SHORT BUT SWEET Archives - Page 73 of 117

OVARYROT — “SUICIDE IDEATION”

Aug 242016

(DGR prepared this review of the new album by the Swedish/U.S. band Ovaryrot.)

This disc sounds like a goddamned nightmare.

Every once in a while we’ll come across a release that makes the hair fly back from minute one and then leaves us glued to the wall for the entirety of its run. Not that it is usually a mark of quality, but sometimes from the first moment an album will start out sounding like someone taking a saw to sheet metal and somebody else hammering on a trash can behind it. Sometimes the music is so abrasive that you kind of can’t help but be entranced by it; judgments of quality usually come after the second or third listen, which is just about the time when you parse out exactly whatever the fuck that previous forty-some-odd minutes of whirlwind was.

Ovaryrot’s Suicide Ideation — which came out on August 14th — is one of those albums. Not that we would ever expect a band who go by the moniker of Ovaryrot to play nice; we’ve learned our lessons there before. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: DAWN RAY’D — “A THORN, A BLIGHT”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 3 Responses »

Aug 222016

(Andy Synn reviews the debut EP of the UK band Dawn Ray’d, which is out now on Bandcamp.)

As our contributor Wil Cifer wrote recently, “Crust seems to be a hot buzzword when it comes to underground metal these days”, to the extent I’m even starting to see it edge out the near-ubiquitous over-use of the terms “blackened” and “Black Metal” in certain places (but don’t you worry, I have a whole other column percolating in my head about THAT particular topic).

It seems to be one of those terms designed to bestow instant underground-cred on a band, whether or not it’s actually reflected in any aspects of their music, and, as such, I’ve seen it crudely co-opted multiple times by bands and writers who don’t seem to know (or care) what it means, they just want the artificial credibility and cultural capital it bestows.

I’m saying all this as a preamble because I want to make it clear right away that – even though their unwavering anti-NSBM, anti-fascist stance and sharp, punk-edged sound certainly gives them more claim to the term than some others I’ve seen – gritty Black Metal three-piece Dawn Ray’d don’t seem to care one way or the other whether you call them “Crust” or not.

They’re just happy to let the music speak for itself. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: SCOUR — “SCOUR”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 9 Responses »

Aug 152016

(DGR reviews the debut EP by Scour.)

There is no doubt that the reason the Scour EP and its mid-July release landed on most metal fans’ radar due to the presence of one Phil Anselmo trying his hand at extreme metal. Phil has proven himself to be a polarizing figure this year via one very particular scandal, and it is still not clear whether he thought he was being funny making a racist joke or if he is a fucking gigantic moron.

He seemed penitent enough when the inevitable backlash occurred, pretty much making it clear that if he was proving to be an obstacle to any of the bands he was in, he was willing to leave. But it makes you wonder if these events had any sort of effect on the lead-up to the Scour EP’s mid-July release. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: IMPURE CONSECRATION, ACANTHROPHIS, YONDER

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 4 Responses »

Aug 112016

In a few hours I’ll be flying along I-5 south, down to Olympia for Migration Fest. Okay, who am I kidding. It’s I-5 southbound from Seattle during daylight, which means I’ll be crawling like a slug. Anyway, before beginning that slimy crawl I thought I would package together some lamentably brief reviews for four recent EPs that have brought me much pleasure in recent weeks. They all deserve more elaborate and articulate praise, but fortunately they will all speak well for themselves through the complete music streams now available on Bandcamp.

IMPURE CONSECRATION

To begin this quartet of treats, we have a California band named Impure Consecration. They’ve been in the news recently because of a new 7″ EP named Succumb To Impurity Fire released (here) by Blood Harvest Records at the end of July. However, in January of this year they also released a previous EP entitled Consumed By the Venomous Curse, and that’s the one that first drew me to the band. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: VOIDSPAWN — “PYRRHIC”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 8 Responses »

Aug 032016

Time is limited and always fleeting, while new metal seems to rush at us in a boundless flood. Within that limitless tide, some of the most remarkable gems are short releases by obscure new projects, and this is one of them.

