I fell asleep with this album on repeat (thanks Spotify) and ended up listening to it in my sleep over and over and over from approx 11pm until 5am. Whether this nocturnal consumption of war metal will have any effect on my mental state going forward, only time will tell. I did enjoy Unpheaval of Satanic Might, however (I fell asleep on one of my re-listens, so I have heard the whole thing lol). The riffs could be accused of being somewhat uninspired but that’s OK with me to be honest, it really works with war metal anyway, and I like the super basic repetition of certain notes that are held for far, far too long. I’m not talking Seer-era Swans level of repetition, but a 3 minute war metal track with 1 riff can feel like a hundred years. All in all, sick and evil from start to finish, with excellent interludes and ferocious blasting metal throughout. One for the die hard war metal fans only though, for sure.
I loved the shit out of this when I was a nipper but having re-listened recently I realise that perhaps it wasn’t as good as I thought it was. I had the gold CD version of this, but without the book, because I ordered the “Mortiis pack” off Earache records (basically a copy of every studio album he has with them), in which they accidentally gave me two copies of The Grudge (the standard, and the special edition with the clear slipcase that had Mortiis as some sort of Vetruvian man, which was pretty cool). Anyways, I returned one of The Grudge copies and they kindly rewarded me with the gold version of The Stargate for my trouble, bless them. Upon my return to the world through The Stargate, I instead opted for the remastered version, which does have a few descernable differences. I’m not sure if Mortiis was a part of this remaster work (I doubt it, knowing Earache), but I will commend them for making some elements of this thing even brighter than they were before. The mix is louder on the remaster, perhaps unsurprisingly, but you can get a really good idea for the clarity the remaster brings by listening to track 3, “World Essence”, where the guitar work by Niklas Trané sounds so much clearler. Every single pluck of the acoustic strings just feels so alive and bright and vibrant. Not that I ever considered the original to be dull or unclear, but now it seems so in comparison. Anyway, the problem I have upon returning to The Stargate is that it seems a bit directionless. When I was younger I was convinced of some sort of hidden narrative that tied the whole thing together (again, perhaps there is, as I’ve not read the book that came with the special edition), but as a listener (and “just listening” is how the majority of people are going to approach this), The Stargate is a disjointed mess. There are all sorts of moods and vibes, none of which seem to properly fit together, even though the production across the whole thing is unified and consistent. I dunno, perhaps I’m going too hard on this, so I’ll round out with some things I like. The intro track is fucking hilarious, proper medieval tunes lead us in to this circus of a record. Sarah Jezebel Deva is on top form as per always, and I really enjoy the drum machines and more regular synthesizers that come in for the finale, giving this a bit more of a Berlin School feel, at least for the final minutes.
I recently listened to the remastered version of this, which was great fun as it’s been years since I’ve heard this, I used to play it all the time when wasting my life on WoW through the small hours of every night. Anyway, enough about me. Anden Som Gjorde Appror isn’t as good as Fodt Til A Herske or Song Of A Long Forgotten Ghost, but it does introduce more bombast into the music. These earlier compositions that I mention are much more forlorn and singular in their vision; like a wave of sadness eminating through the fog in the fjords. As others have noted over the years, Anden Som Gjorde Appror is more akin to marching to battle, to conjuring images of high fantasty and castles and king and queens and epic struggles and all of that good stuff. Both kinds of synth work have their place, but I prefer the earlier visions. Still, a legendary release for the dungeon synth genre, in a time when such a genre didn’t exist.
Silly but very, very entertaining blackened thrash back from the days when blackened thrash wasn’t really a thing outside of Venom, and to be honest, Bulldozer is so much more than a Venom clone. Labelling them as such merely does them a disservice. The production is rough but serviceable, and the music has that looseness to it that only adds to proceedings, rather than coming across as sloppy and useless. The subject matter is a weird one, fluctuating between “serious” takes like “The Great Deciever” and silly tracks like “Whisky Time” (which is a banger though).
Suffocating Feats Of Dehumanization is a contender for my favourite release of 2023 so far. This thing is an incredibly well made goregrind release, taking the template laid on the Chainsaws… album and doubling down on it. On the surface of it, Suffocating… comes across like Putrefaction In Progress-era LDOH, but this is actually well crafted (no shade to LDOH’s noise), with chunky riffs beneath the carnage and some of the best drumming and vocals in the grind game. Absurdly brutal and uncompromising. I cannot recommend it enough.
I listened the shit out of this album, not in 2005 when it came out (even though “The Hand That Feeds” got a lot of plays from me and my school mates), but in 2015 when I was in my mid 20s working shifts delivering for the local kebab shop, desperately trying to claw together some extra money for me and my partner. This CD never left my car. I’m not the biggest fan of NIN generally, and With Teeth does sound a bit like a completely disjointed mixed bag of ideas, there are indeed some excellent ideas present here. I love the opening duo of tracks, “Only” and my favourite on the entire album, “Every Day Is Exactly The Same”. Great production, great sounds, but a few missed steps for sure.
Not feeling this shit, at all. This band seem revered amongst those who are deep down the NSBM rabbit hole, but Arghoslent are not a black metal band. I guess this is NSDM, if I could use such a fucking stupid term. I am genuinely, honestly, all politics on hold, struggling to understand what is so great about this band? All I’m hearing is some mid melodeath with bad production. And that kids, is not enough reason to put up with the fucking atrocious lyrical content. In the bin with ya.
For a band with such a short discography as Conqueror, it is impressive how much of an impact releases such as this had on extreme metal. Sure, I guess Blasphemy also has a fairly small discography and their importance is also rather high on the scale, so maybe it is just the world of war metal being such a tiny one. Who knows? Not me. Anyway, fucking War Cult Supremacy. Absolutely bludgeoning, non-stop war metal ferocity is of course the order of the day here. Not a bazillion miles away from Revenge, as lazy as that comparison is, and probably not as good either, but at this point I’m probably splitting hairs in regards to production and not much else. This is a killer effort of flat-out, endless brutality and destruction. Strap on your bullet belt, fucko.
Ah, Muse, Muse, Muse. Blimey. How hard can a band fall off? Why, just ask Muse. Origin Of Symmetry is a stunning sophomore effort from a promising band who, on their debut, showed a side to them which had a lot of promise, but perhaps conformed to dare I say somewhat regular songwriting for the time. Many have pointed out the similarities to Radiohead, and I don’t take much stock in this, because I love Muse but fucking hate Radiohead (lol). Origin Of Symmetry is a document of a band perfecting their sound whilst still fairly early in their career, and riding that wave then into full-on commercial success. There’s no doubt that most of the success is reliant on the multi-instrumentalist and vocalist of the band, Matt Bellamy, with his bizarre solos, effects, transitions and of course those instantly recognisable vocals and lyrics. This is not to detract from Dom and Chris, but it is clear who the star of the show is here. Origin Of Symmetry is one of those rare albums where every song is a banger (I can take or leave the cover of “Feeling Good” but I associate it so much with this era that taking it out feels just as weird as leaving it in). The first half of this thing gives us huge, sing-a-long anthems and the second half treads into darker, sometimes heavier and sometimes more twisted territory. Closing track “Megalomania” is an absolute treat in pomp and bombast, with enormous keyboards and cryptic lyrics howled at the top of Matt’s range. Insanity, in the best possible way. Honestly, I love this thing. I haven’t heard it for years so I’m gonna go put it on now.
