I was drawn in by the absurd logo and I stayed for the technical aspects filtered through an old-school death metal production. First off, I just want to say that the bass playing on this thing by Jonas Grønborg is exemplary. Top marks and a “brr brr ding” award for you, good sir. It is however, perhaps difficult to win awards for originality in this genre but I found Effigies Of Obsolescence refreshing and engaging throughout. The production is well balanced and the riffs are fantastic. Great stuff!
Short, sharp and messy! Think something like Pharmacist crossed with Impetigo. If that doesn’t get you excited for this band then I don’t know what will! There’s only three tracks here, so its difficult to go into any sort of depraved depths, but the demo is a brilliant example of what the band is about, and I’m really looking forward to their album dropping for more old school gory grind sickness. Standout track: “Posthumously Penetrated”
Savage, punishing, unforgiving – the (un)holy trinity of war metal. Not that I want to pigeon hole this fantastic band, but their mix of blasting death and black styles does fall into the “bestial” camp. The drumming on this thing is absolutely outstanding – you can really feel the power behind it. The vocals sound like a sick mix of FX and clean screams, all curdled together into some disgusting cauldron of spew. Stoked to hear more from these guys in the future.
Pickled stuff here from the long-running Venetian Snares project. Think breakbeat but with strings and mental vocals, to break it down to its most basic level. This one has perplexed me since it came out, and I find it quite impenetrable, but enjoyable nonetheless.
Laika Come Home is a stunning remix album that accompanies the band’s equally stunning debut selftitled record. Everything here is done in a dub reggae style, which permeated the selftitled in its own way. So, it is super cool to have guest mixers Spacemonkeyz come in and really push that vibe further. I can’t really pick individual favourites (well, I could), but this thing works best as a whole. Chuck it on, sit back, and enjoy.
Danny Brown has always been an interesting rapper but Atrocity Exhibition goes off the deep end, I won’t lie. In a good way, of course. This is very abstract, at least in production, which shambles and drags along as much as it pummels with hard-hitting beats. Lyrically, this is a dark record, with all sorts of mental health issues appearing at the forefront. This is great shit.
Not a very good effort from Death In June, although it has its moments. Expect lots of sound collages and other pointless shit, let’s be honest here. The art is pretty iconic though, and there are appearances from regular collaborators such as Rose McDowall and Boyd Rice. Oh, and this album has “Fall Apart”, which is one of the best Di6 songs in my opinion.
With Devil’s Night, D12 gave the world their first full length. Production-wise, you can easily consider this a sister album to Eminem’s original Marshal Mathers LP from the year before. Dre is back in the seat, and the beatwork is more or less the same; heavy, snapping metallic instrumentation and Dre’s super surround sound production that carries over from Chronic 2001. Flow wise, the quality of rappers in D12 varies, as does the ability to understand what folk are saying. Eminem is clearly the lead talent here, but thats not to shit on the others (I think they already did a song about that, actually lol). Anyways, the non-single versions of “Fight Music” and “Purple Pills” are drastically different (especially the latter), and the record flows with some really cool songs, but does fall off a bit in the final third.
I love a good gimmick, me. This goes far beyond the initial reaction however, and actually delivers on the goods. If you ever wondered what classic Sabbath tunes sounded like through a 50s/60s jazz band sound, then look now further. To top it off, the record is expertly produced and some of the interpretations are truly sublime.
The pinnacle of Death’s evolution. Oddly enough, this was the first Death album I ever heard, when I was 16 or 17, and I couldn’t understand why everyone thought this band was so brutal. What’s brutal about this? Haha Anyways, I enjoyed it a lot and used to jam this when up late playing WoW. Nowadays I’m a bit more mature and can enjoy it even more. I get that Fenriz from Darkthrone thinks this is “fucking shit”. Maybe he is stuck at 17 years old? No idea. “Flesh And The Power It Holds” and “Spirit Crusher” are perfect examples of what this record is all about.
Not as dreadful as the band’s ridiculously corny debut, nor as unique and perplexing as its follow-up, Thousand Swords stands alone in a weird no man’s land. I honestly don’t understand the hype for this thing. Outside of the cool cover art and the cooler logo, this is pretty bog standard stuff. Oh, and whilst we’re at it, fuck NSBM.
Ridiculous, pointless, absurd CD single from the gods of narco goregrind. I picked this up at a festival for next to nothing and its worth owning just because its so bizarre, but hey – this shit happened! The version of “Matando Gueros” as the b-side is also pretty cool.
