SHADES OF BLACK: KRIEG, DREAM UNENDING, WORM

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Oct 222023
 


Krieg photo by Kassandra Carmona

In a departure from what I usually do for these columns I decided not to string together a bunch of singles from forthcoming records, but instead to write about two albums, one of them a split.

Both of them are already out, so what’s the point of writing about albums you can already hear for yourselves? You might ask that question about almost everything with my name on it, because I almost never scribble review-ish words without including the music streams. Same goes for a lot of the other scribblers around here.

The idea is that the words might induce some people to check out music they weren’t aware of, or decided to pass by. I hope that will happen today. Other motivations: Writing voluntarily can be fun, even when it’s hard. And it’s just good manners to thank someone for making music that resonates in the soul or the muscles or the mush between the ears.

So, with thanks to Krieg, Dream Unending, and Worm, here we go. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: KANONENFIEBER, INFERI, SÂVER, HARMAGEDON, BLEMISH, HERZOG, IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT

 Album Reviews, Metal News, Movie Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Oct 212023
 

It’s that time of year again, when my wife and I argue about whether to get tooth-rotting treats for potential visitors on Halloween night. Her argument: We haven’t seen a trick-or-treater at our house in 20 years. My argument: But it could happen, and wouldn’t we be embarrassed having to offer something like licking peanut butter from a spoon?

Rather than let the arguments drag on I used to buy tooth-rotters on the sly and hide them, just in case. But she’d always find them and then I’d catch hell for being a moron. I guess I’ll just keep the spoon and peanut butter handy. Maybe two spoons so I can eat some first to prove it’s not poisoned.

Well, enough about familial contention. Here’s some contentious music for your Saturday. Continue reading »

CANNIBAL CORPSE: “CHAOS HORRIFIC”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Oct 202023
 

(Here’s DGR‘s review of the new Cannibal Corpse album, which is out now on Metal Blade Records.)

In all the decade-plus I’ve been writing for this site – try not to think about that too much – and metal in general, I don’t think I’ve ever taken the chance to write about a Cannibal Corpse album. With a career that has also spanned multiple decades and with a fair bit of cultural cachet to their name outside of heavy metal in general, Cannibal Corpse were long a cultural pillar before I’d even considered pursuing this as a way to distract from the outside world.

You don’t reach a point like that without having the talent to back it up though, because even if Cannibal Corpse had decided to rest on their laurels after their first few releases, you’d be hard pressed to say whether or not they’d still be as big now. The thing with Cannibal Corpse is that although they’ve been known mostly for gore-soaked lyrics, horrific artwork, and movie cameos, is the band are shockingly consistent with their output. They found a core blueprint that worked for them ages ago and have stuck close to it, guaranteeing an overall discography that is surprisingly solid – even if the actual surprises might come further and further apart nowadays. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH: TIDES OF SULFUR / TORPOR / TRIVAX

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Oct 192023
 

(Andy Synn presents another collection of British artists/albums he thinks you should check out)

Good afternoon kids (and kids of all ages).

Are you ready to learn?

Well, today’s edition of the “Best of British” is brought to you by the letter “T” and the number “3”.

So shut up and start paying attention. There will be a test.

Continue reading »

STRIGOI: “BATHED IN A BLACK SUN”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 192023
 

(Strigoi‘s new EP is set for release by Season of Mist on November 3rd, and so it’s a good time for DGR to share his thoughts about it — which he does here.)

The trend in recent years of bands collecting all of the material that did not make it into an album’s main sequence and releasing it on an EP later is one that I’ve particularly enjoyed. There’s a variety of reasons why songs won’t make the main cut, whether it be that the band felt they didn’t quite fit, or they were set aside for various global demands – some markets often requiring extra songs, for instance – or others were jammed onto the end of an album for deluxe editions released alongside the regular albums.

Whatever the reason may be, in recent years you’ve stood a pretty good shot of those songs being just as good as the ones on the main album, so when a band is later able to compile those into an EP of some sort, then the purchase is near guaranteed.

