May 152019
 

 

The Spanish multi-instrumentalist and vocalist JM Dopico has put his talents to good use on a small mountain of releases by almost two dozen bands since the early ’90s, including records by Machetazo, Dishammer, and Bodybag, as well as session work. But he now has a solo project in which he’s given himself free rein to mix and match beloved genre influences — “the darkest Heavy Metal, Doom Rock, and Punk from the glorious ’80s” — and the results are damned good, the kind of music that electrifies the pulse rate and poses a high risk of sore-neck syndrome.

Dopi has named this new project Premature Burial. On the debut album, entitled Antihuman, he pulls from influences that range from Black Sabbath to Celtic Frost, from Motörhead to Voivod, from Saint Vitus to Mercyful Fate, from Obsessed to Venom, Carnivore, and Amebix. To keep it real, he recorded everything live in the studio, with no triggers on his drumkit and no cut-and-paste pro-tool tricks. He did have outstanding help from virtuoso guitarist and music teacher Óscar Dafonte, who recorded all the solos on the album (which are spectacular), but otherwise Premature Burial is his baby. Continue reading »

Apr 182019
 

 

The last time I posted a round-up of new music (here) was 15 days ago. At the time I had 10 new songs I wanted to recommend, and no logical way to arrange them, given the diversity of the sounds, other than in alphabetical order by band name.  I got through five bands in the A-M range, with every intention of posting a second installment of five in the M-Z range by the next day. That didn’t happen, and I didn’t get it done by the end of that week, or the next week either, and now it’s Thursday of this week. My fucking day job has been killing me lately.

Of course, a ton more songs have been released in the last 15 days, but I’ve decided to stick with my original plan and finish that selection of 10 that I started more than two weeks ago, even though the music is no longer “hot off the presses”. I have made one change, because one of the songs I had chosen for the second group of five (by Misotheist) coincidentally wound up in eiterorm’s guest edition of SHADES OF BLACK last Sunday, so I made a substitution. Continue reading »