Remix albums are always a dark art, purely by the nature of their individual component parts usually being submitted by multiple different artists. It is hard to make it work, at least as an enjoyable coherent listen. Telegram is all over the place and doesn’t flow very well at all, but there are some excellent stand outs. First up, it is worth mentioning the stand-alone original track “My Spine”, which is an out-take or a b-side or something like that, and is actually really cool. Telegram is worth listened to for the Brodsky Quartet version of “Hyperballad” alone, but there are a few others worth mentioning: the Further Over The Edge Mix of “Enjoy” is great, as is the Dobie Rub (Dub?) version of “I Miss You”. The take here of “Army Of Me” sounds like something Scorn would have done in the Evanescence era. Wonder why the Carcass version of “Isobel” didn’t make it onto this CD. LOL
When I first heard Life Is Peachy I couldn’t believe how disgusting, drab and downtuned it was. Everyone seems to have this reaction to the Korn debut, but personally, for me, the band took their sound even further south with this sophomore effort. This stands up today still, as something that is astronomically heavy. Some of the tracks are a bit pants (the one with the guy from Deftones rapping is an abomination), and the overall vibe is a bit messy, but that unhinged energy and raw emotion is what made Korn so exciting. Coincidentally, it’s also what is missing from most of their later stuff.
Defaction is a short-lived side project of Mick and Mitch Harris (no relation), both of course of Napalm Death fame. I believe the purpose was to be a bit grindier than the rigid death metal that Napalm was peddling at the time, but honestly, this is still fairly far into the death metal camp. It’s got a cracking sound to it and of course we are listening to two of the greats here. It’s a bit daft that I took so long to get around to this but I got there in the end. Good shit. I’m just glad to be here, when stuff like this exists.
Mystifier do not fuck around. Expect dense, tight metal with a huge drum sound (the snare is out of this world). Balancing somewhere between the production on classic war metal releases and that of early 90s gothic metal, Mystifier use this sound to maximise their long-winded, complex tales of occult and / or generally evil o ongoings. Genuinely brutal shit without being derivative. A great underground gem.
This has to be one of the most out-there things that I have ever heard, which is really saying something. I first came across a few of the “MCs” on this thing back in 2006/2007 in the MySpace days. Colour me surprised to not only find that MC Bushpig and MC Slurry and all these other horrible aliases are not only still listened to all these years later, but they actually did a full length album together all the way back in 2003. Considering myself out of the loop on some prime horrorcore sickness, I let her rip. Nothing however could have adequately prepared me for what I was about to hear. Yeah, this is horrorcore, but pushed to an almost unrecognisable extreme, having more in common with goregrind or something that say, the Insane Clown Posse. Some of the rappers here are absolutely fucking shocking, but others are really, genuinely, pathologically crackers. Underpinning everything is a stinking, lo-fi production which isn’t a bazillion miles away from the Memphis style, of which I’m sure along the way, was a massive influence on this. 100% for those who are sick in the head or just desensitised to pretty much everything.
Random YouTube album listens, let’s go! Sharing a name with the elusive sophomore Throatplunger record, Almoranaz’s beautifully-titled Weapons Of Ass Destruction is actually a very enjoyable exercise in brutal death metal. The ridiculousness is dialled up to 11, as of course you would expect, and this also reflects in the unpredictable and chaotic nature of the songs. Messy, but holds together nicely – grand!
The temptation to refer to this record as Gwar Party is never ending. Anyways, this is as solid as a Gwar record can get. After the 90s the band adopted this long-form storytelling thrash metal angle that ran more or less until the demise of Brockie. This thing is seriously sharp, if you can look past the gimmick.
Holy fucking mother of Kazan, what in the great creeping shit is this!? The cover art screams of an upset boomer wanted to piss off the “normies” by uploading a baiting profile pic. The messages in both the pink triangle whiphand and the slogan printed onto the COVID mask might be subversive and purposefully contradictory in that good ol’ Di6 way, but this cover selection proves that Douglas is definitely losing his subtly when it comes to such imagery. File under: Old man shouts at cloud. (I mean, you could always argue that a totenkopf is not a subtle image, but its use has always been ambiguous, or supposedly so.) Anyway – onto Nada-Ized. I can imagine the conversation over a few too many beers (or glasses of red wine in Douglas’ case). “H-what iff…. hic like, someone djid a remischs, of like hic aul the new Death In Joon shtuff, but like hic, in the shtyle of Nada! Becosss hic, everyone loves Nada, right?” Unfortunately, this thing sounds like you ordered a copy of Nada! off of Wish.com for 99p. The idea is fantastic, but the execution is mortifying. To actually make these acoustic ditties sound like Nada! one need a bunch of analogue synthesizers, drum machines, and possibly a reel to reel tape machine – and, this is the stinger – you’d fucking need Tony Wakeford.
Slightly rocky third release/album (I think) from Blasphemy, where the carnage of the band seems to fall over itself rather than unfold in constant reels of barbarity. Hey, it’s still great, and it’s a fun listen, but it ain’t no Fallen Angel Of Doom. That being said, this is better than most low effort bestial / war metal that gets released these days, and is still well worth checking out.
