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)

Crypto Order - Destructive Strategies for Sustainable Living (2021)

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An album that at first glance would be way out of left field for Severed Heads Open Minds but upon further inspection into Crypto Order's sonic aggression in the arena of off-kilter industrial electronic and hallucinatory rave songs you could deduce a host of similarities to boundary acts like Gnaw Their Tongues, Daughters, Mamaleek, Jute Gyte, etc.

Much like Death Grips in the sense that there are perceived as well as sighted influences from a cornucopia of bands that revolve around feral energy like Revenge, The Doors, The Microphones, Lightning Bolt, The Jesus Lizard and things that feed off the dark and dismal. You will find much of the same energy on Crypto Order's Destructive Strategies for Sustainable Living.

Listen around on Italy's Democide Products page and those without a "strictly blast beats" mentality will find an arsenal of songs and albums worth your time.

Crypto Order - Destructive Strategies for Sustainable Living (bandcamp)

Fuoco Fatuo - Obsidian Katabasis (2021)

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Another Profound Lore release committed to the Severed Heads Open Minds altar. Obsidian Katabasis is a gargantuan 6 songs of glacially paced Funeral Doom with a Death Metal backbone and it's a monolithic traverse through densely layered soundscapes that move through mollifying guitar sections with a lot of space flowing between to forward creeping death metal sections that utilize more haste and intricacy.

A trade of heft vs ferocity. All the while it's incredibly heavy and suffocating through its build but the woven atmospheres of guitar delay, reverb, feedback and ambient noise add a great deal of breadth to the plodding nature and I'd say without this it would be all weight with no nuance. This thing rips!

Fuoco Fatuo - Obsidian Katabasis (bandcamp)

Barbarian - Barbarian (2012)

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Here's an album I just wanted to remind everyone of! I have been heavily dipping into this gem of an EP quite a lot recently—I guess black thrash/speed is high on my radar right now and this Italian beast nailed everything on this 25-minute EP, spot on production and the best release from the band in my opinion. Dig in!

Barbarian - Barbarian (bandcamp)

The Secret - Agnus Dei (2012)

Xavier of France's The Great Old Ones , once told me his favorite discovery on SHOM was Solve Et Coagula by Italy's The Secret. A righteous find indeed. Well guess what Xavier, and the lot of you, The Secret are back to assail you with their noise-ridden blend of dark metallic hardcore, in the form of their newest release Agnus Dei. They dredge from many variants of influence, let's not get hung up on them all. It stomps, get it.

Agnus Dei (Zippyshare)