Succumb - Succumb (2017)

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Succumb's self-titled debut is as predictable and frantic as a schizophrenic wolverine fucked up on rabies, it's musical backbone mostly comprised of whirring grind with fragments of death, black, crust, d-beat and all else unsophisticated and crude. I'm taken to the vocals, I'm not sure it's anything I've heard before, so there is that unique grab to it, mostly sounding like someone howling desperately for help from the bottom of a well.

Succumb (bandcamp)

Ricky Hamilton & The Voidboys - Hell is Real (2017)

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Ricky Hamilton & The Voidboys bring you slime punk drenched in fuzz and psych and other sonic oddities, with an acute hypnotic affectation and penchant for droning out in a state of inspired nonchalance with Ricky's vocal drippings that range from lugubrious and pasty to drowned out and poppy. Maybe if The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Joy Division melded sounds and mixed it with the psyched out nostalgia and glam passages of Crystal Stilts and played them faster and shorter you would get something quasi-similar to Hell is Real. Or not at all.

Hell is Real (bandcamp)

Unearthly Trance - Stalking The Ghost (2017)

•  †  •

Stalking The Ghost is an obstinate example of doom and sludge happily married at the core of its husk, but interspersed throughout its chest breathes an amalgamation of surrounding minutia to make up its entirety, which is just a nonsensical way of saying it's layered and boasts breadth and originality, all of which are qualities I look for when choosing the right head of lettuce when I'm making a salad. 

•  ¥  •

Besides clicking the play button and forming your own opinion, I'll say this; Unearthly Trance have hit the nail on the hammer with this one, conjuring sequoia sized riffs with a whiff of THC emanating from each note, pummelling drums suitable for both a battlefield and a funeral dirge, and a varied vocal deluge that could curl the toes on a paraplegic cadaver. Heavy in full sway of the word, my brothers and sisters.

Stalking The Ghost (bandcamp)

Knelt Rote -Trespass (2012)

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Knelt Rote have succeeded in creating a suffocatingly dismal album with the atmosphere of an ancient hulking giant, a god of the muck and mire, rife with savagery and frenzied bestial belches against a impenetrable wall of crunchy guitar layering and perfectly mixed drums. It never wanes in its ferocity and despite its troglodytic plodding and pounding it manages to be nuanced and full-bodied with an adept attention to spacing and detail. I really can't point a poisonous finger to anything missing or lacking in this monster of a death metal album, Knelt Rote have seemingly diluted the animalistic barbarity of Revenge and attention to detail as Swallowed executed with aces on Lunaterial. 

Trespass (bandcamp)

Aosoth - V: The Inside Scriptures (2017)

•  †  •

When Aosoth put forth IV: An Arrow In Heart in 2013 I only found out about it mid-way into the next year, which felt like I was late to the party and probably definitely (didn't) solemnly swear to arrive at the party on time the next time the Parisian trident of death/black metal put something new out. So here I am, fashionably late and still partying along.

•  ¥  •

V: The Inside Scriptures is one part blistering death metal with a penchant for sporadic structuring and glimpses of surgical technicality and another part feral black metal with an unrelenting dizziness in the wake of its frantic atmosphere. I'm forlorn to know it will be the last album from Aosoth as they are (probably) sick of playing well beyond the comprehensional appreciation of dummy idiots who barely have two dimes to rub together and a predilection for death metal so long as the name is Gorguts or Bolt Thrower. What a shitty and pious assumption of me, I'm sure it's actually because Chipotle stopped giving out free tacos to dudes in black shirts.

• ∆ •

V: The Inside Scriptures underwent something like a three year long and arduous journey that saw itself staring down a steep slope of adversity that threatened to bury this release and all the recordings along with it and send it into the void. Thankfully this didn't happen because Aosoth have come out with something that is greater than the sum of all its (three) parts. Big ups to all the behind the scene components to making this happen as I can't find one negative thing about this album, from the masterful mastering and productive production down to the album covers painting. Another one fit for all our sanctimonious year end lists we are so hellbent on making. Good end, bon voyage and don't forget to rock and roll.