Blood Incantation are really starting to grow on me, and I can see why this 4 track banger is bolded on RYM. Perhaps its the slightly smaller scope here that makes this less intimidating, but I chained this thing back-to-back twice, and loved every second of it. If you are reading this review then you probably have some idea of what Blood Incantation are all about, but on Interdimensional Extinction the band mix technical death metal with incredible sound design and atmospheric collages, as well as the more awkward, dissonant riffage and passages of bands like Timeghoul, or more recently, Choronzon-era Akercocke. Fabulous stuff.
Haircuts For Men’s discography can be quite intimidating, and I went into this, which has been on my to-do list for some time, believing it was a fairly recent offering, but it’s actually quite old. This is the problem when all of the album covers are fairly abstract in the same style, all in Japanese, and all, more or less, of the same consistent quality. Even if every record of his was a banger, telling them apart the further I go into the discography, well, that’s becoming harder and harder. 大理石のファンタジー is fantastic however. You could accuse it of rehashing the same old same old, but as for what I primarily listen to vaporwave for, being to chill out and mostly as background music when I’m working and so on, this is just perfect for that. Slow, treacle atmospheres are punctuated by electronic beats and that unshakeable feeling of a past that is now lost forever. I really enjoyed the last two tracks, “彼女のお気に入りのディスコを閉じました” and “家族戻る前に”, and it really felt like the record was looking up before finishing on a high crest.
Yeah this is exactly what I’m fucking looking for out of vaporwave; chill, dense atmospheres, big 80s beats pitched-down to oblivion, and a bizarre mix of relaxation and impending doom. Appealing to both my love of cool beats and love of ominous soundscapes, Dematerialize helps you slip into the backrooms, in particular the recesses of an abandoned mall where the lights are always on and it’s always 3am. Grand stuff.
Nasty, disgusting blasting goregrind. It gets to a point where describing such a thing leads you round and around the same paths, in a literary sense, of course. Aurally however, the sickening musical delights of Bodily Stew will no doubt please any goregrind fan with an appetite for the macabre festering away in their hearts.
I remember years and years ago, when I was doing GCSE art. My teacher, someone who introduced me to all sorts of obscure shit like Unseen Terror for example, had this CD with him one day. He put it in front of me and said “what do you think that sounds like?”. I didn’t know what I was looking at back then, but the image of Douglas in that mask, holding a knife to the throat of a pig, well that stayed with me forever. “Bet you think it’s going to be some proper mad Norwegian stuff don’t you?” my teacher goaded me. The man had a full stereo system in the corner of his dilapidated classroom, and All Pigs Must Die went into the CD tray. I was 15 years old, and I was just migrating from being obsessed with black metal to being obsessed with grindcore, and I had no time for the twinkly acoustic tracks that came from the speakers. It’s only by looking back now, do I realise how unusual it was for someone to be playing this album to a class full of teenagers as they painted awful compositions on cheap craft paper. I kinda respect him for showing us stuff like that, and Unseen Terror, and Napalm Death and so on. Anyway, back to the present. All Pigs Must Die is, to me, as it seems to be with many others, just half an album. The first half, which comprises of gorgeous and bare acoustic compositions, with haunting additions of trumpets and flutes, is up there with some of the best material Douglas has ever done (the title track and “Tick Tock” in particular). I have no particular gripe with the lyrical content, as petty as airing disputes can be. Unfortunately, this high quality does taper off towards the latter half, where the record descends into the world of noise and sound collages. This stuff was done much better on the albums that would come, such as Operation Hummingbird and Take Care And Control, where Douglas had more outside help in these fields. Its a shame that Boyd Rice appears on the album, but contributes no noise, only vocals. If you just want to throw something on in the background this isn’t exactly awful, but the juxtaposition between the acoustic stuff and the noise stuff further just highlights how far, far better one type of songwriting is than the other. Sorry Douglas.
I saw this on a ton of year end lists on various social media, and that art is the stuff of nightmares, being so striking that it was a constant reminder to check this thing out. I had absolutely zero preconceived notions about what this would sound like, whether it would be black, death or doom metal, or something else entirely, so there was no internalised bias towards liking or disliking the sounds that were to come. Despite this, I have found it difficult, on repeat listens, to gel with what’s going on here. The style is a mix of black metal and something altogether more conventionally “rock”, but not in the same was as something like Black Magick SS or anything like that. Funereal Prescience have their own sound, I’ll give them that, but it’s not one that I am too much of a fan of.
A lovely little 4-track EP from the AFX project. The first two tracks are remixes and flow together nicely, conjuring up a few variations on the same theme. “Nightmail” cuts in and changes the pace with a low-key breakbeat energy and chattering vocal sample before the final track gives us some ploinky synth padding to close. In all, it’s a nice little cross section of styles, and a fun snapshot into the works of RDJ.
