit my thoughts here. Frightened continues the Voices journey. Sounding nothing like London or Forest (I’m sorry, I’m not typing all that out), yet drawing strong roots from both of them, Frightened sees Voices hone their fragile sound further once again. Dare I say that the metallic elements are dialled back further, if you discount Dave Gray’s sublime blastbeat attacks. I hear post-rock, such as elements used by bands like Anathema, I hear post-punk, such as riffs or motifs used by bands like Killing Joke. I hear even more instrumentation in the form of pianos and strings. I hear progress! Frightened is a great development in the band’s journey and sound. I look forward to hearing the next record, which I believe hasn’t long been released. How’s that for timing?

Watain – Lawless Darkness (2010)
black metal

Watain – Lawless Darkness (2010)

I’ve never really been able to get into Watain. It’s not that I don’t like a bit sneaky melody living beneath the frosted, barren landscapes of my black metal. Nor is it that I find any of their music to be boring or badly made. Lawless Darkness is a intense slab of blackened metal tomfoolery, which admittedly doesn’t quite live up to the savage evilness promised by the title and the cover art, but is an entertaining album nonetheless.

Young Scrolls – Dagothwave (2017)
vaporwave

Young Scrolls – Dagothwave (2017)

It seems almost pointless to write a blog post about a download-only single. But hey, I’ve listened to this thing a ridiculous amount of times so its probably a good idea to go ahead and commit it here to the archive of forever. This is unreasonably catchy. For someone who enjoys both vaporwave and TES III: Morrowind, this is a match made in heaven. Hey, April 1st seems a good a day as any to post about this.

Wheelchair Wheelchair Wheelchair Wheelchair – Tales Of Bonnie Scotland (2013)
grindcore

Wheelchair Wheelchair Wheelchair Wheelchair – Tales Of Bonnie Scotland (2013)

I have a spotty relationship with Wheelchair x4. Granted, its mostly my fault, having organised a failed compilation featuring 69 bands around the time everyone was leaving MySpace en-masse and it took a year or so to get everyone’s money back. Anyway, that’s water under the bridge. I got this in 2013 along with the Elastic Death split and I really enjoyed it, despite the animosity the guys seem to have against me. Maybe its not quite so good as the split mentioned above or the ‘Contraception’ EP (pretty sure that was up for download on the Grindcore Karaoke website), but its still a decent listen and Wheelchair x4 continue to be a solid contributor to the UK grindcore underworld. Also, some idiot on Discogs is trying to sell a copy of this for £30. Good luck, mate.

Phantasmagore – Insurrection Or Submission (2021)
death metal

Phantasmagore – Insurrection Or Submission (2021)

Dense, brutal death metal is the order of the day. In the old school style of course, as I’m sure you can tell by the artwork. The resurgence of this kinda shit is still flowing freely from an unblocked sewer, and for now, I’m OK with that (no doubt saturation point will be reached at some point in the near future). Insurrection Or Submission isn’t a particularly long affair, nor, dare I say, is it particularly original or groundbreaking in any way. It is however, a very well made piece of death metal, with fathomless vokills and some of the nicest riffing I’ve heard recently. The artwork is the icing on the cake here.

Cannibal Corpse – Vile (1996)
death metal

Cannibal Corpse – Vile (1996)

Vile is the first Cannibal Corpse record without Chris Barnes on vocals. Fortunately, the history of metal has been kind to us, and metalheads will surely know that this means that Vile is the first record with the now-legendary George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher. This tidbit aside, it is unfortunately difficult not to compare this to what came before, especially considering Barnes left the band on such a fucking high, with the final record being The Bleeding. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Vile, but it just sadly suffers the fate of not being as good as what came before it. But, considering how astronomically legendary those early Cannibal Corpse records are, I find it hard to hold this fact against Vile. It’s a well produced, solid slab of death metal.

Abigail – Sweet Baby Metal Slut (2009)
black metal

Abigail – Sweet Baby Metal Slut (2009)

Abigail has always danced at the corners of my musical peripheral vision (lol); the odd festival appearance here, the odd logo shirt there. But never had i submitted myself to their sleazy thrashing blackened metal until now. Think Nunslaughter, but throw in some more d-beat and make all the songs about “sluts” instead of goats, and you’re on the right track. Imagine if Midnight were a band full of horny teenage boys, and you’d maybe get the same outcome. But hey, let’s not get lost in the shtick here. The music is pretty solid and fun, despite the innate sloppiness of this kind of genre (or that’s what they want you to think- as a drummer of nearly 20 years I still can’t do a d-beat LOL). Let’s not write an essay-length analysis here. The cover art should tell you why. Either check out the manic sounds or don’t. Cheers!

Agathocles – Distrust And Abuse (1993)
grindcore

Agathocles – Distrust And Abuse (1993)

Ah! Classic old school Agathocles EP right here. Guitars down-tuned to non-existence, shifted vokills and drums that are all over the place – what more could you possibly want? I love this primordial soup stuff, way back before mincecore was defined by stomps, d-beats and those riffs. Not that I hate any of that stuff, no no, but I do have a soft spot for the more grinding death metal sound to Agathocles had at the beginning.

December Moon – Source Of Origin (1996)
black metal

December Moon – Source Of Origin (1996)

This is fucking great. I heard about this as it was mentioned in passing by Stuart Anstis; during a very long interview he mentioned that Robin (the original COF bass player) had a project called December Moon. I don’t think Stu had anything to do with this, but he led me down this path at the least. Honestly, this is awesome. It’s showing its age, in some regards, but that’s OK. The production is great, the songs are fantastic, in both metal terms and in the more twinkly, dare I say dungeon synth terms. This is black metal but with that miserable, doomy edge that similarly defined Cradle’s Principle Of Evil Made Flesh. This December Moon record may be more or less lost to time, but it is well worth unearthing it.