For me, Morbid Florist is THE classic Anal Cunt EP. 88 Song EP? Great, but very raw. 5643 Song EP? Too much going on – a novelty. For the truest and best quality collection of old school Anal Cunt blurs and noisecore blasts, look no further than Morbid Florist. I think I would probably be thinking too much into it if I deeply analyzed each and every one of these songs, but here is a good mix of silly, comedic songs, noisecore blur “songs” and somewhat more structured, long-form songs with actual riffs. The band would greatly expand on this style on their debut album, but IMO Morbid Florist has the better production. Oh, and Seth’s vocals are just absolutely insane.
FInnish Steel Storm is very raw, distorted black metal with that typical Finnish melody cutting right through it. I’m not on board with any of the fucking shit these guys are writing songs about (you can stick your bigotry up your skinny arse), but I am inherently interested in bands that are “hiding behind the NSBM curtain” as I like to say. I am here to taste the forbidden fruit, you might say. So far, I’d say Goatmoon are pretty good, to be honest. There’s a few more elements mixed in here that were not present on the debut, such as a folkier edge and a – dare I say – catchier feel to the songs.
Not a bazillion miles away from Ravishing Grimness that preceded it, Plaguewielder is an absolute riff machine. We’re down to 6 tracks on this album, but the songs are pretty long, clocking in at 42 minutes in total. Everything I said about Ravishing Grimness kinda stands for this one, to be honest. The production is clean but works very well with the sound that the band are going for, and whilst it does almost feel like the band is on autopilot here, there are still some excellent riffs and moments that are well worth your time.
Epicus Doomicus Metallicus is beyond legendary, especially for a band that has spanned many decades (and many vocalists), but has also stayed fairly true to their core doom metal roots. And that core element is exactly what is on display here in this debut, in its truest and rawest form. That last sentence sounds like maybe I am talking about a black metal band, but what I mean to say is, is that later iterations of Candlemass come with varying degrees of cheese and pomp (in particular the Messiah era lol), but Epicus Doomicus Metallus is exactly what it says it is. It is the Ronseal of epic doom metal. The production is, perhaps expectedly, a lovely warm analogue sound, where the compositions really breathe. The highlight of the songs for me is, as with all Candlemass (and most doom metal actually), the riffs, which are beyond magical. How can something so heavy be so catchy? I was lucky to catch the guys playing this at Roadburn festival in its entirety so I think that definitely gave me a much deeper appreciation of this record. It’s also really cool that as of 2023, Candlemass have come full circle and now have their original vocalist back. Good times. TLDR: essential doom metal listening.
If this record was an instrumental then it would be so, so much better. After really enjoying their debut record, I found Starfire… to be a massive disappointment. Everything is turned up to 11, and not necessarily in a good way. Sometimes it feels like all the instruments are fighting for space in the mix. Now and then it works, but in some moments it is really clumsy and the guitars and synthesizers are just falling all over each other. This could be forgiven however, if it wasn’t for every goddamn fucking second of breathing room, there’s this ridiculous narration just slathered all over the top. It’s hard to tell what the guy is saying because of the slight pitchshifter effect, and added to the complaint in the above paragraph, then Starfire… becomes almost unlistenable in parts. So many good instrumental passages on this album are ruined by the endless narration. I mean, out of all the shit that I’ve listened to over the years, it’s funny that it’s something as pompous as Bal-Sagoth that’s made me tap out, but fuck me, these guys need to chill the fuck out. It’s too much, man.
I came into Behexen’s music via the Satanic Warmaster split, where they offer some of the best black metal you can hope to hear. Perhaps my expectations were too high then, when finally going back to the debut full length to check it out. There is, surprisingly, a fair bit of pomp here for such a raw black metal recording, with the intro ritual setting the tone nicely for the screeching horrors that follow it. Musically, the band walk a tightrope between nondiscript and almost threatening to be interesting and weird, with the high-pitched vocal attack setting them apart from others in this field. The production is a bit blurry, but serviceable for the kind of scene we’re talking about. I dunno, this is far from bad. But, after a few listens, something is still struggling to click with me. If you think this is the coolest shit ever, then I understand, but I don’t think I’d agree with you.
On Stress, Impulse Noise play intense, frenetic grindcore with a thick and disgusting sound. Like, this shit is really firing on all cylinders. Firstly, the production is fantastic. The drumming is just absolutely insane. The bass, clanking away like some sort of mechanical nightmare, underpins everything and gives the proceedings such a genuine heaviness and weight to it. The guitar seems a bit drowned out at first, but it’s there, hammering away. Vocally, the band deliver with rabid barks and growls, like Kevin Sharp gargling salt water. This shit is great.
Superb but somewhat uneventful mid-career album from the black metal legends. It is, admittedly, perhaps easy to tune out if listening to Darkthrone’s records chronologically. By the time you’ve gotten through Goatlord and Total Death (neither of which are dreadful, just a bit of a drop off in quality), albums like Ravishing Grimness, Plaguewielder and Hate Them start to blur into one. But is it really fair to judge Darkthrone on “It’s Not As Good As Transilvanian Hunger Therfore It’s Not Good”? I don’t think so, because, if this were any other band, perhaps even a Nocturno Culto side project – anything that didn’t carry the Darkthrone name – then I firmly believe this would have been far better received; praised, even. The production on Ravishing Grimness is fairly clean (by Darkthrone standards) but the music does not suffer for it. The riffs have room to breathe and unfold, which is what you want for lengthy tracks like this. Honestly, there are some great moments here, including “The Claws Of Time” which I think is my favourite from this record. As others have already said, don’t write this one off.
Really enjoyable rock-meets-jazz, with stunning piano leads and excellent production. The first track, “Aom” is probably the most demanding in regards to its structural composition, whereas the tunes that follow it seem to mellow out somewhat, but all in all this is a fantastic little EP that has really piqued my interest in what the rest of the project has to offer.
The opening track (coincidentally the title track) of AFX’s now legendary first entry in his Analogue Bubblebath series, will always live rent free in my head. It is, in my humble opinion, one of those tunes that just possesses a permanent timelessness quality. Yeah, sure, you can tell that this thing was recorded in the early 90s, as it smacks of those vibes, but that aside, I hope they will play this shit in museums in the future. It is, for me, whilst not objectively the best stuff that Richard has done (under any moniker), it is one of the most memorable of his tunes. The rest of the EP isn’t half bad too, if not hitting significantly harder than the first track, with pummelling electronic beats and dirty stabs of acid-style synth sounds. Lovely jubbly!
