Fōr - The Life Feeding Flame (2021)

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The Life Feeding Flame is an album that has tremendous output sonically, in that its energy is vigorous and full of weight behind it. Seriously this album has an elemental power running through it, like it's been forged through magma rather than written and performed. I don't know how to make sense of that but in the same way bands like Hate Forest, Bølzer and Irkallian Oracle capture and exude a formidable energy, this album manages to do something similar.

It's a potent and ferocious bid at fusing funeral doom and death/black metal, and maybe that's where the source of its strength lies… In its ability to use the slow and heavy moments with the bolstered through a dense and cavernous atmosphere of driven guitars (with a surprising amount of melody behind them) and though the album lingers somewhere between mid-tempo and plodding it's an unrelenting and vicious ritual of the feral side of metal.

Fōr - The Life Feeding Flame (bandcamp)

Assumption - Hadean Tides (2022)

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In the arenas of doom/death metal, Assumption are a brutish juggernaut of sheer force and gargantuan magnitude, wielding —Hadean Tides was officially uncaged yesterday and its presence is a seismic amalgamation of glacially paced doom with bouts of frenzied death metal peppered throughout.

As I search my skull for fashionable adjectives and pithy aphorisms to describe this I can't help but think of Convocation's debut album "Scars Across". It's equally as crumbling and bulky in its weight, with emphasis on a slow churn and plodding rhythms, albeit with flickers of a gallop but never quite hitting a sprint. Kudos to the artwork being the underbelly version of a Turner painting, bang on!

Assumption - Hadean Tides (bandcamp)

Negative Plane - The Pact [Single] (2022)

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This is a big one! A new Negative Plane release announced and committed to wax is something to be hopeful about—A full decade and one extra trip around the sun later of muted silence, New York's esoteric black metal sweethearts of the underground are back and just as infallible as ever… But I'm rolling my eyes into the back of my skull by all these eager underground zealots professing it to be the album of the decade after a single track has dropped. I'm not immune to conflated statements but it's okay to dial it back a bit.

Negative Plane's vaporous cathedral sound is one of antiquity, drawing from the wells of soundscapes that could be heard from early Mercyful Fate, Mortuary Drape or Cirith Ungol but it's also a sound of something new bubbling and taking shape in the cauldron of metal, and that innovative energy is palpable and exciting to those of us who are looking to latch onto something forward-thinking.

From the first track alone, we can glean Negative Plane are doubling-down on their particular blend of oblique black metal with an ardent zeal, offering that well-honed esoteric sound of reverberating guitars that seem to be wailing from a cavernous depth or from some infernal place of worship. Each tonal flair carries with it the weight and ambiguity of the occult, leaning into a hypnotic atmosphere fit for gothic cathedrals whirling in incense smoke and the sound of the 80's—A faint bell rings in the distance…

Negative Plane - The Pact (bandcamp)

Crypt Lurker - Baneful Magic, Death Worship & Necromancy Rites Archaic (2013)

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Every now and then, I'll glance backwards towards critically overlooked albums and resuscitate them for a few more gasps of life through this blog—That's more-or-less the function of this blog, pointing a shaky finger to the albums I like and hopefully giving them some more life.

Crypt Lurker were a flash in the pan of filthy and bloated doom metal from the outskirts of Liverpool, England, and their sound was a gargantuan accumulation of perfectly executed doom metal which flitted around the murky waters of sludge to breathe life into a genre that's more often than not way too clean with very little essence and hardly any depth.

Baneful Magic, Death Worship & Necromancy Rites Archaic is without none of those flaws, it's an incredibly heavy plod through serpentining tunnels of slowly churning guitar riffs, that flicker between the reverb drenched riffs of Witchfinder General to something even murkier, giving birth to something that reminds me of New Zealand's Meth Drinker—Caked in grime and molasses paced.

The drums on this album are spot on, the toms sound bulky and the cymbals sound like actual drum cymbals… Bonus points for using the bell on the cymbals appropriately. Listen to the 01:40 mark of 'Bearer of Two Torches' if there is any confusion. It's a kidney shot to the world of doom and sludge that these guys split-up shortly after, but this EP will live on forever!

Crypt Lurker - Baneful Magic, Death Worship & Necromancy Rites Archaic (bandcamp)

Verbum - Exhortation to the Impure (2022)

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I gotta say I am pretty eager to get my mitts on this debut Verbum record tomorrow. Most things Iron Bonehead Productions are high up on my radar and judging from the two-song teaser currently up on the Iron Bonehead bandcamp page it's going to be a trip through sepulchral like doom with murky death metal of the highest order—Arcane and primitive shit! 

Verbum - Exhortation to the Impure (bandcamp)

Cerebral Rot - Excretion of Mortality (2021)

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It should come as no surprise at all that I like Cerebral Rot. Death metal of this ilk, putrefying and almost garish, can sometimes be executed with such incredulity that it's totally bereft and unconvincing, and though Cerebral Rot isn't pushing boundaries in the same way that Irkallian Oracle or Funereal Presence might be, they are maintaining an old guard in the way that death metal is meant to sound. A sonic sentinel in the way of repugnant hymns—Excretion of Mortality is extremely foul and heavy death metal and though I haven't gotten around to overplaying it I will most definitely be revisiting it often (even though I can't stop listening to the new Antediluvian record) and I'm sure you will too.