V: The Inside Scriptures (bandcamp)

Hell - Hell (2017)

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Since I've heard Hell II in 2010 I don't know, or even care for that matter, whether or not the ambiguity surrounding the name of this band is intentional to dredge up confusion and mystique for brownie points with us grumpy metal stalwarts but I'll stick with referring to it by the name ov Hell instead of MSW (initials of sole member) because I hear Hell is pretty hot this time of year.

•  ¥  •

A lot of great things going on in an overwhelming 50 minutes of fuzz drenched glacial doom with a heart full of ire and grime in it's cigarette smile. The bulk of it feels suffocatingly raw but the entirety of the mix isn't washed out or in anyway tinny, especially with those chunky riffs, beefier than a cow farm. Think of mashing something like Meth Drinker, Thou, Moloch and Bongripper together and running it through a meat-grinder. 

Hell (bandcamp)

Saiva - Markerna Bortom (2017)

•  †  •

Markerna Bortom is the debut from Saiva and it's been an ear worm for me the last few weeks and will likely continue to be until I inevitably go back to the dire portent monolith that is the new Amenra. Something like atmospheric folk metal with hues of occult rock and druid rock. Listen to the second track'Nordmarkens älvar', it is riff worship and flourishes of beautiful melodies and hums and proves Petterson's ability to write infectious hooks... to deny this album is to refuse the riff. Having guest features of Austin Lunn of Panopticon and Gärdefors of Grift is only the cherry on top of a Abba themed angel cake, buds.

Markerna Bortom (bandcamp)

ARSE - Primitive Species (2017)

•  †  •

Here's a raucous and rompin' broth of punk from ARSE of Sydney, Australia yuh fuckin' good ol' cunt aye... Primitive Species hearkens to Ceremony's magnum opus Rohnert Park, albeit with it's own personality crisis of it's own. Maybe it's just the song 'NRVSNRG' that reminds me a lot of Rohnert Park's opening track 'Sick'... Doesn't matter man it's a good listen, so throw a shrimp on the barbie and shoot yourself in the foot yuh slogger.

Primitive Species (bandcamp)

Grift - Arvet (2017)

• † •

Grift's Arvet is an almost perfectly executed example of a sonic language that will resonate with those who are moved by affections of the wilderness, flora and fauna, the smell of burning spruce resin in cold mountain air to that of minimalistic atavism. Erik is the sole cog in the neo-folk imbued atmospheric black metal of Grift, which is a breath of fresh air in a genre that has been pulled in every direction with great to dismal results by those teeming with an affinity to nature and tradition.  

It's sound is poignant and raw and Erik seems to have a cerebral intention by every detail, with the incorporation of a old Swedish instrument known as the Psalmodikon, which retains an undeniable eerie sound, as well as recordings Erik took in the nature around his home in Sweden; the screaming of a fox, the hooting of a tawny owl and a variety of ambiguous earthly sounds. But like Henry David Thoreau said about owls in the 'Sounds' section of his magnum opus, Walden (and something that I definitely dog-eared when reading);

•  ¥  •

"When other birds are still, the screech owls take up the strain, like mourning women their ancient u-lu-lu. Their dismal scream is truly Ben Jonsonian. Wise midnight hags! It is no honest and blunt "tu-whit tu-who" of the poets, but, without jesting, a most solemn graveyard ditty, the mutual consolations of suicide lovers remembering the pangs and the delights of supernal love in the infernal groves. Yet I love to hear their wailing, their doleful responses, trilled along the woodside; reminding me sometimes of music and singing birds; as if it were the dark and tearful side of music, the regrets and sighs that would fain be sung. They are the spirits, the low spirits and melancholy forebodings, of fallen souls that once in human shape night-walked the earth and did the deeds of darkness, now expiating their sins with their wailing hymns or threnodies in the scenery of their transgressions."    – Walden

Arvet (Bandcamp)

Incendiary - Thousand Mile Stare (2017)

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Incendiary man. I've been listening to this album at least a couple times a week since it came out, which is impressive, I think, because I have spent the last couple of months listening almost solely to podcasts and The Velvet Underground. Thousand Mile Stare isn't your cookie cutter one-two punch hardcore album for kids in BANE gym shorts to two-step to, but it can be that too, with a few huge No Warning windmills for good measure. Remember Buffalo's Wrong Answer? probably not, but it's like them meets Foundation. Bust it.

