Month: August 2019

2019 Albums

Album Review: Tool – Fear Inoculum 8.5 (Prog)

August 30, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

This is no doubt a divisive release and there’s a lot of context to consider such as a subversive band history. I’ve always considered Tool to be reliable, I don’t think they’ve ever released a bad album but I can definitely see how their fanbase tainted their image in the social media age. Like many frontmen in the history of music, Maynard has had plenty of cringey moments that get stuck in the spotlight. On a purely musical level, the decades of experience and their connection to the music is still apparent and at the bare minimum is a stellar performance. The question is, whether or not you will care about it I guess. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Knocked Loose – A Different Kind Of Blue 9.2 (Hardcore)

August 29, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

A Different Shade Of Blue is a really appropriate album for 2019. You can hear the exhaustion and frustration in every bit of the music, this isn’t aimless-angry that the metallic hardcore scene is often guilty of. If blue is melancholy then this is something else, a late stage of melancholy brought on by living in a fucked world. This kind of blue is tragic and disgusting. It’s a bruise on the world and our very souls. […]

2019 Albums

Tape Review: Maggot Cave – Pub Full Of Maggots 9.69 (Grindcore)

August 28, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

I knew I was in for some grindcore but I wasn’t expecting it to be this good. The deal with this project is that if I can, I will listen to an album for the very first time on tape. It’s a great approach that leads to a lot of surprises and discovery. There’s things you just don’t notice or care about digitally because our attentions spans are just fucked when we’re given a screen. There’s quite a few vocal techniques used throughout the tape – even at one point offering a howling heavy metal scream which completely caught me off guard. Combined with the great use of comedic samples there’s a lot of appreciate here, most of which seem to be taken from films, sitcoms and Australian radio shows. They all sounded super familiar to me but I can’t quite place them, I suspect the opening one is from Reno 911.  […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Firespawn – “Abominate” 8.6/10 (Death/Thrash)

August 24, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

I didn’t have any expectations for this record, I just knew it has some killer art that reminds me of Dark Souls. Most things do and I can always fuck with that. It’s got the Swedish sound but it’s more thrashy than melodic, it’s a very rockin’ death metal record with great rhythms. There’s a strong old school element not too far from the path of Entombed but there’s also the presence of newer trendier ideas. I say give it a go because I’ve listened to it a few times and it’s stayed catchy over the course. It’s a modern album featuring some veteran musicians from bands such as Entombed, Morbid, Unleashed, Nihil, Dark Funeral and more. Very much a supergroup. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Rotting Christ – The Heretics 8.6 (Black Metal)

August 23, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

On the list of countries with an extended history of black metal, Greece would definitely not be among the first options that would come to mind. Yet, their banner-raisers Rotting Christ, hailing from Athens for over three decades, have ever since been a solid name of estimable repute within the community. They recently released their 13th offering, so aptly named The Heretics. As the name suggests and as you might expect, the whole album revolves around the notion of heresy; kind of an accolade to those freethinkers and revolutionaries of enlightenment who have, through their payment in blood or at the cost of their own sanity, laid the foundations of modern free speech. From Nietzsche to Voltaire and everything in between. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Shadow Of Intent – Melancholy 8.5 (Deathcore)

August 23, 2019 zaxrecordreviews

After reviewing a few black metal records on this site I figured i’d change it up a bit, after all I enjoy all types of extreme metal, including deathcore. Deathcore is easily one of the most controversial extreme metal genres, because everyone has very strong opinions about it. I enjoy a great deal of deathcore myself, despite some of the more boring and generic bands and records in the genre. One of the biggest bands in the genre right now is Shadow Of Intent. Much like the genre they play, opinions on them are very divided. […]

Speed Metal

Tape Review: Midnight – Sweet Death & Ecstasy 8.7

August 15, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

Alright, I didn’t just get this one for the vibrant and ridiculous cover art (done by William Lacey), it’s a fucking sick album from a bunch of probably real dick heads and isn’t the way of some pretty good tunes and genres? It’s on the line of blackened speed and hard rock, it’s an entertaining mentality that I’m more used to hearing out of Australia. They also take on an interesting live appearance, reminding of The Locust: […]