It’s one thing to be produced by a legend such as Steve Albini, but quite another thing to sound very, very similar to one of his bands. In this case, Head Of David’s Dustbowl is not a million miles away from the dissonant ramblings and clanking bass of Big Black, which is extremely disappointing considering the line up of this band, and as I say, the producer on board too. Putting aside the accusations of being a bad carbon copy of a brilliant band, the songs are rather interesting, I will give them that. Some are rather short, others are laid out in a puzzling way, but almost all of them conform to the same kind of sound, with thumping drums all over the top. Of note is the original “Dog Day Sunrise”, which Fear Factory famously covered on Demanufacture. I gotta be honest, I think I prefer that version. Can’t help but be disappointed by this, as I said. Perhaps some hidden “gems” are best left unearthed.
Interesting debut (and only full length record) from Ripping Corpse, which of course, featured Erik Rutan who is now death metal legend (Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal, Cannibal Corpse etc. etc.) Even in these early daze, the riffs, shared here with Shaune Kelly, are pure precision. The production is a bit of an odd one, but this is a solid metal album. The vocals from Scott Ruth are perhaps an acquired taste for some, sounding like a very strange mix between John Tardy and the guy from D.R.I. lol A good listen, though.
Swans are one of those special bands that sound completely different on each record. The early stuff is some of the hardest music you can possibly want to hear. You could also argue that the sound began thawing on Holy Money or Greed, albums that came before this, but the way I see that instead is that the band added more elements to their work, rather than stripping back their work. Children Of God was however, IMO, the time where Swans finally took their foot off the Brutality pedal, if only just a little. The band has also done cleanly-produced before COG, but here it is stepped up even further. The sound is bigger, making Swans’ dirging, repetitve drones sound almost like anthemic bangers. Nowhere is this more apparent than opening track “New Mind”, which is far catchier than it deserves to be. The full-band sound comes to an abrupt stop however, with some Jarboe-fronted piano pieces as well as some gentler tunes featuring the full group. The shifting focus to these kinds of compositions featuring so heavily in the whole of the work is, to me, the important element in how Children Of God changed the trajectory of Swans going into the next decade. Not that immense, all-encompassing, and stupidly heavy songs like “Sex, God, Sex” or “Beautiful Child” would have you think Swans were reigning it all in a bit. Essential listening for fans of heavy music.
Cystoblastosis play their down-tuned, dirgy goregrind with intense pinging snares and gargling vomit vocals. It brings the feeling of a subterranean horror bubbling beneath the surface, about to breach the ground level and destroy humanity, or something. Haggus stuff is a peaking a bit, drums are loud as all manner of fuck, but that’s OK. Dirty, nasty, goregrind is the order of the day, of course with the expected Haggus mincecore influences. Disgusting vocals, some of the sickest. Top marks from me.
I got into JMT through Vinnie Paz guesting on some Immortal Technique stuff (I think, anyway), so I came in around this era and this was the first record I ever heard by them, so a lot of the chat about this not being as good as the old shit wasn’t applicable to me, as I hadn’t heard any of that stuff yet. I’ve had this album “saved” on my to-do list since 2014, and I’m only writing about it now, which speaks volumes really as its the oldest thing on the list and I’ve constantly passed it up in favour of writing about something else. I don’t think that Jedi Mind Tricks are particularly awful on Violence Begets Violence, but I really struggled to think of anything to say. I only really, truly enjoy the Vinnie Paz verses across the whole thing, even though some of the others, particularily from guest appearances other than other members of JMT, do have some good lines now and then, None of the songs really descend into soppy, hip-hop record tedium (a song about weed, or a song about staying true or whatever), but nothing really inspires me here, despite most of the beats hitting quite hard. My favourite song has to be “Design in Malice”. That’ll do for now.
I am admittedly very late to the party when it comes to Bal-Sagoth. I remember them from my Cradle-years as a teenager, where Bal-Sagoth’s albums were advertised inside flyers that came with the early Cradle records (they were on the same label for a while). I can draw other similarities here with CoF too: the style of keyboard playing in very similar in parts, as is the slightly-pitchshifted narration-style vocals. I know CoF came before Bal-Sagoth, but Principle adn Lemuria came in the same year, and this definitely came before Cradle’s Vempire where these kinds of effects are used to no end. Interesting how two bands on the same label in the same year would use the same vocal effects, especially when I’ve never heard those effects used anywhere else. Anyway, A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria (what a title) is a stunning example of not only how to mix black metal and death metal elements together seamlessly, but to then lay a thick blanket of hammy and orchestral keyboard pieces over the top of it. It reminds me of seeing Sigh live (another label mate) back in 2011 when they piped the entire brass/keyboard parts through the PA, the whole thing lazily farting out over the live metal. That’s exactly how Bal-Sagoth DOESN’T sound, despite the cheaper sound of some of these keyboard patches. The record is a bit flat in parts, but this is more to do with the production than the delivery. It isn’t bad but it sounds a bit drab in parts for a band that is so full of life and different ideas.
A bit of a non-starter, if I’m honest. The tracks take a very, very long time to get moving (I know this is the point), but when they do start doing something (the odd melodic riff echoing away in the background over the droning ambience), then it sounds pretty good. The only problem is that we have to listen to an absolute ton of go-nowhere ambience before reaching that point. I don’t dislike this because it is different from the rest of the discography, I dislike it because it’s not very good. It gets a 3 because it makes an awesome racket when it wants to, but the pauses in between are not worth it.
This has to be one of the greatest game soundtracks of all time (I probably say that about every game soundtrack to be honest). It is very difficult for me to not look back at stuff like this with rose-tinted glasses on. These games were a huge part of a childhood that was perhaps misspent playing silly games instead of being outside playing (although to be fair I did a good amount of both, I wasn’t a complete bedroom dweller). Therefore I suppose these kinds of soundtracks remind me of better times when the world seemed like a less terrifying place and times where I had no real cares or worries. But of course, I didn’t know that at the time. Anyway, I gave this soundtrack another listen recently for old time’s sake and I still really enjoyed it. There’s a strange mix of styles here, where the Rippy brothers (I assume they are brothers or cousins?) use a mix of new vs. old to give a really cool and interesting OST.
This came highly recommended, although I must say I was very sketched out by the cover drawing. Like, not only is it beyond sketchy (lol) but it is also absolutely awful – not really selling this music to me at all in any way shape or form. I was perhaps slow to warm to Fanisk for these reasons but Noontide is a slow burn; the intro taking it’s sweet time to load you into the main program of mystical black metal. Various styles and moods are folded together, forging a new and unique vision on black metal. The production is a little thin but this can be easily overlooked. Yeah, this is pretty solid, but that cover art is fucking atrocious.
