Fearing - Black Sand EP (2018)

•  †  •

I'm easily swayed into these dark ethereal soundscapes; it's a warm place to rest my weary head and mope around feeling optimistically nihilistic and existential and Faustian and drenched in ennui and all that drab bullshit. But really, Black Sand is calm and forlorn guitar driven melodies, The simplistic bombast of drums ala Sonic Youth, thee sexual tension between each bass-line and the downright lackadaisical vocal delivery do it for me sometimes. And I'm hoping the lyrical content reads like an overly pedantic Sartre. Get into it, or don't, life is meaningless anyways.

Fearing - Black Sand (bandcamp)

Erdve - Vaitojimas (2018)

 •  †  •

Lithuania's main export definitely isn't metal - It's probably something more ambiguous and niche, like silk worm tea - nor is it hardcore for that matter, or sludge, crust, and anything else tonally devastating. Erdve are the exception to my wholly ignorant musing; Vaitojimas isn't something that is reinventing the wheel, but it sure as shit doesn't sound like a copycat to anything else, and that counts for something in a era of; heard that before, sounds good, let's replicate that. This album weaves and gestates elements from many pots; Crust, sludge, punk, hardcore, doom, post-metal, etc, etc.

•  Ω  •

I'm in the arduous, mind-numbing process of distilling my favourite albums from 2018 right now, and the list will be something around 30 albums, and I've listened to a disgusting amount of metal (among everything else) this year, so I'm revisiting and sifting through a lot right now. And so far, Erdve are definitely somewhere up there.

Erdve - Vaitojimas (bandcamp)

Cult Leader - A Patient Man (2018)

•  †  •

Cult Leader have released something completely foul in way of A Patient Man; A stand out album in an ocean of louder and angrier than thou records released this year, punching way above its weight class with 50 minutes of untamed, mammalian minded sludge with its cruddy mitts in the vats of doom, grind, death, Crust, D-Beat and sadism. Cult Leader being formed from the husk of Gaza  carry the same overwhelming heft and dizzying structure and tone that Gaza were known and revered for. A Patient Man is crude in its blunt force attack, swinging back and forth from down-tempo glacial riffs and war drum like fodder to moments of frenetic, barbaric sounding crust, but that’s not to say its entirety is mammalian pound fit for Troglodytes hitting the barbells, nay, A Patient Man is intelligent and melodic when it needs to be and does well to counterweight and accent those extremely long bouts of ferocity through moments of plodding drone like doom and foaming atmosphere.

•  Ω  •

I’ve said enough, A Patient Man is what most heavy albums aspire to be, and for this reason among others, don’t be surprised to see this album on many high-nosed, chin to the sky year end lists of 2018 from creeps like me.

Cult Leader - A Patient Man (bandcamp)

Esoctrilihum - Inhüma (2018)

•  †  •

Asthâghul has been trimming the fat around his sleep schedule this year, or forfeited the irrelevant process of sleep altogether - it's the only conceivable way he has been able to release two full-length albums in ten months - Two albums that are gargantuan in scope and the magnitude of its attack; a sheer deluge of blistering black metal in a death metal carapace, a downward spiral that pays homage to the void, chaos realm, Eden and prays at the altar of something entirely malign, through a torrent of disorientating riffs, suffocated shrieks and the war drums of Azithoth.

Inhüma (bandcamp)

Portrayal of Guilt - Let Pain Be Your Guide (2018)

•  †  •

This one has my attention for some reason, which I find mild interesting because it feels like something ripped out of my past, a bygone era of halcyon days and unsure moments in time… And it has all the markings of something I don't find myself indulging in much these days, sonically speaking. I know very little about Portrayal of Guilt, but I like Gilead Media (mostly) so I'm hoping this plays out similarly to Full of Hell's Trumpeting Ecstasy.

Let Pain Be Your Guide (bandcamp)

Primitive Man / Unearthly Trance - 2018 [Split]

•  †  •

I'm not feeling particularly loquacious today so I'll do things like this; Here's another split for you lechers to sink thy chops into, Unearthly Trance and Primitive Man. Done.

Unearthly Trance / Primitive Man

Ragana / Thou - Let Our Names Be Forgotten (2018) [Split]

•  †  •

I'm about as familiar of Thou as I am with the irrelevant process of taking in oxygen, it's a warm type of familiarity that seems to have been omni-present for half of my life… Unlike breathing, which I have only been cognizant of doing for the last couple years, before that it was just drawn' in shallow breath after shallow breath, without giving life any real thought. I digress, Thou have been around a while, prolific you might say. Hard working, you may even add. Consistent too. They also released 'Magus' this year too, a full-length that is making a strong case for album of the year to me.