Abysmal, fetid goregrind with the shifted vokills and dustbin snare drum. Obligatory, my dear. Despite this, a fairly clear production helps hold your attention through the blasting, mushy carnage, as does the inclusion of more mincecore elements, which brings variation and respite, not to mention a bit of groove. Tidy.
Well-rounded production and a decent heavy sound, but a fairly typical groovy goregrind vibe. That sentence makes this sound like Rompeprop or something, but what I mean to say is, Egggore play the chunky, death-metal influenced form of drum machine grindcore (either that or the drums are triggered to smithereens) that was very popular at one point. It kinda sounds like Hymen Holocaust if they used a drum machine and were a bit more rigid. Egggore’s debut isn’t bad though, the production has the guitars sounding like brain matter buzzing and running out of your ears during an electric chair execution, and the pitch shifter vocals are super cool.
Ugh! (Or should that be, Bleeurururppp?) Undergang are arguably the kings of slow-mo, slurry-churning, bone-grinding death metal; the snail pace allowing the filthy ooze to truly take its most hideous form. The drums form a rigid, re-animated skeletal frame, where the thick bog of guitars, drums and bile-soaked croaks smear over the top of the percussion like the melted, impostumated epidermis of a nightmarish mutation crawling from the sewer with one thing on its mind: human flesh. It’s odd seeing such cartoonish colours on an Undergang sleeve but it works with the overall vibe. Great stuff!
Nordisk Krim gives me interesting vibes, like a twist between old prog rock and the more recent group, Goat. It’s not entirely in my wheelhouse and I find some of the aspects a little tiresome, but I can respect the musicianship and the quality of the production. The subjects of the songs is also very interesting, I’m not just in love with the finished album.
Friendship, Loyalty, Commitment is probably the most un-metal thing to ever call a record, but y’know, for all of hardcore’s macho posturing, the message is usually one of positivity underneath. 25 Ta Life push that whole concept to 11 with this super-distilled shot of tuff-guy hardcore. The music is absolute class though, with some amazing riffage and a raw but well-balanced production. Whatever you make of the vocalist, you can’t really deny that his style just lends a whole bunch of charm to the entire thing. I’m not a hardcore guy but I really enjoyed this, even if the vocals are pretty funny in parts.
A similar method of approach could be given to that of Razor Sharp Daggers or Theatrical Symbolisation etc etc – if you are interested in Black Clouds Determinate as a studio album recording then the first 16 tracks are the only ones you should concern yourself with. The rest of this bloated run-time is filled with live material, which whilst not the worst thing in the world, does drag this thing out unnecessarily. The early to mid 90s is a strange period for Agathocles. There is a middle ground between the “classic” stuff and the stride that they hit going into the 2000s, which whilst not experimental, does see them flexing a bit in regards to textures. This is not the case on Black Clouds however. The entire session feels like a single whole – consistent, you could say – and whilst it doesn’t seem like many of these songs really stuck around that much in the band’s live set (not long-term anyway) they are absolutely worth checking out.
This album may have some pretty bad cover art, but it makes up for it sonically. What I like alot about Tauromachine is the presence of shorter, more easily digestible songs. This is still pummelling noise done in the way only Merzbow can do so well, but what this has over predecessor 1930 and even Pulse Demon is the less-intimidating track lengths. It really makes the difference for me, as pausing half way through a noise track can ruin the experience. All round, a solid noise album and a good starting point for beginners, actually.
The Bug has collaborated with Warrior Queen many times now, but this EP is one of the earlier efforts. Backed with the tune “World War 3”, “Aktion Pak” itself is a fair ol’ banger. The rest of the release contains extensive dubs/remixes of the title track by The Bug himself, as well as a completely unrelated track at the end. A strange one.
2015 – The Fall Of Newport is the “lost” Sanguelia album that was originally meant to come out years ago. Unlike the project’s first record, a recording of real-life drumming was never placed over the synth work, so years laterx sole-remaining member Linus programmed the drums himself, and this finally saw the light of day in 2022. Personally, I prefer this over the first record (although I might be biased), I love the bubbling bass and the sounds of the analogue synths just really appeal to me. It really does sound like a soundtrack for an old giallo (one with a lot of car chases and running up or down fire escapes) or an action/horror movie of the 1980s. Great stuff.
Absolute nonsense of the highest order. Anal Blasphemy don’t go anywhere near as hard as their logo and cover art history promises. Some of the other stuff looks proper wild though so I’ll have to start there. Necroslut sound like something you’d have heard on a demo cassette in 1990. The sound is a little better on their side, allowing that bestial stomp to hit home. Silly, but good fun.
