Archive for January 2025

Musmahhu – Reign Of The Odious (2019)

January 31, 2025

Overwhelming blackened death with an absurd wall-of-sound production. Drum triggers tear through your ears like the fuckers were shooting nails out of the speakers. Vocals are great. Guitars are a blur of overcompressed mids.

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Regurgitate / Suppository – Split CD (2004)

Suppository play a chunky blend of groovy grindcore; commendably I must say in a rather serious manner (lol), before this entire subgenre became a bad fucking meme. Regurgitate stuff here should be great, but the production sucks ass. I donโ€™t expect big production from Regurgitate, but even their older, stank and disgusting shit had a gelatinous heft to it. This session is thin and brittle, and lacks punch, which is a shame, because the songs…

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Regurgitate / Gore Beyond Necropsy – Split 7โ€ (2000)

RGTE stuff here is fast and loose but fuck me does it half hit hard. Sessions like this remind me why I fucking love this band so much. Absolutely peak goregrind. Gore Beyond Necropsy are a bit more of a wildcard, but as is their style. The compass is a bit more all over the place, but the overall sound is fantastic. A highly recommended gore split!

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Naked Whipper – Chapel Defilement (2025)

A Naked Whipper comeback / sophomore album was not on my 2025 bingo card, Iโ€™ll be honest with you. Itโ€™s also very easy to be sceptical of something like this happening, especially so long after the original run, as it were. However, much like David Lynchโ€™s Twin Peaks (bet you didnโ€™t see that comparison coming huh), the Naked Whipper return after several decades does much in the same in that it takes that original perverted…

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Goner – Pain God (2021)

A mixed bag of material spanning the entire world of Goner grind. Usually, Iโ€™ve noticed after many years of listening to comps like this, unless going chronologically they seem to start off with the strong stuff at the beginning and the quality lessens as the disc goes on. Not here. This is all over the place; solid studio shit is shuffled in with all sorts of hideous live / rehearsal room recordings, giving the whole…

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The Exploited – Massacre (1990)

January 30, 2025

My uncle gave me his copy of this album many years ago and I used to think it was the shit. In hindsight, especially taking it into account with the rest of The Exploited discography, it’s not quite as good as I remember. It is however, a crapload of fun. It’s also the most audible Exploited album in a while (chronologically), with Horror Stories and Death Before Dishonour both having somewhat dank and difficult production….

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Venom – Temples Of Ice (1991)

Arachniiiiiiiiiid!!!!! I remember first hearing Temples Of Ice with absolutely no context, I want to say, ten years ago. I was a bit perplexed because it sounded absolutely nothing like the Venom that I knew (at the time, being the first couple of albums only). In the context of the band’s chronological releases (and general band history), Temples Of Ice does not sound so shocking. In fact, it’s not a million miles away from it’s…

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Rampant – Rampant (2024)

Another interesting British demo that fits perfectly into the ongoing ASKE label roster. With the production and ethos of black metal, vs the ferocity and attitude of oi and punk, Rampant is both sonically and aesthetically similar to other bands that work with this label (Longbow springs to mind). These four tracks however, are very unique. For those far off the beaten path of both of the aforementioned genres, this comes recommended.

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Retorsionย –ย ร‰lve Rohadรกsย (2024)

Killer fucking grind that really hits the spot. Non-stop blasts and punk grooves, with a thicker production and death metal influence despite the clear punk roots. Truly, I suppose, this embodies the crossover genre that grindcore really is between hardcore punk and metal. This shit is pure carnage.

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Grotesque Infection – Festering Wounds (1991)

Subterranean death/doom without the pomp or abstract bullshit. Straight to the point, hideous and torturous shit. It’s not a very long demo, but it’s long enough to leave it’s mark in metal history like a disgusting slap in the face from a shit-smeared hand. Tidy.

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Grotesque Infection – Consumption Of Human Feces (1992)

Good shit! An often overlooked relic from the past, which had the whole grim and disgusting death/doom shit ironed out before a lot of contemporaries. Personally, I think the demo is better (is it possible to write that without ever sounding like a hipster?) but there’s plenty to be gotten here with this EP. Production is unsurprisingly better here and the songwriting and overall finished sound is much more matured, but there is something about…

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Grotesque Infection – Grotesque Infection (2020)

A cool way to get all of the Grotesque Infection stuff in one place, if one was so inclined. Personally, I could give a fuck about the live set at the end, but such is the way with these things. This comp is worth it for the demo and the EP.

