SHORT BUT SWEET: CELLAR VESSEL / MALADIE / SPLITJAW

(Andy Synn has three more EPs for you to check out today)

It might be controversial to say so, but I don’t think that 2025 has been quite as strong as 2024.

That’s not to say there haven’t been some truly excellent albums released this year (there’s only about a month or so until my regular annual round-up, where you’ll get to see the evidence for that statement) but I feel like there’s been fewer soaring highs, and a few more unexpected disappointments, compared to last year (don’t quote me on this though, as I still need to run a final analysis).

The exception here, of course, is in the realm of the short-but-sweet release (aka, the EP), as I’m constantly finding new bite-sized morsels of brilliance to sink my teeth into (for a while, anyway), with all three of today’s records being prime examples of what you can find if you just keep your ear to the ground.

CELLAR VESSEL – SERMONS OF THE VOID

Remember Montana-based Prog/Tech troubadours Cellar Vessel? It’s ok if you don’t, as it’s been quite a while – five whole years, in fact – since we last heard from them.

But, thankfully, the recent release of Sermons In The Void ensures that 2020’s Vein Beneath the Soil won’t be the last thing we ever heard from them… and it’s a damn good thing, too.

Comprising six tracks, which are designed to be listened to as one collective piece of work (“best served whole” as the group, now operating as a duo, put it), the EP in question continues to build on the darkly proggy, Faceless-esque foundations of their previous material by adding an even moodier (and, in many ways, more artfully blackened) hue to their sound.

The booming, brooding guitars and gloomily melodic embellishments of “In The Weight” are the most obvious early recipients of these even darker and more ominous overtones, with the sinister atmospheric synths and spiteful, snarling vocals hinting at an almost Abigail Williams style approach (and considering Ken Sorceron also spent a bit of time in The Faceless this doesn’t seem like too much of an unsupported comparison).

These comparisons then continue to bear fruit during “Uttering Sermons in the Void” – whose combination of twisted technical precision, dense, chugging heaviness, and grimly grandiose ambiose recalls the best of latter-day Veil of Pnath – and the introverted, Opeth-meets-Allegaeon bombast of “An Immaculate Non-Sense”, with the whole EP being intricately tied together by the sombre synthscapes of “Relieve Me”, “Through This Grandiose Gloom”, and “Lingers” in a way which make the entire experience feel a little more connected.

So let me conclude by saying “welcome back Cellar Vessel“… just don’t make us wait so long next time, ok?

MALADIE – SYMPTOMS V

We’ve been long-time fans of German creative collective Maladie here at NCS pretty much from the beginning, and have followed their progress, and their ongoing evolution and mutation into increasingly more bizarre (yet, also, oddly radio-friendly) forms.

Historically speaking, the band have always used the Symptoms series (of which this is the fifth) to trial new ideas and approaches – sometimes (as with Symptoms II) as a way of laying the groundwork for their next release, at others (as with Symptoms IV) as a way of providing a coda to their previous record (and, as was the case with Symptoms III, sometimes serving as a stand-alone exploration of new sounds entirely – and such seems to still be the case with Symptoms V.

Bleaker, heavier, and harsher than the band have been in quite some time – there’s more darkness and discordance and deviant aggression in opener “The Implacability of Time” than I recall from either of their last couple of albums – Symptoms V suggests that the group are heading in a much grimmer direction going forwards, as song-titles (and the album’s suitably unsettling artwork) like “Black Hole Weight In Our Hearts” and “Procreation of a Dead God” attest.

That’s not to say they’ve abandoned their weirder, proggier inclinations entirely – the squalling saxophone in the aforementioned opener recalls early Ihsahn at his best, while the jarring juxtaposition of blaring sax, erratic keyboards, and lithe, limber bass-lines with patterns of punishing drums and crushing, doom-laden guitars during the latter track defies any attempts at normal genre categorisation – but they’re clearly delving into darker and more disturbing waters on Symptoms V (with the vocals during the likes of “Black Hole…” and “Black Chamber Within Golden Walls” even hinting at an almost DSBM-like sense of frantic desperation), and I for one will be very interested to see how much deeper they’re willing to go on their next album!

SPLITJAW – TRUTH & RECONCILIATION

Abrasive, intense… but also more than a little bit infectious… Splitjaw‘s particular brand of in-your-face (and Halo-influenced) Metal(ic Hard)core doesn’t pull its punches, but also isn’t afraid to move its feet a little too, with the four songs that make up Truth & Reconciliation floating like the proverbial butterfly and stinging like a vicious blend of early Eighteen Visions, Every Time I Die, and Walls of Jericho.

With its screeching discordance and frantic, dervish-like drumming, opener “Baptized in Snake Oil” certainly owes a fair bit to the former band, but its sense of slinky, swaggering groove (particularly during the second half of the song) should absolutely delight any leftover fans of ETID who are still pining for their lost heroes to bury the hatchet (which, sadly, probably isn’t going to happen), whereas the blastier, thrashier, and altogether nastier title-track gives off some major early WoJ vibes (which, unsurprisingly, makes it my favourite track on the EP).

And while, obviously, the group aren’t reinventing the wheel by any means here, they’re not afraid to stretch their wings (as statuesque as they may be) when the occasion calls for it, with “Stabbing Me Gently” intermixing passages of gloomy spoken-word and undulating, proggy bass-lines into its chaotic array of ragged, choppy guitars and savage bursts of blasbeats (culminating in one hell of a  bruising climactic breakdown) while closer “Vigilance” throws in some anxious, punky clean vocals as a counterpoint to its Unearth-esque blend of spiky, technical guitar work and stuttering, staccato rhythms.

Definitely a band you’ll want to keep an eye (and an ear) on… I know I will!