Thousand Mile Stare (bandcamp)

Vulture - The Guillotine (2017)

•  †  •

Man, it will be no doubt, when all is said and done and the hammer of blasphemy strikes 2018 that Vulture's The Guillone won't be in the venerable echelon of my top ten most played and most digged.  Every serving purpose of imagery associated with Vulture points a finger to the past as does the entirety of the sonic scope; Speed, heavy, thrash, black, whatever man. Mercyful Fate playing like Deathhammer covering Agent Steel. Nostalgia will never go out of style, and neither will thrash, so frig off if you ain't havin' it.

The Guillotine (Zippyshare)
The Guillotine (support) * No Bandcamp because this is the 80's (just pretend)

Gatecreeper - Sweltering Madness (2017)

•  †  • 

Here's a good example of an EP that forces the appreciator to be patient for a new full-length, with all the promise of heavier than thou hardcore for something like thirty minutes but feels like one hour of chest pounding neanderthal hardcore that sounds like dudes who like Bolt Thrower but want to play Buried Alive songs. The production is mirky as a swamp and the entire mix is meaty as a butcher shop in Utah, which is, I think, what makes it better than the release Gatecreeper put out on Relapse in 2016. I'm hoping they stick with Closed Casket Activities for the next release.
Move like a troglodyte, listen to Sweltering Madness.

Sweltering Madness (bandcamp)

Exit Order - Seed of Hysteria (2017)

•  †  •

Just got turned onto this one a few days back, and It's hard for me not to like something that sounds like Norway's Dark Times playing an amalgamation of punk and hardcore throughout the years caked in a filthy noise carapace. It's easy to get into, so get into it.

Seed of Hysteria (bandcamp)

Svartidauði - Untitled (2017)

•  †  •

Found this Svartidauði EP in my email today and felt coagulated blood rush to my private parts in anticipated excitement, as is appropriate whenever Svartidauði release anything new. They have earned that response from me and everyone else with a brain inside their skull. I've seen these guys live a few times and every time earns them unequivocal future loyalty from me, and yet I still don't know who the members are, despite definitely having a few Icelandic friends who do. I'm just curious to know if the drummer is half man half adderall induced octopus. Birkir?

Dig in you runts.

Untitled (bandcamp)

Soupcans - Pleasure Overdose (2017)

•  †  •

I spelled my name with a Ouija board and crawled to the mirror only to find out I was possessed all along and it is all because of Montreal Speeeeeeed, bud. It ain't Soft Party but Soupcans remain tight since 2010 and Pleasure Overdose is more frantic and sloppy (good sloppy dumbo) and all over the map pulled apart in every direction and Blank Jello sounds like a song Dean Dirg would write, so that's pretty tight too .Ontario punk has me thinking Strange Attractor should have an album out soon? Drink to forget.

Pleasure Overdose (bandcamp)

Amenra - Mass VI (2017)

•  †  •

I sure as frig haven't listened to the bulk of releases that came out this year, but I gotta say I've been really optimistic with what I've heard thus far and Mass VI by Amenra is right up there with the fuckin' cream of the crop man, maybe even the album of the year for me, it's what I needed to hear when I didn't even know it. Absolutely floored and covered in my own piss and semen, I don't know why I am, but I am.

•  ¥  •

It's important to talk about the atmosphere of Mass VI, because it's heavy like a dead dog on your birthday and as digestible as steel wool slathered in cheese whiz and it's to the credit of everything that makes this album so good; Mass VI makes me want to care less than I already do when I'm at my worst, even with the many driving sections of incredible optimism lies something languorous, dragging like an emotional anchor, dead fucking weight albeit not fatalist and whiny. It's hard not to tie in your own negative emotions, using the rancorous wall of sound as a battering ram to form a cathartic like state because somehow this feels personal, and that's what a great album does, it resonates, negative or not.

