Archive for September 2024

I see a lot of butthurt reviews for this thing, as if all these fucking Converge hipsters have never heard a grindcore / hardcore / powerviolence split before and are mad that the whole thing only lasts a few minutes lol get the fuck out of here with that shit. Converge bring the energy with “Runaway” – the production is massive and the drums sound fantastic. Dropdead sound as new and as fresh as ever….

Interesting set of covers from Warsore, of varying quality. Starts off awesome and devolves into live shit by the end (but still OK). Soil Of Ignorance stuff is incredibly well produced. Super vicious grind with precise stop/start bits that really get the blood going. Hard hitting shit that makes you wanna get up and mosh (but not too much, or you’ll make the needle skip).

Honky Reduction era (so bare bones Hull and Randall) ANb hits like a steel girder to the side of the head. You ain’t getting up from this one, homie. 7 tracks in 4 minutes: classic ANb in top form (and the sample here is amazing, I use it IRL too often tbh). Gob are an interesting one. They have the energy of “looser” powerviolence outfits like Spazz or Man Is The Bastard but there’s another…

This is a small EP that came after Utopia Banished and has the same death metal influence yet raw and loose production. Super intense, super overwhelming, super fucking heavy. This one can slip through the cracks very easily, but the tracks are well worth your time, especially as two are exclusive to this release.

Think, heavy, disgusting Carcass worship mixed with that old school Agathocles-style mincecore stomp. Yeah, it’s like Reek and Razor Sharp Daggers in a blender, but Malignant Tumour have their own vibe and their own super brutal and sick take on the goregrind genre, that I would consider their demos, whilst not the most original, as super important to the gestation of the genre.

Starting a grindcore comp with a band of the “slow and heavy” variety is a bold move. Irritate come across like the slower, chunkier moments of 90s Agathocles material (which may or may not be a coincidence since the two bands have split with each other). Murder Company sound like a death metal band on crack cocaine. There’s a fathomless heaviness to proceedings, helped along nicely by the overpowering drumming and low guitar tuning, not…

A stunning document of absolute chaos, both musically and in reality. This semi-official (I guess) debut from this seminal but messy project is one that every fan of war metal / raw death metal should check out. The sound is not the greatest but the guitar tone is fucking fantastic. Features Pete Helmkamp on bass and vocals, who some of you may know from the early Revenge records.

Not sure what to say about this one. It really does need to be heard to be believed. Expected fractured collages of sound and introspective atmospheres.

A strange mix of tracks from Combat 84. Comes across more like earlier Discharge than it does anything more Oi-related. Couple that with half of this being live tracks, and it’s hard to not feel underwhelmed by the first C84 “full length”. Once you’ve gotten over that, what’s here is actually pretty good.

Short, sharp shock! Songs about capital punishment and Barry Prudom (like, what?) make this short 3-track a bit more of an eyebrow raiser more than anything, but damn this shit hits hard. Combat 84 had this knack of bringing such ferocity to quick, catchy songs. Good shit.

Great collection of tunes on one short EP, which hits the mark with both the energy as well as the catchiness of the songs. Production is nice and clear. The drums really pack a punch. Every song is a banger but “Skinhead” and “Violence” are the standout songs IMO.

I’ve been trying to let this one take its time to grow on me before I make any decisions around whether I like it or not, but Call The Devil has failed to make a significant impression on me. This started with the chosen singles, which are dreadful (truly they are), but you can’t judge an entire album by its singles. To Mushroomhead’s credit there is a lot of different vibes and ideas here. This…

An interesting entry into the Wolf / Unhold years in that it is devoid of Unhold. This gives a slightly different vibe than usual but the overall RAC / punk / folk march that drives Absurd through all eras is still here. Drums are a little thin production-wise but the drummer himself is really great actually. The riffs are as good as usual and Wolf’s vocals are excellent as always.

Pointless release containing some of the better tracks that would later appear on Grabgesang, consigning this to fodder for collectors and completionists only, it would seem. Still sounds pretty fucking great, though.

Doesn’t reinvent the wheel but expands upon the “Goatmoon-worship” beginnings of the Moosegut project. Production is still thin and drastic, but the compositions are very very good indeed; drumming is excellent, and the layers of folk music and synths blur so well with the “core” of the black metal. Interesting and evocative, and more is revealed to you on repeat listens.

Einsatzgruppen is serviceable (pretty sure there’s another split knocking about that I heard recently that was a bit better than this). It’s a one speed / one gear kind of affair, which is OK I guess if you’re into what Einsatzgruppen is doing, otherwise this is gonna get old real fast. Sunchariot is useless, unfortunately. Trying to wring even the tiniest redeeming factor out of this session is impossible.

Short but sweet demo / single from this short-lived Dutch death metal outfit. We have the usual drab death metal production, but things still have a nice balance to them all the same. The drums and bass in particular sound fantastic, underneath the more typical (sorry) guitar and vocals. The final track, “The Prophecy” is the highlight here, IMO.

