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: Advent Sorrow – Kali Yuga Crown 8.5 (DSBM)

Advent Sorrow are an Australian black metal band that have been going at it since 2009 to moderate amounts of acclaim. They’ve come back this year with their new album titled “Kali Yuga Crown”.

To get more specific they operate out of the niche genre depressive suicidal black metal, or DSBM for short. It’s not a genre I’ve ever been all that into, but granted it is, as I said, very niche – so not a lot of music comes out of it, and the music that does come out of it rarely makes it’s way to the ears of the uninitiated. That being said, this album is a very good gateway into the genre. It incorporates elements of other genres and sub-genres such as atmospheric black metal, 1st wave black metal, and doom. The atmospheric moments come in the form of occasional keyboard flourishes and melodic guitar riffs, these influences are most present on the closing track “Death In Magic Antagonism.” The doom influences can be found on the track “Caesar” which employs these very slow, sludgy riffs. Then on tracks like “Spearhead” and “Wolf & Weapon” you can see more classic and traditional black metal song structure, especially in the drums. It’s like a black metal layer cake. […]

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. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Full Of Hell – Weeping Choir 8.8 (Grindcore)

I’m developing a fondness for this balls deep heavy kind of sound. Since hearing their previous release I’ve explored more of what the Grind tag has to offer, from the classics recommended to me by the community to the newer bands like Iron Eagle and Ampallang Infection. I’m definitely getting a feel for it now but still have a way to go. What I am finding is that across all the grind styles are some pretty wild decisions made about album composition and song presentation. It’s like extreme metal wasn’t cutting it so people have tried to condense it’s heaviness into the smallest frame possible. To be the loudest the fastest without ever compromising brutality… well, they do comprise a little on this record and it’s quite eloquent when it happens. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Everest Queen – “Dead Eden” 8.7/10 (Death Doom)

Dead Eden is a stoner tinged death doom album. There’s also a healthy dose of Neurosis and Melvins inspiration that gives it an overall vibe resembling a combination of Conan and Isis. It rumbles when it’s heavy and it’s fanciful when it spreads out, never losing traction in between. It was released in April and the band still have a pretty small following, this should definitely change asap, some solid stuff here. The UK produces the world’s most trustworthy doom. […]

2018 albums

Album Review: Iron Eagle – Audio Nasty 9 (Grindcore)

It’s been a while since I’ve heard some good punk influenced death metal. Deathgrind, grindcore, whatever you want to call this, It’s pretty fucking rad and definitely some dirty shit through and through. It’s not as simple as you’d expect though, with many tasty treats hidden beneath a repulsive outer layer. The name is based on an old movie, Iron Eagle, if that gives you any insight into their more playful influences, humor and old films have always been effective within the genre. […]

2018 albums

Album Review: Virgil – The Pacer EP 8 (Prog)

I got put onto this one after chatting with Dr.Knudson who did the cover art for Welcome to Bonkers. He also did the art for this tight little EP from an american prog instrumental outfit called Virgil. So check him out, this artwork speaks a lot to the complicated and chaotic nature of the music. It’s pretty badass. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Hellripper – Black Arts & Alchemy EP 9 (Speed Metal)

At this point I’m covering so many one man bands and it’s crazy the level of quality an individual can put out now. This guy has a bit of a history having released a slew of recordings over the past few years, a lot of which are well received. He’s clearly onto something. I’ll definitely be going back to check out the LP which holds a whopping 89% at the Metallum. This has 91% with less reviewers. Just for context, most of the time fully fledged and veteran bands get worse scores than this every day. There’s plenty of blackened speed metal here with zero compromise to the sound or intensity. Definitely check this one out. […]