I absolutely loved this album when I was a kid. Back then, in the golden year that was 2000, where the world was changing and looking forward to a brand new millenium (what a dissapointment, eh?), 10-year-old me and one of my best friends, Alex, went to the local Woolworths, money burning a hole in our pockets, and we bought our first ever albums. I bought Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory (the first album I ever owned – but the first album I ever heard was either S/T Gorillaz or Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP), and Alex bought Papa Roach’s Infest. “What’s that?” he asked me, looking at my CD in disgust. “That looks terrible. Mine looks class.” I always remember this little exchange because for a long time, Papa Roach faded into obscurity with sub-par albums whilst Linkin Park (not that I remained a fan for long) went on to break through the stratosphere and mature their sound constantly until their untimely end. Anyway, Alex soon got sick of Infest, after listening to “Last Resort” and “Blood Brothers” (because it was on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2) about 50 gazillion times. One day, I borrowed the CD from him to copy it, and, well, I never gave it back. I’ve reached the point in the review where I should probably talk about what the album sounds like. And this is what is really interesting to me: for something that is as over-produced and homogenised as Infest, it really still does have it’s own unique sound. You can tell instantly whilst listening to it, despite a million other bands sounding like this at the time, that you are listening to Papa Roach and you are listening to Infest. Maybe I’m looking at this with rose-tinted glasses, but there are some bangers here. I can unironically listen to this whole album all the way through and not really start to lose interest until “Binge” comes on towards the end. Infest is just loaded with banger after banger after banger. Nu metal classics for the masses, for sure, as well as some deeper cuts like “Revenge” and “Snakes”, which are both so fucking bad that they are downright amazing (“Rememba da gurl, abused wit forks, knives an’ razor blades!”, or “I got a problem wit da snakes that are crawl-in’, thru my area when da darkness has fall-en’” lmao). I dunno, I clearly have a lot of nostaglia for this thing, hence the long, glowing review. Objectively, it’s incredibly well produced, almost as clean as a pop record, and in reality its probably not a very good record, but I enjoy the absolute shit out of this, even today.
I feel like I’ve heard multiple different iterations of this “best of” collection over the years, but it doesn’t really matter because everyone knows what tracks are always going to be on these things. Whether you’ve seen the movies that these tracks appear in or not, Goblin are such an unique band that listening to these compositions is always an enjoyable experience. The atmosphere is tangible, the instrumentation weird and tense. I mean, I guess it’s why Goblin are so revered in the horror world. Legendary stuff.
I really enjoyed Cosmogramma and its odd mix of jazz tropes and disconnected electronic elements. It was a refreshing mix of styles (not to mention a mix of styles that has failed to mix well in the past). I appreciate that in the dense world of electronic music (and jazz, for that matter), FlyLo is able to give himself an unique, stand-out sound. But, there is something about You’re Dead that just does not gel with me. It certainly seems to meander more; there are fragments of songs leading everywhere, and it seems that vibes are over before they have been fully given chance to begin. You’re Dead is an enjoyable listen, it just appears to lack focus.
Well made and brilliantly written black metal, but not in the style that I’m the biggest fan of. The production is frosty, grim and at the same time sparkling with life and activity. The album unfolds in such a way that it does genuinely feel like you are on some sort of epic journey. I gotta admit, I absolutely lost it when the “boing” sound goes off. Interesting decision, that.
Solid efforts here from both bands: Denak are more straight up grind, with the brutal, speedy edge you’d want from such a disgusting, underground split. Haemorrhage in this particular session / era have the Carcass worship dialled up to 9000 split skulls per minute. Off the hook sickness, but you’ll know what to expect before you even go in.
This is some historical sick shit right here. Perhaps for its time one of the sickest and heaviest sounds ever, and a precursor to the entire sub-genre that we know today as slam or slamming death metal. There was just something more brutal about a lot of these New York bands compared to shit coming out elsewhere in the country – I guess it was maybe the hardcore influences, I don’t know. I’ve never been that big on slam but you can’t argue with Effigy Of The Forgotten. It is a slab of unforgiving death metal. Also, Dan Seagrave’s art for this is just incredible.
Really solid, high-energy and modern-sounding crossover thrash from grimm and frostbitten VVales. Production is super clear and the playing is super tight. There’s no fucking about at 4 tracks in length either: in, out, job done. Gonna keep an eye on these guys for sure.
As I said in the review of the vocal-less Goatlord, the music of this release fascinates me. However, the vocals added later, in an attempt to make Goatlord into a complete album – well, these things are pretty fucking bad. I appreciate the desire to complete the demos that they started many years prior, but there is a whole farmyard worth of different vocal noises here, from the kvlt down to the absolute bizarre. Not all of it works for Darkthrone, and to be honest, it kinda ruins this entire album. I was really glad when I finally got to hear the original tracks without the vocals.
I can’t help but be captivated by the music that Darkthrone play on Goatlord. It is a true “what might have been moment” where the whole course of music could have been changed. Can you imagine a world without Darkthrone as a black metal band? Think, what would the implications of this be? Black metal would still exist obviously, but it would look different, that’s for sure. I never really got into Goatlord as a rabid teenage Darkthrone fan because of how dreadful the vocals were, so it is really, really cool to be able to play through the original demo tapes, once again lovingly restored from Fenriz’s original copies, this time by Patrick W. Engel. Gone are the hammy vocals added later – these are just pure instrumental tracks from a young band that are writing their sophomore album. The whole band are incredible, but Fenriz’s drumming is fantastic here. He is, arguably, wasted in the true/pure black version of Darkthrone, and it would be cool if he played in some other bands sometime (other than Isengard etc). I love time capsules like this. They are always worth opening.
Absurd have always drawn me in, as far back as I can ever remember, due to the forbidden nature about listening to these guys. They are, after all, the OGs (I bet they love that) of NSBM. The trouble is, is that every “classic” Absurd release that came my way sounded like complete unlistenable shite. And hey, I’m a man whose heard his fair share of crappy demo tapes – but the Absurd ones are particularily awful. We can thank the YouTube Music app, of all things (reject modernity!), for introducing me to Absurd material that is actually good. “Ooooh, what is this?” I said to myself, as the frosted riffs of “Nordmännerlied” filled the space between my ears (there’s a brain there somewhere). The production is actually listenable, which itself is a novelty with this band, and I learned after that this is from a completely different era / lineup, which explains a lot. The riffs have a morose melodic quality to them, whilst the rest of the music is fairly primitive, relying on folk-based structures and styles. The vocals too, meander from the black metal rasp to something altogether more folky and chanty. Which, is, to be honest, expected really, now I know the kind of subject matter that’s at hand here. So: to recap, looking past the NSBM tag, this was an enjoyable album.