Ragana, not so much. At least in the sense of being omnipotent and prolific… That's not to stomp on their parade and call it a rainy day or nuthin', Ragana have put out a few great records… You just can't win that kind of number game against Thou.

I'll keep this short now. Ragana and Thou combine for 35 minutes of barbarism in sonic form. Happy Hallow's eve kiddos. †

Ragana/Thou 

Bestia Arcana - Holókauston (2017)

•  †  •

Holókauston is an album I have been chewing through since it came out; Slowly wading through its musical fat and gristle, letting the innocuous flavours and the potent decadent flourishes rest on my pallet before swallowing. You would be remiss (and wrong) to chalk this album up as black/death metal and just walk away as if this simple categorical summation is adequate. It's not.

It's a raging torrent of death metal at its foundation. A deluge of war-like drums poke and pound nefariously while the whirr of guitars waft around a cavernous atmosphere in a dizzying haze, gaining in traction, increasing in heft, bubbling, frothing, foaming over, spilling over its iron cusp and pouring out onto the earth. Its core tethered to the lilt of black metal, cold and unrelenting. It sounds like communicating beasts, invoking spells and inciting incantations; summoning tremors, hale, lighting, fire and the 17 plagues of babel. Your hope and whimsy left in desiccated heaps of dust and your wellbeing not so well. Malign in your bones and total ennui in your veins.

•  Ω  •

The paragraph above is seemingly hyperbolic and self-masturbatory. A lot of words, with little meaning… Yeah maybe, but one thing is certain, Bestia Arcana released one of the better metal albums last year and it went way under everyones radar. Everyone fucked up.

One of the best albums released in 2017, period.

Bestia Arcana - Holókauston (bandcamp)

Bleach Birth - Hatching Inside The Womb (2018)

•  †  •

Bleach Birth have released their second full-length and it's some incredibly feral and filthy punk rife with feedback, grime, and scummy snotty vocal delivery… Think a mix of The Daily Void, Soupcans, Helta Skelta and The Functional Blackouts with flourishes of forward thinking song structures that push passed inebriated simplicity. I'm very much into everything about this… and this has me thinking, when are Strange Attractor going to finally release another LP? Frig. Fans of the aforementioned will find joy here, and if not, your ears are not working correctly.

Bleach Birth - Hatching Inside The Womb (bandcamp)

MARE - Ebony Tower (2018)

•  †  •

Trondheim, Norway is a cold, desolate and unrelenting place in the winter season, I have been there in the early onset of winter and in my brief time spent, I was left bereft and frigid to the bone. MARE come from Trondheim, Norway, so you'd be a dummy ignoramus to expect anything other than icy black metal; icicle tremolo picking layered over a galloping drum force while some forest druid recites incantations atop some mountain through chants and shrieks of desperation and pity. The Bandcamp page has further details on the enigma;

•  Ω  •

Forged in the early 2000's, MARE has become quite the mysterious gem for underground fanatics across the globe. Rarely playing live and with hard to get releases, the band has become, for many, one of the few 'real' Black Metal bands out there left in todays oversaturated scene. To many they have seemed to do so on purpose, but for us working closely with the band it is simply in their nature not to bother. They make music for themselves, they do this for themselves, and rest assured MARE will genuinely keep going down their own path never caring about hypes, fashion, trends or fame. They arrogantly named their own music 'Nidrosian Black Sorcerous Art' which defines who they are, on stage and off stage. 

This isn't a show, this isn't a gimmick. 

This is real Black Metal how it always was meant to be. 

Ebony Tower (bandcamp)

Whiplash - Power And Pain (1986)

•  †  •

Here's an album from the crypt of thrash and early crossover, Power And Pain from New Joisey. This is quintessential crossover from the mid 80's and there isn't a goddamn speck of misstep to speak of, the process and execution are equally simple; Fast, loud and hard as nails. Whiplash, bud.