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Venom – Prime Evil (1989)

January 29, 2025

The final (original) run with Cronos was a bit disappointing, in all honesty. With Prime Evil, it was Mantas’ turn to try and take Venom forward; and he did so into a whole new era, with members new and old (but no Cronos). Can I just say, that what a marvel it is that new frontman / bassist Tony Dolan fits in right out of the gate! I remember when, idk, I first heard Priest…

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Mephitic Corpse – Immense Thickening Vomit (2019)

Fuckin nasty shit, bro. As we say in the Valleys: fucking bogging, son! Truly, this is a sound so decrepit and disgusting it’s hard not to completely lose one’s mind whilst listening to it. It feels like falling down a swirling vortex of innards and goo; a maelstrom of bone and unidentifiable viscera. Think Cryptworm crossed with the early Dead Infection demos / LPs.

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Fetid – Steeping Corporeal Mess (2019)

Bowel churning death metal of the gory and disgusting variety. Expect fathomless depths to both the guitar tuning as well as the vocal performance (hey, not to mention the production!). The drumming on this from Jullian Rhea is second-to-one; the skins are loose and kinda wet sounding, which is a far cry from the fetid (lol) pings of dustbin snares eternal in these murky subgenres, but every smack of the snare – be it blast…

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Dismember – Like An Ever Flowing Stream (1991)

You gotta love early Dismember. This shit is great. Absolutely God tier HM-2 fuzz attack death metal with that defined Swedish style. I have gone off the sound quite a lot especially because of how derivative it is these days (if you use HM-2 pedals with THAT setting ironically or not thatโ€™s an instant turn off for me lol), but albums like this one or Entombedโ€™s Left Hand Path were originals; trend setters, I guess….

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Unleashed – Where No Life Dwells (1991)

Unleashed’s debut gives that proper old school death metal feel; before death metal became over-produced with it’s dryer-than-a-martini Morrisound production (lol). That’s not to say that Where No Life Dwells is fast and loose; the production is perhaps more organic but the riffs and the drumming are executed with excellent precision. Without wanting to be trite, you can easily make comparisons to early Obituary or even Autopsy (sans gore). There’s also something decidedly Swedish about…

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Thanatos – Beyond Terror (2002)

Hedd fukken nekk wrekkin brain mushin death fukken metal brah brah and donโ€™t you fukken forget it! SHITE computer generated cover art? You got it, brah brah. Production that farts out of your speakers? You got it, brah brah. CHUNK for daze, brah brah!

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The Exploited – Death Before Dishonour (1987)

January 28, 2025

Disgusting, raw and angry as fuck – that’s what really good fucking punk is supposed to be, right? It’s a shame that Death Before Dishonour was recorded inside a wind tunnel, because otherwise I think this would be an absolute corker of an album. Wattie sounds insane here. The tracks generally are darker, more brooding, than most Exploited fare. There is also a big metal influence, something which would continue to bleed into the band’s…

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Sif – Darkstalker (2023)

Bongripper for LARPers. Not exactly put together in a ramshackle way; Darkstalker is technically sound. However, unfortunately, it’s so infuriatingly boring that I find I’m asking myself whether I can turn off a three track EP before the end. The alternative would be death by yawning, it seems.

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Lymphatic Phlegm – Roughly Excised – Putrefindings, Morbidescriptions and Necrognoses (2021)

As someone who “came up” (in grindcore terms) through the late 00’s MySpace explosion of DIY gore and/or pornogrind projects, Brazil’s Lymphatic Phlegm felt like weird outliers; purveyors of the kind of music that would inform and inspire that entire wave of bands, yet standing out as weird and original in their own right. I’ve said it before, but at times, Lymphatic Phlegm sounded more like a super strange black metal project than a tried-and-true…

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Asininย –ย Demoย (2023)

Dense, noisy, intimidating; these are three words that could quickly summarize the racket that Asinin creates on their debut 2024 demo. To say that punk is full of energy is quite possibly the most lazy fucking way to describe it, but it’s easy to feel like you are in the room with the band on this record. The band doesn’t seem to have done much else, but I’d certainly be interested in hearing more off…

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The Casualties – On The Frontline (2004)

Punk that’s right up in your grill. 34 minutes of non-stop energy with rabid vokills. Production is rough around the edges but bright and clear enough to allow these short, sharp messages of vitriol to smack you in the chops. Great, great shit. The bass sounds absolute fantastic.

