(Andy Synn has five recently, and one not-so-recently, released recommendations to share with you all today)
People sometimes ask me how I stay on top of all the new releases every month, and the answer is… I don’t.
Case in point, I haven’t managed to find time to get my thoughts about all of these artists down on paper – Profeci, Dreadnought, Trenchwar, Sea Sleeper, Quicksand, Vulgar Mephitis, Iskald, Wharflurch, Tombstalker – despite just how good so many of them are.
Still, I suppose that once you’re done reading today’s bumper crop of recommendations (all of which I’m really happy to have been able to include here) I’d recommend trying to find time to give at least some of them a listen, as you never know what you might discover/uncover!
BARREN – VERDERF
We’ll kick things off today with something that goes straight for the throat, courtesy of brutal Belgian Death-Grind trio Barren and their ruinous new album, Verderf.
Comprising 14 songs (although maybe “songs” is the wrong word, as Barren don’t so much write songs as they do just pummel you in the face in a series of sub-2-minute bursts of savage sonic violence) the band’s new album is, somehow, even heavier, even nastier, and – when it feels like it – even groovier than their last, managing the difficult feat of delivering a series of short, sharp shocks to the system which still manage to have some surprising staying power.
If you like Rotten Sound at their riffiest, or Aborted at their grindiest – which makes sense, since Barren guitarist/vocalist Matty Dupont did some time in de Caluwé’s crew in the mid-00s, while also doing serving in NCS-endorsed brutalisers Emeth (who will hopefully gift us with another album at some point… yes?) – then you’ll no doubt enjoy the hell out of barbaric blast-a-thons like “Depraved”, “Algol”, and the absolutely enucleating “Swallow”, all of which are, against all odds, as painfully hooky as they are punishingly heavy.
What I, personally, really like about this album – which I’ve hinted at already – is that as outrageously intense as it may be (and it really is, in fact I’m surprised that drummer Llano Bergman’s limbs didn’t come flying off during the recording of some of these tracks), Verderf isn’t afraid of dropping in some disgustingly infectious, Dying Fetus-esque grooves when they need to, with parts like the monstrous outro to “Earthcrusher”, the neck-wrecking, Blood Red Throne style chuggery of “Abase”, and the absolutely crushing climax of “Scourge” hitting even harder due to their judicious, bone-jarring deployment at key moments.
And while I wouldn’t necessarily be averse to the band expanding on these moments in the future, the blistering brevity, take no prisoners approach of Verderf is one of its biggest selling points, and ensure that you never have time to get bored as you’ll be too busy trying not to get your face-melted and your ears blown off!
BOÖTES VOID – PANTA RHEI
While I don’t necessarily love everything that’s put out by Vendetta Records, their hit rate overall is so high that I’m generally willing to at least check out whatever they release, in the hope of discovering a new gem to fall head over heels for.
And, woudln’t you know it, Panta Rhei, the third album from German Black Metal quintet Boötes Void, is just such an obsidian gem, thrumming with blackened power and laced with keening, cathartic melodies that pierce the darkness like blazing beams of cosmic radiation.
Reminiscent in style and sound of similarly brilliant bands like Agrypnie, Infestus, and Der Weg Einer Freiheit (hey, it’s almost like there’s a signature sub-style of viscerally intense “German Black Metal” out there or something), yet still possessing a distinctive sense of their own identity, Boötes Void have only grown more confident, and more powerful, in the years since the release of their second album, 2023’s Singularity… as demonstrated by both the increased intensity of songs like “Crown of Vermin” and “Shapers of the End” and the group’s willingness to allow their more atmospheric and ambient moments to breathe and simmer a little more.
Technically too, the entire band have stepped up their game a little more this time around – impressively talented sticksman Sagittarius should, obviously, get a lot of credit for his absolutely devastating performance behind the drums (as well as for moments like the moodier, more restrained mid-section of “Nihil”), but the seething, surging, occasionally sombre and subdued, guitar work on tracks like mid-album highlights “Onwards to Death” and “Lost in Oblivion” also deserves significant praise – but it’s really the improved compositions of flowing, expressive songs such as “Nebula” and the titanic penultimate title-track (both of which build to an absoltuely stunning crescendo in turn) which makes Panta Rhei one of the year’s stand-out Black Metal releases.
CYADINE – VIOLENCE IN MEASURE
I’ve got to give credit to the Hardlore Podcast for bringing this one to my attention… hell, not just bringing it to my attention (by calling it “the hardest record you’ve never heard”) but by going a step further and snapping up Cyadine‘s debut album for release on their label.
And while I’m not 100% convinced it is the “hardest record I’ve ever heard”, there’s no denying that Violence in Measure goes very hard indeed, delivering eight tracks of face-melting, full-force Death-Thrash in the course of just under 21 minutes.
Stomping out of the gate with the thuggish chuggery of the title-track (which makes it clear that Cyadine are in many ways still a brutish, bare-bones Hardcore band at heart), the album fully kicks into gear with the explosive riffs and concussive drums of “Find Out” – think Power Trip, Sworn Enemy, Revocation and you’ll be in the right sort of ball-park – and then doesn’t let up or ease off the gas until the climactic churn ‘n’ burn of “No Place Like Home”.
Along the way the group throw out killer riff after killer riff, interspersed with occasional eruptions of lacerating lead guitar work and propelled by some seriously punchy, Punk-Metal drumming, like they’re trying to use up all the good ones before anyone else gets their hands on them, with the spiteful, Megadeth-meets-Merauder swagger of “Dignity Lost”, the gargantuan grooves of “Spill Your Guts” (a personal highlight) and the uber-heavy, ultra-deathy “Suffer Inside” (which is the one song I’d recommend to anyone reading this, regardless of whether you like any of the other artists referenced here) delivering hit after hit after hit.
