SHORT REVIEWS Our second chunk of February 2022 releases finds us hitting upon a bit more paydirt, or, at least a strong handful of proper dramatic and inspired acts. I’ve done my best to grab ahold of the most interesting stuff while presenting some decent variety here. In terms of February releases not included here, I’ve reserved a group of albums which I’ll feature in upcoming long-form reviews. If you find something you dig in the lot of ’em, go tell the band on social media and support them with a purchase. The arts require your support and/or own contributions. If you’d like your music reviewed send promos to: grizzlybutts@hotmail.com

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Info:
ARTIST:	MYSTIC CIRCLE
TITLE:	Mystic Circle
LABEL(S):	Atomic Fire Records
RELEASE DATE:	February 4th, 2022

If you weren’t around for the spread of ‘accessible’ black metal to the United States in the 90’s by way of major promotional push for Emperor, Cradle of Filth and especially Dimmu Borgir (among many others + local upstarts) then you are missing the context of this distinctly European invasion that nobody seemed to want or understand at first. I remember seeing Matt Pinfield on MTV being asked what black metal could do to better reach the masses and essentially saying “the make-up is dumb, they’re not great musicians and the production is bad“. Magazines weren’t sure what to do with ’em intially, you’d get the granola lookin’ down to earth death metal crews of the mid-90’s featured next to Scandinavian fire-spouting panda-faced faux Satanists and their xeroxed photos — the pieces just didn’t interlock but for teenaged me it was an incredible “ill-natured spiritual invasion” or at least a knock on the ass which the increasingly pretentious world of surface-level extreme metal seemed to need.

Anyhow, nostalgic rants aside German melodic/symphonic black metal band Mystic Circle might’ve been cracking away at their form of black metal since 1992 but they’d never be fully accepted by the ‘elite’ underground circles as genuine despite having put out several substantial demo tapes in the 90’s with strong presentation. Often described as an also-ran or a group willing to go along with the best-selling attributes of their niche at the time, these guys were not deterred throughout their initial run. Having released something new every year between 1994 and 2006 whilst touring including seven full-lengths and a few EP length demos you could not have missed them amidst the crowd in the early 2000’s as they’d eventually sign to Massacre Records for 3-4 heavily marketed records. Original or not, the work ethic and their body of material was serious business for some considerable amount of time.

So, why return to Mystic Circle? The thought had likely occurred to some ex-members at some point, I believe a different version of the band intended to make a comeback in the 2010’s but folded after a year. This version is a duo featuring original bassist/vocalist Graf von Beelzebub and original drummer A. Blackwar (Mord, ex-Zorn) and it seems these fellowes were ready for the chance with material that intends to pick up where their songwriting union fell off with 1999’s ‘Infernal Satanic Verses‘. Well, they don’t necessarily hit that mark instead touching upon something closer to their pre-blackened death phase in ‘The Great Beast’ (2001) and perhaps with less of the mid-paced operatic pieces and the symphony in the rafters sound largely popularized by nearby Dimmu Borgir records of the time.

I would go as far as to say the original formation of Mystic Circle was never so fast-paced and decisive in terms of drumming hitting much harder out the gates and their quickly development of complete melodic black metal riff-phrases. ‘Morgenröte – Der Schrei nach Finsternis‘ (1996) had some similar impetus but the gothic metal element within their music was still quite strong and the band’s creative peak ‘Drachenblut‘ (1998) was more concerned with telling a story with grand-sized bravado. Listen to these albums for vital context. With this in mind I’d suggest that ‘Mystic Circle‘ realizes some of the earliest and most distinct ambitions of Mystic Circle and presents them as a modern yet nostalgic black metal record, cutting right to the effective heart of those ideas while delivering far more effective melodicism. We are so often served a proposed ideation of what late 90’s/early 2000’s black metal sounded like and if there is a great success here it is that these fellowes preserve the spirit of those times while showcasing a couple decades worth of insight into their craft.

