Archive for October 2023

I was a bit young when this came out so I didn’t really get involved with the hype at the time, but I understand how big a deal this was at the time. It is sad in retrospect to see the Tony Martin line-up finally go under for once and for all, but the people wanted Ozzy-Sabbath and the people got what they wanted with this release. Trouble is, I couldn’t give a bloody fuck…

Damn son this makes me want to stand on a street corner in a light drizzle outside some nondiscript cafe or bar in an anonymous western European city. I’ve just lit a cigarette and I’m watching the pretty girls walk by, huddled in their coats and black tights. Inside, the bar man is pouring aperitifs into small crystal glasses for me and my faceless date, who is also impossibly beautiful. Her face is cloaked in…

This is probably the first time that I have felt bad giving a record 3.5 out of 5. Everything Is Good Here is so achingly beautiful that I feel it deserves more, but the reality is that there are quite a lot of songs on this album that just don’t really stand out for me. If Sing Other People didn’t exist, then Everything Is Good Here would probably be my least favourite Angels Of Light…

As much as I enjoy Black Widow every time I throw it on I can’t help but be left with the thought that there are a ton of bands that have done this thing but in much better ways. That aside, this is what it is, which is especially cool considering its age.

Sub-Basement is nowhere near as crummy as its album title or album art would perhaps lead you to believe. Whist Bobby L’s vocal style is an acquired taste, the instrumental end of this thing is some top notch doomery. Heavy, dense riffs and oddly triggered / compressed drums make for an interesting combo (especially with the vocals). Only downer for me is that it sounds like it came from a certain time and place and…

Agorapocalypse sometimes seems to get it in the neck for not being quite like the stuff that came before it (that being, of course, absurdly fast bursts of micro-grind). All the pieces are still here though; the savage riffs, the ridiculous drum programming, and the multi-throated triple vocal attack. It’s just, the songs are longer than a usual average of about 24 seconds, and the influences span the metal world, rather than just the ABCs…

I decided to spice up my life and go for a bit of variety and therefore selected a Vomir live album instead of a studio album. Now, I don’t want to take the piss out of Vomir. It is the project that introduced me to the strange world of “HNW” after all. Vomir has had some real world application for me (it is perfect for meditation, for example), but I fear that despite all of…

I’m sure there are many others out there just like me who have David Lynch to thank for including Au Revoir Simone’s music in Twin Peaks: The Return. Their “performances” were highlights of the somewhat dreary musical acts to appear in the returned TV show, and I made with haste to the very album from which those cuts originated. Unfortunately, I did not process this review with the same haste in which I visited the…

Bloody typical that the first Chaos UK album I decide to check out is a cover’s album, but who cares really? This shit is fucking great. Production is raw but also perfectly balanced, you can hear all the instruments clearly and the guitar/bass tones are fantastic, rumbling along with a lovely crunch to them.

I wish that I had some sort of big brain take on this record, only because it offers far more in its lyrical content than I can hope to ever analyse, but I only truly stumbled upon this because of the Death In June connection. Nevertheless, In The Rain is a beautiful record, one that I have listened to many, many times over the last few months to truly acclimatise to the songs it possesses….

Arrrrghhhh both versions of this thing are fucking savage as fuck. Raw, loose, infectious, terrifying fucking metal, just the way it is supposed to be. Think I prefer the dryer mix (not sure which one was released in which order sorry) rather than the drenched-in-echo Venom-esque mix, but both are well worth your time.

I need to get myself a copy of this. Born Again is one of the better latter Sabbath albums (fight me), but the mix is a fucking abomination. The Manor Tapes not only clears up the production so that the record is appreciatable in its definitive form, but we also get extended / different version of “Stonehenge” and “Zero The Hero”, and on top of that we also get the unreleased track “The Fallen”. This…

Perhaps a bit silly, and a bit flimsy on the production end, but damn is this a classic. Stuff like “Living After Midnight” is what I’m referring to here, but there’s a place for that kind of thing (shit rock bars hahaha). I’m joking of course, but I’m more interested in some of the other songs on this record like the amazing “Grinder”, “Metal Gods” or the legendary “Breaking The Law”. My most recent listen…

A bit of a weaker entry into the extensive Judas Priest catalog, but not an album without it’s charms. Supposedly written after Halford relocated to Arizona, Point Of Entry is the perfect driving album. I decided to try that out, and being stuck in traffic on the M4 wasn’t exactly the perfect vision I had in mind, but I could not deny the tunes coming from my car stereo. My biggest complaint with this is…

At the time of writing I’ve yet to have the pleasure of hearing every single Priest album, but I’ve heard enough so far to comfortably say that Painkiller is my favourite by a long shot. That isn’t to say that I dislike the other material, but there’s something about Painkiller, like it is some sort of perfect culmunation of the band’s sound up and to that point distilled into one LP. I really wish Halford…

