WASTEWALKER: “TRAPPED BETWEEN REALMS OF SUFFERING”

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May 172024
 

(In April of this year Sacramento-based Wastewalker released a new EP dedicated to their late guitarist Nate Graham, and long-time Wastewalker follower DGR delves into it in the following review.)

Sacramento’s tech-death group Wastewalker have been put through the wringer lately. The band, finally somewhat ascendant after the release of a solid sophomore album in Vengeance Of The Lowborn, suffered from the tragic passing of guitarist Nate Graham in mid-2023. While the band were never short on talent, the group were put in a hard place on multiple fronts, yet in that time somehow managed to soldier on. The band returned in early April of 2024 with a three-song EP entitled Trapped Between Realms Of Suffering – their first as a four-piece act.

Wastewalker have been a slow burn, launching out of the gate with Funeral Winds back in 2016 and then growing into their sound from there. Funeral Winds had an air of expulsion to it, like the band had to get a ton out of their system and exorcise a cadre of demons before they could truly evolve into what is Wastewalker. Funeral Winds felt like it was moving in twenty different directions all at once, overstuffed with ideas – and sometimes even lyrically – and interesting on the front that there was a lot of promise there; Wastewalker just had to hone in on what was really working within those bounds. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ROPE SECT — “ESTRANGEMENT”

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May 162024
 

Rope Sect is about seclusion.
Renunciation of society.
A dance on ruins.
A doomsday revel.
Naked spite.
Eleutheromania.
Obedience.

So say this clandestine German band in their own words. They also say this about their new album Estrangement, which you’re about to hear:

“It can be seen as a reflection of all the ruins we are surrounded by, the increasing reign of pessimism over optimism in a world that seems to have doomed itself as well as expressing a sense of not belonging and the connected urge to escape all this and live by your own rules in your own little world, passing all the warning signs of human kind going astray.” Continue reading »

PARTY CANNON: “INJURIES ARE INEVITABLE”

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May 162024
 

(DGR fires off the following review of the latest discharge from the Scottish band Party Cannon, which is out now on the Unique Leader label.)

The thing to keep in mind when listening to Party Cannon and their newest release Injuries Are Inevitable is that it is a supremely stupid collection of music. This has been the band’s M.O for the course of their career; the logo proclaims it, the album art proclaims it, and their album titles and song titltes spell it out for those of us denser than the band.

Granted, proclaiming yourself as being massively moronic does not make yourself critic-proof and portraying your music as being the cranial equivalent of an empty, infinite void doesn’t excuse endless braindead riffage – but it does soften the blow quite a bit.

You know upon entrance that Party Cannon‘s music will not be a high-minded exercise in philosophy. It is not something you’ll be sitting down to with a nice glass of sipping whiskey and a pipe full of fine tobacco and ‘appreciating’. Unless, your idea of this exercise involves putting all those things in a bowl, smashing it with a rock, and eating the shards and splinters.

Injuries Are Inevitable is an exercise in ‘dumb’ and just the group’s latest exploration in how far they can push that particular label without morphing into something completely different. Continue reading »

RIVERS OF NIHIL: “CRIMINALS”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
May 152024
 

(We present DGR‘s review of a new EP by Pennsylvania-based Rivers of Nihil, which is out now on Metal Blade Records.)

Strangely enough, writing about Rivers Of Nihil‘s newest EP Criminals feels like a little bit of a ‘gimme’. The three songs on Criminals – none of which is a cover of the titular Katatonia song – were all ostensibly recorded during the same experimental session for the band, one which saw the newly restructured lineup of the group getting together to see just what they could do and where they might be headed post-The Work.

They were then slowly drip-fed to listeners over the course of a little under a year, so listeners will have an immediate familiarity with prog-rock minded “The Sub-Orbital Blues” and the slightly more recent stomper in “Hellbirds”, which means the big draw for most people will be the unveiling of “Criminals” as a song, as well as the ability to take in all three in one go, providing an intriguing glimpse at Rivers Of Nihil‘s current headspace and lyrical inspirations, as well as peek through a smudged lense of where their future paths may take them. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): COROZA — “AS WITHIN”

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May 152024
 

None of us here were formally trained as “music critics,” or even as “music writers.” It’s always been a case of learning by doing. One thing we’ve learned is that it’s usually best to begin a review in a way that grabs attention quickly and/or places the record in some broader context before diving into details.

With that in mind, let’s begin by saying that the Irish band Coroza‘s new album As Within sounds heavier than granite, hits harder than sledgehammers; burns like the immolation of sanity; and seems laced with the kind of psychotropics that trigger seductive but frightening visions.

Or, to place it in genre context, it’s a changing amalgam of sludge, stoner-doom, post-metal, and psychedelia that’s capable of swallowing a listener whole like some leviathan of old.

Details to follow…. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH (AND IRISH): TEN TON SLUG / URZAH / VULGARIS

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May 152024
 

(Andy Synn has three more artists/albums from his neck of the woods for you to check out)

Depending on when you read these words – as well as when I get it finished, and when we have space to post it – I’ll either be on my way home from Northwest Terror Fest, or have just about made it back and collapsed on my couch.

