Crawl - Damned (2023) 🇺🇸 | Profound Lore Records

•  †  •

Crawl exists in the arena of doom metal as a one-man force of bone gnashing atmospherics that move around with the same agility and haste as old people fucking—It’s lugubrious and dismal and mired in cavernous noise, dank and crumbling. You’ve heard this before, many times actually, but maybe not exactly in this way. The use of ambient passages in Lurker of Chalice comes to mind. Or the stoney abrasive heaviness of Rorcal, distilled all the way down to the molasses paced heft of Világvége.

Tonally, Crawl is solitary confinement.

I’ve read Michael A. Engle word it as such: “Crawl is basically my attempt to put you in a space like a dungeon, where you’re slowly exploring the environment. Every step is very cautious, and every corner has a ton of anxiety. You’re afraid to take that next step or afraid to open a door.” It’s an apt descriptor for the sound he manifests.

•  Ω  •

Admittedly, I haven’t spent enough time with this record to absorb everything about it, my likes and dislikes are ambiguous, but as a reflex I am drawn to how it sounds. It sounds unique, despite not being wholly inventive, though I believe the execution and technique is rather unique to the genre.

Crawl - Damned (bandcamp)

Druid Lord - Relics of the Dead (2022)

•  †  •

I've been meaning to have this new Druid Lord album up on here since it came out in late January but got distracted somewhere along the way. Relics of the Dead is a perfectly executed pastiche of old school death metal a la Immolation with the mid-tempo execution of Disma flanked by the THC soaked doom of Acid Witch with less vintage horror campiness, albeit Relics of the Dead leans into the retro horror atmospherics with just the right amount of profanation—A small example of this can be heard 03:05 into  'Mangled as the Hideous Feed' as that 2-cent Casio chord of gothic organ emanate around a heavily down-tuned and slow doom section breaks through for the remainder of the track.

This album is at it's strongest when it's moving around between this incredibly drooling mid tempo churn to the almost dead-stop dirge, sounding like an impersonation of Ahab playing Bolt Thrower songs at half speed—I see a lot of comparisons to Hooded Menace being thrown around, but unlike Hooded Menace's last album, Druid Lord got the production right. Absolutely nailed down. I'd say it's more in line with Disma's pace, the grime and mire of Coffins, the horror drenched wooziness of Acid Witch with moments of occasionally dipping into the molasses paced territory of Encoffination… Fuck those guys are slow!

°  Ω  °

This comes highly recommended, so get listening. "This album is going to make a big splash in the year-end lists this year." —Nostradamus

Druid Lord - Relics of the Dead (bandcamp)

Qaalm - Resilience & Despair (2022)

•  †  •

I've been sitting on my hands patiently for Qaalm's debut album ever since Hypaethral Records announced it and then benevolently dropped me an early listening link—The small perks of being a sonic traveller is that you can use tact and guile to convince people to send you unreleased records in exchange that you might put together a few (positive) words to promote a record.

Qaalm's aptly named debut 'Resilience & Despair' needs no promotion beyond its sonic achievements. This album is an uncontested aural monolith of doom and sludge coalescing into four towering tracks drenched in dour semi-funeral doom tonnage rife with crumbling sludgy guitars and plodding drums as former Harassor overlord Pete Majors lays waste through that uncanny vocal rasp of his which bears more resemblance to coughing up blood and spewing bile than it does "singing"… totally charged and feral—A similar comparison can definitely be made with doom/sludge zealots as Baton Rouge's Thou and Chicago's Indian in terms of range and grit. 

'Resilience & Despair' is an "Abandon All Hope" sign aimed at everyone. It’s like being sucked into the nether, a slow and heavy trip into the abyss filled with down-tuned guitars and a pummelling energy. That being said, I’d be remiss not to point out the success that this album has when it segues into lighter territory, trading chopping block heaviness for compelling melodies and floating passages—It's the sonic equivalent of sour and spicy. A force meant to awaken and bolster its counterpart, which is done with aplomb here by Qaalm. Devastating heaviness coalescing into something purely atmospherical with a tonne of weight behind it! Abandon all hope.