Incredibly chilled record from the legendary John Coltrane and his band. Most immediate thing I notice with the mix of this is that the brass is panned hard left, blasting and rattling out of that speaker, whereas the right just bums with the double bass and ticking percussion. Seven tracks in length, I’ve been enjoying this as a soundtrack to my commute. Listening to the sublime tones as the rain dances with the tarmac and the traffic lights had made me feel like I’m in some sort of fancy movie, but alas I arrive at the office before I know it. I look forward to letting this one unfurl further and to become more familiar with the individual tracks.
This was never really my thing but I caught Trap Them live at Roadburn festival many many moons ago and that cemented them in my head as a formidable musical force. Bliss Fucker, I guess, is a good example as any of the band’s dense, buzzsaw-worship sound. Sure, it’s not completely derivative Entombed-core, but the inclusion of the HM2 pedal always sets a tone (pun intended) about how a release will be received by me. Technically brilliant and very well made stuff, but not an album that scratches every itch (maybe I should see a doctor about that).
Some of the earlier Autophagia stuff can leave you wanting, what with a production that is so clogged with dust it’s impossible to really make anything out. On Postmortem Human Offal however, there is no such problem. The gruesome grindcore is bared for all to see in all of it’s sickening detail: guitar blurs and sharp riffs, shambling corpse drums, and my Brother in Christ, these are some of the most insane pitch shifter gurgles ever put to tape. This shit is unseemly.
What an abominable down-tuned soup of hideous death metal! It took me a few goes to get used to the sordid display of metal oozing out of my stereo. The drums… wow. It’s like a corpse has risen from the grave. They shamble and shift, sometimes staggering. But for some reason, that works really well. The vocals fart and bubble out of the speakers. Some nefarious shit, y’all.
Busy, infectious jazz that still has a bit of that big band vibe, even with what sounds like a smaller group perhaps. I’ve listened to Ah Um a few times, but none of the songs really jump out at me. I’ve always enjoyed it as a suite, as a whole, and often to be honest as background music whilst doing something else. I find it heavily over rated, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it.
I love Neptune Towers. Part of me wants Fenriz to resuscitate the project, but another wants it to remain dead so we just have these two perfect gems. I’ve written about the other album some time ago, so it’s time to talk about this one. I love how Tangerine Dream had this low-key influence on the black metal guys, with Mortiis doing Fata Morgana and Fenriz doing this. This is far dreamier and stretched out to oblivion than anything Mortiis did however, with true to the core Tangerine-style gazing, with overlapping walls of mesmerising synthesizers. I’ll see you on the moon base for a pint. If not, I’ll catch you when we get to Empire Algol.
Considering how “brutal” a band like Blasphemy are, it’s surprising how clear and powerful this early demo sounds. Usually these things are covered in layers of dust and tape hiss that not even the best remaster can remove. Granted, there is some of that charm here but for the most part this is a solid professional recording. Blood Upon The Altar contains everything that there is to love about music like Blasphemy: crazy downtuned riffing, heavy drums and intense vocals, blending the extremity of both black and death metal together in perfect harmony. Accept no imitations! Also – check out that release date! This shit is ahead of its time for sure.
Dune-inspired remix record for the first Fear Factory album. Probably a stretch to call this an album too, it’s more of an EP. Either way, it shows the techno and / or industrial elements have been there since the start, even when the group were more in line with death metal than anything else.
Manhunt play blistering fast grindcore that will rip your face off. Perhaps it is the perfect soundtrack to playing the super controversial and violent video game of the same name, if I could be so bold. Internal Rot are shaping up to be one of the greatest grindcore bands of the recent decade(s), and this split is no different in demonstrating their intense aural outpourings.
What always surprised me about this record, I think because of the name of the band more than anything, was that it wasn’t some hideous porn and / or goregrind, and was more in the straight-up grindcore camp (with a whole bunch of death metal influences, of course). Some pig squeals sneak in here or there, but these are used for comic effect more than anything. The production is clear and powerful, if a little over-compressed (just a smidgen!), so if well-produced grindcore is your thing, look no further.
Heavy, well-produced and chunky grindcore. They only ever did one album to my knowledge, but it’s a good one and it’s well worth checking out. There’s definitely a hardcore punk undercurrent, which along with the clear production carries this album along nicely (and at a ferocious pace too).
Gateways is some brutal shit. Like Formulas… but turned up to 11. The groove on Domination? My brother in Christ, it is long gone (well, almost). Steve Tucker’s second record with the group saw the guys doubling down on the heaviness, and on the speed. Pete The Feet’s blasts here are ridiculously good. Despite how good his technique is, the drums feel a little quiet, but I think it’s due to the insane technical nature of the playing (of the whole band), and the lack of triggers where usually there would be on a record such as this. Mad props for that.