And what better way to celebrate my return than with another triptych of terrific recent and upcoming releases from my particular corner of the globe courtesy of Ten Ton Slug (Galway), Urzah (Bristol), and Vulgaris (London)?

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ALTAR OF GORE — “LITANIES OF THE UNCEASING AGONIES”

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May 142024
 

Musical sensibilities and affinities vary, even among people like the denizens of this site for whom extreme metal is their bread and butter.

Depending on the time of day and the frame of mood, you might want to become engrossed in elaborate melodies, or have your brain twisted into knots by high-speed intricacy, or become scorched by malignant blackened conflagrations, or have your soul pulled into a chasm of gloom and despair.

But every now and then there’s a visceral need to just be bludgeoned senseless and viciously butchered in the most primitive, ruthless, and electrifying way possible. At those times, Altar of Gore‘s new album Litanies Of The Unceasing Agonies will be there to feed that need. Continue reading »

OBSCURITIES – VOLUME V: BLACK METAL IN BLOOM

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
May 142024
 

(We present another one of Dan Barkasi‘s monthly collections of reviews and recommended music, taking stock of 8 records that saw release in April 2024.)

April is in the rear view, but my allergies sure aren’t. Ah, yes, the time of year in Florida when the “winter” time of perfect temperatures has transitioned to sweltering heat and pollen so thick that it will layer upon vehicles left outside. It’d sure be nice to breathe out of my nose again. Don’t get me started about the fucking lovebugs. Nothing like a ton of awesome new tunes to rattle oneself back into the groove.

Maryland Deathfest is also coming up very fast, and while we have tickets for all of the days this year, it’s questionable if we’ll be able to make it. Hopefully the stars align and it happens – just look at that loaded lineup. Bands like Dismember, Fossilization, Altars, Sodom, Crypt Sermon, Ahab, Esoteric, Spectral Voice, Spirit Possession, Imperialist, Severe Torture… well, you get the idea. Here’s to hoping we see a few of you fine folks there! If you can attend, do yourself a favor and make it happen. One of the best fests on this side of the globe.

While I’m sure that the (hopefully) three of you left came to hear me drone on about my problems like our pal George, let us get to the music. It was the most difficult month thus far to narrow my choices down to eight, with a few that were especially painful to cut. But, it’s my column, so the hell with it – Draugnim’s Verum Malum and Fierce Diety’s A Terrible Fate both represent dramatically different genres and characteristics, but each is executed with extreme proficiency, which should earn at least a spin. Now, onto the rest of this month’s selections. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HENRY KANE — “CIRCLE OF PAIN”

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May 132024
 

Over the course of a quarter-century career the Swedish musician and vocalist Jonny Pettersson has been involved in an enormous number of bands and personal projects — 30 of them by the count at Metal-Archives, including Wombbath, Heads for the Dead, Just Before Dawn, Berzerker Legion, and Ashcloud. But of all of them, Henry Kane seems to have become the vehicle most adaptable to Pettersson‘s changing inspirations and interests.

That opinion is based on observing the evolutions that have occurred across Henry Kane‘s three albums so far, and the fact that it’s a solo project in which Pettersson writes everything and performs everything. Indeed, he started the project to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of his first demo, naming it for the soul-devouring supernatural antagonist in the Poltergeist film series.

In contemplating a genre label for Henry Kane‘s debut album Den förstörda människans rike, you might consider crusty death/grind, or deathly grind/crust, or grinding death/crust, infused with horror and tuned to maximum slaughtering insanity. If anything, the second album Age of the Idiot was an even more ruinous sonic wrecking machine but also more variable, with a greater number of musical twists and turns.

The new Henry Kane album Circle of Pain (coming out on May 17th via Selfmadegod Records) twists even more from the project’s deathly crust and grind roots. As Jonny Pettersson has told us in advance of today’s album premiere:

“The best thing about Henry Kane for me, is that there are no boundaries to adhere to. So, with this album, I wanted to take what I have done on the previous albums and push the sound even further, and then wrap it all up in blastbeats, anger, and hate.” Continue reading »

ROTTING CHRIST: “PRO XRISTOU”

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May 102024
 

(We present DGR‘s review of Pro Xristou, a new album by the Greek legends Rotting Christ that will be released by Season of Mist on May 24th.)

If you’ve been following Rotting Christ for some time now you’re likely well aware the in spite of some decent-sized gaps in time between albums the group are notoriously prolific; always with a song on hand for a small EP, the occasional one-off, sometimes even a book. They are a font of music, and one glance at an overall collected works reveals just how much has been created by the group over the course of a decades-spanning career.

Much of this is due to project mainman Sakis Tolis – the voice and guitar of the group – who has been one of, if not the, primary songwriter of the Greek black metal heathens for most of its existence. Since the release of 2010’s AEALO, Sakis has shown that he knows his way around a melodic and folk-leaning guitar riff. It had long been a part of Rotting Christ‘s sound and often is referenced as being part of a particular ‘era’ of the band – imagine having a group that has eras – but they really came to the forefront on AEALO, an album whereby Rotting Christ not only defined a sound but also became defined by it. Continue reading »

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