Dead Last - Where Do We Go From Here? (2022)

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I haven't been overly hyped on a wide range of hardcore releases so far this year but this debut 7" by New York's Dead Last has been an obstinate ear-worm for me. Harkening back to the halcyon days of earnest straight edge hardcore with a valleys worth of potency and energy behind it, mining from the same vein as Mental, Unified Right, Righteous Jams, Mil-Spec, Youth of Today, etc.

Despite this albums short run time there's a definitive heft carried throughout 'Where Do We Go From Here' ushered in by the sheer magnitude of its sincerity and energy. Bang on! Very limited runs have been done through New York's Streets of Hate and the venerable Triple B Records. These will sellout, if you want one, get on it.

Dead Last - Where Do We Go From Here? (bandcamp)

Negativa - 04 (2022)

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It's been in black metal's DNA to be dissonant, harsh and cold, but this record takes those fundamentals and beats you over the head with it for 40-straight minutes, which to those of us who beckon punishment, pounce on it like a werewolf.

Spain's Negativa has channeled these characteristics with aplomb throughout their entire discography, and the result of it has amounted to some of the densest black metal around today—Invoking a wall of sound built upon cascading guitar tones that whirr and drone between war hammer drums which favour force over speed and vocals that struggle to penetrate a thick layer of fog and noise.

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It hearkens back to last years output by Voidsphere and Sulpur, both of which released albums in 2021 that were in my top 10—Which might say something about how highly I regard this particular form of black metal, spirit inducing and relentlessly oppressive. Don't sleep on this record, unless you want to be a dummy idiot, then go right ahead.

04 is 'Name your price' on Bandcamp, put that coffee money to something worthwhile and toss these guys (and their label, Mystískaos) a few bucks and help keep the underbelly of metal well lit!

Negativa - 04 (bandcamp)
Download (Zippyshare)

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)

Festung - Der Turm (2022)

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Well articulated raw black metal drawing from a deep well of sonic intentions running the gamut of dungeon synth, ambient black metal, atmospheric black metal and I'd even make the argument for an early black metal/punk inclusion somewhere in the fray as well. This album as a sound is definitely monolithic but the length too is a monolith, standing in at 80 minutes of towering black metal, which only serves to bolster the immensity of it as a whole. This was one of those listens that instantly gripped me and impressed from the start to its billowous end… This comes highly recommended, don't sleep on it!

Festung - Der Turm (bandcamp)

Hässlig - Guillotine (2021)

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Somehow this debut release completely flew under my radar all of last year until a few weeks ago, where I have been over-listening to it ever since. Crude and primitive black metal punk a la a similar attack as Raspberry Bulbs and Bone Awl, with emphasis on raw aggression and a firm grip on how to effectively use unpolished riffs and chord progression to take something simple and make it compelling. I found this through the reliability of the Mystískaos bandcamp page, check it out or forever be a dud!

Hässlig - Guillotine (bandcamp)

Desolate Shrine - Fires of The Dying World (2022)

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Three-piece Finnish firing-squad via pummelling death metal as we've come to expect from Desolate Shrine's decade long crusade against the status-quo of recycled riffs and puny atmospherics. All we have to go by is the one song teaser via Dark Descent Records, but it's really all you need to deduce the crushing ferocity Fires of The Dying World is looking to discharge upon our feeble minds. Happy to hear some tempo changes on a death metal record again… LOOK OUT

Desolate Shrine - Fires of The Dying World (bandcamp)

Det Eviga Leendet - Reverence (2022)

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The sophomore release by Sweden's hidden treasure, Det Eviga Leendet, came out a few days ago through the impenetrable forces that are Amor Fati and Mystískaos and the result is a potent blast of cold and unwavering black metal. The overall sound is cloaked in a dizzying atmosphere of reverb and transient gain, which is only compounded by a drape of layered guitars that weave in and out of inspired riffs and whirring chords as if it were trying to find the sonic equivalent to hypnosis—Another hallmark of success on Reverence is the way the drums sound, in the way that they are played and in the way that they're mixed, a compelling barrage of dynamic fills and blasts that have great interplay between a wall of tone and timbre.

Det Eviga Leendet - Reverence (bandcamp)

Dire Omen - Formless Fire Embodied (2018)

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I've posted this EP up on here before (closer to when it came out in 2018) but I'm posting it again because I have been revisiting the very small offering Dire Omen put out before their eventual disband (in 2019?), and I really like where they were heading within the genre of black/death—Nothing being reinvented, more like reformulated. The potency of Dire Omen's energy has always been at the helm of what made them great. A dense swirling churn of mirky black/death metal with great riffs and an undeniable atmosphere. So much reverence for what Dark Descent is doing!

Dire Omen - Formless Fire Embodied (bandcamp)

And in lieu of being fully prudent, here is their only full-length album put out back in 2014.

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Dire Omen - Wresting the Revelation of Futility (bandcamp)

Cloakroom - Dissolution Wave (2022)

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Here's another album I'm looking forward to based off the teaser tracks on their respective bandcamp page, Cloakroom's third full-length, Dissolution Wave. I can deduce, by unpacking what I'm hearing in these three songs that this shit is going to be a scintillating coast down sonic highways traversing shoegaze, drone, bits of sludge and indie with helpings of stoner rock and post-punk (just to namedrop a few more genres into the fray).

I would be jumping to conclusions to speak any more factually without actually hearing the full album first, but it sounds like it's the bands most cohesive effort yet, which is saying something for me because I was never really gung-ho about the two previous albums fully. Again, speaking preemptively, it sounds as if everything has come to full bloom on Dissolution Wave. The songs are robust and the production is right on the fucking money—when it needs to pack a hammer, it does so with force, when it needs to float in suspended animation, it gently sways along beautifully, when we ask it to marry the two forces, it answers with complete fluidity.

I find it tiring to read about music in an overly-intellectualized way, so I'll try to say this succinctly. The overall tone is a shifting one. Unfurling riffs and tone that hit like a megaton hammer towards gradually cascading into ephemeral shoegaze and drone that inevitably sputter into moments of dream-pop. Which is only to be cut back into a vast doom like territory filled with more crunching lo-fi guitars and reverb. Highly recommended!

Cloakroom - Dissolution Wave (bandcamp)

Μνήμα - Disciples of Excremental Liturgies (2022)

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I wasn't privy to black metal noise terrorists, Μνήμα's new album until I found it through the esteemed Arson Cafe's newest post—If you're not aware of his spot already, bookmark it because he's one of the very last bastions of defence when it comes to keeping the underground lit, and further more, putting words and flavour into what is normally rife with banality and feigned interest into blogs, zines and websites that rely on promotion more than integrity.

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I digress, Μνήμα have finally committed to a full-length album after a deluge of EP's and Demo's have been released since 2017, and it's more of the same assault on your auditory meatus, but with more tact and focus on letting the melody poke through the wall of screeching reverb and commotion. I can imagine old fans of Μνήμα being divided into two camps when it comes to this decision: Those that oppose their decision to refine their sound, and those that are not in opposition at all.

Me, I'm on the former, as I am sure most fans of Μνήμα are. It's not as if this choice has fundamentally changed their sound… Μνήμα are still incredibly raw and blown out, and the predilection to infuse traditional black metal with even more noise is still prevalent and in some cases even bolstered. Disciples of Excremental Liturgies is not casual listening, its inherent goal is in alignment with early black metal, a complete and utter rebellion to clean sound, and though they have taken a few liberties when it comes to the purity of black metal, it's still just and isolating as it needs to be to retain its potency. Go head first into THE BLACK VOID!

 Μνήμα - Disciples of Excremental Liturgies (bandcamp)