Strigoi are the latest to hop on that particular bus with their new collection of Bathed In A Black Sun, comprising five songs that didn’t make it onto the crawling doom of Viscera last year, and now about to be released into the wild. Continue reading »

DREAMWELL – IN MY SADDEST DREAMS, I AM BESIDE YOU

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Oct 182023
 

(Andy Synn encourages you to give Dreamwell‘s new album – out this Friday – a chance)

Before you go any further, I encourage you all to go read what I wrote about Dreamwell‘s previous album, which was one of my favourite records of 2021.

Finished?

Well, now let me tell you why – as good as Modern Grotesque was – In My Saddest Dreams… is even better.

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): RECKLESS — “SHARP MAGIK STEEL”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 182023
 

We are fast approaching Dying Victims Productions‘ October 20 release date for the debut album of the Bogotá-based speed metal band Reckless. Or rather, that album is rushing toward us with the momentum of an 18-wheeler whose brakes have failed at the zenith of its power.

The band jam the pedal down on the very first track, “Kneel Before the Gods“, and they don’t ease up very much until the closing track “Unholy Odyssey” has run its own riotous course. It’s an album fueled by adrenaline, and it’s a big transfusion of adrenaline for listeners, but as you’ll discover from our full streaming premiere, the thrills derive from more than just the music’s turbocharged intensity. Continue reading »

DEATHBLOW: “ROTTEN TRAJECTORY”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 182023
 

(Here’s Todd Manning‘s review of a new EP from the Salt Lake band Deathblow.)

It’s a bit baffling to me that the word ‘crossover’ does not appear a single time in the press release for the latest E.P. from Salt Lake City-based Deathblow because that’s exactly what kind of damage they’re dealing out. Rotten Trajectory spewed forth into this decaying world on September 29th, courtesy of the appropriately monikered Sewer Mouth Records.

For the youth not familiar with the term crossover, it was used to describe that late eighties-early nineties blend of punk and thrash characterized by acts such as D.R.I., Crumbsuckers, and early Excel. Deathblow tread similar territory but update their sound with a smidge of death metal brutality. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DISPLAY OF DECAY — “VITRIOL”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Oct 172023
 

This makes the fourth time we’ve premiered music from the Edmonton-based death metal band Display of Decay since 2014. The last time, in 2018, we began this way:

If you imagine Display of Decay as a big rocketing road machine with a roaring jet engine in place of the usual pumping cylinders (and that’s not hard to imagine at all), the brakes obviously failed a few hundred miles ago, to the vicious glee of the blood-lusting demons at the controls. When you listen to their new album, Art In Mutilation, it’s patently obvious that they’re having a howling good time, and their full-throttle, take-no-prisoners enthusiasm is highly contagious.

Five years later, Display of Decay are finally following up Art In Mutilation with a new album (their fourth full-length) named Vitriol, which will be released by Gore House Productions on October 20th. The album title alone suggests that the band’s music is no less bloodthirsty than it was before. If anything, they’ve doubled-down on the slaughtering — but not at the cost of what makes their music simultaneously so damned contagious. Continue reading »

DESOLATE SPHERE: “MALEDICTUS”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 172023
 

(On October 13th Necrogenesis Records released a new EP by the Japanese band Desolate Sphere, and it caught our writer DGR by surprise in more ways than one, as he explains in the following enthusiastic review.)

Who doesn’t love themselves a good ole’ fashioned Friday the 13th release date? Even across waters and international borders the idea is fun….or most likely lost, since Western world superstitions probably rest at the corner of fuck all and jack shit in terms of how much Desolate Sphere might be aware of it.

But needless to say, while we’ve often portrayed the date as being a harbinger of bad luck and decent slasher films in this corner of the world, last Friday gifted us a pleasant surprise in the form of Maledictus, a new EP from a newer death metal project hailing from Japan.

Lesser creatures out there might admit that they were drawn in almost by their album art alone but we…..oh, that’s what we did too? Oh, well in that case…with our attention initially grabbed entirely by the fiery and bright orange album art, Desolate Sphere‘s Maledictus proceeded to surprise on multiple fronts, though the tracklist being only five songs and the average tempo of every song hovering just shy of blisteringly fast was certainly a bonus. Continue reading »

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