Very interesting harsh noise with plenty of atmospheric passages. Harrowing walls of distortion are permeated with – and often built up from – loops of peculiar noises; scrapes and clanking, metallic abrasions and explained emissions. This is the kind of thing I would like to see more of in noise. Ligature are not afraid to set a scene or built an atmosphere before getting to the heavy shit.
Maddeningly lo-fi but also somewhat endearing, this muffled journey through introspective black metal is a bit rough around the edges. However, there’s enough charm here to keep me interested to completion. Not the best thing I’ve ever heard, but it isn’t trying to be.
Dense, scouring (what appears to be) analog noise from Werewolf Jerusalem, to whose credit, their 15 minutes sails by as if I am being carried along on a haze of audible wire. Culver is more restrained, offering a similar length piece but of the atmospheric, ambient variety. Dark, menacing ambience of course, but not the kind that will knock you out of your seat. More the kind of menancing ambience that would be the soundtrack to be walking around a dodgy part of town in the middle of the night looking for the address of someone who apparently can hook you up with some snuff porn.
Whereas the group’s debut was all “go”, Buried Secrets – which was a quick follow-up in the next year – hits the ground running but takes a moment to breathe every now and then, slowing sometimes to a Filth-era Swans style crawl, which allows for some real nastiness to show through. Buried Secrets is still very challenging, and still very much consists of incomprehensible jazz-meets-grind blurs, but the varied pace brings more interesting arrangements.
I know Zorn did Naked City but this kind of “high art” vibe experimental jazz seems a million miles away from the basement gigs and punk ethos of grindcore. Nevertheless, Napalm Death whirlwind Mick Harris is on this thing. An odd choice in 1991 it may have seemed perhaps, but Mick has done some very experimental stuff with his career, from Scorn to Lull to the bazillion other projects. The man is so much more than a grindcore drummer (and one of the best at that). The staff involved on this thing makes it hard to admit that it is not a record that I love. It lands it’s blows about half of the time, the other half of the time the songs sound like nonsensical jams, and not in a good way. But yeah – when it does hit, it really really hits. Screaming, crazy, batshit grind-meets-free-jazz.
Proper meaty, long-player split from two amazing grindcore legends. Agathocles don’t require any introduction, but their session here is solid and well-played. The high-end frequencies are a bit harsh but AGx aren’t known for production quality and this is far from the worst of their stuff. Suppository are brilliant. I fear I’ll sound a bit dense describing them this way but I love how the music is a mix of straight-up ravenous grindcore in the instrumentation, but then you get the goregrind vocals over the top of it. Viva la pitch shifter! Usually goregrind can sound a bit more morbid or muddy, but this thing doesn’t miss a beat; it’s fast as hell and has lots of old school influence. As far as AGx splits go, this is one of the better ones that I’ve heard.
Embalming Theatre are so, so good. I’m the murky worlds of both grindcore and death metal they still stand unique, churning out their own brand of sickness. The two tracks here are par for the course, but hugely enjoyable. The vocals on track two are noticeably different than usual, though. Jigsore are a messy blur, but that’s why we are here, right? I listened to this only yesterday but already can’t remember what the third band sounded like – I’m unsure if that’s a reflection on their music or whether listening to 4 way splits in a 7” format is a bad idea. I do remember what Kadaverficker sound like however, and to be honest it’s pretty poor. These guys seem to really get around, on splits and on concert bills, but I’ve never heard a recording by them that’s really done anything for me. No offense. All in all, not the greatest thing in the world, with Embalming Theatre being the highlight of the record.
I was pretty excited when I heard Bobby Maggard (aka the gore master) had another new project, this time a more “musical” death metal style form of sickness called Clumps Of Flesh. For all the endless forms of gorenoise Bobby has made, I do miss his more listenable exploits from the past such as Corpseinthecrawlspace and Dehydrated Tissues. (On that note I am forever and to infinite shame still sleeping on Gangrene Discharge as of writing this out) As it turned out, I’d already heard this album before on the Mai Gorenoise channel without realising it was good ol’ Bobby. So I played that fucker again! Super dismal, boggy metal/grind is on the menu, with toilet-bowl vocals (of course) and stupid-fast drum programming. It’s far, far more listenable than say, Urinary Tract Infection yadda yadda Pus Clots (lmao) but it’s still a disgusting experience that I would heavily recommend. (I reviewed this back in early 2022: I was turned onto Chunks Of Flesh whilst falling down the rabbit hole which is the Regurgitated Stoma Stew website. There is so much gorenoise on that site that it absolutely boggles my tiny mind. Chunks Of Flesh is another “listenable” Maggard project, of which I am all fucking about lets be honest. Chunks Of Flesh has Mortician-esque roots, but of course with the added layers of filth you’d expect from goregrind. I’m reminded of the Dutch project Tumour, but with fat riffs! Honestly this is nasty as hell.)