I’ll grant you that maybe… maybe… “Tensions High”, despite a cool main riff, doesn’t quite hit the same heights of the rest of the record, but thankfully the reckless thrashery of “Make a Move” and the chewably chunky chug attack of the aforementioned “No Place Like Home” go just as hard, if not even harder, as the band’s best work, and bring things to a close in such a way that there’s a very good likelihood you’re going to immediately want to spin Violence in Measure all over again.
FALSE BODY – TOMORROW STARTS WITHOUT YOU
For the fourth entry in today’s article – which also happens to be one of the most ferocious, with the opening blitzkrieg of “Equal” being, ahem, more than equal to the task of going toe-to-toe with the hardest, harshest cuts from Barren‘s Verderf album which kicked off this piece – we’re hitting up another new discovery in the form of the caustic, chaotic Hardcore of Canadian ‘core crew False Body.
Described by one of their fans as “twisty Metallic Hardcore in Grind-sized packages” – and I honestly can’t think of a better way to put things than that – the absolutely ferocious riffs and wild, spasming song structures of tracks of blast-propelled barn-burners like “Undeserved”, “Heel”, and the almsot Mathcore-ish “Always In Hiding” sit somewhere between Orchid, Pig Destroyer, and early Employed to Serve on the ‘core spectrum, while still managing to take you on an unpredictable emotional rollercoaster ride (just wait until you get to “Grief, Please Stay”).
Indeed, as savagely, as scorchingly, intense as the music on this album is – and it is, it really is – the anguished vocals and loss-fuelled lyrics (especially during the riotously riff-tastic “Dylan (Tomorrow Starts Without You)”, to whom the album is dedicated) play just as big a role in making Tomorrow Starts Without You one of the most viscerally (in the truest, most gut-wrenching use of the term) cathartic records of the year.
Don’t worry though, as much as this one acts like a nine track binge and purge of the band’s emotions, False Body don’t hesitate to throw in some massive, head-bangable hooks amidst all the twisted technicaliy and grind-influenced insanity of songs such as early highlight “Serotonin” and powerhouse penultimate punisher “Stillness”, making it even easier to sweat out your feelings with all the crazy contortions and violent convulsions your body is likely to go through while listening!
MOLOKEN – MOLOKEN
With so much music coming out all the time, it’s easy to lose track of bands we’ve previously covered.
In the case of Swedish Sludge/Post-Metal doom-sayers Moloken, however, we do have a bit of an excuse, as it’s been six years since we last heard from them (in the form of 2020’s Unveilance of Dark Matter, which we were lucky enough to premiere in advance of the album’s release).
Catching up with them, however, in the form of their recently-released new record, has been a welcome reminder of just how good they are (and always were), and their decision to self-title their fifth full-length suggests that Moloken might just be a new beginning for the band.
A little darker, a little moodier, and – in places – a little more melodic, tracks like hypnotic early highlight “Eternal Sleep” and the brooding slow-burn of “Fault Line” sit somewhere between the raging, emotionally-wrenching approach of latter-day Burst and the dense, multi-layered sound of Oceanic/Panopticon era Isis, marrying brooding, bass-driven grooves and humongous, heaving guitars to an undercurrent of doom atmospherics and sombre melody that adds even more depth and weight to the band’s sound.
The more Hardcore-ish influenced approach of the former band in particular comes to the fore even more during the juddering strains of “21.12.21”, while the band’s proggier proclivities (a little bit Tool, a litle bit latter-day Isis) take centre-stage on “Fragments of Dark Matter”, but it’s the gloom-laden, prog-tinged prowl of the climactic “A Night Vision Revealed” (replete with some captivating clean/harsh vocal interplay) that really shows you why the band decided that this was the right time to deliver a definitive, self-titled release representing Moloken at their best.
STENCH OF SORCERY – THE PALEGOLD MENACE
Last, but by no means least, I’m breaking my own rules here, because The Palegold Menace – the debut album from fantasy-themed Spanish Death Metal trio Stench of Sorcery – was actually released way back in April, however I didn’t stumble across it until last month and couldn’t resist shoehorning it in here (after all, if this doesn’t define a “thing you may have missed” I don’t know what does).
Not so much “Old School” or “Classic” Death Metal as they are simply “timeless”, songs like instantly infectious opener “Fear Facer (The Palegold Menace)” and the speedier, riffier “Stain of Suspicion” recall the best of bands like Dismember and Edge of Sanity – all bold melodies, bombastic hooks, and biting, venomous vocals – blended with the punchier songwriting and proggier twists of artists like Horrendous and Chapel of Disease (circa-…and As We Have Seen the Storm, We Have Embraced the Eye).
As you might have guessed from that description – as well as my enthusiasm to include the album here – The Palegold Menace is, in my opinion at least, one of the most impressive debut albums of the year, one where every single song – from the strutting, bass-driven sturm und drang of “Here In the Dark” and the sinister shreddery of “Warden of the Last Light” to the raging riffs and subtle progressive twists of the title-track and the gloom-shrouded, gloriously guttural grandiloquence of “Alric’s Deadly Omen” – is a potential Death Metal anthem waiting to be discovered.
There’s really not much more I should need to say about it than that, as tracks like riveting penultimate ripper “Superstition 33: Eternal Demand” and uneniably epic closer “Grudgeborn (Accursed Be He, The Doomwalker)” really do showcase some of the coolest, catchiest riffs and rhythms (kudos once again to the prominent, pulse-pounding bass and drum work, which matchy every fiery flourish of the guitars in turn) that the underground Metal scene has borne witness to this year… so get this one in your ears ASAP if you don’t want to miss out on a real winner!