And just like that, it’s as if the 90s hadn’t even happened. Gone are the absurd genre experiments, back are some of the classic players. Peace and harmony is restored to the world because Discharge are playing d-beat again. There are some metallic holdovers remaining in the sound but generally this is punk as fuck and an absolute relief to hear after a trio of listless, rudderless albums. Take away the remixes at the end…

Is it possible for a band to ape themselves? To rehash old shit into new shit? Of course it is. But in the case of Discharge, there’s the peculiar fact that there are hundreds (if not thousands) of bands the world over (many named Dis-something) who have happily gouged at the niche that these guys carved for themselves in the eary 80s. So I think we can give Discharge a pass then, for revisiting the…

I first heard Barn Owl when they were announced for (I think) Roadburn 2012. I’ve been in love with Lost In The Glare ever since. Combining smoky, laid back rock with soul-gazing atmospheric drones, the album is an instrumental journey that is at times low-key and at other times all-encompassing atmosphere. Comparisons to Earth are apt, but Barn Owl really are their own interesting beast and one that I would heavily recommend checking out.

I find it mad that in the 70s it seemed almost common place for big mainstream acts to drop more than one album in a year. It is the only time Priest do this (I think), and the slight drop in quality perhaps shows, as this was a bit of a rush job? IDK, it’s really not that bad, and quite endearing, even though they would hit the nail on the head with this style…

Pretty great boot, which showcases some of the cuts from the Gillan era in a live setting but with good quality sound. It is a shame that this was never officially released, as Gillan was in Sabbath for such a short time. Heck, the entire rest of the band are on Born Again so Gillan’s era is as valid as Dio’s / Heaven And Hell, so even the nay-sayers who quote the Sabbath revolving door…

I had this live album as a kid because I was obsessed with Cradle and wanted to collect all their CDs. I remember also queuing up at HMV or Virgin Megastore (I forget which) with a copy of 11 Burial Masses in my hand. I was nonchalantly reading the tracklist on the back when I realised: “shit, I already own this!”. I have absolutely no fucking idea why Live Bait For The Dead was rereleased…

I’m finding it pretty fucking wild that I’ve made it to 2023 without really writing about Coffins (sans their split with XXX Maniak). I’ve never been the biggest fan but coffins have been a mainstay in the sloooooooooooow side of death metal for many a year now, so just out of pure numbers and math I should have reviewed one of their records. Alas, here we are. Craving To Eternal Slumber is a nice little…

I have a soft spot for this thing, as I do with most of the earlier Slipknot records. When I was in school, I think 13 years old, my friend Ross burned a copy of this thing off the internet for me, as well as a few other tracks from the supposed “Crowz” sessions. Some of us like to look back at the glory days of the internet as if things were actually different back…

The Devil You Know occupies an interesting space. It is – by far – the heaviest Sabbath album with Dio on vocals, with epic, doom-laden guitar playing (Geezer’s bass is off the charts here, fair play). Iommi’s relationship with Mike Exeter means of course he is at the helm here, and there can be no denying that the record sounds absolutely huge. However, my issue lies with the songwriting. When it hits, it hits, and…

Man this fucking rips. Mortician-grade mush for guitars, 90s goregrind vocals, and trashcan drums that are played at blisteringly fast speeds. Putrid Stu is a man after mine own heart, and this four minutes of detuned slop is just absolutely fantastic.

I have absolutely no fucking idea how I stumbled onto Zheani’s music, but Spiritual Meat Grinder is something of an aural palate cleanser. Insane, headache-inducing electronics meet absolutely manic vocal performances from sweet singing, yelping, growling to auto-tuned warbling. It’s like witnessing some sort of aural overdose of sugar. 19 minutes later and I’m sat here like “WTF was that?” but for some reason I want to listen to it again.

Man O Man is that fuckin’ cover art something, huh? I’m not sure what it is about it exactly that is so endearing to me but I really like it. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about Stained Class, for as brilliant as it is, it fails to strike a chord with me as much as Sin After Sin or Sad Wings… did. Despite this, this is fantastic record with that lovely 70s rock production….

Completionists item showcasing some rough cuts from the early three piece post/martial punk days. Unless you are absolutely madly, deeply in love with the Guilty… & Burial era, then there’s nothing really worth checking out here. An interesting listen all the same.

I have this DVD (bootleg) and it is actually a very good set. Recorded in 1994 and released in 1995, the line-up is Geezer and Tony, with Bobby Rondinelli on drums (I think this is when Cozy Powell was still recovering from accident with the horse). Tony Martin is back on vocals after a brief stint with Dio back in the band for one album. So we get Martin here performing songs by all eras…

This little fucker has the honour of being one of the first brutal death / underground releases that I ever downloaded off the internet. It is a shame then really, that this just isn’t very good at all. Corpsefucking Art in general are pretty entertaining, but here there’s Mortician worship meets Mortician covers meets Mortician grade horror samples, and I’m not here for it, tbh. Goretrade is just also quite possibly the most boring death…

Oi oi English facking brutal deff metal innit brahvahhhhhhh! Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. All in all, this is a pretty fuckin’ disgusting offering of rancid, turbid, aural slop. It certainly ticks all the right boxes and if you looked up “slamming brutal death metal” in the dictionary you may or may not be lucky to find Engorgement listed under there. Speaking of becoming engorged, death metal perverts may find that Excruciating Intestinal Lacerations is enough to send them…

Wait, is that Motorhead? No, it’s long-running and legendary Czech goregrind outfit Malignant Tumour on a bizarre death’n’roll’n’Motorhead’worship trip. Does it work? Well, yes it does. It is very, very well made, if I may say so. But, it is not what I come to Malignant Tumour for, so it’s taken me 15 years to muster up the energy to even write this short paragraph about this album.