The absolute desperation in Colin's vocals are what set Amenra apart from other similar bands, strikingly palpable as he heaves up bile and wrings out emotions with his tortured delivery, and the moments of clean singing provide a different type of dismal backdrop, harrowing and visceral in their own right that strike a chord of emotion; ennui. This contrast is rarely achieved with similar success. It's a well oiled machine all the way down to the snare pop and the gurgle of the bass to the dissonant wall of guitar whirr, which is to say the production is impetuous and the songwriting is impregnable, with no faults to speak of. Everyone wants to slap around 'best album of the year' to anything decent, but Mass VI is above such objective opinion, it is known fact that this is one of the strongest releases  in an all encompassing sense dummies.

Can't help but appreciate that album cover as a piece of dreary art worthy of castles and mortuaries.

Mass VI (bandcamp)

Rope Sect - Personae Ingratae (2017)

•  †  •

Listening to Rope Sect reminds me of when I first heard the Ghost debut album, back when they were good, and unmoved and a breath of fresh air in a stale musical cellar. That's the only comparison between the two bands I wish to draw comparison as I imagine other bedroom bloggers have heinously done and I think it's wrong. Rope Sect is instantly catchy, and that only festers and gestates with each listen. Sounding like nothing and everything all at once, it wouldn't be right to pigeonhole Rope Sect as it seems the pot they draw their collective tastes from is a big bubbling cauldron, the stock prominently being a post-punk blend of gothic rock.

I'm completely contented with myself for stumbling onto this, and I'll probably listen to this album too much instead of taking the time to digest the new Bell Witch or the entire 'Mass' collection by Belgian gods Amenra... or maybe not. You'd be a real meathead to ignore this one though.

Personae Ingratae (bandcamp)

•  ¥  •

And here's a very tight two song EP they put out a few months after this one;

Wending Tide - The Painter (2017)

•  †  •

Wending Tide put out their debut EP at the end of this month on the venerable Naturmacht Productions label. Expect ferocity from these guys. I surmise most of you reading this can get behind it.

The Painter (bandcamp)

Horn and Hooves - Morbid Lust (2017)

•  †  •

Found this EP on the Whisper from the Coffin page and figured this blog crypt needed more filth and sleaze in the form of thrash and black metal executed like a sloppy orgy among maligned lepers and plebs. Invoke, Morbid Lust.

Morbid Lust (bandcamp)

Yellow Eyes - Immersion Trench Reverie (2017)

•  †  •

In order to be more consistent with my posts I am going to forfeit my nature to be a dummy idiot that is overly pertinent and pedantic and just get to simplifying the post at hand. Here it goes.

This is Yellow Eyes, they come from New York and they play a very unique style of black metal that, like most black metal, is of a different cloth than its progenitors, and like a lot of other unique black metal, it works well. Woe to the purists. I have been listening fondly to Yellow Eyes since they put out Silence Threads The Evening Cloth, and I remember one particular riff from the title track song  (right at the 02:00 minute mark in the song) would get lodged in my head with a unknown ancestral potency to me, until I finally realized it shared the exact melody to a old Hungarian song that I was forced to sit through at church in my tortured youth.

I'll summate. Yellow Eyes don't churn out cold and grim black metal, instead the tone is that of warmth but still bleak and all for nothing. Join the void.

Immersion Trench Reverie (bandcamp) digital $6

Cepheide - Saudade (2017)

•  †  •

I haven't listened to all of Cepheide's Saudade as I write this, but from what I have heard thus far I think they have generally succeeded in exactly the way they intended; Ephemeral sounding black metal rife with atmosphere inside a post-metal exoskeleton. I quite liked the release on Fallen Empire (as I generally do with most releases on Fallen Empire) they put out in 2015, and even though they jumped labels (?) I'll be giving this one a chance.

Saudade (bandcamp)

Celeste - Infidèle(s) (2017)

Forgive me father for I have sinned, it's been 2 months since my last post. I've been keeping real busy dissolving my being into a strange reality, and now I am distilled and calm and back to this weird virtual astral plane, so let's chew some fat.