Nowhere near as bad as people are making it out to be, but still lacking in spark and originality, that’s for sure.When I first heard the tracks that the band dropped in anticipation of this record, to me they sounded overcompressed, synthetic and false. Lars’ drums sounded quantised to all hell, and James’ vocals were autotuned to death. I understand my man James is pushing 60, but y’know, idk, fuckin’ Michael Gira doesn’t use autotune. Hey, fucking Lou Reed didn’t use autotune on LuLu, you feel me? Haha Thankfully, the rest of the album is not so bad. The production style remains the same, but I think the speedy, thrashier songs like those released in advance (in order to snag the true metalheads and start a “Metallica are back and they are heavy again!” kinda conversation, no doubt) expose the dirty studio trickery more because, well, as I’ve said, these guys are old now and playing at that intense thrash metal speed is just not doable anymore. I mean, Voivod are still thrashing after 40 years, for example, but even their latest effort – as good as it was – uses the same studio trickery. You can’t stay young forever. Anyway, I’m rambling. Songwriting wise, this is probably on par or better than Hardwired, and probably on par with Death Magnetic. It isn’t the car crash the internet made me think it would be, but it’s also pretty uninspired. Would I listen to it ever again? Probably not.
This is the third Pain Killer full length album to date (although its kinda weird to call the first two full lengths such, because they aren’t all that long). Execution Ground breaks the mould, entering far, far spacier territory. You can really feel the influences that Mick was experimenting with at the time; dub, ambient etc. (let’s not forget Laswell has albums in this territory too). The album is a far cry from the jazz-grind carnage of the first two, instead being a much more longform beast. Don’t get me wrong, there are still moments and pure explosions of insane sound and energy, but there are also extended passages of dub-like grooves where the music just keeps folding over on itself. Execution is probably my favourite Pain Killer record, but it is markedly different from anything else that they have done in the past, and different from what they are known for doing.
I’m a listen to a demo in it’s original form kinda guy, but Demon Entrails is one of the exceptions, as it pulls together a pile of Hellhammer OG demos into one compilation. I mean, that’s what demo compilations do, right? LOL I’m not sure what it is about this that I prefer to listen to over the originals, but I think it has something to do with the seemingly endless amount of old shit here (over 100 minutes). Anyways, this is basically proto-everything when it comes to extreme music. There is very little one can do to deny the influence of Hellhammer on metal music. As far as how these demos sound, well, they are demos, so expect stuff to be very rough around the edge. However, these are far from unlistenable. There is very little difference between the sessions presented, and both of them are buried under plenty of tape hiss, wow and flutter. But as I’m sure you know if you are into plumbing such depths of musical antiquity, this is all just part of the fun. The audio is clear enough for you to appreciate everything that is going on. A legendary compilation, no doubt.
After the two noisecore/blurcore smears that were Everyone Should Be Killed and Top 40 Hits (the blurs on this are insane), Anal Cunt shocked the musical world (lol) by coming armed for their third full length album with…. actual songs. Well, the term can be used loosely, but there is more musical structure here than on anything that they had released up until this point. This is also where the song titles and content really started to become a focal point of the band. Outside of “You Live In A Houseboat” off a later album, “You Fucking Freak” was the first AxCx song I ever heard, and I instantly fell in love with the insane vocals and the ridiculous sick guitar tone. I’m not sure who’s playing guitar here – Scott Hull (of Agoraphobic Nosebleed / Pig Destroyer) was the band’s guitarist at the time, but Seth has stated that his contributions to the band were minimal, and that Seth himself played most of the guitar parts for this record. Hey, I’m not gonna lie, but those guitar solos on songs like “You’re A Fucking Cunt” have Scott Hull written all over them. There’s something just so perverse about such intricate, ripping guitar solo’ing being done over music as absurd, blunt and simplistic as Anal Cunt’s. The production on this is thick and muddy (oo er) although we do lose sight of the drums during the fast parts (everything seems to drop out except the snare). Phil Anselmo is on about half of these tracks too, providing backup vocals. Good shit.
Highly influential grindcore band, especially to those who went on to pioneer noisecore in the years that followed 1988. Fear Of God (the 7″) is a pretty essential listen to anyone on the path of grindcore history, but for me it’s not something I come back to all that often. The bass and drums are drowned out by the guitar and then absolutely everything is drowned out by the vocals. It’s a mixing choice (or circumstance) that gets a little old by the end of Side A. However – if you like raw grind like Unholy Grave, or the crazier end of the spectrum like 7MON or (dare I say) early AxCx or Meat Shits, then this is not too far away in the grand scheme of things.
Notable for being the first album of Voivod’s to feature Jason Newsted on bass (who?), and to include the return of original vocalist Snake, after Eric Forrest’s departure. I’m a bit unclear on whether Eric left or whether Voivod 2.0 disbanded, before reforming with Snake and Newsted. Either way, this self-titled record was the product of the new line-up for the new millennium. Despite the incredibly strong staffing on this record, Voivod S/T begins something of a downward trend in Voivod studio albums, at least within the decade of the 00s. I’m sure Piggy’s death contributed massively to this, in many ways. There must be a reason why Voivod S/T (when Piggy was alive) is a solid album, and Katorz and Infini (a similar style of music using Piggy riffs but released / assembled after he had died) are not so good. Anyways, if you love Voivod’s dissonant riffing and interspliced headbanging sessions, but perhaps in a warmer, hard-rock kinda way (like Angel Rat but not as weird or tied to a particular place in time), then there is no reason that you shouldn’t enjoy this. But, you cannot escape from the fact that there are far, far better Voivod records out there.
Suffering a similar fate to that of Katorz, Infini falls a bit flat by treading in slightly safer territory than the band’s usual frenetic thrash or prog-metal output. Is Infini bad? Absolutely not – some would have you believe that this era of Voivod needs wiping from the face of the earth, but I am not one of those people. There is, however, a reason why this period of Voivod languishes as the least favourite for most. Is Infini better than Katorz? My answer would probably vary day-to-day. From a technical stand-point thought I will just quickly say that the record is well produced, with a warm and what feels to be analogue sound (but you never know these days). Long live Voivod, either way, and RIP Piggy.
I’ve heard a lot about how much of a shit show this record is, how that Mustaine gutted the band’s sound is some ridiculous attempt to sell out, and so on and so forth. But honestly, to me, I don’t care enough about Megadeth to give a shit about any of that. From an outsider’s perspective, this is just a boring, less than mediocre album.
I firmly believe that Candlemass’ cover of “Don’t Fear The Reaper” is one of the greatest cover songs of all time. I may be biased as I first heard it performed live at Roadburn Festival with both Längqvist and Rob Lowe sharing vocal duties. “All Along The Watchtower” doesn’t quite have the same impact for me but I enjoy it all the same.
I used to play the hell out of “Synthetic” and “New Disease” when I was a wee lad, but I never played this album all the way through until 2023. Which you’d think, is possibly a travesty, depending on your appetite for Spineshank’s industrial-tinged nu metal. Unfortunately, Spineshank were one of those bands who never really survived the fall of nu metal, and judging by the fact that this album sounds more dated that some albums that are double its age, well, really that speaks volumes.