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Info:
ARTIST:	BEASTIALITY
TITLE:	Sacrificial Chants
LABEL(S):	Invictus Productions
RELEASE DATE:	February 25th, 2022

Stockholm, Sweden-borne black-thrashing death maulers Beastiality have returned after several years and a full re-staff of the band beyond 2017’s incredible ‘Worshippers of Unearthly Perversions‘. Founder and sole original member Heinrich (ex-Morbid Insulter) continues to anchor the project with his knack for the most classic forms of black/thrash riffcraft delivered with death/thrash intensity, fans of the band’s first album will immediately recognize his work. The major difference here is probably a general lean from black/speed influenced tempo mapping towards something that wheels between the austere Australian realm of black/thrash and the Nifelheim and Sarcófago levels of extremist aggression. It is the sound the band are known for but given an even more brutal kick into the fray; The title track does the best job of conveying the greater extremes explored and to what Beastiality‘s sound has evolved. I am a huge fan of these riffs and this band in general, hoping a full-length of this same caliber is on the way sooner or later.

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Info:
ARTIST:	PIKE VS THE AUTOMATON
TITLE:	Pike Vs The Automaton
LABEL(S):	MNRK Heavy
RELEASE DATE:	February 18th, 2022

The gist of Pike VS The Automaton‘s formation is basically Matt Pike jamming with friends from his local Portland area spheres during the first few peaks of COVID-19 lockdown and eventually writing songs and making an album of it. The result is essentially a Pike solo record featuring members/ex-members of Lord Dying and guests from various other projects which he has described as a psychedelic rock album. Well, sure, a heavy one that kicks off sounding quite a bit like High on Fire‘s earlier jam-heavy sound with lots of space-cased Sabbath grooves. Once we land on eh, “Land” and its sort of gospel feelin’ blues shuffle ‘Pike Vs The Automaton‘ briefly feels less like a time-killing jam session between High on Fire records and a bit more of a worthwhile expansion beyond what we’ve heard from Pike in the past. From there he slides back into the expected sludge heavy stoner metal exaggerations the record began with, as “Alien Slut Mum” kicks us toward the less ‘serious’ back half of the record.

As we plop into the second half of the double LP the songwriting doesn’t appear to have pushed too far beyond their core jam sessions before being minted. This sort of loose-shouldered yet decisive approach comes close to feeling like living and breathing exploration, a spur of the moment decision on what feels good that is about as easygoing as Pike‘s penchant for heavier-doomed rhythms has been for some time. I don’t think pieces like “Leaving the Wars of Woe” or “Apollyon” are going to blow minds outside of longtime ‘The Art of Self Defense‘ era heads but if you were there, and you’re here now they’re a damned good time. If big songs, bigger grooves and all manner of signature Pike sounds with few twists are up your alley this is a fine enough collection of songs. The song order never came together as an album for me but when cracked into piecemeal there are smoking songs all over this record.

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Info:
ARTIST:	KLAMMER
TITLE:	The Day Before Yesterday
LABEL(S):	Heavy Metal Records
RELEASE DATE:	February 25th, 2022

Leeds, England-borne post-punk quartet Klammer continue to refine their nostalgic ’79-’81 darkwave-adjacent sound on this fourth full-length, a quite long and droning record which’d eventually win me over by attrition. Producer and guitarist Steve Whitfield places fairly equal space between (and emphasis upon) each of the four performer spaces herein, giving wide berth for his more sparsely phrased progressions to develop their ring n’ clank through the notably easier-going gloom of ‘The Day Before Yesterday‘. They’d already eased up a bit on ‘You Have Been Processed‘ (2018) and this seems to have been the trick after another go at it, giving some space to breathe as we reach a pleasantly stark outer-spaced aura on pieces like “While You Sleep” today. Paul ‘Poss’ Strickland‘s vocals are again largely unaffected, in fact somewhat too cold as the first half of the album reads like a laundry list of dismayed reactions, but with “The Blind Leading the Blind” and “Oblivion” we see some solid steps out of line which add to the greater variety of the full listen.