°  Ω  °

Fans of Mizmor, Thou, Ahab, Convocation, Grief and Burning Witch will find plenty to like within the 1-hour+ runtime of this heavy hitter. 

Hypaethral Records (in connection with the esteemed Trepanation Recordings) was incredibly cool to send me 10 free download links for readers (and takers) of Severed Heads Open Minds on a first come first served basis… So big thanks to those guys! Drop a comment here or send me a message through Instagram to claim your download link ya heathens & GET THIS BILLOWOUS DOOM IN YOUR EAR CANALS.

Qaalm - Resilience & Despair (bandcamp)

Qaalm - Resilience & Despair (download link)

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

•  †  •

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)

Best metal albums of 2021—Top 30

•  †  •

Before I dig into my top picks for 2021, I reached out to a few familiar faces within the sphere of metal and got them to send me the albums they dug the most this year. I told them the rules for the list are pretty flippant. Here's what they sent me:



Horus aka James Brown III (Harassor, Moonknight, Vorpal Sword, Rising Beast Recordings)



* In no particular order 
10) Stormkeep - Tales of Othertime

09) Trhä - Endelhëtonëg

08) Tardigrada - Vom Bruch Bis Zur Freiheit

07) Circle of Ouroborus - Kiromantia

06) Sadness - April Sunset

05) Kuka'ilimoku - Pahu O ka Ua

04) Zhmach - Euphoria Never Leaves

03) Kêres - Flaming Ash

02) Mooschops - Adventures Above the 61st Parallel North

01) Fugitive Wizard - Obscuri Æternum



Artur de Carvalho (Forever Cursed—Best underground metal blog laid to rest (R.I.P.)


10) The Devouring Void - Hypnagogic Hallucinations


Holy shit I just realised these guys are from Portugal as well.. fuck me!

09) Sermon of Flames - I Have Seen the Light, and It Was Repulsive


Repulsive as fuck

08) Carcinoma - Labascation


Good shit from the UK

07) Gosudar - Morbid Despotic Ritual


Some good OSDM shit from Russia

06) Koldovstvo - "Ni Tsarya, Ni Boga"


Great entrancing BM

05) Fuoco Fatuo - Obsidian Katabasis


Feels like being swallowed by a black hole


04) Qrixkuor - Poison Palinopsia


A two track, total 48 minutes of filthy obscure DM? Yes please


03) Lykhaeon - Opprobrium


A more traditional approach to BM as we know it, still a banger though)

02) Labored Breath - Dyspnea


A fucking trip into the bowels of the most insane BM you’ll hear this year


01) Reverorum ib Malacht - Svag i Döden


I know these guys have released two albums this year, but I’m a huge fan of this approach

A.L.N. (Mizmor, Hell)

07) Emma Ruth Rundle - Engine of Hell

06) Hoverkraft - Schwebende Musik

05) Vouna - Atropos

04) Grouper - Shade

03) Walt McClements - A Hole in The Fence

02) Andrew Black - Welcome Home

01) Yautja - The Lurch



Mattias Alagna (Abstracter)



06) Filth Chasm - Demo 2021

05) Apostasy - Death Return

04) Grinning Death's Head - Cataclysm

03) Altarage - Succumb

02) Antediluvian - The Divine Punishment

01) Moonscape - Monolith

Big thanks for those that contributed!



•  †  •


Another year down the hatch. And another year where I am certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have overlooked a few releases (I always do) but I'd say this year in particular I have a pretty firm grip on the records that impressed me the most—I can say that in order to whittle the list down to 30 I have made some hard omissions, but that's just the nature of the beast! Pretty heavy on the black/death metal releases, which either speaks to the quality of the release or where my palette is at. It really doesn't matter, here's what moved me in order:



30) Forsman - Dönsum í Logans Ljóma (Ván Records)



Another example as to why Icelandic black metal is legitimately one of the most consistent and innervating within the second wave of black metal.