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Celtic Warriorย –ย The Legend Lives Onย (1997)

Despite what the cover art may indicate to the contrary, The Legend Lives On is one of the stronger Celtic Warrior records. The production is dense and heavy, and whilst not quite “metal” it smacks pretty hard. The bass pops underneath everything and clanks away with a really nice sound. The drums hit hard. It’s easily the best record since the debut, if going chronologically.

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Mysticum – In The Streams Of Inferno (1996)

January 26, 2025

I love that album cover. No doubt that Mysticum walked so a million other bands in this odd crossover style could run, but unfortunately I don’t find In the Streamsโ€ฆ all that engaging. The production is great for 1996, and the beats are laser precise. I’m just not really sure if it works with the kind of black metal Mysticum plays on top of those beats. But hey, that’s just me. I do understand why…

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Libido Airbag / Intestinal Slaughter – Split 7″ (1998)

January 24, 2025

What a split! An absolute classic of porno/digi-grind sickness. Libido Airbag do not need an introduction at this point. This EP contains more of that super consistent sleazy electronic gore vocal shit (pretty sure the first track also appears on a later EP/Mini-album). Intestinal Slaughter sound like a mix of Libido Airbag and old Anal Whore stuff. Super sketchy electronics pitched up and down. Proper bargain basement programming sound but fuck, it’s genius. Really good,…

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Necrotic Liquefaction – Necrotic Liquefaction (2019)

I might have heard that intro sample a bazillion times, but who gives a fuck when the mincing gore is THIS fucking good? The stomps are real good on this thang, but let that not detract away from the grinding gore. Sometimes in this kinda punk-influenced mince stuff the dance-y bit can dominate, but not on the Necrotic Liquefaction debut. There’s plenty of headspinning blast sections and sick fucking riffs. The vocals are 10/10 toilet…

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Lymphocyticย –ย Sadistic Dismembermentย (2018)

Facking absurd gorenoise shit. A headcrashing of 6-pack-o-tinnies drum programming, bubbling vats of slimy shite vocals, and a power sander attached to a distortion pedal “guitar work”. Throw in a peppering of hideous samples and you’ve got the cherry on the cake.

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Goatmoon / Godless North – Split 7″ (2010)

Fucking rabid shit from Goatmoon on this one. “Firepower And Steel” in particular is a hell of a track. Really hits the spot. At first, Godless North’s vocals are a bit comical to me, but you get used to them after a little while. Production is a little bit muffled on their side, but the sound is hellish and chaotic enough on this split EP to make me want to find more of their shit,…

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Pagan Hellfire – Spirit Of Blood And Struggle (2010)

First EP from Pagan Hellfire, after several full length records. Real chunky, well-produced black metal with plenty of kick (think mid-career Marduk, GBK, 1349). There’s no thin and brittle frosty sound here! Heavy shit!

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Kvasir’s Blood – Aloft on Winds of the Ancients (2016)

Production has an odd hollowness to it but the compositions are dark, evil and sinister as fuck. Equally majestic as it is unsettling – and to top it off, that cover art is absolutely fantastic. Well worth checking out.

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Belial – The Gods of the Pit (1991)

Not too dissimilar to part 2, if I’m honest. I’m not really sure why this was rerecorded. I guess there are some subtle differences but all in all, this set of songs is still great either way.

