2018 albums

Album Review: Whoretopsy – Take My Breath Away 8.5 (Brutal Death)

Whoretopsy recently got a new vocalist and I have to say right off the bat that he sounds awesome. The style is far more hardcore influenced than a lot of the brutal and grind death still around, it’s a really nice blending of genres that doesn’t shift hard enough to ever betray what makes them so metal. From Australian accented hardcore shouts to full blown pig sequels, it’s all here and it all feels valid. Musically they are technically proficient and playful, just down-tuned to hell. They often qualify under death metal and grindcore in equal measure, some more purist metalheads might not enjoy this offering but I consider it refreshing and a heap of fun. They embody “Australia” in a lot of ways – often sarcastically which in it’s self is very Australian. Nothing here is done without anger coated humor or humor coated anger. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Desecresy – “Towards Nebulae” 9.2/10 (Death Metal)

Desecresy is an interesting name, I wonder how many people read it differently from me, perhaps resembling something closer to the word “secretary” for some. I went into this with no expectations and as usual that pays off. This is a strange kind of lo-fi death metal that I can’t really pin to an era despite the band stating 90’s influences. They also use a level of dischord in their music that always brushes my fancy, it’s hard to explain but it’s a kind of tone not unlike a warped cassette tape or a fever dream. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Disentomb – “The Decaying Light” 9/10 (Death Metal)

I was surprised by the opener to be honest, I was expecting some pretty standard death with an emphasis on being as “hard af”. There’s quite a bit of motion and emotion to this introduction, leading into some down-tuned guttural grind with often complex and excited guitars. The aggression feels genuine and sometimes even wounded. My exposure to Disentomb is entirely live and local from some time ago, so I’ll have to go back and check out previous releases. This easily stands up to a lot of the work of Full Of Hell or Unique Leader label-mates Ingested, which seem to be the death grind kings at the moment. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Horrisonous – A Culinary Cacophony 9 (Death Metal)

This is how I like my death metal, with a healthy dose of Aussie doom. It’s becoming that kind of place, the kind of country that needs doom to seep through the cracks in the bleach white wall of the Starbucks joined to an Apple store. There’s plenty of pent up rage on this island just waiting for the chance to crush the ‘surface’. This is raw, heavy and real. This is probably one of the filthiest death releases this year. For fans of death like The Chasm and Autopsy and death doom like Swallow The Sun. The balance is really good here, leaning into death heavily. […]

2018 albums

Album Review: Eluvian – “Prophetic Flame” 8/10 (Melo Death)

I found this album due to the artwork from Luke Oram who has done a bunch of solid metal records in the past couple of years like Firelink and Slugdge. He can do a variety of styles really well like fantasy, scifi and horror. He’s done a heap of covers but has a small following, he’s basically one of metals secret weapons right now. As a kind of bonus you can only get here at Noob Heavy, here’s a time lapse of Luke creating the cover for this album: […]

2018 albums

Album Review: Slugdge – Esoteric Malacology 8.7 (Prog Death)

Esoteric Malacology has some unexpectedly harsh death metal within the first part of the LP. With a lump of progressive elements and a thickness in the bottom of the mix that draws from their sludge namesake – Elements which are more thoroughly expressed in the mid to late parts. When the clean vocals also become prominent. Slugdge are a slug-themed sludge band but with this release the progressive death is really coming through more than anything else. The sludge is more from the mixing vibes. […]