29) Abstracter - Abominium (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)



A dizzying descent into a mix of well articulated doom blackened crust, doom, sludge and sonic overall sonic hostility. 

28) Tentation - Le Berceau des Dieux (Gates of Hell Records)



An absolute nod to the old days of heavy metal and a hell of a debut.



27) Divide and Dissolve - Gas Lit (Invada Records)



2-piece doom metal enveloped in a thick cloud of doom. Hits hard and feels significant.



26) Stormkeep - Tales of Othertime (Van Records)



Much like Havukruunu, Stormkeep have managed to capture all the elusive grandeur found in pagan black metal and dungeon synth without succumbing to the frivolity often found in it.



25) Concrete Winds - Nerve Butcherer (Sepulchral Voice Records)



Fast and dizzying death metal with very intentional glances towards grind and thrash. Pretty Spot on!



24) Wanton Attack - Wanton Attack (Black Writs Records)



A potent mix of early heavy metal rife with gritty duelling guitars and speed metal vitatlity!



23) Suffering Hour - The Cyclic Reckoning (Profound Lore Records)



Suffocatingly heavy death metal from a label that knows a good thing when it sees it. I don't think this record has any weak spots.



22) Vorpal Sword - Omens (Rising Beast Recordings)

The best account of blown out raw black metal I heard all year! A pastiche of noise punk, experimental ambient and shoegaze—It's perplexing how something so abrasive and corrosive in nature can be perceived as beautiful, but it does.

21) Sermon of Flames - I Have Seen The Light, and It Was Repulsive (I, Voidhanger Records)



A bubbling cauldron of cacophonous death metal infused with sludge, crust, doom and black metal with  incredibly devastating pace.

20) Ekulu - Unscrew My Head (Cash Only Records)



Nailed down New York Hardcore with a heavy grip on 80’s metal. Why even bother with Turnstile?

19) Labored Breath - Dyspnea (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)

A spiralling churn of death metal infused black metal pushing through a feral wall of sound that straddles the line of the obscure and barbaric. 

18) Labor Intvs - Sunken Crucible (Unsigned/Independant)

This has got to be one of the most overlooked albums on this list. Some of the nastiest death/black metal releases this year heavily exploring elements of doom and the underground obscure.

17) Mork - Katedralen (Peaceville Records)


Mork have pretty consistently been the best example as to how we can still successfully draw from the nearly dried up well of 90's black metal, and this year on Katedralen they prove that point yet again with a bullet.


16) Phrenelith - Chimaera (Nuclear Winter Records)

Massively over-looked death metal in my opinion. Phrenelith aren't exactly incorporating anything new into their sound, but somehow they manage to sound like nothing else—A black hole of dynamic death metal with reverence to the underground. Some of the best drumming on a death meal album this year?

15) Succumb - XXI (The Flenser)

Incredible death metal with Cheri’s possessed vocal belch being the backbone of what makes them unique from their contemporaries. I'm so glad they didn't fuck this up.


14) Fuoco Fatuo - Obsidian Katabasis (Profound Lore Records)



Crushing funeral doom with a lot of mid-tempo death metal influence that will drag you through an hour of some of the most potent and unyielding metal this year. A full listen through of this colossus will leave you bereft and beaten, just the way we like it.



13) Big Brave - Vital (Southern Lore Recordings)



Big Brave's suffocatingly plodding doom intertwined around a whirring mix of reverb-ladened guitars and vacuous space comes full-force on Vital. Beauty and brutality.


12) Koldovstvo - Ni Tsarya, Ni Boga (Unsigned/Independant)

Atmospheric black metal with heavy emphasis on the atmospheric, bordering on ambient or shoegaze. Incredibly raw, visceral and avant-garde with a lot of uncertainty surrounding any information around the band. It's hard to explain, but theres also this inexplicable feeling that comes over me when I listen to this album… Like I am slowly being consumed by madness. A mix of euphoria and malaise. 