•  †  •

Firstly, I think Celeste is near perfect. As a sonic entity they are a monolithic force of distilled negative energy, marinating in a plasmid of elemental nihilism and pessimism and heavily brined in piss and vinegar and the crocodile tears of the doomed youth of today. They write songs with immense energy that draw from a breadth of influence running the gamut of black and doom metal to post-hardcore with the filthiness of crust and a dense wall of sound that is entirely besieged in feedback and caked in noise.

Infidèle(s) is a perfect listen to me and it will be one of the albums I point a finger at to be among the cream of the crop for albums released in 2017, and I don't want that to be understated as this year has had no famine of quality releases; Vulture's The Guillotine, Bestia Arcana's Holókauston, Elder's Reflections of a Floating World to drop a few names, have all put out albums of exemplary and unquestionable quality among their peers.

Infidèle(s, like anything Celeste has released, is a barrage of sonic negativity take takes form in a thick layer of whirring guitars and drums that have always been produced immaculately against vocals that cough up bile and blood in disenchanted belches of frustration and pure ennui. There is a "something" to their sound I can't pinpoint that they themselves only seem to have, a idiosyncracy unique to their result. Or, as the French would say "Je ne said quoi. Merde tette".

Celeste - Infidèle(s (bandcamp)

Hair of the Dog - This World Turns (2017)

•  †  •

This fucker has more grooves than your grandmothers wrinkled neck. It's got a lot of meaty hooks lined with gristle for you to chew on for hours. Strengthen those weak jaws. No frills, all killer no spiller, Psych rock with glances at blues and doom gone retrograde. Dig in fiend.

This World Turns (bandcamp)

Lorn - Arrayed Claws (2017)

•  †  •

Man, how bout this album? Arrayed Claws is all things primordial savagery and total fucking nihilism. Absolute sonic disharmony. I wrote a review for this album for the venerable Sludgelord, so you can check that piece of fancy bedroom-blogger buzzword jerkathon when Aaron puts it up… I say things like "fuck", "feral" and "dissonant" and probably a combination of the three… You know how these things work.

 All that really needs to be said is this; One of the best black metal albums I've heard this year so far.

I Voidhanger, Records has done some good things recently for abstract metal, and they have my full attention. Check out all most of the newest releases.

Arrayed Claws (bandcamp)

Vulture - Oblivious to Ruin (2012)

•  †  •

The city of Pittsburgh is probably still busy not giving a fuck about their second consecutive Stanley Cup because hockey hasn't been recognized by the rest of the world as the only sport worth paying attention to, yet. Steel town has also done something else worthy of our attention more than most other things you pay attention to; Vulture's 'Oblivious to Ruin'

What a fucking rip this entire album is. Not a single second is time wasted, an entire forty minutes devoted to hitting' you hard with some truly gritty Pittsburghian doom/sludge metal. Listen deep.

It's a steal at $5, I've spent more on a breakfast sandwich I ate in three minutes and puked up 15 minutes later.

Oblivious to Ruin (bandcamp)

The Stranger - The Stranger 7" (2017)

•  †  •

You ain't no punk you punk. You wanna talk about the real junk? I have been playing the Stranger EP loud and often, and you should too. Fast and jangly and full of piss. It reminds me of Strange Attractor met with the faster parts of Yuppies. If you can't dig this you can't dig nothing.

The Stranger EP (Bandcamp) [name your price]

Hordes - II (2013)

Ive posted this here before, but I'm doing so again because I have about 10 minutes to kill and the album is still up for 'name you price' on Bandcamp with a heinous sub twenty supported by section. A suitable replacement ichor if you didn't have enough "fuck you" in your morning coffee. The track "Tooth and Claw" is worth the 1$ you likely would have wasted on something else anyway.

Stay positively pissed.

Hordes (bandcamp)

Heresiarch - Death Ordinance (2017)

Fuck me on the fucking dick, Heresiarch are finally following up their mega tight EP Hammers of Intransigence with a debut album, one that's taken 6 years to forge and finally put out (July 07 via Dark Descent Records). They only have one track up on the band camp because Dark Descent is a known cock tease, but I'm going to go ahead and give it a certified banger accreditation right now.