Since I discovered this album about ten years ago, there has been a war raging inside my head: is this the greatest album cover of all time or the absolute worst album cover of all time? Honestly, like, what the fuck? Hahahah As for the sound, I rather enjoyed the 90s industrial-influenced incarnation of Voivod. The new influences don’t overtake the sound, except for moments here or there (closer “DNA” being the biggest culprit, and sounds hideously dated now). Some of the wailing guitars and gruff vocals recall the work of Justin Broadrick, and I am more than OK with this. For real though, this isn’t going to win any awards, but it fuckin’ slaps.
It pains me to rank a Voivod album so low (not that 3 is particularly dog-rough). I struggled for years to get into the Newsted-era / final Piggy releases but have returned to them now with a greater appreciation for the wider Voivod discography and history. It is a shame then that I still generally am not that into this era of the band; Katorz is fairly inoffensive and also rather “safe” for Voivod (they’ve had “safe” albums before, like Angel Rat, but even there it radiated with the band’s unique sound and charm). It has a more of a hard rock / metal direction, with a looser, warmer sound, which works for some bands but none of the above things are particularly what I come to a Voivod record for. RIP Denis
I’m not familiar with Mangled Whore Flesh (what a sentence) outside of this split, but the material here is objectively terrible, let down mainly by the bedroom production – but hey, this is the territory we are in folks. As far as Malignant Germ Infestation goes, there’s better material out there by this project, for sure.
For someone who talks a lot of shit in interviews about the usual we’re-better-than-you-because-we-are-elitist-black-metal-musicians rubbish, Asagraum sure fail to really strike a match and light a fire. Is Dawn Of Infinite Fire a bad album? Not by any stretch of the imagination. But does it offer even the tiniest remote smidgen of something new to black metal? Absolutely fucking not. Again, let me re-iterate that this is not a BAD album. However, the entire record is an over-produced wall of sound with no interesting elements save for a few catchy leads and the final track, “Waar Ik Ben Komt de Dood”, which from out of nowhere, actually shows a spark of inspiration. Imagine that.
Enjoyable but somewhat predictable noise from this prolific project. I dig the aesthetic (this stuff just really works with noise music for some reason), but there’s not much in the way of variation here. And I don’t mean that in like, it’s just a slab of HNW – I mean that the record in general is a bit uninspiring for noise, unfortunately. There are loud bits, there are quiet bits, and there are some rumbly bits. Cool vibe, though.
An album that defines the sound of the 90s for me. I was just a kid, but fuck me, these sounds are just forever burned into my head. It’s the closing epic “Halcyon + On + On” which for me just absolutely blows my mind apart every time I hear it, taking me back to the times where the world seemed like a less scary place (of course it wasn’t, I was just ignorant to the facts), where I could play my Sega Megadrive over and over or watch the Mortal Kombat movie and eat chicken dippers. Now I’ve got my own little boy it absolutely fucking spins me out to think back to what I was like at that age. Anyway, I’m getting all lost in nostalgia, but fuck, does that not speak for the power of music and for the power of these songs? I didn’t really know the rest of this album when I was younger, it was something that I became more familiar with as I got older, but the pulsing techno blasts are really great fun. It’s not my music, and it’s not my scene, but I really enjoy listening to this Orbital record all the same. And then the last track as always just leaves me in a stupor.
I’m pretty sure I saw Nausea touring this thing at the same festival as Terrorizer LA played, in some sort of Oscar Garcia-related frenzy. I could be wrong, because I find all of the iterations of Terrorizer confusing, but why on earth am I talking about Terrorizer in a Nausea review? Well, this is exactly why – the various iterations / lineups of Terrorizer confuse the fuck out of me and I somehow, probably because I saw them both live at the same time, also roll Nausea into this confusing ball. And that malaise around Terrorizer extended into my feelings on this Nausea record, causing me to put off checking it out for many, many years. Thankfully then, that Condemned To The System is actually really fucking good. It’s a bit no-frills, but if you just wanna bang your head to some fucking sick riffs and uncompromising drumming, then you can’t really go far wrong. A lot of the parts here remind of Utopia Banished / Harmony Corruption era Napalm Death (peak death/grind crossover so that makes a lot of sense I guess.) Good shit, all in all.
Holy shit this is one of the most insane things I have ever heard. Incredible, explosive, volatile yet so delicate – honestly, words are escaping me right now as I start to try and solidify my thoughts on this thing into one digestible soundbite. It is worth mentioning that I am familiar with Liturgy’s earlier works, specifically Aesthethica, but its been a long, long time since I checked in on this project. My initial reaction to the insane explosions of sound that grace this album is that the band are composing something akin to a more black metal influenced take on what Swans were doing between 2010 and 2016. But then, shit starts glitching out too, and you get all these other electronic and percussion elements thrown in as well, which are almost incomprehensible at first. It’s like somebody threw a vinyl copy of To Be Kind into a cement mixer along with a copy of Sunbather, a SNES console, a bunch of strange unidentified religious texts and a child’s plastic recorder instrument. Sonically overwhelming and entirely fulfilling, HAQQ demands all of your attention and rewards you for giving it. The fact that this record has escaped me until 2023 is incredible.
Lifelover’s initial follow-up to Pulver changed a few things. Some of the more downright disturbing and troubling elements of the music were replaced instead with more subtle, morose feeling. Likewise, the album’s art is far more abstract than the starkness of its predecessor. There are less intense outbursts here on the sophomore, instead the album feels more like a flowing whole, with gentle piano medleys haunting their way over the top of the black metal. Speaking of the black metal, Lifelover’s unique drab affair so candidly displayed for us in the past, has entered into a higher level of refinement. The drum programming is not as obvious as it was on Pulver and the general scope of the songs is more impressive. The songwriting gels elements together far better than Pulver ever did, for example. Going back to that haunting piano that crops up every now and then – it almost feels like a sort of disjointed leifmotif (moreso in tone than the exact musical notes played, so excuse me if my terminology is off), not only reoccurring but pulling the whole album together like stitches at the seam. Erotik is best taken as a whole, it really does feel like a musical journey. There is a small price in that some of the songs do blur together for me, but as a whole I don’t think the album suffers for this. I miss Lifelover.
I fell in love with Sarah Barthel after hearing the Big Grams album (a collab project between Phantogram and Big Boi from Outkast). The problem I have with Phantogram themselves however is a similar ailment that strikes me when I listen to The Chromatics (although perhaps not so much there, the problem is worse here with Phantogram). And the problem that I am talking about is… well, I could be listening to just about absolutely anyone. There is no identity here, nothing unique that is pulling me back and keeping me here. Is the music absolutely lovely? Yes. Are Sarah’s vocals fantastic? Yes. But Phantogram, specifically on Voices, do not jump out and grab me. This is all shades of generic, despite being well made, and that is just really, really sad. Oh, and the songs with the dude singing on them are dreadful, I’m sorry.
This isn’t usually my bag but I was drawn in by the incredible vocals. Ended up sticking around for the whole EP, which is at points as dark and weird as it is poppy – the songs are crackling and alive with the spark of youth (lol) and I’d be very excited to hear more from this group to find out where they ended up taking things.