11) Altarage - Succumb (Season of Mist Underground Activists)



This release can hang with any of the aforementioned in the department of ferocity and heaviness, clocking in at over an hour of downright unfettered black/death from Spain. 

10)  Defacement - Defacement (I, Voidhanger Records)


Back when I talked about this release earlier in September I said "This is one of those albums that drags you through the abyss—A serpentining downward spiral through cavernous death metal that is equal parts technical, murky and experimental." Yet another album of extremely high caliber that has been buried amidst an ocean of sub-par music with high pay-grades and a full marketing team throwing petals at their feet. Stick with this, you'll thank me later.


09) Fyrnask - VII - Kenoma (Ván Records)

Fyrnask have been quietly creating some of the best atmospheric black metal around for over a decade now and VII - Kenoma is at the helm of it all. Powerfully melodic and thought provoking—Something between Misþyrming, Ash Borer, Morne, and Bölzer. 


08) Voidsphere - To Overtake, To Overcome (Amor Fati Productions)



Spirit inducing black metal that takes shape through blistering riffs built upon a wall of sound. One of the best uses of atmospheric ambience, dense but not without melody or purpose. These Prava Kollektiv guys sure know how to write a record.

07) Warloghe - Three Angled Void (Northern Heritage Records)

Dizzying black metal from the nether, ugly, brutish and filled with cold riffs! I'd even go as far as saying some of the best riffing I heard in a black metal album all year, this is pure fucking armageddon.


06) Portal - Avow (Profound Lore Records)

Portal remain thee lords of hypnotically plodding and nauseating death metal. Lovecraftian obscurity in sonic form. This is up there with my favourite Portal has ever released—It sounds like a lobotomy. And It feels like a nauseating decent into the abyss. Encompassing. 


05) Sulpur - Embracing Hatred and Beckoning Darkness (Amor Fati Productions)

Blown-out black metal doing everything MGLA does but even colder. A barrage of eerie riffs against a galloping tempo with some of the best sounding cymbals in the genre.



04) Darkthrone - Eternail Hails…… (Peaceville Records)

Has everyone forgot about Darkthrone? Hardly any mentions of Darkthrone this year… Am I the only one who loves the direction they’re moving in? I still think they're one of the most important bands in all of music right now. Three decades later and they’re still moving a worn-out genre into new territory. 



03) Qrixkuor - Poison Palinopsia (Dark Descent Records)



One of the most crushing death metal albums released in 2021. Two songs of obscure death metal that drag you through a serpentining labyrinth of riffs that sound like a spiral into your own absolute insanity. Much like the Defacement release sitting at my number 10, this album is and was way under-appreciated for how good it is. I'm not sorry to sorry to say it, but it's more dynamic and crushing than 99% of the other releases that pass off as death metal. 

02) Antediluvian - The Divine Punishment (Nuclear War Now! Productions)

Few try (with little success) to be as primitive and feral sounding as Antediluvian, its not something that can (or should) be contrived. It needs to come from a festering open wound or a sincere disapproval with some inner or outward force. The Divine Punishment is a pantheon in where these negative forces can live—A barbaric pile of forward-thinking death metal built upon an altar of whirring guitars, abyssal vocals and drumming that sounds like none of its contemporaries. Plodding, perverse, esoteric and entirely new.



01) Lykhaeon - Opprobrium (Repose Records)


Bestial death metal married with black metal and doom is hardly a new concept within the walls of metal, but very few albums are able to traverse new and refreshing soundscapes the way Opprobrium successfully does—An overtone of of ritualistic rites and dirges permeate the many layers of this album as you're dragged through a swath of of musical landscapes, all  equally barbaric and mind altering. The best metal release of the year for me for sure, not a single flaw to be found.

Ancient Tome - Final Tomb (2021) [EP]

•  †  •

I'm really digging the way this album is coming across like a mixture between the murky sludge and drone saturated doom of Meth Drinker and Cult of Occult with major emphasis on hanging glacially paced riffs. The drums are burly as hell and the cymbal work is noteworthy for me, plodding along like a dirge without ever feeling stale nor exhaustingly repetitious. Haven't heard anything prior from these guys, but this EP is pointing in a promising direction for the sonic landscape of Ancient Tome.