When Klammer are really on ‘The Day Before Yesterday‘ sells itself in minutes yet the conversation eventually keeps prattling on longer than it should. There’ll really be no living up to the energy of the first handful of pieces here with the narrative of opener “Pass the Test”, the Gang of Four-tinged verses of “Broken Dreams in a Crashing Car”, and the waist-level grind and shimmer of “Progress (Or Lack Thereof)” overtaking the senses best. That said there are no absolute turds in the mix, just a few too many pieces. I’d probably have clipped the running order down by about ten minutes and left a more succinct mark of dread upon the listener.

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Info:
ARTIST:	MOONLIGHT SORCERY
TITLE:	Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity
LABEL(S):	Self-Released
RELEASE DATE:	February 18th, 2022

As you’ll have guessed with a quick glance at the cover art Moonlight Sorcery are a black metal band of the nostalgic, heroic and mid-to-late 90’s attuned affect. The Finnish trio achieve this debut EP with a very strong aesthetic and an incredibly inspired shredding form of melodic black metal that features frost-blasted keyboards and Sognametal-esque guitar heroics. The shredding here aims for the “epic” rather than the masturbatory, flinging each run upwards within the storm of cold reverb and scowling vocals. For a nowadays Finnish black metal band this might seem a bit normal on paper but in motion ‘Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity‘ develops its own melodic voice which leans far more heavy metal than expected at times (see: “Wolven Hour”) and this sets their goals astray from the usual Sargeist riff-cloner. I’ve found this record entirely addictive, I appreciate the detail available to the keyboard work and how it often shapes the organic nature of the recording a dynamic that certainly justifies mastering from Henri Sorvali of Trollhouse Audio/Moonsorrow was incredibly appropriate for this band’s sound. They’ve got “it”, that extra sense of purpose that darkest high fantasy black metal needs to make a few albums worthwhile pursuit, I would guess at least some of the folks in Moonlight Sorcery are seasoned pros because this is already worthy, inspired stuff.

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Info:
ARTIST:	LEGENDARIUM
TITLE:	Under the Spell of Destruction
LABEL(S):	Self-Released
RELEASE DATE:	February 11th, 2022

Legendarium is a somewhat prolific collaboration between West Frisian musician Laurence Kerbov and Italian drummer Stefano Vaccari which embraces their vision of epic heavy/speed metal delivered with a sort of deadpan melodicism influenced by the more severe proto-hardcore punk acts of the late 70’s/early 80’s. Kerbov‘s vocals carry a tune well enough though they are largely functional and somewhat flat a la Morris Ingram, this goes a long way towards setting the tone for these otherwise dramatically stated mid-to-fast paced heavy metal songs. The intent is perhaps something halfway between heavy rock song structures, power metal key changes, and melodic hardcore punk voicing, the end result is memorable enough in its well-contained admixture. After three albums the duo have made some notable progress in terms of production values and performances but the double-bass drumming still desperately needs equal definition with the rest of the kit and this ends up clobbering the low end of the mix to dust, muffling all but the guitar tone and vocals. This puts a slight technical damper on an otherwise inspired record.

The missing link here by my own measure here is harmonization as key emphasis, be it the vocals or the lead guitar runs many striking moments on ‘Under the Spell of Destruction‘ land a bit flat because the mix/master, or lack thereof, leaves the ear searching for precision only to find it in the rhythm guitar tone. “Live at the End of Time” is a perfect example of this wherein a couple of piano hits and an extra layer or two on the leads might’ve struck a far deeper chord past the ~4:10 minute mark. The larger statement to make is that the songwriting is essentially there and the bones of what Legendarium have achieved here amounts to fine, memorable work but I’m waiting on that sort of next-level kick into gear and belted-out voice one’d expect three records in. They’ll go far with this idea and I think it is worth a producer/engineer push and some study of harmony to boost the core idea here.