Sometimes it feels like 1349 don’t half churn out albums but it’s actually been several years since this came out (at the time of writing). I’m sad to say, after a bit of a streak (MCoC and Demonoir were insane!), The Infernal Pathway didn’t immediately knock me out of my seat like other 1349 records have (yes even Revelations…). It’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination but it just seems to lack a little of that feral energy that makes the band so special. I hope this will grow on me in subsequent listens.
I remember walking through my hometown once, many moons ago, Sony Discman rammed awkwardly into a hoodie pocket, the earphones lodged firmly into my skull. A fellow metalhead who walked by too close stopped and turned. I took out a earpiece. “You’re listening to Nihility by Decapitated” he said, all matter of fact. “I can tell by the bass drums.” I’ve never forgotten that moment and I think about it every time I play this album. I also have two copies of this thing, for some reason. When I was a kid I bought the version in the radioactive green jewel case. However only the other day I found a sealed copy in a regular jewel case (without the “Suffer The Children” bonus track) in my parent’s house and that’s been in my car ever since. Anyway, enough about me. Let’s talk about how amazing Decapitated are. Or were. I can’t speak for the later incarnations of the band (although I did catch part of a set at Hellfest one year), but as a metalhead first and a wider music fan second, Nihility brings joy to my heart. This thing just absolutely slays. I could do a track by track analysis about how good this is, but I won’t. I’ll just highlight that “Babylon’s Pride” is just absolutely off the hook, as is the title track and of course, the now legendary “Spheres Of Madness”. The fact that the guys were so young (especially Vitek) when recording this just shows you how talented they were, and it deepens the sadness of the tragedy that would eventually befall them. RIP Vitek, and my heart hurts for you, Coven. I know these aren’t your real names and this is just a terribly written album review that’ll you’ll never see, but to you and your band mates, thank you.
Where does jazz fusion end and prog rock begin? Endless instrumental noodling is afoot in that imitable, super-glossy big 80s production style. Only, this is from 1998 (lol). Ham-factor aside, these guys can seriously play, and Vital Tech Tones does kinda live up to its album / project name.
I first heard of Lafeyette Gilchrist when someone from David Simon’s crew (or perhaps the man himself) snuck a snippet of “Assume The Position” into a scene from The Wire. Later, the same song would go on to be used in much more dazzling effect as the closing theme to David Simon’s The Deuce, and that’s when I fell in love with this swaggering, jazzy monster of a song. Compendium is a compilation record that gathers tracks from it seems the first four Gilchrist records, and it makes for a lengthy listen at 2 hours 20 minutes or so. Honestly, on my first run it was kinda hard to tell these songs were all from different sessions; the production is surprisingly uniform. It’s nice to see this kind of instrumental jazz being led but a gorgeous, smoky piano instead of a buzzing sax. Don’t get me wrong there’s plenty of sax work in the runtime, but goddamn that piano playing is fantastic. Big up to the rest of the band as well who are also on their a-game here across these sessions.
I’ve never been the biggest fan of King Diamond nor of Mercyful Fate to be honest but there’s something about a couple of their records that keeps drawing me back. Don’t Break The Oath is the main one that does this. I’m not sure if it is the most spectacular and hellish album sleeve, or the music itself, or perhaps a combination of both, but return I do. It’s hard to talk about the sound stage without sounding like a ponce, but production is an interest of mine and I like to dissect an album in my head as I listen to it. The guitars are brittle and panned wide and far away, whereas the vocals, bass and drums almost sound like they are from another album; centred and thick with their bassy, warm analogue sound. On a stereo it’s not so noticeable, but on headphones the distance between the guitars and the rest of the instruments is more noticeable. It’s an interesting choice. It’d be easy to pick “Gypsy” as a favourite song (maybe because Emperor covered it and I knew it from there), but honestly I like to listen to the whole album in one go, and I always enjoy it that way. A classic, but you don’t need me to tell you that.
Awesome three way split with some amazing goregrind bands. Pulmonary Fibrosis kick things off with the most well produced session on this entire thing. Intense, blasting gore is the name of the game, with bludgeoning down-tuned riffs and sick gore vocals. There’s a live session too that extends the band’s runtime, but it’s fairly redundant. Haggus are up second, with that razor-sharp guitar tone and unique spin on the gore shifter vokills. In a (radioactive) sea of hundreds of pitch shifters, Haggus’ sound stands almost immediately recognisable. Sick, stomping shit as usual. Inopexia sound a lot better than they did since I heard them on their split with Malad. LDOH-worship is afoot, but don’t write these lot off as mere copycats. Pulsating, dripping, ultra-blasting putrescent gore is your reward for seeing this session though.