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Todesweiheย –ย The Return of Medieval Darknessย (2024)

Disappointing. Starts off OK but descends into a mire of boredom and low quality jiggery fuckery. The production across the board lacks any real impact or bite and couple this with the typical compilation rot of “gets worse as it goes on” and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. If I wanted to hear tired, shit-tier cover versions of Mayhem and Bathory songs I’d ring up the guys who I used to rehearse with at…

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Belial – The Gods of the Pit Pt. II (Paragon So Below) (1993)

January 23, 2025

A mixed bag, but what a bag of goodies it is! It would be realllllly fucking cool if every single track sounded like “Piece By Piece (Remix”) because the drums are fucking out of this world. Proper blast your feckin’ heid off kinda shit. But yeah, idk, what do you want me to say. This shit fucking slaps. Subterranean, dirty-sounding black and/or death from the melting pot that was the Finnish 90s scene.

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Phobia – Grind Your Fucking Head In (2003)

Grind Your Fucking Head In is one of my favourite Phobia releases. This thing is fucking bonkers. Grindcore and “well produced” are not usually phrases that go hand-in-hand (even though there is like a sub-genre of grind bands that indeed do have very good production). The drums on Grindโ€ฆ are just incredible; lightning fast, just like the blurs of absurd riffs and hardcore/pv-inspired beastmode vocals. Songs like “Shit Housed” and “Fuck What You Think” should…

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Sanguine Relice – Vampyric Will (2015)

You can say a lot of things about “raw” black metal but it is hard to argue with the fact that the atmosphere some of these “less is more” projects have is second to none. Vampyric Will is in a similar boat. Does it sound like complete shit? Yes. Do the drums sound like the same beat played over and over and over on a drum machine made out of cardboard? Yes. But, goddamn, the…

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Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere (2024)

As someone who loves space, old album covers and pyramids and shit like that, the cover art for this one really spoke to me. Personally, I think that Blood Incantation have delivered another solid album yet again; another middle finger to the endless legions of haters and detractors. The production is just absolutely gorgeous. It’s warm and in the trebly range that you’d expect for death metal yet everything – little accent and flourish –…

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Haggus – Straight From The Slaughterhaus (2020)

January 19, 2025

This shit fuckin’ kills, man. Tubular, dude. Like, how is it possible to make a sound as disgusting yet so exciting? Honestly, mince(g)ore just appeals to the based fucking instinct in me to move around and throw faeces at my cunt of a neighbour. This shit is so good. And – after a tidal wave of splits – it’s nice to see a band of this nature that can actually stick the fucking landing when…

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Grausamkeit – Fucking Goat Horness (1996)

A harsh, noisy one from Grausamkeit (who would have thunk it, eh?). What I mean to say I suppose is that this one is lighter on the synth passages and “dungeon synth” kinda stuff (although they do plug away in the background of the songs), and is heavier on the harsh black metal pedal. More gain, please drive! Goat Horns?Goat Horniness?Goat Hornses?

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Grausamkeit – Angeldestruction (1997)

Without wanting to sound absolutely fucking cringe as fuck, there is something incredibly beautiful about this demo. Yeah, Grausamkeit, via Blod Besvimelse very weirdly going viral recently, has become something of a meme, but IMO these releases are timeless. The shaky mix of dungeon synth put to degraded tape and barely audible, truly necro black metal is just perfect. Expectations should be tempered of course as this a cassette demo, not a searing working of…

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Raging Speedhorn – Hard To Kill (2020)

After a long and varied career, Speedhorn come somewhat full circle in 2020 with the excellent Hard To Kill. IMO this is the closest the band get to capturing “what makes Raging Speedhorn so good” in something like 18 years. And no – that’s not a call from me to stick to their core sound and nothing more, but they certainly did have a balance of styles in the first two records which worked hugely…

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Raging Speedhorn – Lost Ritual (2016)

January 18, 2025

Considerably better than the final offering before the initial split, Lost Ritual is an interesting come-back record. It leans far more heavier into the doom / stoner / sludge / whatever side of the coin, eschewing all hardcore / tough guy shit from the past in lieu of going all in on stoned riffs and Relapse Records baiting cover art. All in all, it’s a good album but the production is fairly homogeneous as well…

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Oblachniy Kray – ะกั‚ั€ะตะผั ะธ ะปัŽะดะธ (1985)