Whiplash - Power And Pain (download Zippyshare)

Mutilation Rites - Chasm (2018)

•  †  •

Mutilation Rites newest full-length is real pleasant, in a sort of ugly and decrepit kind of way… It's charms are hidden in the mire, under layers of cold riffs and bastille day like war drums as its ferocious commander coughs out commands and chokes on bile. A two-headed beast of black metal and death metal, a not so uncommon amalgam these days…but hey, peanut butter and chocolate right? (chocolate and mint is wrong)

I'm liking what I've heard off of Chasm so far, I'm sure I could nit-pick but the production is pretty spot on for this ilk, murky. I have listened through Chasm a few times since writing this, each time I have gone back I'm finding another thing to like about it, especially in the wake of those trumpeting icy riffs that sway from galloping to mid-tempo glacial sludge to bang thy brain to and fro.

* It's worth noting Gilead Media has Chasm up on Bandcamp to buy for only $6, that's very, very reasonable and a good halfway point between affordable. It takes money to make a record.

Mutialtion Rites - Chasm (bandcamp)

The Column - Oracle (2018)

•  †  •

I don't know what to say about this, so I'll leave this post devoid of any significant details or helpful indicators as to whether or not you might actually like this record or not. You will though, but only if you're into low-fi, ambient synth melodies driven underneath post-punk structures... Think Solid Space doing Depeche Mode, doing The Smiths doing drugs and feeling really poorly about it. I just said things that are quasi-relevant so use that at your own risk. Oracle teeters that hairline between bleak and joyful, and sometimes that's how I'll feel and when I do, I'll be listening to this and things like this. Enjoy life kiddos.

The Column - Oracle (bandcamp)

Unified Right - Straight to Hell (2017)

•  †  •

I don't get too excited over newer hardcore albums these days, knowing that it will probably sound like hardcore and that's an okay thing and I'll continue to listen to the old and the new without much interest in chewing any fat or digging through subtleties and nuances of its sound. It's, generally speaking, relatively straight forward.

•  Ω  •

I didn't know Unified Right released a new album in 2017, (again, I was too busy listening to Amenra's "VI") but word finally reached my eyes and ears and played it through like any ol' day. It finished rather quickly (again, hardcore), and once it was done I didn't have a strong opinion one way or another… I mean, I liked it. Forward three or five spins later though, and my opinion of this album was very, very high.

It holds the same structure as most hardcore but it definitely doesn't sound like most umbrella hardcore, likely due to the gruff and off-kilter cadence of Branden's singing -Most comparingly to Ray Cappo of Youth of Today - but there's an array of really cool tom fills, riffs (and solos) and tones floating around this short and devastating heartfelt hardcore album. Incendiary and Unified Right for 2017 maybe?

Too hardcore for smartphone punks. Too punk for clap mosh losers.

Ps; The industry hammer hitting anvil section a minute into 'Consuming Satisfaction' is hard as nails.

Straight to Hell (bandcamp)

Hooded Menace - Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed (2018)

•  †  •

Hooded Menace huh… let's do it. And by "it" I mean "it", thee it. Let's chew some fat about this monolithic, obese slab of doom/death metal. Let's get down to the bone. Hooded Menace have always  remained a distant blip on my musical radar, and it's weird, because I have liked what I have heard from them, the gamut of their full-lengths, ep's and splits (especially with filthy titans Ilsa), so I'm not sure why I have never really continually gnashed my teeth into their releases, until now, until Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed was released at the beginning of the year, and even though I was (still do) playing Amenra's 'VI' (which was so obviously the best album released in 2017 - I'm currently taking counter-arguments you dinks) I still managed to find time to overplay this new release. Here's a brief and trite incite as to why;

reason 1) It's heavier than a dead dog, reason 2) It's filthier than a pigeon stoop in East Hastings, reason 3) It's produced very well, reason 4) revert back to reasons 1, 2 and 3.

Give this one a few spin cycles, and repent for all your cynicism's.

Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed (bandcamp)

Serum Dreg - Lustful Vengeance (2018)

•  †  •

Serum Dreg; Two-piece from Portland, Oregon churning butter into furiously feral death metal with a sewer full of noise and grime. Think heaps of Revenge, flakes of Blasphemophagher, nods to old gnarly shit like Morbid Insulter. With an album name like 'Lustful Vengeance' I have reason to believe the inspiration of its filth and sleaze comes from lecherous sex congregations, like the ones Aleister Crowley would go on about, but probably not though.
Get into it, or don't, it doesn't matter.