As other more articulate listeners have already pointed out, From The Deepening Gloom draws a lot from the Finnish Steel Storm school of thought; terrible production, punky drumming and some rather sprightly jigs consisting of bouncy riffs, catchy synths and a raspy yelped vocal style. This is far from a carbon copy however, and stands quite nicely on it’s own feet. There is an air of mystery to this record, which coupled with the more…

You must understand that this review is from someone going in blind to the world and legacy of The Fall. At the time of writing I know them as a revered and extremely prolific British band that are held in quite a high regard. I Am Kurious Oranj is indeed a kurious listen and first impressions remind me of early XTC or even Killing Joke in some ways, but my comparisons are mostly trite, I’m…

I’m probably going to catch some shit for this but Space Ritual has always been one of those albums that I *thought* I loved, rather than an album that I genuinely loved. I have slowly come to terms with that in recent months. There may be some correlation between me accepting this and the lack of cannabis in my life for nearly a decade. Is there a chance that there is a correlation between the…

One of the most uncompromisingly heavy things ever recorded. Truly, madly, unrelenting goregrind(noise) is the order of the day. Everything about it is just so absolutely perfect. I first heard this when I was 16 years old and I really struggled to find something in the grindcore world that could beat it for flat out, straight up extremity. Everyone should hear this at least once.

Beautiful production, if one could say such a thing about a Gwar record. On top of that, musically, Violence Has Arrived is something of a return to form after the fever dream that was We Kill Everything (don’t get me wrong, I enjoy that one too, but I do understand why folks might not like it). I remember when I was a little kid getting into metal, Violence Has Arrived was the latest Gwar record…

Weird, dissonant and oddly hollow, yet inventive and engaging black metal from the same mind that brought you the (excellent) Ynkleudherhenavogyon. It is probably a very lazy / amateur summary on my part, but if you mixed the most grimmest, underground black metal with, idk, fucking Neurosis or something, then you’d get something like this.

If you can take one look at that record sleeve and resist listening to this thing then you are a stronger man than me. The guys are wearing “corpsepaint” but this predates most Norwegain stuff, which is kinda cool. I’ve been coming back to this thing on and off for a while, and despite its unsatisifyingly short run time (it is a single after all, I guess), I am hooked on the messy, uncompromising nature…

Edgelord subject matter aside, this is actually a really fucking good slab of black metal. The production is dim and lousy yet also rather coherent and lends itself well to the kind of riffing that does well “semi” buried in a wall of noise. The drum machine is far from offensive and the vocals are fantastic. Songwriting is fairly inspired, with lots of twists and turns and a generally interesting composition. Well worth checking out.

As with all of these kinds of things, once you get deep into the mire of “underground” (as in, “bedroom”) goregrind and or pornogrind, things can get messy very quickly. Thankfully, this fate does not befall the Tribute to Gut compilation, which manages to maintain a pretty solid and consistent level of quality throughout it’s run time. Yes, there are some absolute fucking stinkers here – primarly the “electro” infused cheap digigrind shite that clogged…

Einsatzgruppen (sigh) has some promise to it. Think Vothana meets Signeur Volund (if I’ve spelt that wrong that I’m sorry but I cannot be fucking bothered to look it up) but they are mixed together by the same dude who does all of Lymphatic Phlegm’s studio albums. TLDR: some great stuff, buried in muck and shitty drum machines. I’m being harsh though, the material is pretty good. Shadowgate are well, just not that great. Some…

Interesting vibes and songwriting, ranging from folk to the slower, more “traditional” elements of “pagan black metal” stripped down to its very core. This is another project of Alexey from M8l8th, but the star of the show here is his wife Ekaterina, who’s vocals breathe life into these tracks. Not my usual type of thing, but a pensive and enjoyable listen all the same.

Great warm sound and a smooth analogue production overall (at least it sounds that way – the way it should!). Vocals remind me somewhat of wolves yapping away in the woods but the guitar riffs and drumming are more than enough to keep my attention throughout. A solid side-project from M8l8th’s Alexey. So far, I’m far preferring KoenigsGrab to any M8l8th release.

The AI cover art probably sums up the state of this thing more than the band ever intended it to: yes, it’s not so bad, but the longer you spend with it the more you realise that it’s just a generic pile of nothing that goes absolutely nowhere. It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever heard, but it seems oddly stifled and confined, even with a fairly big modern production and soundstage that allows the…

Solid riffs in all fairness, above average for sure, but that’s it. Vocals are not great, and the stock drum sounds used in the programming drag this thing down massively.

I will always welcome the release of more archival Aphex Twin material. Between the themes in the art and the dulcet tones of the soundscape itself, this takes me right back to the days of Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2. The only trouble here is that it is so unbearably short that by the time you are into it, its all over. Repeat listens don’t really do it here, ambient stuff needs to be long…

Not at all like how I expected M8l8th to sound, not that this pointless piece of information has any bearing on whether others would enjoy them or not. The sound is oddly both a little thin as well as overcompressed, especially when compared to other MZ-affiliated artists such as My Skin is Multicam or Koenigsgrab, both of which excel when compared back-to-back with Reconquista. The art is dead cool, though.

An interesting mix of stuff. Anything djent-related usually is an instant turn-off for me but there is something about Multicam’s dissonant mix of super-downtuned chuggy riffs and electronic-led black metal. There is a lot of atmospheric work between the main “bulk” of the songs (being either in a black metal or djent style) which is also very nicely done and weaves the whole album together into a coherent whole.