January 17, 2025

Truly, a wild ride! I go into this with little to no knowledge of the band or the expectation of the sound that they perform. My first impression is that this is some sort of Soviet version of Mr. Bungle, and whilst I suppose aurally I wouldn’t be too far wrong with my summation, that does do a little disservice to the uniqueness and quirky nature of these guys and their music. Let’s not forget…

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Darkthrone – Land Of Frost (1988)

Very early Darkthrone album that is quite endearing to listen to. It’s really great to hear these guys marry all these styles and influences together. We have vocals that wouldn’t be out of place on a Blasphemy record over the top of melodic riffs that are suspicously close to a certain Metallica track that will remain nameless LOL They were just kids at this point so I won’t be too harsh. It’s a fun listen,…

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Malakhim – Theion (2021)

An incomprehensible blur of overproduced shit, if I could be so bold. Maybe there’s some good songs in here, but through the bricked-out, artificial reverb-drenched walls of sound it’s really hard to pick them out. It’s like if you threw Dissection and Watain into a blender and then squeezed out only the worst parts. The band logo is cool if nowt else.

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Masafumi Ogata & Naofumi Hataya – Sonic CD (1993)

I’m not entirely sure why Sonic CD has two soundtracks, but all I know is that in “modern” ports of the game, such as the iOS version, the Japanese soundtrack (this one) plays as default. Seeing as my kid has played most of these levels over and over, I’ve become intimately familiar with these songs. Initially, as someone who grew up on the original Sonic trilogy on the Mega Drive / Genesis, I found this…

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Fulci – Tropical Sun (2019)

January 16, 2025

A cool mix of shit that is incredibly well made, but where none of the elements particularily shine that bright. For example, the heavier / more “brutal” elements are tasty, as are the more “traditional” death metal parts and even the melodic metal parts (such as the excellent cover at the end). The synthesizer passages and samples are also good fun, but the album does not exceed in any of these. It’s got a whole…

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Chat Pile – Remove Your Skin Please (2019)

Sitting somewhere between Big Black, early Godflesh and Melvins, Chat Pile also manages to be an extremely unique voice in the world of slude / noise rock. Opening with the mesmerising “Dallas Beltway”, this 15 minute, 4 track EP is a lesson in abstract pain and misery. It’s disgusting, and makes feel a little bit dirty, but also rather cleansed in a weird kinda way. It’s very cathartic music, is what I am trying to…

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Absurd – Kyffhรคuserreich (2024)

Far better than the previous AI-cover release that came out earlier this year. Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe a lot of these are old songs written by an ex-member that have been re-imagined for this modern release? Forgive me if that’s incorrect but keeping up with the twists and turns of this band is pretty difficult. Production is fairly homogenous but there are moments of brilliance underneath it. Generally though, Kyffhauserreich is…

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Ossuary – Fat (1994)

Mmmm boy, are you fat!I wonder how many death metal bands there are out there called Ossuary. You could probably start another genre: ossuarycore. But anyway. I digress. Fat is exactly how I would describe this record. It feels so chunky that I half expect opaque, treacle-like white liquid to start oozing out of my speakers. This is the type of shit that clogs your sewers, fam. The production here is basically subterranean; the guitars reduced to…

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Crucifier – Unparalled Majesty (1992)

Rifftastic, doomy death with that proper old school feel. I’m sure the wobbles and tape hiss artefacts that are on the recording go a long way in helping with conjuring these feeling. Honestly, there’s not a snoozer here in this 4 track demo; every song kills, IMO. Personally, I’d go as far as saying that this one is a mandatory listen for demo fiends, despite a few short comings with the quality.

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Belial – Wisdom Of Darkness (1992)

January 15, 2025

Nasty, dark and primitive death metal with cutting streaks of black metal; really, a very interesting blend indeed. Whilst I prefer Never Again (which has a more blunt approach), the mixture of genres here is really fuckin’ great. It’s all over in a flash at 20 mins in length, but it’s well worth your time (you don’t need me to tell you that; this is almost legendary in status these days).