New Zealand must be putting ether and contempt in their well water because NZ has good representation when it comes to death metal that is downright feral and dripping in muck and mire, and I don't know about you guys but 2017 has been a treat for the ears, and unlike every other shit-heel keyboard plodder I don't say that every year.

Cream on!

Heresiarch - Death Ordinance (bandcamp)

Piss Test - LP 2 (2017)

Piss Test are a no frills, fast and straight forward garage punk trio. That's it and that's all and this is LP 2. "I still hate Fleetwood Mac, I still dress all in black, I sew patches on my pants, I still get crazy when I dance… and I live in a basement!"

Piss Test - LP 2 (bandcamp)

UT - δ γ ε β (2017)

 

UT released a new album a couple weeks ago, here is that album;

UT - δ γ ε β (bandcamp)

Golden Pelicans - Disciples of Blood (2017)

•

Sink your silver teeth into some Golden Pelicans, bud. Trashier than thou punk rock, simple as that.

Golden Pelicans - Disciples of Blood (bandcamp)

Disma - The Graveless Remains (2017)

I really like Disma, and so should you. The Graveless Remains is an EP spanning 15 minutes that will guaranteed make your ejaculate shoot more like a firehose and less like a dud… girls you too. 

Disma - The Graveless Remains (bandcamp)

Full of Hell - Trumpeting Ecstasy (2017)

•  †  •

This is an obligatory Full of Hell post, meaning, you probably already know by now that Full of Hell puts out their new album today, but it doesn't matter because I don't want to be the only bedroom blogger that is out of this circle jerk loop. So here you go, you heard it here first folks, Full of Hell has a new album, it's called 'Trumpeting Ecstasy' and you will probably want to hear me say something like "Trumpeting Ecstasy is a shoe-in for filthiest, heavier than a buffalo ex-lax shit, faster than your first orgasm with a real live girl record of 2017"

I don't know yet, I think this might be a really banging record that might have me longing for the old feral, blood stuck in the larynx, Full of Hell. Only time will tell, and lonely nights wrapped around a bottle of bourbon and anger in my chest.

Full of Hell - Trumpeting Ecstasy (bandcamp)

Duel - Witchbanger (2017)

Italy's Duel is soaked in as much THC as Henrix's bandana and they released a new album a few days ago to apparently bang witches to. Acid drip riffs wrapped up in a sound that nods to everything 60's and 70's, nothing new to your ears but that's not the point. My only qualm is that the retro production quality has led for an overall flatter sound, but I think that's the point, and it kinda works here anyway. Speaking of witches, where is Acid Witch?

Duel - Witchbanger (bandcamp)

Venenum - Trance of Death (2017)

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•  †  •

Venenum have been tiptoeing their way through the shadows, frolicking in the sepulchre and spending long moonless nights in the crypt apothecary writing their debut album which has taken them six years after releasing their putrid self-titled EP… Time well spent I guess.

Trance of Death is a masterclass in forward thinking death metal, taking the genre into pools only a small sample are already soaking in. Trance of Death dips and swells into progressive bridges that burrow through segues of psychedelic and subtle occult horror backdrops in a way that steers clear of the heard that before, even though you probably have, a la Occultation, Tribulation, Mitochondrion, Morbis Chron, etc.

I don't want to go on forever so I'll summate; Venenum have given man birth to a record that will see itself among the top of many lists this year, and it's likely earned. Laurels aside, it's worth your listen and then you can decide for yourself.

Listen to the song Trance of Death, Part I: Reflections. It will wrap everything up for you.

Venenum - Trance of Death (bandcamp)

Sunset Images - Obscure Daze (2017)

Two-piece experimental noise rock drenched in fuzz and reverb and recorded live in analog for good measure. Sounds good? Good. It is good. Samuel and Alejandro combine to create a dense fog of sound built around a amalgamation of noise, psych, fuzz, shoegaze, ambient a little bit of butter and a whole lot of evil and darkness with gusto on top.