Cerebral Rot - Excretion of Mortality (bandcamp)

Mannveira - Vítahringur (2021)

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Iceland has earned an automatic grace with me—If I see an album under the canopy of black/death metal being put out from the windswept nation I will always direct some time and energy into listening to that thing, and you should too… They've earned it. The list of quality albums coming from that tiny island has got to be the highest per capita out of anywhere else?

I digress, musically Vítahringur is a melting pot of all those Icelandic sounds but with more poise. I see Mannveira slapped with a black metal tag everywhere, but not only is that lazy, it's not accurate. Without dipping into the overly formulaic and trite discussion of genres (and their sub-genres) its worth it (especially in this case) to acknowledge the myriad of nuance. 

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Its foundations are built mostly upon the Icelandic black metal sound of whirring and hypnotic guitar chords much like Naðra, Sinmara, Svartidauði and Misþyrming (etc.) albeit with a little more focus on the space around the chords and creating atmosphere through something more of a doom tinged approach of canyon like mid-tempo, which often features lofty guitars akin to post-metal more so than black metal. A standout difference to me is in the vocal mix, which favours a much bulkier sound than its counterparts, barely if ever dipping into anything of a shrill like scream that's become omnipotent in Icelandic black metal. Before I get to verbose I'll just say that Mannveira have achieved something dense and great here, as always, worth your time and energy!

Mannveira - Vítahringur (bandcamp)

Cirith Ungol - Half Past Human (2021) [EP]

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Cirith Ungol are very much part of the old guard of metal, having been around for over four decades albeit with a few minor pauses and lapses in activity they returned in 2020 with Forever Black, planting their flag in the ground with some exemplary old-school doom laden heavy metal with tinges plucked from the crossover scenes of back then.

Just recently they released another crop of tunes under the same umbrella of doom/heavy metal and though I winced at the thought of it biting the big one but it never let me down at all, much like Forever Black… Sounds like the good old halcyon days of the genre. Half Past Human is just a fun listen through, and if you don't think so then you're probably taking things too seriously, maaaan.

Cirith Ungol - Half Past Human (bandcamp)

Ruin Lust - Choir of Babel (2020)

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Another 20 Buck Spin release to lay at your feet, and it's another begrimed mixture of tonal ferocity and sonic dissonance via the mode of fusing together equal parts death, doom and black metal with overlaying tinge of crust wrapped around the carapace of reverb. I hate to draw another comparison to punk or hardcore, but the overlapping sound and feel sounds like all those old metal bands that worshipped and embraced the raw and sloppier aspects of the early thrash/punk/hardcore production styles a la Slaughter, Bolt Thrower, Obituary, Carcass, Terrorizer, etc. Ruin Lust aren't really pushing any boundaries on Choir of Babel, but it is succeeding excessively in where it's meant to, it's ferocity and heft, and the right choice in production is what sets it apart from weaker links within this ilk.

Choir of Babel (bandcamp)

Krypts - Cadaver Circulation (2019)

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Krypts has been consistently releasing good records since their inception in mid 2000, but the latest, Cadaver Circulation might be them at their best, full stride death metal married with the plodding gait of doom, giving their songs a more thought-out heaviness over the atypical smash and grab heaviness that is standard fare for typical death metal. There's nothing typical about Krypts and no real missteps to take note of on Cadaver Circulation, and there's definitely nothing subjective about how good this is, if you don't like it for whatever reason, just know that you're wrong and your life is probably boring and you might be a dummy idiot. Finland remains relevant.

Krypts - Cadaver Circulation (bandcamp)

Hooded Menace - Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed (2018)

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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)

Abyssal - Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius (2013)

One would define the word Abyssal as; Unfathomable, or concerning the depths of the ocean floor. Both are appropriate when comparing them to the UK based death/black/doom band Abyssal… A band that will often be compared to the likes of Mitochondrion, Portal, Impetuous Ritual, Antediluvian and even Iceland's underground gem Svartidauði – And for good reason too, everyone of these bands possess similar qualities; A harrowing atmosphere, a whirring dizziness drone accompanied by a a dirge like plod saturated in a begrimed cavernous stench.

This album strongly hearkens back to the days when Mitochondrion released Parasignosis – They both are heavily laden with a distressing and dizzying tone that becomes more enjoyable when it's played at very loud volumes. "Fuck that you sadomasochist!" you will say… And I will simply nod, for I am fully cognizant that I truly enjoy the crushing nature that comes along with music of this ilk. It is almost emotionally draining, sitting through Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius entirety does not come easily for your nervous system, but its musical layers are a fucking joy to explore. It's dense, evocative, wearing and heavier than the ocean floor.

This is one of the stronger releases I have come across in 2013, I'm overwhelmed and captivated by its murk and mire… I bought it right away after hearing the second track. Download links may exist online, but I will not be posting one, it is available on their Bandcamp page for only 3$ as a digital download. This is self-released, and on a personal level I would feel like a malignant dickhole for even trying to scrape up a download link. Do as you will, but I'm only posting up the Bandcamp link… Don't throw me to the lions, thanks.

Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius (Bandcamp)