metal review

2020 Albums

Album Review: Xenobiotic – Mordrake 7.8 (Deathcore)

December 4, 2019 Noob Heavy admin

Here’s the perfect storm of pre-release bait for me – it’s an Australian tech death release featuring the artwork of Mariousz Lewandowski (I know how we all feel but this one’s really good). Xenobitoic are a tech deathcore band from Australia’s new metal mecca, Perth. Take a look at my Top 25 Australian Metal Releases article and drink every time I wrote Perth, then just drink recreationally. Mordrake releases on the 21st of February and features a couple of guests vocals that really make their tracks for me. Expect more of a scifi prog approach than a bunch of breakdowns – we’re telling a story here with an album of a higher brow. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Wandar – Zyklus 9 (Black Metal)

November 19, 2019 Noob Heavy admin

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. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Oak – Lone 8 (Death Doom)

November 18, 2019 Noob Heavy admin

Is this Treebeards band? The vocals deadset sound like they’re coming for a colossal fucking tree. I shit you not. OAK are a death doom duo from Portugal and this is Lone, their debut LP featuring the artwork of Paolo Gerardi. There’s a strong presence with OAK that I think has carried over from their experience writing black metal songs in the band Gaerea. While it is certainly death doom, it is sometimes coated in black influence – particularly the song structure and vocal execution. Lone will be a memorable late year release many doom heads will take with them into 2020. […]

2019 Albums

Microdose: Xeno Ooze – Parasligm Shift (Grindcore)

November 17, 2019 Noob Heavy admin

Xeno Ooze are a unique new force in the grind underground. They formed in 2018 – making this their very first LP, but you couldn’t guess that just from listening. I love the level of vocal commitment on this album, it’s a hardcore style that sounds super throaty. It plays well the trebelled out mix of lofi grind and sludge riffage. It’s also a lot of fun, something important for any grindcore album no matter how bad ass the covers get. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Toluca – Soras 8.3 (Post Black/Screamo)

November 13, 2019 Noob Heavy admin

This year has been incredible and if you’ve been reading for a bit now then you’ve seen me become increasingly excited about metal over the course of 2019. I was starting to think it may slump then I started getting some really good submissions from very talented bands putting out music towards the end of the year. Death Metal, black metal and hardcore have been insane this year and so has sludge but until today I didn’t realise I was missing something that I fondly remember having last year – A solid and true to form post hardcore album in the visage of bands like Boss-De-Nage or Birds In Row. Toluca offers an experience equally eloquent and abrasive from the lands of Russia with their new album Soras. Out November 29th via Tokyo Jupiter Records. […]

2018 albums

Album Review: OVER POWER – Ruination 9 (Grindcore)

September 13, 2019 Noob Heavy admin

OVER POWER are an Indonesian death grind trio with an addictive grindcore sound, brace and behold the downstrokes and audio samples. I have a soft spot for this style of music, it’s so rooted in having a good time that I can’t bring myself to scrutinize it. Ruination is a mosh a minute and a head-nodder at the very least. There’s some interesting takes on here, especially vocally. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Ocultum – Residue 8 (Stoner Doom)

September 13, 2019 Noob Heavy admin

I’ve covered a lot of stoner doom on here, but the genre manages to keep throwing new approaches at me, or new trends in artwork or production. There’s always a fresh take around the corner if you know where to look. Ocultum has a lofi approach to their music that I find really intriguing, with vocals more suited to raw black metal than doom metal. It’s oddly endearing and prevents it from going the same stale route as many other bands currently are, with the wide Mastodon/Gojira vocal styling. There’s something different here, it’s dark and anti marketing in its presence. […]