Lustful Vengeance (bandcamp)

Primal Rite - Dirge of Escapism (2018)

•  †  •

While most of my friends musical tastes have gotten tasteful in their increasing age, shifting from Merciful Fate to Julian Lynch, I have only been regressing and getting more and more troglodytic, trading in psychedelic hooks and shoegazey crescendos for skull-battering floor toms and neanderthal beatdowns. Soon, I will only listen to beatdown hardcore with zero drum fills and no more than a handful of power chords and the vocals will be a series of grunts and belches... and it will be great.

With that being said, exorcise your archaic right to listen to Primal Rite. Crossover hardcore with it all; Thrashier than thou riffs, 80's death metal solo's, disenchanted gang vocals, etc.

Dirge of Escapism (bandcamp)

Ungfell - Mythen, Mären, Pestilenz (2018)

•  †  •

Most pieces of music that fall under the umbrella of folk/black metal tend to scare me away these days, but Ungfell's sophomore release has quelled my fear and restored a flake of trust back into the melding of these genres. The folk elements aren't abrasive and dummied-down caricatures of traditional folk so it weaves into the music well. I've been listening to a bludgeoning amount of gurgly death metal lately, so these shrieky vocals are a good change of pace. Fans of Myrkgrav, Havukruunu, Moonsorrow, will find joy here.

Mythen, Mären, Pestilenz (bandcamp)

Ritual Necromancy - Disinterred Horror (2018)

•  †  •

Yeah dude, Ritual Necromancy have finally released a follow up to their 2012 release Oath of The  Abyss, which was a no gimmick, methodical pummelling in form of glacially paced death metal. Disinterred Horror is a lot of the same, which in this sense is a good thing - death metal is constantly being digested, regurgitated and spewed out with flourishes of new ideas and gimmickry, and that's all well and good but sometimes you want an immovable force that is direct in its approach - Ritual Necromancy have succeeded in every facet of this on this record; suffocatingly dense death metal that tends to stew in its own fecal debris, sloshing around like molasses in a wave pool, forming crests that only barrel over once the putrid gestation process has reached its frothing point.

This, of course, is just an overly convoluted and cryptic way of saying it's heavier than a dead dog. I'm pleasantly reminded of Encoffination, Disma and Sonne Adam. Enjoy it you fuckin' slugs.

Disinterred Horror (bandcamp)

Cruz Somers - Sit & Stare EP (2018)

•  †  •

Cruz Somers EP is a good way not to fuck up 10 minutes of your time. It's glaringly simple fuzzed out punk with a drum machine, which sounds like it should be stale, but it ain't man, it ain't.

Sit & Stare (bandcamp) - name your price

DBOY - Prove Your Love; Live in Belem (2018)

•  †  •

There is a rock'n'roll renaissance gestating in the canals of Welland - the centre of the universe, as stated in point #2 of the DBOY 13-point manifesto - and the legion is DBOY so help me god. The manifesto further states in its final point; DBOY is here and now. So get down on your knees and prove yur love to the dominion of sonic oblivion baby!

'Live in Belem' is DBOY's first offering on the sacrificial altar of rock and roll and it's the first step towards ending sonic austerity, the second step is the same as the third and the third is the same as the fourth; DBOY write rock and roll, because rock and roll is what matters. Nothing else matters. 'Live in Belem' is a real fake live album, maybe meaning, it was really recorded live using fake equipment... These details aren't pertinent to the album, all that matters is this; DBOY are a three-piece band and they will remain anonymous. DBOY speak through their rock, and pass on their message through President of the official DBOY Scout Order, Kirill Kutchokokov.

'Live in Belem' is only 24 minutes long, but that's exactly as long as it needs to be; the average human brain can only digest this much rock and roll before it starts to sound like RUSH. This sounds nothing like that. Imagine early Turbonegro had the swagger of CPC Gangbangs with the simple approach to filth and sleaze as The Spits mixed with the raw power of The Stooges... all recorded by that dude in the legendary German band Scooter. It's a three-headed rock and roll lake monster wearing gimp masks, brandishing a guitar that sounds like Muddy Watters got shittered, a raunchy bass tone that's filthier than a pigeon stoop and drums as smooth and sexy as making sweet luv on a waterbed... A sound that is unapologetically Welland.

I got in touch with manager Kirill Kutchokokov and asked him to give me a handful of words about DBOY. His response;

"DBOY is only focused on two things; Sounding cool, and looking cooler. People ask 'what does DBOY mean?' Have they forgotten that the real question is 'What does DBOY mean to you?' or 'why do you deny yourself real sonic and aesthetic pleasure any longer?' Knowing means nothing. DBOY is feeling. DBOY is pleasure through power, and power is sexual, be it sonic or otherwise... What does it mean? Who Cares? Where is it from? Who knows? All that matters is that DBOY is here and now. Enjoy."