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Mortandad – Demo 1 (2013)

Frenetic, messy, unforgiving blackened thrash in the vein of (perhaps obviously due to the cover song) early Sodom, Sarcofago, early Slayer or Sextrash. Production is pretty fuckin’ good for a demo of this style, but the drumming is very loose which gives the whole thing a ramschackle feel – breakneck speed this may be, but breakneck precision it doth not possess! If you like messy, old school 80s thrash where the genres were really melting…

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Desolate Throne – Howls Of Blood (2025)

Triumphant, melodic black metal with the right balance of “kvlt” production; everything sounds raw and natural yet is fully audible and not a task to listen to. It’s only 3 tracks and an outro of sorts, but it’s well worth turning over this rock if you are into the – dare I say – more upbeat forms of black metal. Highlights for me are the first two tracks.

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Raging Speedhorn – How The Great Have Fallen (2005)

January 13, 2025

How The Great Have Fallen is the third album from British metal band Raging Speedhorn, and is the final album with the original vocal duo of Frank Regan and John Loughlin. The first thing to notice is the massive step off a cliff in regards to production. It feels almost like a purposeful attempt to change things up for album number three, but the sad reality is that nearly all of these songs would have…

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Raging Speedhorn – How The Sea Was Built (2007)

A poor man’s soup of post-something garbage. Whatever the artistic and stylistic reasons for the seismic shift in genre and sound, it matters not because this album truly and completely sucks ass. Honestly, a head-scratching choice all round. I don’t really have anything positive or constructive to say so I’m just going to leave it at that.

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Swans – Young God (1984)

A slow, harrowing, disgusting crawl through a painful set of songs. Like wading through tar, or something. Production seems infinitely worse than both Filth and Cop before it; the sound has this strange hollowness to it; as if you’ve been dealt a catastrophic blow to the head and are listening to this whilst drifting in and out of consciousness. “I Crawled” is easily the highlight here, and the song went on to reoccur several times…

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System Of A Down – Hypnotize (2005)

January 12, 2025

In my eyes, Hypnotize is the only real “missed step” in the original SOAD run. And, it’s not like they came out with a stinker of an album, it’s just Hypnotize struggles to live up to the gargantuan heights achieved by it’s sister release, Mezmerize. It has the exact same production (it may even be the same session, if I’m not mistaken?) and some excellent individual songs, but fails to function on the same level…

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Type O Negative – Dead Again (2007)

Dead Again is a strange one. In some respects, it shows the band coming “full circle”; at least in morphing all of their various styles and ideas over the years together, yet also shows them moving forward at the same time. Dead Again is unlike many of the Type O records before it, and is the first one since Bloody Kisses to feature non-programmed drums (and the first – and only – one to feature…

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Venymysgourvleydhย /ย Collier d’Ombre – Split CD (2023)

On this split, Venymysgourvleydh provide us with a dense and claustrophobic black metal experience. The drum programming on this session is so relentless that it’s almost quite suffocating; entering the realms of grind or even gabber with it’s hypnotic and over-the-top barrage of percussion. Underneath however is a morose layer of weeping riffs and wraith-like vocals, which is just lovely, to be honest. Collier d’Ombre are not a million miles away from that same sonic…

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Raging Speedhorn – We Will Be Dead Tomorrow (2004)

We Will Be Dead Tomorrow is everything you could possibly want from a follow-up album. The sound of the band’s debut is built upon and matured into a seriously listenable affair for something that is so dreadfully dark and shouty. From the damnable blasts of “Scrapin’ The Resin” (story of my wasted youth, that) or “Me and You Man”, to the dare I say more introspective numbers such as “Heartbreaker”, We Will Be Dead Tomorrow…

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Diamanda Galรกs – The Litanies Of Satan (1989)

January 10, 2025

Short version: woman shouts into microphone Long version: The Litanies Of Satan (comprised of two parts) is a harrowing listening experience based almost entirely around the artist’s maddening vocal layering; shouting, screaming, wailing, yelping – you name it! It’s all brought together here in a clattering cacophony of potentially self-indulgent yet absolutely terrifying sound. Of course this came from New York.