The name of this new death metal project is Voidspawn, a duo consisting of multi-instrumentalist M. and vocalist A. Their debut EP is named Pyrrhic and it was released on July 31. Pyrrhic includes three songs, and they are stunningly good. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): NEUROSIS, PROSTERNATUR, ARÊTE, MYSTICUM, SOLAR MASS, HORN IMPALER, HORSE DRAWN

Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Aug 012016

On Friday I mentioned that I would be out in the woods over the weekend and unable to post a Shades of Black installment on Sunday. I said I would get it ready for Saturday instead. That obviously didn’t happen. Rather than wait until next Sunday, I’ve decided to do it now — and to double-down by making this a multi-part post. I’m not saying how many other parts there will be or when the rest of them will appear this week — because I’m desperately trying to remember the lesson that part-time, half-witted metal bloggers should never reveal plans that may fall apart immediately.

In this first part, I’m focusing on six individual songs and videos that have appeared recently. I’ll get to some EPs and full album releases in the next part. But first, a trailer for a highly anticipated new album…

NEUROSIS

This first item is kind of outside the bounds of what Shades of Black usually focuses on, but I got so excited about it that I didn’t want to delay spreading the word until our next Seen and Heard round-up. It’s a video trailer for the new eleventh album by the mighty Neurosis. It’s name is Fires Within Fires and it will be released on September 23 by Neurot Recordings. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: VOIDS OF VOMIT — “RITVAL EXPIATION”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Jul 302016

There are only two songs on this new EP by the two-man Italian band Voids of Vomit. Only two songs… but they are so good that my only criticism of what V.o.V. have done is that they didn’t do enough. Why couldn’t they have made three songs? Or four? Or six?

I am speaking selfishly, of course. Suppressing my own selfishness, I should simply be grateful for these two tracks… and indeed I am. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have, because after another few paragraphs you will find our premiere of the two songs on Ritval Expiation. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DAEDALVS — “APOTHEOSIS”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET 7 Responses »

Jul 282016

Daedalvs are a four-man death metal band from Charlotte, North Carolina, whose debut EP Apotheosis is being released today via Bandcamp, and we’re helping spread the word by providing a full stream of the EP, and a few thoughts about the music.

What Daedalvs dish out is a mammoth, monstrous, skull-fracturing beatdown, a rumbling, crushing avalanche of booming jackhammering bass, clobbering atonal riffs, and thundering drums, overlaid with an effusion of harsh roars and wild, acid-spraying shrieks. But while the music’s brute-force physical impact is certainly one of its main calling cards, it’s not the only one. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: WINDFAERER, MAR MORTUUM, HIDING, ANTHRO HALAUST, AEGRUS, MISANTHROPIC RAGE

Album Reviews, Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 10 Responses »

Jul 242016

Greetings from Seattle and welcome to another edition of Shades of Black. I wasn’t able to prepare one of these installments last Sunday due to fucking off, so I’ve accumulated an especially large list of recent discoveries that I would like to write about. From that list I’ve selected blackened music from six bands to recommend.

WINDFAERER

The name Windfaerer will likely be a familiar one to our readers. Last year we premiered two songs from the band’s marvelous second album Tenebrosum and named one of those to our list of 2015’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. What a nice surprise it was to discover that two days ago Windfaerer released more new music.

These new songs (three of them) appear on a three-way split by Windfaerer and two other Northeast bands, WolfCloak, and Dumal. The name of the split is Coniuratio Nigrum Atlantika. So far I’ve only listened to Windfaerer’s tracks, but they are predictably excellent. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BENT SEA / TO DUST — “ASCEND / DESCEND”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET 3 Responses »

Jul 212016

For those who may be unfamiliar with the two bands who participated in the split release you’re about to hear — Bent Sea and To Dust — their collective rosters include current and former members of such groups as Napalm Death, Aborted, Soilwork, Abigail Williams, Black Dahlia Murder, Phobia, and Megadeth. And if that doesn’t seize your attention, then consider this: The two EPs that are combined in this album-length split under the title Ascend / Descend will explode your head — and who doesn’t crave a massive head explosion?

If you’re somehow still wavering, consider the assessment of Cattle Decapitation’s Travis Ryan:

“Bent Sea come out firing on all cylinders with their kick ass blend of modern grind and discordant musings with hints of later-era Gorguts, leaving To Dust to finish you off with a scathing hardcore attack of HM-2 influenced grind!”

Ascend / Descend will be released by Give Praise Records on July 22, and one solitary day before its release we’re bringing you a full stream of this dynamic grindcore detonation. Let’s take these two groups and their contributions to the split one at a time. Continue reading »

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