Ancient Tome - Final Tomb (bandcamp)

LLNN - Unmaker (2021)

•  †  •

Danish post-hardcore and sludge outfit, LLNN, are trying to get back to what they accomplished on one of the better releases in 2018 (among good company) with their new full-length, Unmaker. LLNN draw from a wide well of musical influences, pulling from their ambient soundscapes that serve to maintain an atmosphere, almost lulling and mollifying the listener before an inevitable wave of crushing metallic hardcore (with a prominently post-hardcore angle) and sludge berate the ear canals. It's forward thinking, but not wholly unique, but it's a welcomed breath of fresh air in a overcrowded palette of other bands trying to do the same thing and falling short. We only have two songs to go by now, until it releases in September, but I remain optimistic. 

LLNN - Unmaker (bandcamp)

Rorcal & Earthflesh - Witch Coven (2021)

•  †  •

Collaborations don't always pay off, and more often than not I find myself indifferent to the attempt, which maybe has more to do with how I am a fatalist contrarian with no cause and no guiding star rather than the material itself. In this case, I'm for it. Much like when Merzbow teamed up with Full of Hell a few years back, the absolutely raw and grating ambient soundscapes of Earthflesh lend an even thicker layer of density to Rorcal's already crushing mixture of Doom, sludge and post-hardcore. The output is a two-track release running 30 minutes in length and it's worth your time if you're looking for something to assault your auditory senses with great heft. 

Rorcal & Earthflesh - Witch Coven (bandcamp)

Divide & Dissolve - TFW (2020)

•  †  •

Divide & Dissolve are a two-piece – Very loud and supremely glacial doom and drone encompassed of Takiaya Reed and Sylvie Nehill of Melbourne, Australia, who met and united under the bond that they are both of indigenous background and began to create music, pounding and hypnotic, as a means to lay down the bedrock of their creative outlet, beliefs and messages. All of this is accomplished through a dense wall of sound that utilizes Takiaya guitar and saxophone drone over top the churn of Sylvie's drums, it's powerful and transporting and I'm eager to hear more than just this one song off of TFW.

I don't know where it's going, but I'm all in…

TFW (bandcamp)

Heaume Mortal - Solstices (2019)

•  †  •

Heaume Mortal release a debut record that as from as I have seen has been slapped with the tag of (second wave), and though it delves into this territory the many hands (only 3 pairs total) grab at many genres. Black metal? Sure alright, but there's a whole roundup of sludge abound on here and nuances of doom, death, and maybe even a thin veneer of the darker side of hardcore floating about – Which all makes sense as the guitarist comes from the really great French sludge band Eibon and the singer cut his teeth in the blackened sludge band, Cowards.

There's many ways to cut a watermelon so I'll save the boring details for the refrigerator repair man (not an actual adage) but simply to the point; What we have here on Solstices is a brooding atmosphere swaying to and fro through some really great riffs, really great sounding drums, vocals and all that other stuff that makes noise sound like music.

Heaume Mortal - Solstices (bandcamp)

Moloch - Love Songs (2019)

•  †  •

Moloch and Severed Heads Open Minds have a long and consistent history throughout the inception of this blog, in all of its gestation periods, I have posted up Moloch albums on here a few times since 2012 and even interviewed a few of the members a long while back. For some reason I'm always reminded of Meth Drinker, and I'm not too sure why the two bands are always in the same conversation with me, but it's likely to do with the absolute immensity each of their songs have while retaining this crust of pure filth draped over each song; Completely fetid and bloated sludge, no strings, no gimmicks, no frills and certainly no regard for your well being.

With that being said, here's a measly two-track EP from Moloch for you to suck on, until there is more.