I stand in the camp that firmly believes that you only need to hear DBOY to love DBOY and all other deniers are liars until proven guilty and out their fuckin' skull. Lay down and suck him. I'll lick your  little honey twat... little honey pussy.

With open arms from the centre of the darkest hole... DBOY is yours.
Положите и сосите его. Я вылизаю твою медную киску ... маленькую медную киску.

PROVE YOUR L<3VE (band camp)
13-point Manifesto

III

Milk Music - Mystic 100's (2017)

•  †  •

"And you can smoke a mystic 100 with him..."are the last words that can be heard piercing through the reverb laden downward spiral of the intro song, sounding muddy and discordant as all hell, Coxen's vocals howling on like weird recounts from a bad trip... It's weird that this track flows into the second track 'Twists & Turns & Headtrips' because even through sheer contrast and complimentary juxtaposition it sounds like two different songs from two different albums from two different bands especially when the second song is jerked to start out of a sample of game show clapping... It's really weird and it shouldn't work. But it does. And I like it.

I only bring all that up to point out one thing. I have been almost completely bored with most music lately, in particular new music coming out this year. Continuously listening through Mystic 100's has been a temporary anecdote to my sonic banality. It's one of those rabbit hole listens, where the ending is nowhere close to the start, everything is wonky and your perspective hangs by a thread.

Milk Music are special. Not like special olympics special but unique special. Their musical cloth is woven from many threads; Weaving in late 60's psych rock, post-punk drone, a grimy edge from side alley punk and an undeniable ooze of catchy pop hooks. Sometimes sounding poignant and nostalgic like early Replacements or Royal Headache and non-sensical and punchy like Destruction Unit or early Pissed Jeans.

I don't know what it's all about and I like it.

Mystic 100's (bandcamp)

Cindy Lee - Act of Tenderness (2018)

•  †  •

Haunting. Forlorn. Beautiful. Cindy Lee's musical landscape has always been all of these things, a sonic network woven from a wrenching guitar tone, a bleak synth backdrop and an atmosphere soaking heavily in its own folly, stewing in its sadness, marinating in a maddening pond of dismal thoughts and past hurts. This is what it feels like, mostly. There is always this undeniable undertone of warmth and something comforting about it all though, like any good artist or any good fatalist, it's up to the author to conjure up a feeling of hope, even if it's wishful thinking. Nobody likes a total Nihilist.

Act of Tenderness is just that, tender, but it's also everything above and everything below the heart, sitting in the gut and living in the hippocampus. You didn't even know it was there until now, as you sip from your black coffee you realize that. Look at me now, one moment I was listening to Moonknight's Ligeia feeling absolutely nothing in-particular and now only two songs in on this album I'm my most primordial and pensive self. Form your own opinion and stop caring about what other people think, anyway.

Take a listen.

Act of Tenderness

Also definitely listening to her 2017 release, Malenkost. It's grim as black metal and soft as cashmere.

JC Satàn- Centaur Desire (2018)

•  †  •

Man, just listen to the song Erika one time. Just once. Through the onset of the fuzz cathedral intro it dips into a psychedelic fetichism lead by a Yellow Submarine THC fuzed pop hook chorus into perfectly recorded drums - You haven't heard toms sound that good since System of A Down released Toxicity - and you're just a fucking want stain if you can't get 6-inches deep into that guitar solo halfway through the song. It has everything. Everything you need and don't need. If you're anything like me, you're just happy to have another thing to overplay. The time has come for each and every one of you to decide, whether you are going to be a part of the problem, or a part of the solution.

Centaur Desire (bandcamp)

Carcinoma // Abyssal - Apanthropinization (2018) [Split]

•  †  •

I've only listened to the Abyssal side of this split so far, but that to me is reason enough to post up. The union of death metal and black metal is nothing new but that doesn't really matter here. I can't squeeze any more words out of my dehydrated brain, not that you read these anyway. How doth the little crocodile Improve his shining tail, And pour the waters of the Nile On every golden scale… How cheerfully he seems to grin, How neatly spreads his claws, And welcomes little fishes in, With gently smiling jaws!