Feel like I’m missing something here. Goatmoon appears to be revered by those who peer behind the “NSBM” veil, but I’m not getting blown off my seat by this debut. Yes, it’s disgusting, hideously produced black metal, with an underlying streak of melody beneath the frosted grime – but there’s plenty of that out there. Not to detract from these songs, but I expected more.
Total Death is one of those “middle period” albums from Darkthrone that I have always historically overlooked. However, this has always been a pretty silly thing to do, as it is a fairly decent slab of black metal. It’s not too different from the earlier stuff, but not as raw or uncompromising. The major difference here is that the songs are written by vocalist Nocturnal Culto or guest writers from the wider musical world, rather than Fenriz.
Colour me disappointed. Can’t remember where I picked the recommendation for this up but I was expecting some seriously evil obscure shit. Granted, this IS obscure evil shit, it’s just not very good.
One of those super obscure, sleazy underground splits that you can only find in the depths of grindcore depravity. 2MD play here their earlier brand of messy goregrind/pornogrind with insane monster pitchshifter vocals. The trouble is, do you want to sit through tons of fuckin’ irritating movie samples to get to the juicy nuggets of farting shitgrind? Genuinely feels like the sample to grind ratio here is 10 to 1. Will Rahmer is currently drafting up a cease and desist order. Vulgar Nausea are a bit different, harsher but also incorporating elements of electronic and dare I say industrial drum programming / chopping / glitching (that’s a lot of fancy words to say “digigrind” but I don’t think it falls entirely into that camp either). One for the true die-hards only, I think.
A bit camp, a bit silly, but also in a contradictory way very solid and grounded trad rock / heavy metal stuff. Probably, to me, more iconic for its artwork than for its songs, but that might be my own prejudice against this kind of music that is shining through. The production is lovely too, so there’s that.
The Real Thing is one of those records that reveals itself to you more and more the longer you spend with it. It has been surely said a thousand times but Faith No More really were a special band, and whilst perhaps you could argue that the sound on this record is a little dated now, it is still a pleasure to return to and a highly recommended listen for anyone into rock and metal music. The production is fantastic, infinitely clear with heavy, pounding drums and incredible bass playing. The guitars are a little hollow in the mix, but goddamn are the riffs amazing. The breathing room in the sound stage is plugged up by the keyboards, which are just as much as responsible for carrying these compositions forward as the guitar – they are not added as an afterthought or mood enhancing device as used by most bands. Finally, there is Mike Patton. What can I say about Mike Patton? His vocal style is not as matured perhaps, as it would be in his multiple future outputs, but there is a youthful energy to the performance here. All in all, rock solid.
A weird one for Voivod, and that is really saying something by Voivod standards. But seriously, this disposes of the hectic, dissonant thrash metal and instead makes us listen to what can only be described as hectic, dissonant grunge. Some say it is Voivod’s sell out album. I don’t know if that is true, but it still has a ton of good songs on it.
First impressions: 14 year old boys taunting each other on CoD, set to Hatebreed jamming using Devourment’s gear. Fuckin’ wild if you ask me. Black magic. Satanic sick shit.
Solid and chunky but with lots of jagged edges, I guess like a club with nails sticking out of it: a weapon that’s gonna cause some ugly damage. Behind this typical artwork is a nasty, disgusting sound that is ugly as fuck – deep, goat-semen gargling vokills, bomb blast attacks on the drums, intense riffs. Yep. Short N sweet ugly brutality.
The wasps are coming, and they have brought with them their riffs. Under A Funeral Moon is peak Darkthrone and peak second wave black metal in general, to be honest. Still fairly robust in its construction despite the previously-mentioned wasp-like guitars; credit for this is entirely due to the prominent bass. Later records would be unforgiving in focussing on the guitar only and letter the mix suffer (whether that was a good thing or not is up for debate).
Well polished and well recorded (hey, and well performed) metal with heavy elements of groovy death metal and blasting grindcore. These lovely people have the energy and stage presence more akin to the hardcore/punk worlds but play a fantastic melting pot of metal styles, many of which are aptly displayed here on Indoctrination. It’s got that buzzsaw grinding edge but really brings in stuff from all over the place. Bang yer head!
A lot of things can be said about Peste Noire but there can be no denying that their debut record isn’t one of the most intense black metal recordings ever put to tape. The production is a fantastic blend of raw and audible, and the vocals are out of this world. Some of the best I’ve heard in the genre, up there with Bethlehem, with intense storms of blasts carrying the screeching along. At times fragile, and at times uncompromising, this is a document on how to do a black metal record. Super intense shit.
I enjoy Lifelover, more often than not, but there is something about Konkurs which really just is a swing and a miss in my eyes. The damp, miserable semi-acoustic DSBM that we love from the Pulver days is still here in spades (they haven’t quite got to the full-on, full-band fuzzy sound yet), but the vocal deliveries, whilst they have always been a bit fruity, here they fall just a little onto the wrong side of irritating. What I can’t argue with however is the fact that this band is still harrowing and unique even when performing some of their less-favourable material. It’s just you can go earlier or later in these guys’ career and get better stuff both ways.
Came for the ass, stayed for the death metal. NGL that cover art had me immediately checking out this short demo (at just shy of 10 minutes in length). I then promptly forgot about it all under now, so I figured I’d best write up about it. The intro and outro tracks are absolutely fucking pointless, with respect. What’s the point in pushing a two-track demo to being four tracks if only two of the tracks are actual songs? It adds nothing to proceedings atmospherically, so all-in-all their addition is just a waste of everybody’s time. Thank fuck then, that the two real songs that make up the “middle” portion of the demo, are actually really fucking good. The production on this thing is incredible for a demo; the bass clanks menacingly underneath a rotting layer of guitars and the drums hold the whole thing together just-about – like a shambling reanimated corpse lunging towards fresh victims. Good shit. I need to check out the album.
What can I say that has not already been said before. Often times when confronted with reviewing something as gargantuan as this I can find myself lost for words. Luckily, the music more often than not will speak for itself and do most of the work for me. Black Sabbath’s self titled record changed everything, at least in my opinion. It set the entire world of rock music onto a different course. One cannot understate the importance of that early record, but it was on the quick follow-up record, Paranoid, that Black Sabbath perfected their early sound. There is a good reason why people still listen to this thing religiously, even 53 years later. Fuck – that’s a long time ago. I won’t list stand-out tracks. I don’t need to. This entire thing is an absolute MUST for any fans of music, be it heavy metal or the wider gamut of musical styles. This is more than just a recording – this is a piece of history.
I love how Cannabis Corpse are still active, I really do. They have come a long way from their parody beginnings, but still stick to their guns about releasing solid, no-frills death metal. Fuck experimentation, fuck pushing the envelope, Nug So Vile proves that Cannabis Corpse are still about headbanging, riffs and weed. The guitar work is second to none, as is expected when you look at the discography previous to this one. Nug So Vile loses a few points as we are a few records deep into the discography now and the variation is still minimal, but hey – as I said, that’s what this is all about: straight up death metal worship. Also, that art is ridiculously good.
