Aussie metal

2019 Albums

Album Review: Holy Serpent – Endless 10 (Stoner/Gaze)

November 4, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

Endless is straight up ‘the shit’, that’s the most important fact of this review. It’s an album that has made me swoon like few others this year and it’s not exactly that metal or heavy. It is however, perfectly suited to the current climate of stoner rock and doom, bringing something quite zesty and refreshing, a fusion of fuzz, alt rock and doom rock. I’m hearing influences from Type O Negative and My Bloody Valentine, it’s super inspired and engorged with energy despite the doomy tempo. They nailed it musically and in terms of doom aesthetic – something Australia has been refining for some time now. […]

2019 Albums

Interview: Satta (Visual Artist)

October 25, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

I became familiar with Satta through IG as I follow a lot of dark artists suitable for band merch, Satta however has a classical approach to the style that outshines the rabble of common assets and lazy work ethic. His art is not just dark by subject, it embodies it fully, from conception to technique to completion. It’s a higher brow darkness. I also became familiar with the aussie OSDM band Aeon’s Abyss through instagram, who ended up commissioning Satta for their upcoming album Impenitent (Nov 1), a fortunate pairing sharing similar classic metal values. Here is an interview with the artist Satta in which we discuss influences, the upcoming album and living as an artist. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: The Ritual Aura – Velothi 8.2 (Tech Death)

October 15, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

Before even pressing play I am more or less in love with this album and I think the concept of Morrowind Metal has been a long ass time coming. Morrowind was the game of my life, no doubt about it, I found it at Video Ezy on original XBOX when I was 11. I played Morrowind and only Morrowind until Oblivion was released on 360 when I was 15. I have an encyclopedia like memory of that game and its many quest lines, as well as exploits. I found that fucking Dwemer Cube about 300 times. I’ve played it plenty as an adult too, fully modded. This is even more in my wheelhouse than Dark Souls. The Ritual Aura are also an Australian band with great album art. The music would have to suck more balls than I can imagine being sucked to fuck this up. […]

Metal

Live Shots: Lizzard Wizzard @ Crowbar Brisbane 27/09/19

September 28, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

This show was absolutely wild and hard to photograph. So much went on and I’m a big new fan of Wizzard Lizzard. Firstly they look exactly how they ‘ought to and the bassist is wearing the shirt for the same Carcinoid demo I’ll be reviewing this week. At some point a guest vocalist joined from the crowd and I was able to replace him at the front. The final song, some dude in a suit had to stand there holding the guitar amp plug into the amp and this is stoner doom so the songs like 7 mins haha. Big show, I’ll be sure to get to the front early next time. […]

Aussie metal

Australian Heavypedia: Vahrzaw (Black Metal)

September 13, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

Vahrzaw are one of Australia’s longest running black metal acts having played under various names in the early 90s. While many bands have come and gone, Vahrzaw have marched on unable to be stopped by neither politics nor circumstance, leaving a long trail of releases featuring interesting artwork. Metalheads in need of an audio pummelling look no further. Their sound hasn’t been compromised in the face of an ever changing scene over the decades and after Husk, their ripper of a 2018 album, they are returning with a brand new album slated for 2020. I spoke to Vahrzaw guitarist Scott about it and the bands origin. […]