Apanthropinization (bandcamp)

Whoresnation - Mephitism (2018)

•  †  •

Has Mumakil split the sheets? Because if they have Whoresnation is their replacement. Mephitism is a straight shooter of a grind album. Its one earthly purpose is to plow ferociously through twenty tracks quicker than a toothless one night stand. It's a real gummy ride. This isn't a rodeo of forward-thinking grind, but it's doing well what grind is all about; Fast music for stupid people. I'll throw this thing on and easily increase my rep count by ten, bud. 

Mephitism (bandcamp)

Leechfeast - Neon Crosses (2018)

•  †  •

Leechfeast has submerged from the infinite fen in the form of glacially paced Neon Crosses, which came out via the venerable and forever slow and crushing Dry Cough Records on March 30, 2018, and it would be an exercise in stupidity to not give this 40-minute beast of burdenous doom your complete and unequivocal primitive attention. It moves like old people fuck, slowly and monotonously, think the plodding of Bismuth with the filth of Meth Drinker. So long as concepts like acid-throwing and cutting your jeans to expose the knees is around, we should be pissed.

Neon Crosses (bandcamp)

Youth Avoiders - Relentless (2018)

•  †  •

If you have been avoiding France's Youth Avoiders you're what the french call "les incompetents" and I doubt your commitment to sparkle motion, so drink your baguettes and eat your red wines but most importantly listen to 'Relentless' before everyone else thought it was cool, it just came out today so that makes this Friday good. Youth Avoiders play faster than love rocket and write hooks catchier than a fisherman with syphilis; Think German Dean Dirg guitar jangle with the punk of Short Days and frantic structure of Piss Test.

Relentless (bandcamp)

Dairy Classics - Early Adopters (2017)

•  †  •

Loud, discordant and jangly post-apunkalyptic jams marinated in reverb and soaking inside of a piss-pot. Reminds me of Spray Paint, Soupcans, and Lust For Youth and music emanating out of a garbage can. It's good stuff, so you're welcome and keep on keeping on and on and on yuh dweebs.

Early Adopters (bandcamp)

The Coltranes - White Hag (2018)

If you've been a long time follower of this blog, for some reason, you'll know I'm a big fan of The Coltranes and have probably posted up their entire discography at some point and I'll continue to do that now with White Hag... Which is set for a release in June.

•  †  •

The Coltranes have definitely been changing their sound around in the direction of sloppy and fetid punk; adding on heaps of filth and sleaze and a healthy dose of noise and reverb that has them sounding a lot like The Functional Blackouts and The Daily Void with some early Rohnert Park Ceremony era.

White Hag (bandcamp)

Mahr - Antelux (2018)

Fallen Empire has been about as consistent as I can hope for any underground record label, and consistently good, at that. And Antelux is no exception; Raw and unrefined black metal with its feet planted in the ever popular cosmic affiliate. Woven throughout its meaty tracks is a whirr of atmospheric drone which add a good base coat to the barrage of grating vocals, everything unwelcoming and cold.

•  †  •

I'm really impressed. And I'm smiling like a schoolgirl with no homework because this beast is something entirely fresh. Not reinventing the black metal wheel or anything, but its nuances give light to new ideas and fresh takes on a genre thats become too serious and stale for too long. The bulk of its sound is bleak and primitive but there's often flashes of something not entirely fatalistic, coming in the shape of sharp and archaic sounding ambient passages, resembling the war horns of some inhuman battle. Even in it's more plodding and unrhythmic sections Antelux does well to stay on track and remain engaging, with a desperate tone that almost hypnotizes and wears you down, until it doesn't anymore.

And as always, this beauty is a 'name your price' option on the band camp page and for the price of a coffee, hell, half the price of an Americano you can contribute a modicum to fighting the good fight.

Antelux (bandcamp)

Of Feather And Bone - Bestial Hymns of Perversion (2018)

I must be on my way to becoming a completely simpleton. I haven't been moved one way or the other by any of the new releases that have been coming out… I am sure it has more than a little to do with the fact that I have been a little preoccupied from the endless ether of music beyond listening to it at every corner I turn, but in terms of "keeping up" with the music head Joneses I have been a slack.

•  †  •

Of course a record smeared in bestial death metal would have my attention though, my Troglodytic brain is placated by the simplicity of its approach; gurgling vocal belch accompanied by whirring buzzsaw guitars followed by the funeral marching band behind them. I like it, it's good.

