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The Collection:
Tape Review: Sabïre – Gates Ajar 7.0 (Heavy Metal)
This is one of those times where I got a tape just because of how awesome the cover looked. This is some fun straight out of the 80s and carries both the sound and mentality of the era with it. We’re talking heavy metal guitars and clean vocals about sex and BDSM. It’s dated but highly listenable.
Continue Reading Tape Review: Sabïre – Gates Ajar 7.0 (Heavy Metal)
Tape Review: Religious Observance – Utter Discomfort 8.0 (Sludge)
I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it again, the Aussie underground has some of the best sludge bands in the world. We add sludge to everything, like it’s fucking tomato sauce, because it’s the best genre ever. Whether it’s black metal, death metal or doom metal you bet we’ll sludge it up and make it sound as strange as possible.
Continue Reading Tape Review: Religious Observance – Utter Discomfort 8.0 (Sludge)
Album Review: Carcinoid – Metastatic Declination 7.8 (Death Metal)
Carcinoid are a fun band to me, there’s something inherently goofy about it without it actually being a joke. This is raw af sludgeoned black death doom metal that will do things you haven’t really heard before, like absurdly clean bass tones and unexpected lofi melody. It’s not very accessible though, perhaps only existing for the sake of the most nihilistic and misanthropic metalheads around. There’s just so much sludge and generally ominous shit, this isn’t supposed to be accessible or palatable. It will be a sure hit for those like myself who enjoy super abrasive death doom, which is a lot of the metal cassette community.
Continue Reading Album Review: Carcinoid – Metastatic Declination 7.8 (Death Metal)
Album Review: Wandar – Zyklus 9 (Black Metal)
Zyklus is an outstanding black metal record that not a lot of people have heard over here and I’m honestly surprised. The quality and creative direction are both high end and it’s presented eloquently. Wandar are a German band who have been around since 2006 putting out music independently. I received the cassette from indie tape bistro Repose Records earlier this year and it has since become one of my favorite tapes. It’s also out on Vinyl, very recently actually. I’d recommend this to any black metal fan, especially those I see on social media growing weary of post-black releases this year. Wandar encompass most forms of black metal and won’t bore you about it.
Continue Reading Album Review: Wandar – Zyklus 9 (Black Metal)
Tape Review: Peasant/Somalgia – Within, Without (Black Metal)
I love split cassettes, you never know what is going to be thrown at you. It forces you into a more open minded state and what I received from this dank split is some enchanting black metal from a bunch of grim cunts in the UK. Limited to a now sold out 50, this is indeed a neat tape to receive. Might as well get on it digitally and give it a listen.
Continue Reading Tape Review: Peasant/Somalgia – Within, Without (Black Metal)
Tape Review: Usurper – Offerings 7 (Sludge/Drone)
Usurper are a volatile doom trio from Australia that often strips down to the aesthetic of a solo project, the opening of their 2018 tape Offerings is a slow build towards certain blackened doom. Something Australia does – no matter the genre – is bring a tinge of southern stoner sludge to the sound in some way. This sounds like a fetid corpse being kept alive by toxic bong vapours. To make it even better, the physical tape comes with an exclusive fourth track “Conjuration of the Four”. Well in theory it makes it better, it’s kind of an anti-track so it depends on who you are whether or not it’s a bonus.
Continue Reading Tape Review: Usurper – Offerings 7 (Sludge/Drone)
Esoteric Tape: Sullest – Fashionable Male 8.7 (Hardcore/Pop Punk)
I’m just too excited. It’s hard to write this review while or immediately after listening to this record because there is so much going on here and I react in very different ways to all of it. This is a tape sent to me courtesy of Tor Johnson Records when I ordered Cyttorak’s EP I reviewed earlier this year here. I’ve ordered from them a couple times now and it’s always great, cheap as chips as we say in Australia. Their bandcamp discog is 3.25 USD. The tapes are like 2 – 6 bucks a pop at the most and it’s always the strangest and actual esoteric stuff (what I’m all about baby). This is Sullest and their tape Fashionable Male. An adventure into hardcore pop-punk.
Continue Reading Esoteric Tape: Sullest – Fashionable Male 8.7 (Hardcore/Pop Punk)
Esoteric Tape: My Minds Mine/Sick Of Stupidity (Grindcore)
Splits can be done for many reasons but the ones I’m thinking of first and foremost are that they make for a great promo package for labels and is a great way for bands to put out music that just isn’t very long. It can also be a good way for multiple bands from one scene location to reach globally. Might as well put in with another band or two rather than add filler to create the new EP or LP. Perhaps they want to experiment with another genre or something like that too. The split is a utilitarian format for these reasons and many more. It’s collaborative and if all goes well, it’s a lot of fun. I’m always more likely to stick around for a B side if it’s just another bands A game.
Continue Reading Esoteric Tape: My Minds Mine/Sick Of Stupidity (Grindcore)
Tape Review: Sumeru – Summon Destroyer 8 (Doom Metal)
Sumeru are a Australian and they play some serious stoner metal with a lot of variety, It can be doomy, and it can also be progressive. The music, production and presentation is top notch. This tape is quite alluring thanks to the cover art by Paolo Girardi who I covered recently for his artwork on Abominate (2019) by Firespawn. I always enjoy being able to collect cassettes from good bands who also use good artists, hell it’s practically the premise for my collection. The band’s name is probably a reference to Mount Meru which “is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes”.
Continue Reading Tape Review: Sumeru – Summon Destroyer 8 (Doom Metal)
Tape Review: Corpseflesh – Rearranged With A Twelve Gauge 9 (Grindcore)
Rearranged With A Twelve Gauge was released this year with complete disregard and the current scenes: it’s old school death in an awesome and ignorant way. I enjoy brutal death metal a lot and this has a galloping pace and vocals somewhere between old Cannibal Corpse and Dethklok. B
Continue Reading Tape Review: Corpseflesh – Rearranged With A Twelve Gauge 9 (Grindcore)
Tape Review: Maggot Cave – Pub Full Of Maggots 9.69 (Grindcore)
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.
Continue Reading Tape Review: Maggot Cave – Pub Full Of Maggots 9.69 (Grindcore)
Tape Review: Midnight – Sweet Death & Ecstasy 8.7
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:
Continue Reading Tape Review: Midnight – Sweet Death & Ecstasy 8.7