Archive for June 2023

Never, never, never again! If this doesn’t make you get up and go then you may be a lost cause. Love the B-sides too, those short, sharp shocks of songs are the perfect expression of punk in my eyes. I’ve had this 7″ for donkey’s years but don’t play it often enough. Great shit.

Agathocles are once against testing my hearing, seemingly deliberately wanting to give their listeners tinnitus with the mixes on their EPs. Honestly, the songs sound absolutely great but fuck this production all the way to hell. Anyone have an address so I can post some of this treble back to the band? Jesus fucking Christ. Nunslaughter on the other side of this disc are absolutely fucking excellent, bringing two songs of grinding, thrashing sonic carnage….

Finally, I come across a split between two legends of the noise worlds. Unfortunately, the AGx stuff here is ear-piercingly uncomfortable to listen to, I almost consider taking the 7″ off the platter and throwing it into the fucking garden, but alas not. I’m glad I didn’t because the Deche-Charge side, whilst is equally as noisy if not more so, but at least it is at a frequency that isn’t carving out the inside of…

The Beggar has taken up quite a lot of space in my life recently as I have tried to form an opinion on this thing. I think its now been long enough and that I have let it settle in. The first thing that I noticed about The Beggar was how similar it sounded to Leaving Meaning. I felt Leaving Meaning was a bit of a disappointment (moreso because it was following up something as…

Well then. Goblin Cock was recommended to me by Spotify, and I simply had to check it out immediately because of the audacity of the name. What I did not expect was metal in the doom / stoner style, unusual in the way that it sounds entirely typical yet also as if something is completely off and wrong. It’s as if aliens heard early Sabbath and maybe some Kyuss and then decided to make some…

Through a download code that was kindly shared by a friend I had the pleasure of being introduced to the world of Siege Golem, a project that walks the lines between dungeon synth and video game music. It reminds me a bit of the Kobold project, only updated and more varied in a set of a final boss themes. There’s all sorts of different vibes going on here, which is nice to see from a…

Intense, raw powerviolence. I’ve definitely been sleeping on Crossed Out, which is another one of those legendary names that I’ve just never got around to checking out. Honestly though, the sonic impact that this thing has is just fantastic. This 7” is the shit. It’s sound is atypical of a lot of the tropes of the PV sound but also intensely emblematic of the scene and movement. This review is garbage but trust me this…

Radioactive Decomposition delivers far more maturity and dexterity than a band with this kind of vibe, aesthetic and sound should have any right to. Death metal is the base ingredient, but forgive me for embarrassing myself by saying that Nuclear Remains do to death metal what Vektor do for thrash. That is not to say that Nuclear Remains is just a clone of Sound Of Perseverance era Death, but flexible and original in their compositions…

Grossmember play thick, bludgeoning grindcore with rough production, but the charm of such sounds on such a format (7”) are really what it’s all about when it comes to listening to obscure shit like this. The subject matter and vibe are as disgusting as the cover art, and I really enjoyed their side to this record. If the CBT full length albums are well-formed healthy stools in the toilet bowl of life, then this EP…

Some of the critical responses aimed at Peaceful Snow are incredibly harsh. Do I understand where such criticisms are coming from? Of course I do – the depth of Miro’s piano playing really brings out the “one trick” aspect of Douglas’ voice; something that works well in its own way, but it is definitely something that is left wholly exposed against the beautiful backdrop of keys that Snejdr provides. But, Peaceful Snow was an excellent…

There’s a lot of big brain takes about this album, its sound, its place in the history of metal and therefore and its influence, but I am not anywhere near qualified enough to comment on these matters so I’ll keep this much more down to earth. My Foundation Degree in Master’s Hammer permits me to speak soley about the music and its production, and not much else. Maybe once I get my Advanced Diploma +…

Saw these guys live a few times back in the day but never considered myself a fan, so was very surprised to find this CD when rummaging through old CDs in the attic. I have absolutely no idea where it came from. It sounds just as I remember Gates Of Slumber to sound, and my 3 year old seems to enjoy it (lmao), but there’s just something about this I cannot enjoy. Some of the…

Esham’s songs about “love making” are not subtle nor particularily clever, but they do make me laugh. Whether or not that was the original intention or not is perhaps debatable. But the moral of this EP is, well, mans was horny, by the goose of it. Erotic Poetry isn’t as filthy as say, The Sexorcist by Necro, but I still wouldn’t play “The Jaw Bone” for my gran, if you get what I’m saying.

Not gonna win any awards for originality but deffo should be winning awards for splitting heads: this shit is intense. I can imagine the kind of pits that open up for this kind of thing and that should tell you all you need to know about Habital Offender. The production is rougher than most “hardcore punk” but lends to the music infinitely because of this, especially in the faster passages. More often than not things…

An improvement on the base sound, Sanguisugabogg step things up a notch with their second record, which has a much better sound all around. The drums in particular, sound absolutely fantastic – both in the initial performance and then in the production. The snare tone is wicked and punches right through the mix. Musically, everything else hangs nicely in the balance but the drums definitely lead the mix, for sure. Either way, if sick caveman…

Depending on what you want from your death metal, you may find Gruesome to be tired and derivative or instead scratching that specific itch that only early 90s death metal can. The excellent cover art (by Ed Repka) should give you some indication of the presence of the “classic” sound here, but by what degree this is a case of the spirit of such being kept alive vs. being aped as a gimmick… well, that’s…

Not as good as the later shit but still intense pathological grinding death metal / goregrind in the vein of early Carcass. A short release of only 8 minutes (the version I heard didn’t have the Carcass cover at the end), but worth every second of your time. Tracks like “Liquidised Gallbladder” (how is that even medically possible? I don’t want to find out) and “Centipede In Ass” are just as digusting as you may…

I first heard of Bethlehem after Ralner Landfermann appeared on an Anaal Nathrakh song, and I was blown away by how crazy the vocals were. So perhaps my enjoyment of this album has been primed somewhat, unlike say someone who stumbled upon this talked about mid-90s release and had no idea what was coming when they pressed play. I have actively come here in search of these vocals, and I am very much on board…

My professional opinion about this piece of work is thus: this shit fucking slaps. Everything from the artwork to the production to the guitar tone is just absolutely fucking perfect. Well, not perfect, but pretty damn fucking good, y’know? Anyway, Under The Sign Of The Black Mark is when Quothorn more or less takes the fate of Bathory into his own hands, performing pretty much fucking every single role on this thing except for the…

The first Carnivore album probably isn’t as good as the second but it’s still a pretty solid album. Some of the doomier riffs are fantastic, despite the trashy nature of the album in general. You can tell from the off that it has that unique Pete Steele sound, not to play down the other members. There is plenty of hay-wire ideas here, as well as strange interludes and takes on things (the chilled bongo sections…