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Robbie Basho – Venus in Cancer (1969)

I know nothing of this genre or artist so please do not expect an in-depth review. The sounds are quite magical and enrapturing however. As a fan of folk and neo-folk music I can appreciate a twinkling acoustic guitar as much as the next man, but Venus in Cancer is so much more, with additional elements created by far more worldly instruments than my limited knowledge can decipher. Basho’s vocals are like chalk and cheese…

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Raging Speedhorn – Raging Speedhorn (2000)

It’s always amazed me that a band that is / was so firmly a part of the British underground was also rather successful with “the kids” at the time. Like, when I was a nipper, there was a bunch of smelly goths in my school a year or so older than me and they all fucking loved Raging Speedhorn. I’d imagine Kerrang! having a lot of “blame” for this, as RS were featured often in…

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Operation Generator – Polar Fleet (2001)

January 1, 2025

Really fun and interesting stoner metal that pulls as much from the school of Kyuss and desert rock as it does from the more murky worlds of Doom metal. One thing that really stood out to me about Polar Fleet on the first listen is that the songs are not attempts at 6/7/8 minute monoliths (which often results in boring, dragged out songs in the over-saturated doom world, let’s be honest). The production on this…

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Rippikoulu – Musta seremonia (1993)

UGH! Holy fuck, I slept on this. This shit rips. How do you produce an album that’s so heavy it feels like you are drowning in some sort of tar or sludge and you can barely move, yet this is still nimble and dexterous as fuck? I have no idea, ask fucking Rippikoulu. 30 minutes here of solid, super dynamic and super interesting death metal. Brilliant!

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Goatmoon – Alien Terminator (featuring Maniac & Harald Mentor) (2024)

Okayโ€ฆ so this is a thing that happened. I’m not sure what tectonic series of events occurred that set in motion the stack of dominos that tumbled down into this final result, but here we are. This is now! This is the future! Speaking of whichโ€ฆ isโ€ฆ is that a cyborg BlackGoat on the cover? Oof marone! Anyway, this is pretty silly but also a lot of fun. It feels a bit strange hearing Goatmoon…

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Templar – Treacherous Beast (2024)

Excellent, almost NWOBHM inspired heavy metal with nice frosty touches that almost reminds me of dodgy 70s exploitation films or the kinda vibes you get from “Magick Metal” (sans the Nazi shit), Treacherous Beast is not a long EP at only 10 minutes in length, but it is terribly catchy (especially the title track). A short teaser of a record that absolutely leaves you wanting to know more about these guys.

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Filmmaker – Latex & Leather (2020)

Banging! Sounds as sweaty as the basement club you can imagine this playing in (at unfathomable volumes, no less). It’s an alternative lifestyle theme night and you’ve just seen your boss being led around the dance floor on a leash by woman who could be a Mortal Kombat villain. Or something.

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Public Image Ltd – Happy? (1987)

Without wanting to be too melodramatic, Happy? is everything I worried that Album would be (yes, the album before this album, which is called Album). Album was so poppy and drenched in a sunny, up-beat 80s production, that I worried it would be the death of PiL’s experimental and weird side. Whilst Album retains PiL’s uniqueness, I unfortunately cannot say the same for Happy?, which succumbs far more heavily to the vices of the 80s…

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Lagnia – Sword (2024)

Fairly clean compared to how I usually like my black metal but this is just my own personal preference rather than a defect; the music on display here is nimble and dexterous and the guitar playing is exciting enough to keep you interested for the whole demo. I wouldnโ€™t go as far to say itโ€™s polished, but the drums have a nice heft to them and the vocals are pretty great too. Iโ€™d absolutely give…

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Angurvadal – Vetr (2024)

Really cool and evocative black metal with excellent synth passages and incredible artwork to boot. The whole package, you could say. For real, this is pretty exciting stuff, and an excellent listen. Highly recommended in my book!

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Fogwraith / Flagellant – Split Tape (2024)

Fogwraith (assuming that they are the first band up) get a bit lost amongst the reeds (or is that within the fog). Thereโ€™s no clear definition to what they are trying to achieve, but itโ€™s not an unpleasant listening experience. Flagellant are my kind of black metal. Production is natural and raw without being unlistenable lofi garbage, and the drums sound absolutely fantastic. It wonโ€™t be the most original thing youโ€™ll hear, but it definitely…

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