Nonsensical, pointless, ridiculous noisecore – just as the genre should be. Footjob kick this 19 minute demo off with nearly 5 minutes of the same redundant porn sample, before hitting some early days 2 Minuta Dreka style noisecore bursts (basically like 7MON with gore vocals). Listening to this demo felt like the longest 19 minutes of my life. You could have halved the run time, left the porno sample in, and it would still feel too long. That pretty much proves that Footjob’s racket succeeds in what it set out to do, if you ask me.
This little remix EP proved a rather difficult task to hunt down online, so I bought a physical copy. Yes, this idiot is buying CDs in 2022! Roll up roll up! Anyways, this is a completists item most definitely, featuring six remixes – and the original – of the title track. And that’s it. The art is cool as fuck, and the remixes from Kid 606, I Am Spoonbender and Bastard Noise are worthy of note.
A dusty, reverb heavy full length of cataclysmic heaviness from Scotland’s Black Sun. I’m unsure whether these guys are still going or not but I consider myself lucky to have caught them live (a very long time ago admittedly). Industrial hellscapes are the order of the day, with guitars and drums being the vehicle, upon which a very tormented passenger (the vocalist) sits.
I’ve been on a bit of a Lamp Of Murmuur kick recently, so checking out their split with everyone’s favourite black metal project that they can’t actually hear was definitely on the cards. Das Revenant once again bring some of the worst production in the black metal world (no small feat) but coming with it is that endearing melodic carnage beneath all of the grime. Lamp Of Murmuur are a similar beast, perhaps if RM is playing from a damp cellar, then Lamp Of Murmuur is a haunting channeling it’s way through a 60s stereo system. Very well composed stuff. Spooky shit all round, and I heavily recommend.
To describe Climax… as an impenetrable wall of guitars and blasting drums would not be excessive. This dense chunk of metal (encapsulating both death metal and the nastier side of black/war) is not to be approached lightly. A cathedral of fornication indeed.
Feastem continue to be a massively under-rated grindcore band outside of Europe, which is shocking to me considering just how fucking fast these guys are. Like, this is some serious Insect Warfare level territory here, so I don’t understand why the USA grinders aren’t lapping this up. Maybe they are, and I’m just not privy to the conversations. Anyway, this falls into the well-produced end of grindcore populated by bands such as the previously mentioned, as well as Nasum, Pig Destroyer, Wormrot etc. – it’s just very very savage.
Melissa have been getting a lot of hype recently, and I do wonder how much of that is because of the striking appearance of vocalist Jane Pain who is an outspoken and absolutely fascinating character in all of herself. Anyway, this EP is awesome, so the hype is deserved. It’s as much rock and roll as it is black metal, but wholly unique too, which is super refreshing. I guess this falls squarely into the RABM movement, with the content being handled in the songs. Savage vocals, though. The next release from Melissa is gonna be one to watch, I think.
Crazy blasting gore – no groove, no compromise, just goregrind headcrash carnage. Insane vocal effort and FX, dustbin drums and a mechanical, deafening bass attack. Catastrophic stuff!
The first thing to notice about this second Rx remix offering from ANB is how insanely ferocious it is out of the gate. There was some harsh sounds on the first volume, but also a ton of moody offerings. Here, the entire ship is steered by none other than Delta 9, and only using (I believe) material from Altered States. So, taking both those things on board, it is hardly surprising that this thing rips your head off from the beginning and doesn’t let up until the end. Your tolerance of this record though is surely going to be dictated by your love (or lack thereof) for speedcore and gabber techno. It’s hardly straight up Dutch rave shit like from the hay days, but Delta 9 brings that energy to the already warp-speed of ANB’s world, which makes for an interesting listen, but one that is almost guaranteed to give you a headache. (Also, I’m sure this came out before 2011. At least, it was packed in with the Altered States repress before then, and maybe it came out on GK as a stand-alone in 2011.)
I was very happy to see that Waking The Cadaver were back with a new album. I was under the impression that they had broken up. Authority Through Intimidation is a return to the brutality of old. That’s not to say stuff like Real Life Death isn’t brutal, but that super chunky, boxy slam on there is different from this record. Authority Through Intimidation (a very old title, those words were emblazoned on the back of a WTC hoodie I got during the Necromangler days) seems to walk a tightrope between the gory, insane beat-downs of the debut, and the tight, lightening-fast death metal of the Beyond Cops, Beyond God era. Parts of “Human Chop Shop” or “Asphyxiating Ligature” could be straight off Perverse Recollections… if the production was a bit shadier (and the drums a bit crappier haha). Going back to that sound is not something I ever would have expected to see in this day and age! LOL – I think the pink logo on the cover signals an bold intention to bring back those “Core” sounds they got so much shit for back in the day. Good on you, lads. The one downside for me is that the production is very over-compressed and modern. It sounds great out of the gate but after a while fatigue starts to set in. Otherwise, I’m really happy with this album. Fair play, top effort.