Brutal and enjoyable slam that is unfortunately falling just on the wrong side of predictable. Formulaic songs aside, Fate is a beast of a record, with bludgeoning production that is thick, heavy and dry. In the first instance it reminds me of Cephalotripsy with more chug and less gravity blasts. At 8 songs long and only 25 minutes in length, Fate doesn’t hang around for long but honestly, after two listens it actually felt much longer than that both times. All in all, a record worth listening to for those who are deep in the mires of slam but the earlier Gorevent stuff is much better, IMO.
Spectral Ecstasy is the perfect and I suppose logical continuation of the sound first presented on Kaleidoscope Dreams. This album is thirty minutes of fantastic psychedelic rock with small amounts of doom influence, as well as a larger dollop of black metal influence too, although this is definitely more restrained here than in the past. The production is mostly the same as what came before but there have been leaps and bounds made in the songwriting. Everything just feels so much more solid and individual elements flow beautifully into one another. The title track is an excellent example of this, as is closing track “Hymn Of Pride”, which is a brilliant closing piece to the album. There is a magical energy crackling with this one, which makes the listen a very exciting one indeed.
Caught these guys live with Napalm Death recently so wanted to check out some of their stuff beforehand. I gotta say, off the bat, this stuff is not for me, so take my review with a pinch of salt. I don’t really like the whole bear cult act thing, and honestly, you can get better party thrash stuff done elsewhere. Join The Bear Cult is not awful, the musicianship is faultless, and the production is solid too. I am however, struggling to find the record exciting in any way.
An interesting mix of artists, performing a bunch of tunes that are not always so typical for the sounds of the often confined dungeon synth genre. What I mean to say is, that there is a wider range of sounds here than I expected going in, and I even came away with some artists that I really want to check out, so that’s good news too. Some of the entries here are quite obscure however, and tracking them down can be rather difficult. But hey, isn’t that part of the fun?
Now this is my kind of dungeon synth. Spooky, kooky, lo-fi and minimal composition using cheap retro synths and drenched in hiss and wow / flutter. Lots of short moods and performances, rather than the longer more meandering pieces you would expect from dungeon synth artists. Really refreshing, glad I stumbled onto this, I would recommend it for any fan of the genre.
This is a release that is definitely not for everyone, especially in regards to the wide range of people that Killing Joke are lucky to call fans. However, there is a subset of folk who will be well aware of Youth’s producing history, and of his penchant for electronic music and of course, the art of dubbing. This is far from the first “in dub” collection we’ve had of Killing Joke classics, and it definitely isn’t the last. Most will no doubt see this as another pointless remix album, but as I said, that subset of people who are into dub, will no doubt relish the music on offer here. Rewind Vol. 1 is more than just remixes, its a deconstruction, with the purpose of building something new, and that is exactly what happens here. I wouldn’t say it was for “active” listening, unless you are partial to the ‘erb or something along those lines, but for ambient or background listening this dreamy, pulse-like snake of a re-interpretation of Killing Joke’s work by one of the group’s most interesting members is near perfect. For true, old-school dub fans I will finish with a warning that a lot of the sounds here (and on Rewind Vol. 2) also borrow heavily from the psytrance world – I kept expect Simon Posford to rear his head with some of the basslines in use on this record. Cheers all!
Facelift hits a lot harder than I ever would have thought (or given Alice In Chains credit for). Featuring a slightly rougher production that its more well-known follow-up Dirt, Facelift for me is the better album, with heavier riffs and generally just better songs. Y’know, there are probably more “stand out” songs on Dirt but Facelift works better as an album, in my opinion (not that its worth much). Never would have thought after all these years I would be a convert to the works of Alice In Chains, but hey, stranger things have happened. RIP Layne Staley.
I’ve never been a big fan of pretty much anything in the grunge style (perhaps Kyuss or Melvins come closest) but I checked out a bunch of Alice in Chains stuff recently after replaying GTA San Andreas, which pumped “Them Bones” into my head about 500 times in the space of six weeks. And I’ve got to be honest, I enjoyed this far more than I thought I would. I don’t know enough about the genre (or band) in general to offer much more than my opinion on the sound, but Dirt is a very well made record, which takes the band’s debut and cleans it up a little, with a slight boost to the production. I will admit that I listened to the 2022 remaster, so perhaps the additional loudness made this pop more for me (I don’t usually like remasters and prefer at least at first to check out the originals). Some of my favourite tracks include “Dam That River”, “Rooster”, “God Smack” (lol) and “Down in a Hole”.
As someone who has always loved Us & Them despite the flaws it has, you wouldn’t believe how happy I was with the dubs that accompanied A World Lit Only by Fire. Then, in 2017, Post Self dropped, which was some serious shit. You’ll no doubt appreciate my excitement then, upon hearing Nero, that the trend of sick beats in Godflesh’s stuff is set to continue. “Nero” itself is a claustrophobic, bludgeoning affair, but it starts to open up a bit and breathe more through its subsequent reworkings, in particular the dub version which is just fantastic. Honestly, I am super hyped for the new album, Purge.
Synchro Anarchy is another amazing offering from Canada’s legendary Voivod. The fact that these guys are even still going is nothing short of a miracle. They seem to have been on something of a Killing Joke-esque latter-career renaissance since Target Earth; forging the chaotic and dissonant madness of their 80s output with modern production and a sharper yet more mature streak. I do understand why some fans have started to say that Voivod are falling into a rut, what with Synchro Anarchy being the third album in a row with a very similar sound. I also think that Synchro Anarchy is the weakest of this era of releases, but that opinion is relative – the quality is still amazingly high and no doubt many fans of more experimental thrash metal will enjoy this one. Stand-out tracks are “Sleeves Off” and the outstanding “Planet Eater”.
Early Voivod records are a treatment in pure blunt sonic force. Sure, the weirdness was there right from the start, but didn’t start developing properly I would say until the record that came after this one. However, Rrroooaaarrr is absolutely worth your time and it’s probably one of the hardest (if not the hardest) Voivod record. It just comes at you, in it’s little weird alien tank thing, and it comes at you guns blazing. Stand out tracks are for sure the opening duo of “Korgull the Exterminator” and “Fuck Off & Die”, as well as the closing duo of the insane “Build Your Weapons” and “To the Death!”. I had the time to listen to both the original and the 2017 remaster back to back, and whilst I haven’t listened to the original demo mixes yet (I was pretty much Rrroooaaarrr’ed out at that point), I will say here that both mixes have merit, despite what you may have heard or read elsewhere. The 2017 remaster is definitely a little clearer, but there is just something about the blunt assault of the 1986 master that tickles me just that little bit more. Lol. Either way, you can’t really go wrong. Long live Voivod!
