March 2021 - Page 3 of 4

Album Review: DVNE – “Etemen Ænka” 8.5/10 (Post Metal)

March 11, 2021 Ellis Heasley

With a runtime of 67 minutes, Etemen Ænka, the third album from Edinburgh-based progressive/post-metallers Dvne, makes for quite the undertaking. While hardly a rarity for music of this kind, records this long tend to go one of two ways. Either they stretch out as painful unfocused slogs which struggle to maintain their listeners’ attention; or, less often, they have the mind-bending effect where time appears to fold in on itself and the lengthy runtime hardly registers. Fortunately in Dvne’s case, it’s definitely the latter. Etemen Ænka is a gargantuan record whose ten tracks draw comparisons to some of the most respected and creative names in metal, including the likes of Cult Of Luna, Mastodon and The Ocean. […]

Album Review: Feculent – “The Grotesque Arena” 8/10 (Death Metal)

March 10, 2021 Kep

Releasing on March 19, The Grotesque Arena is the debut album from Brisbane’s own Feculent, one of a number of fantastic bands to come recently out of Australia. This could almost be called a supergroup, if that term meant anything these days, as it features a whole slew of great musicians that you might know from other bands: Matthew Budge of Resin Tomb, Siberian Hell Sounds, and Consumed on vocals, Kaleb Doherty of thrashers Idle Ruin on guitar, Jim Dandy of Descent on bass, and master-of-all-trades Brendan Auld on drums. Auld is the mastermind behind grimy one-man project Snorlax, which put one of 2020’s most underrated death metal records, as well as a member of Resin Tomb, Siberian Hell Sounds, Consumed, and Necroseptic. He also does the production and mixing here for Feculent. Needless to say, this lineup is stacked, and boy does the music reflect that. […]

Interview: Herr Brummbar and Herr Hornad from Chainsword

March 9, 2021 Steven - Aeons Abyss

Chainsword from Poland have just released a cracker of a Death Metal album in Blightmarch (27 Feb 2021 on Godz ov War Productions) and yes, the Bolt Thrower worship is present, but this album is still its own beast! I can’t wait for my CD to arrive, although it will be a while as its gotta travel travel about 15,450km from Warsaw to Melbourne! […]

Album Review: Dread Sovereign – “Alchemical Warfare” 7.5/10 (Death Doom)

March 9, 2021 Noob Heavy admin

Formed in Dublin back in 2013, Dread Sovereign has been around for a while but never caught my attention. Their first two albums were released on Ván Records but ALCHEMICAL WARFARE is their first to be released on Metal Blade Records. I was looking through the selection of promos last week and I decided I would take a chance on Dread Sovereign’s latest release, ALCHEMICAL WARFARE. I say “taking a chance” because the description said something like “Classic Doom mixed in with some Venom”. Personally, I am not a fan of Venom, and as for Doom Metal, my tastes lean more toward the Funeral, Blackened, and Death/Doom variety. […]

Album Review: Spire – “Temple Of Kronos” 8.5/10 (Avant Garde)

March 8, 2021 Noob Heavy admin

Last year I started following the Sentient Ruin Laboratories record label on social media. Fast forward to February of 2021 and they are just promoting the hell out of this new album from a band of which I had never heard. That band is the Australian duo Spire and the album is TEMPLE OF KHRONOS. Having enjoyed previous bands from this label like Shaidar Logoth and Novae Militiae, I FINALLY, almost reluctantly was like “Alright, fine. I’ll give it a listen. Stop taking up my Facebook feed, goddamnit!” […]

Album Review: Grohot – “Creatio ex Nihilo” 7/10 (Black Metal)

March 8, 2021 Espi Kvlt

This first effort from black metal band Grohot is certainly enough to get my attention. I listen to a lot of black metal day in and day out, but my interest was immediately piqued when I saw they’re from Romania. A band from the home of vampires? Surely this will be great! While it didn’t necessarily meet my high expectations, it is a solid record, and I believe with time Grohot has the potential to polish up their sound and become great. […]

Album Review: Scatter Shot – “As Above So Below” 7.9/10 (Hardcore)

March 6, 2021 zaxrecordreviews

In case you weren’t aware, I am the website’s resident Florida man. We have a giant beatdown hardcore/metalcore scene here that I believe may be the cream of the crop for the new wave of the genre. We have bands like Traitors and Bodysnatcher carrying the torch with a plethora of promising up and coming bands in the scene, like Broadmoor, Dealey Plaza, and Scatter Shot. […]

Album Review: The Amenta – “Revelator” 9/10 (Avant Garde)

March 4, 2021 Noob Heavy admin

The pre-release promotion on this one was immense and filled with curious dark aesthetic, so am I quite excited to delve into this return LP, the Revelator from Australian big boys The Amenta. They did a promotional thing that is right up there on my list of favorite things bands have done, they gave away a haunting full head mask of the lead singer’s visage, very cool memorabilia unique to the band. […]

Album Review: Dreamwell – “Modern Grotesque” 8.5/10 (Post Hardcore)

March 3, 2021 Ellis Heasley

It seems that screamo, or ‘skramz’, has been in a really good place over the past few years. The list of bands who’ve put out great records that broadly sit within that world is pretty endless at this point, with recent standouts including Frail Body, For Your Health and Frail Hands, to name a few. Seeking to add their name to this list with their second full-length, entitled Modern Grotesque, are the Providence-based ‘emo post skramz’ five-piece, Dreamwell. Off the strength of this record, it feels like they belong there. Modern Grotesque is an album that’s thick with a heartfelt emotion and passion. Often, this manifests as something quite visceral and abrasive, but it can also be extremely melodic and even moving at points. […]