No walls are being torn down here to be built anew with fresh ideas, not like Canada's Antediluvian did so well on 'Through The Cervix of Hawaah' or Finland's Swallowed on 'Lunaterial', both of which were debut releases and definitely among the best albums out in their respected years. They are still miles ahead of any sister sound. It was fresh and it was absolutely saturated to the marrow in malignity.

Mind you, I have only heard two tracks from 'Bestial Hymns of Perversion' so maybe when I can digest it as a whole it will punch me in the gut differently, either way it will satiate your need for bestial death metal.

Bestial Hymns of Perversion (bandcamp)

Encoffination / Sempiternal Dusk (2017) [split]

III - Hear Me, O' Death (Sing Thou Wretched Choirs) was one of the best death metal albums to come out in 2014, and if you don't agree with that statement, you're opinion is wrong. So besides overplaying the shit out of Hear Me, O' Death I have been patiently waiting for Encoffination to release another full-length for me to ruin my ear drums to - I think they might be on their last legs from all the over zealous punishment - Sorry, what? Just kidding, I can hear you, loud and clear yuh dink.

•  †  •

It ain't a full length, but it'll do, a 15-minute track on a split with Sempiternal Dusk and though my thirst for putrid rotting death metal has not been fully satiated, this will suffice. Encoffination continues to show their particular penchant for writing songs so heavy, everything almost sounds as if it's crumbling beneath its weight. Sempiternal Dusk are no slouch on this split though, matching Encoffination's ferocity with a different sort of tact. One that is bolstered with cutting tempo changes through way of the riff, swirling and fetid. Get into it!

Encoffination // Sempiternal Dusk (Bandcamp)

Verheerer - Maltrér (2018)

•  †  •

Black metal played in a less than puritan fashion; recorded with real microphones and in a recording studio. Also there are a swath of catchy hooks and a myriad of tempo changes that purists should scoff at in contempt. And, it's blood is not real Norwegian blood! Instead the veins of this band are filled with something other than Scandinavian dynasty. German to be exact. I really wish Lunar Aurora was still a band.

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I've only listened through a couple songs from Maltrér, and I haven't necessarily been moved one way or another, which lends me to think I might not become gripped, but since it's being released on Vendetta, whom I respect (especially the earlier catalog), I'll give it a mention.

Maltrér (bandcamp)

Gnaw Bone - Scorched Earth (2018)

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For the uninitiated, Gnaw Bone released Scorched Earth a few days ago. Your grandmother would describe this as "interesting…"

Scorched Earth (bandcamp)

Ilsa - Corpse Fortress (2018)

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Ilsa is the real deal; A woven cloth weaved of death and doom metal smeared and caked in thick layers of crust and sludge. Intoxicantations is still a regular spin for me, since 2012. There is a particular omen that surrounds Ilsa's entire sonic scope, a looming figure devoid of form, an atmosphere fit for an occult meeting in the neck of the Catacombs serpentine, of junkies and sewer life, rat poison and vices, sticking of death and decay underneath the floorboards. 

Ilsa is set to release their fourth album, Corpse Fortress on March 02, 2018 on Relapse Records... Relapse records, that's a weird one for me, when did that label start releasing good albums? Apparently they have been for a few years. Consume.

Corpse Fortress (bandcamp)

Dreadful Relic - Hyborian Sorcery (2018)

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Get filthy you mucktards and light the candles in thirteen, create the pentagram in goats semen and wait for Hyborian Sorcery which is set for release mid February. Black Magycka.

Hyborian Sorcery (bandcamp)

Knelt Rote - Alterity (2018)

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Fuck me on the fucking dick, Knelt Rote are putting out an album in late February! The news is as good as it is surprising because it's been a solid six years since they have released anything, and they are still listed as split-up. Whatever, none of that's important now.

Knelt Rote are sonic ferocity, distilled in vitriol with a penchant for grimy death metal and grind. Only one short song to listen to, but patience is a virtue, bud.

Alterity (bandcamp)

Portal - ION (2018)

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The Portal has opened, step in and lose your sense of self and purpose, become exposed to the elements, and worship butter encrusted gods that speak in tongues and fornicate perpetually.

Portal was once underground death metal savagery in raw, convoluted form. Portal are still that, minus the underground component. You know Portal. Maybe even your grandma knows Portal. These Australian brutes return in 2018 with more of the same; Suffocating atmosphere swirling and closing in on itself as "The Curator" wheezes and coughs up phlegm and bile. Invoke Satan.

ION (bandcamp)