Skeleton - Skeleton (2020)

•  †  •

The formula on this self-titled is an easy enough one to pin down, a grab bag influence of first wave black metal riffs and vocals with early thrash and hardcore passages a la Venom and Bulldozer and tempo shifts with a barebones structure of early Entombed death metal and a fraction of the meatiness that Bolt Thrower had with some of the rough around the edges punk of all those bands. I was healthily skeptical of this debut release from Austin, Texas, but the more spins I inevitably cycle through, almost out of compulsion, the more I accept its unavoidable filthy and unrefined charms. it's hard not to be a sucker for an amalgamation like this, and it's done well to boot. Dig in, creeps!

Skeleton (bandcamp)

Jordablod - The Cabinet of Numinous Song (2020)

•  †  •

Here's a new one I've just landed on from the Iron Bonehead faction, I'll normally scour the new releases found there as the label has earned its way into my trusting arms (ears, whatever) thanks to a plethora of solid releases – How about that Blot & Bod album last year, a real crusher – So when I saw this new album by Jordablod, a motley trio from Sweden hellbent on pulling from sounds across a wide range of sonic landscapes, but still adamant about the bulk of sound being a mixture of doom, death and black metal. It works, and I'm compelled to enjoy the way in which the drums are recorded,  a thick rumbling, and at times plodding, kick drum, that positions itself between a layer of guitar fog which at times seems to float around old rock n' roll and psychedelia riffs. I might be doing a poor job of describing that, to be fair, I'm surviving off the fumes of a few hours of sleep and a undercurrent of a lingering hangover daze. Listen on, my wayward sons.

Jordablod - The Cabinet of Numinous Song (bandcamp)

Void Eater - IIII (2019)

•  †  •

There's absolutely no surprise that Void Eater's EP IIII is right up my alley, as it's putrid to the bone black/death metal to the point of mummifying in it's own reverb and calcifying under the weight of itself. Too often adjectives are haphazardly thrown around and I am certainly not above it myself, but one would be out of their fucking skull if they were to try and describe Void Eater without using words like; Primeval war-stomp, barbaric body-slam, bestial blood-doner, antediluvian head-kick, troglodytic beat-down, etc, etc.

Everything about this downward spiral of black/death is impressive and far more oppressive than lesser forms mascaraing under the banner of bestial death metal.

Void Eater - IIII (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)

Maveth & Embrace of Thorns - A Plague Through The Heavens [split] (2014)

I was initially going to challenge myself by reviewing Noia's new album Obstinate Sacrifice while trying not to talk about how much it sounds like a cleaned up version of Venom playing Nuclear Assault songs or how the lyrics should be swapped out for pseudo-human grunts, belches, growls and farts… But I decided against it because I'm already going to be reviewing Midnight's No Mercy For Mayhem for favorite Icelandic human Birkir and his blog Halifax Collect later this week.

•  •  •

Instead, I give you filth. I give you death. I give to you a split that is actually worth checking out, A Plague Through The Heavens released by Dark Descent Records. Two bands that aren't new to the game, Maveth from Finland and Embrace of Thorns from Greece band together to bludgeon you senseless with their dragged through the muck and fecal decay of the sewers take on black/death metal. I'm sure this is best listened to in the dark, sitting in a pentagram drawn with goats semen but I'm sitting on a park bench withe the sun beaming down on my fucking forehead, and it's still pretty sweet man.

  

A Plague Through The Heavens (Buy + bandcamp)

Coffinworm - IV.I.VIII (2014)

I don't have anything clever to say.
This album is heavier than Chris Farley's bloated corpse.
The blackness of this album is like the inside of a coffin on a moonless night.

Profound Lore though, man does Chris Bruni know hot to pick 'em. Avichi and Artificial Brain also put out albums in 2014 on Profound Lore Records (both are worth checking out), with Impetuous Ritual releasing their sophomore album "Unholy Congregation of Hypocritical Ambivalence". in April.

Grab this, turn it up loud and fuck your ears into early hearing loss.

IV.I.VIII (Took this link from Echoes of Demise)

Indian - From All Purity (2014)

Indian, from Chicago, Illinois, play an insanely robust and caustic blend of doom and sludge with the crumbling filth of crust thrown into the bubbling cauldron. This wall of noise is brought forth by swirling guitar and bass tones that are heavier than a dead dog, drums that pound and plod like a fucking migraine only to be occasionally pierced by crude and tortured vocals. Vocal duties are shared between the two guitarists, and they sound like hyenas… Hyenas that are actually wolverines… Wolverines that are rabid and starving, and possibly (probably) sexually frustrated. Pissed.