Intestinal Disgorge, here bringing their usual, dense digital goregrind with intense blasting mayhem, farmyard vocals and putrid subject matter, are (literally) music to my ears. I need to get into more from these guys. I was super into them years ago but need to fill in the gaps in their discography, as I’ve yet to hear a bad thing from them. Smallpox Aroma I remember from the MySpace grindcore days (lol) but I don’t think…

You could argue for days whether the songs here “landed” or not, but one has to respect the effort involved here to cover different songs from all these different genres. It’s mad to listen to “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” and think, damn this is the same band who released Bestial Devastation lol, at least in name. Despite not really liking any of the songs here, I don’t hate Revolusongs (man, what a…

Solid drum machine grindcore with a bizarre, almost occult feel to it. I remember Grind Block re-releasing this like it was yesterday. Anyways, the original Death To Pigs cassette is expanded on with various additional sessions, which definitely bolsters the release and makes it feel like more of a long player. If the song titles don’t throw you off, some of the off-kilter vibes surely will. Come for the blasting grind, stay for the sleazy…

Sin After Sin, sounding absolutely massive and glorious in all of it’s golden-era analogue production, is another fantastic early offering from the legends that are Judas Priest. Personally, this doesn’t reach the heights of the sheer VIBE that is Sad Wings but I will note the stunning production (as above) as well as Rob’s vocals sounding particularly incredible here, case in point being “Here Come The Tears”, which is just absolutely phenomenal.

Dirge takes the aural carnage of Abuse and streamlines it into a more focussed, primal grindcore attack. Don’t get me wrong here, Abuse is fucking amazing, but is a little rough around the edges compared to its slightly younger brother, Dirge. Here the production is smoother (without losing any of the “edge” needed for grindcore to work), and the songs hit that extra harder. The band were arguably at their original peak during the release…

Not bad by any stretch of your twisted imagination, but definitely falls flat compared to the likes of what came before it. In isolation, Possessed is an enjoyable album, but has its predecessors to live up to and therefore kinda lives in their shadow a little bit, if I’m honest. Production wise, its par for the course for an early Venom album. Musically, the band seem a bit more put together, perhaps after the epic…

Uhhhhhhh OK, then. So. Off the bat, this isn’t anywhere near as bad as Grave New World. In fact, it is, on a sliding scale, probably quite a bit better. The general style of “funk” / groove metal (think the more “fun” end of thrash meeting Faith No More and Helmet style stuff) is a massive improvement on the Motley Crue shite they tried to do on Grave New World. At least you can make…

My God, those vocals….please make it stop! Holy fucking Mother of Kazan is this bad!??? Like, I knew Discharge had some less-than-popular albums in their illustrous career but this really takes the biscuit. Grave New World, honestly, has to be one of the worst albums I have ever heard in my entire life, and that really is saying something. Gone is the punk / d-beat that the band pioneered (and gone is the band, mostly),…

Ahhhhh fucking hell! I wanna put on a (vegan) leather jacket and go out into the street and headbutt a racist neighbour. I also have a strong urge to wear Dr. Marten boots and start drinking cider for the first time in my life, both of which I can only attribute to over-doing it with the d-beat madness of this record as of late. Honestly, this thing is fucking great. I look back now –…

I was searching RYM on the off-chance it had a listing already in place for Sam Powell’s work on the Sega Genesis Jurassic Park soundtrack when this DJ session came back in the search results (it samples one of the tracks from the Sega JP OST). What a happy little coincidence then, because this opened up an impromptu 4 hour journey that I listened to over the course of the rest of the day whilst…

Bulldozer gore groove! And lots of it. Listening to shit like this is one of life’s simple pleasures. However, I will say, for gore/pornogrind and the reputation that this band itself has, the levels of degeneracy here are fairly low, as is any unfavourable sampling that you wouldn’t want coming out of your stereo at full pelt for the neighbours to hear. Similarly, production is not only fully audible but actually packs a hell of…

What a clashing, clattering cacophony of cantankerous claustrophobic compositions, culled credously of criteria concocted by contemporary carnage constructors called Nasum (sorry about that, I got stuck in some sort of literary loop). The aptly-titled Funeral March is a blast and a half through blistering high-production grindcore (think the aforementioned Nasum and stuff like Rotten Sound, later Wormrot etc). Expect total aural carnage.