Moloch - Love Songs (bandcamp)

Triumvir Foul - Urine of Abomination (2019) [EP]

•  †  •

Going to throw up a few EP's into the blog piss pot for you slugs to sip on and Urine of Abomination is the soup de jour for today. Unfettered death metal filth as grimy as a pigeons basement and as loving as a cornered wolverine high on PCP is this 16 minute blast from Triumvir Foul, a band that seriously succeeds in serving up death metal deep from within the sewer gutters of the sonic atmosphere. The totality of its intensity is bolstered by how raw and unpolished it all sounds as if its been floor reordered deep within a salt cave. It goes without saying that I've been enjoying this one, and how about the drummer loving to ride the bell on his cymbals… slimy.

Triumvir Foul - Urine of Abomination (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)

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)

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 

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)

Meth Drinker - Oil (2014)

 •  •  •

If you are unfamiliar with Meth Drinker then please let me acquaint you. Dearest reader, this is Meth Drinker, Meth Drinker this is dearest reader, be gentle with them. Isn't the name quaint? It's kinda like Bongripper, with a bit more fuck you to the upper class cadre. These New Zealanders join the venerable echelon of country mates; Witchrist, Diocletian, Heresiarch, Vassafor, Ulcerate and that dude that directed one of my favorite sci-fi horror movies ever, Bad Taste.

Meth Drinker will fill your day up with palpable dread and they will shit directly into your soul and rape the youthful effervescence you thought you had retained.

The droning crunch of guitars give way to a few riffs reminiscent to early Autopsy, only played at an even slower paced tempo. The drums are mixed in with a peculiar fragility to the toms and it seems the bell cymbal overpowers it, which works well to give it that calcified in rot vibe I like my sewer doom to have. 

Based on the two songs I have heard, I like it a lot. And maybe when the variance between the American to Canadian dollar conversion ceases to fuck my Paypal purchases I will actually buy the album in full and relish in the cankering charm of 'Oil'.

Meth Drinker (bandcamp)

Ggu:II - waan:hoon (2014)

This album was submitted to me via email a little while ago with the message: "Hi Chris, a few months ago I asked you for the Leucocis album. I really like it a lot and want to thank you for sending it to me. I'll be doing this in the most risky way possible... Sending you some recordings of my own band. Don't pay for them, if you like 'em I'll send 'em to you."


See, who's to say that spreading music around can't be a self-sustaining beneficiary to the underground movement? It can be, and this proves it fuckface.

The two song EP titled 'waan:hoon' is a warm-sounding collection of sludgy doom with tinges of post-metal riffing and drone atmospherics. The two songs plod along earnestly and fester within whirring guitars and slogging drum patterns that build up to these moments where you want the sledgehammer to be dropped only to be teased by more gnawing doom/drone. I'm please to know the member of this band is a fan of Leucosis too, because few bands of that ilk have impressed me as much as Leucosis has with their venerable and modest catalogue. They are masters at creating palpable tension that finally spawns into a very satisfying peek, to understand this fully, listen to the song Taiga. If Ggu:II follows a similar path then I expect nothing but good things.

Ggu:II - waan:hoon (bandcamp)

(I will update and upload download links upon the bands accordance.)

Torch Runner - Endless Nothing (2014)

A month has passed since my last post, but I'm dusting off the keyboard and getting back to this virtual pit I call Severed Heads Open Minds, which is, at times, a formidable commitment to be consistent with, but I'm trying dudes! * My hat is off to all the blogs that are far more consistent than this one *

A bevy of new releases have fallen onto my lap and into my ears recently, most of those worth dusting off the keyboard for, and as such, I will do just that… First up, Southern Lord's Torch Runner follow up their debut album 'Committed To The Ground' with 'Endless Nothing', a savage offering of filthy downbeat punk/hardcore infused grind distilled into 23 minutes of a supremely pissed-off and raucous audial assault.

I won't be posting a download link to this album as the flack I will inevitably receive is heavy, but the links are out there if you can't afford to buy the album with money.

Endless Nothing (bandcamp)