Indian on Bandcamp
From All Purity (try)

Ramlord - Crippled Minds, Sundered Wisdom (2013)

Crippled Minds, Sundered Wisdom is an album I have been reveling in quietly for a while now, and it's high fucking time I spread the good word about Ramlord. Blackened crust is something that has reared its ugly head like a goddamn contagion, and I'm not complaining, but in a sea of "heard this before" you should probably stand out. Ramlord DO standout. Fusing elements of blackened crust, powerviolence, grimy punk, doom and D-beat into a cohesive and formidable beast. The production is tight and gritty, retaining the raw and dissonant nature while omitting that plasticky bullshit.

This release really should reap a little more credit. It's released on a small, forward thinking, DIY type label and offered up for pay what you want. These are the types of things SHOM is (mostly) about. I know some of you reading this have your own music blogs (some far better than my own), if you like this please do throw it up on your own blog as well. If not, well… It at least feels good to try man.

(Released by Hypaethral Records, which is an upcoming label just down the street from me in Toronto)

Crippled Minds, Sundered Wisdom

Coltsblood - Beyond The Lake of Madness demo (2013)

Crushingly sluggish doom that drags on between two lo-fi tracks rife with feedback, crunchy tones and a vocal delivery that strikes me as unique to the particular genre, sometimes sounding more like powerviolence played at half speed inside a distant hollow. Unfortunately I can't get my hands on the demo, cassettes are sold out and I haven't a download link… So it goes, though if any member of Coltsblood stumbles upon this, get in touch, I'd like to give this a proper review.

If the band wishes it, I'll provide a download link for you scoundrels!

Coltsblood (bandcamp)

Take Over And Destroy - Endless Night (2013)

Here's what's going on – I downed a quarter bottle of this Jack Daniel's honey whiskey with a couple cups of coffee in record time, this was my only breakfast and now I'm starting to feel the affects of this creative lubricant… "It's high-time I cleaned out those fucking cobwebs on my music blog so the tens of thousands (?) of my followers (Or do you guys prefer disciples?) can revel in the excitement of tunes that I certify as good." said myself somewhere in the beguiled brain-space of mine. It was either that or make a couple batches of freshly baked Rice Krispie squares… This time, the guilt of abandoning my followers (disciples?) outweighed my hunger.


So here I sit, cup of whiskey sweating, teeth unbrushed, hair uncombed, still beautiful, cracking my knuckles in eager preparation to start the writing process I was once all too accustomed with (fuck, just spilled my cup of whiskey on my desk soaking the bottom half of my "Listen To This" book while at the same time receiving a text from my pal in the band Oxtongue saying "Tell me you can sing." – I can't sing.

Take Over And Destroy sound like sewage encrusted blackened church bells. No they don't, I was just trying to be clever in my description like those dudes over at Cvlt Nation, and immediately felt stupid for what I had wrote. What they really sound like is a well mixed blend of black n' roll, sludge, and doom with a healthy dose of some organ shit.

Endless Night (320, Zippyshare)
TOAD Bandcamp

Dark Forest - Land of the Evening Star (2012)

The forest that is dark, the one-man band from Alberta, where winters are frigid and forests are indeed dense and dark. If I were a one-man band entrenched in pagan/viking that bore the name Dark Forest, I would sure as fuck conceive my albums in the woods. In the woods, under the sky, in a cabin, by a campfire, while fighting off grizzly bears and dancing with forest norns. Everything you have read thus far has given you absolutely no insight into what this album sounds like.

 •  •  •

 Let me try this again. Take black metal, wrap it up in heathenism, add in atmosphere of glory juxtaposed with despair, throw in some vibrant soundscapes, all while retaining a cold and grim feel. This is no Wodensthrone, but it still is a breath of fresh air from all the dark hardcore and filthy death metal I have been drowning myself in lately.

Grab if you like: Garleben, Oakhelm, Askival

Land Of The Evening Star

Morbid Insulter - Antichrist Blasphemies (2010)

Just ordered this beauty of an EP by Morbid Insulter! Considering it cost me about 20$ CND for 15 minutes of blackened thrash beauty, you can gather it is at least worth your 'free' click. Awaiting the debut LP from these Swedes, I need Swedish friends, Swedish friends that will go to Hönö and bring me back news of their release.

Grab if you like: Nifelheim, Volcanic Slut, Hellhammer

Antichrist Blasphemies

Antediluvian - Through The cervix of Hawaah (2011)

Holy fuck. Through The cervix of Hawqah is fucking it man. I know I already jumped the gun early in the year by calling Mitochondrion's Parasignosis album of the year, but I can at least assure that both of these will at least make it on my top 5 for 2011.