The album is yours for the price of a venti machiatto you yuppie shit. Listen deep.
Sunset Images - Obscure Daze (bandcamp)

Lluvia - Enigma (2017)

•  †  •

Mexico's Lluvia is Lord Vast as a one-man force in churning our really ugly black metal with keen acumen for creating a thickly atmosphere that bobs and weaves its way through a network of riffs that run the gamut of hypnotic whirr to frenetic tremolos that shift into these really beautiful moments in the ugliness and despair of his songs. There was a new album (ep) put onto the band camp that has a release date for 2036, I don't know what that means but here is that album;

Lluvia - Enigma (bandcamp)

Condor - Unstoppable Power (2017)

Unfiltered black/thrash from Norway's Kolbotn and part of the unholy coven of bestial thrashers known as the 'Kolbotn Thrashers Union' along with Repellent, Darkthrone, Obliteration, Nekromantheon and Inferno.

•  †  •

I can't find a single flaw in the sound of this album and neither can anyone because there are none. Nothing is being reinvented here but up for offer on the sacrificial slab of thrash are 8 more tracks rife with the filth to bang your skull around while simultaneously wondering why you don't own a few pairs of bullet belts yourself.

Condor - Unstoppable Power (bandcamp)

Heat Dust - Heat Dust (2015)

• † •

I've been a great appreciator of Heat Dust since they put out that 5 song EP in 2011 and I've been sitting on posting this LP for far too long but it's better late than never say never right? Fuzzed out post-punk successfully doing it's own thing. If this album doesn't grip you after one listen through, you're either lying to yourself or you're wrong.

Heat Dust (bandcamp)

Kringa - Through the Flesh of Ethereal Wombs EP (2016)

As I'm travelling through Austria on a train to Budapest I made the obvious choice of listening to Austria's offering to Occult-feticistic black metal in the form of Kringa, whose name is taken from a village in Croatia where the first real vampire had lived. Kringa have yet to put anything out beyond a handful of EP's and Demo's but we don't care so long as it's smeared in reverb and delay and the guitars sound like a frail witch sobbing. Hail Kringa. †

Through the Flesh of Ethereal Wombs EP (Listen/Buy on Bandcamp)

Draugsól - Volaða Land (2017)

Iceland is no longer an underdog in the filthy bottomless pits of Death Metal/Black Metal and hasn't been for a while, despite it's humble population where the sheep outnumber the humans on its treeless windswept land. These cold bastards experience a lot of darkness throughout the winter months and nasally basement bloggers might say this could nurture such a predilection for all things bestial and grim, maybe, maybe not. Icelanders seem to be willing to try everything.

Holding the banners are Mannveira, Svartidauði, Naðra, MisÞyrming, Sinmara, Carpe Noctem but even one man projects upholding the loud, drenched in noise weirdness like AMFJ who has also collaborated with Svartidauði, and it's hard to ignore bands like Muck and The Pink Street Boys to name a few that are pushing the boundaries within their sound, but everyones sound is conducive to pushing the boundaries within their respected pigeon-holed genres.

I digress. Draugsól don't seem to be an exception to the rule, they like their respected cohorts attack their sound with a type of uncontested ferocity that lends a certain sincerity to its bleak and feral nature, similar to their island brothers in New Zealand or the likes of Western Canada within the realms of Bestial Death Metal.

Volaða Land is more of what we have come to expect; A tactfully experimented practice within the black and death metal camp but far enough removed from church burning blast beats and atypical death metal riffs, instead tracks lithely move between sounds with veteran understanding and an almost sentient atmosphere. Volaða Land is one of those albums that can be hard to nail down, but one things for certain, it's forward thinking and executed with a due diligence.

† † †

Draugsól - Volaða Land (Bandcamp)

Iron Reagan - Crossover Ministry (2017)

Crossover Ministry is the name of Iron Reagan's newest album and they are the pope, bishop, high-priest, monk, deacon, low-ranked cleric, the father, the son, and the unholy spirit genuflecting at the altar of Thrash.

In the Church of Crossover we pray to the god of riffdom and high fructose, beer soaked energy and the uniform is cutoff denim everything. If you are looking for a band reinventing the wheel look elsewhere bud, this isn't the nature of the beast and thats okay because what we have here is a high form of emulation that can only come with an astute appreciation for the founding ground of Crossover,  a careful amalgamation of early hardcore and thrash.

I don't care if riffs come in the phantom form of recycled riffs from Nuclear Assault, Suicidal Tendencies, D.R.I. or only a couple notes off from a Neil Young played three times as fast. I don't care if I can't even tell I'm not listening to Municipal Waste. Crossover Ministry has done just about everything right; The riffs are tight and do have a sound of their own, the drums have that snare pop that is tuned in that sweet spot you have to like even if the bass drum is maybe a couple decibels too punchy I like it, it works and in the words of Accept the energy is "Balls to the Wall".

It would be unfair to leave out the straight facts that Iron Reagan have meddled with some experimentation to break apart tracks so they don't fall prey to bleeding into each other too much, which can happen… Dead With My Friends opens with a gangly and lurching piano, Fuck The Neighbors is an ode to partying and hating everyone else who gets in your way rife with gang-vocals and pro-boner soundbites of pansy neighbors, Parents of Tomorrow is only 00:05 seconds in length a la Napalm Death and how about Megachurch? Big tune of throwback worship with a hook that is guilty of being tight.

I've said enough, this album holds up and I'm going to spin too much. Bang on!

† † †

Iron Reagan - Crossover Ministry (Bandcamp)

Misþyrming - Hof (2017) [single]

One song will have to do to satiate my lust for Iceland's Misþyrming. This is different than what we heard in 2015, but this shouldn't comes as a surprise. As far as generalizations go within the Icelandic musical cloth, Icelanders get bored with playing it safe and sticking to the working formula. "If it's working, we gotta change it" I can hear someone saying. Good, fuck your comforts.

I'll let you listen to it rather than me telling you to expect a couple Hatebreed riffs and a Teitanblood 'Purging Tongues' type of dialogue. Nah, I won't.

Misþyrming (bandcamp)

The Coltranes - Everything I Dream B/W Let's Keep Our Fingers Crossed (2016)

The Coltranes come in heavy and with both feet planted in weird juju, noisy and wonky garage punk territory. Not a bad work ethic for a group of slime punks, they keep thier bandcamp nobly active with a handful of LP's, EP's, splits, etc. Better yet, nothing not worth your time.

Throw a couple bucks at these dudes if you're thoroughly inspired, you can have their whole discography for the cost of a pint, dink.

The Coltranes Bandcamp

Ljå - Til Avsky For Livet (2006)

Frostbitten black metal from Stavanger, Norway. This album becomes a decade old next month, which doesn't really matter but then again, neither do you, and neither do I. Til Avsky For Livet is the only full-length Ljå have released and may ever release for that matter as they have become about inactive as a Nun's cunt for the last 5 years.

Black metal elitists and puritans can release a collective and weighty sigh; Til Avsky For Livet follows the black metal ethos incredulously without sacrificing any ferocity or competency. The album in it's entirety is draining to listen to, through it's blistering pace it aims to sap your energy and rob you of all positivity. Winter is for black metal.

Ps; good luck snagging this on vinyl for under a $100, as expected.

Ljå - Til Avsky For Livet (Zippyshare)

Sumac - What One Becomes (2016)

Leave your whimsy in your grandmothers panty drawer, forget about happiness, abandon all faith and hope, disregard your well-being and submit to the sonic nihilism of Sumac's What One Becomes. I'm going to compile a small best of 2016 list soon; Small because I seemingly spent more time last year listening to podcasts and old records that I simultaneously and unintentionally tossed up a big fuck you to all new releases in the process.

One thing you can count on like you can count on shit smelling foul is that What One Becomes will be on that list. Sumac improved on their debut album, The Deal in every conceivable way; They bulked up the production so when it's plodding, the air is thick and the form glacial. The drums are mixed with tact, the snare pop is mega satisfying and the cymbals are spot on in the fray, a feat studio-headphone wearing shitters tend to fail at.

In it's entirety this album is a towering monolith in the world of doom and sludge, bang on.

Doom on my Wayward sons,

What One Becomes