After hearing their EP Revelations in Excrement I was expecting great things from Antediluvian.
They took those expectations of mine and beat me over the cerebrum for a solid 36 minutes.

Grab if you like: Witchrist, Vasaeleth, Mitochondrion

Turquoise Infidel

Blasphemophagher - The III Command of the Absolute Chaos (2011)

Yep, once again Blasphemophagher offers your ear holes an unholy onslaught, chalked with bible spitting and altar vomiting. I have listened to this album all day today, those Jehovah Witness's are lucky they didn't knock on my door because I would of dick punched the bullshit out of them.

Grab if you like: Bestial Raids, Volcanic Slut, Sadistik Exekution

666

Gnaw Their Tongues - L'Arrivée De La Terne Mort Triomphante (2010)

This? This is a mindfuck. It goes in through your auditory meatus and my guess would be it comes out through an exorcism. One listen will render you clinically insane and on your way to becoming a serial killer. I am only being a slight bit facetious as this album conjures up thoughts and sounds of a very eerie magnitude indeed.

This unsettling release can be described as a juxtaposition between a variety of different elements such as; Drone, sludge, noise, experimental, ambient, classical, and layered throughout black metal. A production that shares the same murkiness as a fucking mud puddle, atmospherics that share the same haunt as Ed Gein's tool shed, and melodies that sound like a chainsaw lobotomy. I wonder if I can call this the black metal equivalent to Godspeed You Black Emperor without annoying the ironic hipster empire. Ill say it anyway.

Instead of going in depth about the pig fuckery that is this cesspool of musical incredulence (there is a 98.4% I made that word up.), I'll instead toss the download link your way.

Gnaw Their Ears

Black Lotus - Harvest of Seasons (2008)

Harvest of Seasons is really one of those albums I struggle to find any flaws in, but it is very easy to point out the magnificence. There is an undeniable sense of Borknagar worship woven throughout the album. The use of clean and harsh vocals, the subtle folk elements and overall sound are reminiscent to the varying sound of Borknagar.

But fuck you if you think these guys are just copy-cats who can bring nothing new to the table, because you are simply wrong. Listen and revel in the sound of Canada's hidden gem. Draped in a dreary atmosphere and coated with the natural triumph of nature. What?


(I just want to go on record here, saying Borknagar's "Universal" is easily the best song that band has ever made.)

Harvest of Seasons

Falkenbach - Tiurida (2011)

Great Odin's raven, six years in the making finally comes Tiurida from Falkenbach!

Glory (Fixed Broken Link)

Cebren-Khal - A Mass of Despair (2010)

Cebren-Khal concocts a debut album that is quite interesting and convincing, my ears approve. These folks from France were thinking outside the box, as they nod to more than a couple different styles on this debut album. I will let the tags below tell you what to expect. Laziness? Preposterous! Okay, well maybe. But at least I provide to internet scum across the globe.

While listening to A Mass of Despair there seemed to be a lot of times where the song would really grab my attention and get the voice in my head saying "fuck yeah!". The aforementioned is a good thing. I have actually only listened to this album fully through twice, but oh yeah, I acquired it 2 hours ago. The last song on the CD actually has about 5 plays already, only because I had to keep listening to the last 3 minutes of it. Get it.

Click me. (sorry for calling you scum earlier.)

Mitochondrion - Parasignosis (2011)

Fucking Mitochondrion, dude. This is so it, I already have chosen my top album for 2011. Since this is a Canadian release, I am going to use the staple of Canadian food, "poutine" to describe the beast.

First you add the base ingredient, which in this case is authentic Blackened Death Metal fries, toss on thick hellish atmospheric cheese curds from the milk of Baphomet, finally topped with molten raw production gravy. The final result, melt in your ears Parasignosis!

Indulge.

Cormorant - Metazoa (2009)

Look how beautiful that album cover is, I want to eat it. Consumption through the ears will have to suffice. And suffice it does, I bought this album for 6$ at my favorite used CD store in Toronto (Sonic Boom).

When I saw this CD there I definitely yelled something along the lines of "Fucking Right!" and offended some lady behind me combing through the Pop Rock section. Fuck it, if she knew anything she wouldn't be looking through Pop Rock.

Anyways, I have a point. And that point is, Metazoa is the tits! It is a little bit difficult to lump Cormorant into a genre, because they blend so many different styles and constantly change their formula. On Metal Archives they are listed as Progressive Folk/Black Metal, but one listen and you will hear many other influences, and you will love it. If not, your ears aren't working properly.


Consume
Part 1
Part 2