Info:
ARTIST:	AUTHOR & PUNISHER
TITLE:	Krüller
LABEL(S):	Relapse Records
RELEASE DATE:	February 11th, 2022

Microfluidics specialist Tristan Shone‘s one man-machined industrial doom/drone project Author & Punisher is thrilling enough in seated, close-eyed visualization as a beautifully layered and decidedly physical grind through equally sludged and now increasingly ethereal realms yet this is only half of what makes makes the artist interesting. We can relate the appeal of his spectacular (well, perhaps smoke and mirrors assisted) performances to those dating back to the 13th century with street performers or “one-man bands” typically performing at least three instruments at once. In this case he has engineered somewhat simple mechatronic devices that modulate and trigger electronic instrumentation, all of which are custom developed since 2004. A bit of hype from Vice’s Noisey docu-series in prep for his seventh album and Relapse debut ‘Beastland‘ (2018) had helped an already well-attended artist reach more of a big deal status and the four year break has folks ready for this next step.

What to expect is perhaps obvious in terms of popular music, the machine has been realized by and large only to find ‘Krüller‘ as the vessel wherein the artist inserts some form of intimacy and soul into the singular tech in hand. The key vulnerability explored within this eighth album seems to be uncertainty for the future, a conveyance of fear for a very real decimation of society before us wherein environmental collapse leads to the resources-warring endtyme evident before us. Of course I am taking liberty with this proposed meaning, the artist implies Octavia Butler’s Parable series of 90’s sci-fi books served as thematic inspiration which lines up with this thought, but it is nonetheless worth musing over collapse and survival while sitting with the album. This trepidation for what comes next is additionally conveyed via slicker production, less harshened synth walls and a general reduction of barriers provided by distorted tones. This allows for Shone‘s alt-industrial metal vocals to forego barks and roars for the sake of pensive semi-melodicism one might liken to the more active yet listless pulse of Jesu. “Maiden Star” is perhaps the biggest eureka moment for this new-ish cleaner vocal modus as the tracklist struggles to find profundity beyond the class opener “Drone Carrying Dread”.

By rescinding a lot of distorted tendencies and reverb-heavy rendering Author & Punisher lands with far more impressive fidelity, sounding as big as ‘Beastland‘ wanted to despite being less aggressive as a whole. I generally prefer the artist’s earlier work (Melk en Honing, 2015) for personal listening but I would much rather see the songs from ‘Krüller‘ performed in a live setting and I could see this type of material dramatically transforming the mood of his live shows beyond techno-spectacle; Especially if that means the guest spots from members of Tool on “Misery” and “Centurion” alongside the guitar spots on the album would be performed by additional live musicians. The only song that didn’t translate within the running order is the cover/interpretation of Portishead‘s “Glory Box”, cutting away the steady step of the original’s Isaac Hayes sampled bassline and building it into big buzzing mountain of a song landed a bit flat on my end, dramatizing the message but maybe missing the pulse a bit. A fine record from the artist and easily his most accessible starting point for new fandom.

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Info:
ARTIST:	SERPENT COBRA
TITLE:	Beware [12″ EP]
LABEL(S):	Helter Skelter, Regain Records
RELEASE DATE:	February 25th, 2022

Argentina-based traditional doom metal quartet Serpent Cobra‘s latest EP technically released in November of 2021 on cassette and way back in April of that year in terms of digital but here in February of 2022 it finally hits its natural medium as a limited vinyl release. ‘Beware‘ is a quick ~15 minute follow-up to their 2020 debut LP ‘Anatomy of Abuses‘ which’d proposed a sort of NWOBHM-era doom metal sound to the key of Witchfinder General and Pentagram. This is a solid starting point in terms of what they’re all about but they’ve explored occult rock and late 70’s sounds in general here, especially on the instrumental title track which serves as a bridge between the two main pieces. “Bloody Countess” is the big song here for my own tastes with its punkish vocal and sleepier middle section, bluesy half-speed solo and all. They’ve not nailed the 80’s U.K./U.S. doom metal spectrum completely and I think that helps keep ‘Beware‘ interesting on its own doom/occult rock merit. A solid introduction to their sound but I’d say check out their full-length for additional necessary context.

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Info:
ARTIST:	HEBOSAGIL
TITLE:	Yössä
LABEL(S):	Svart Records
RELEASE DATE:	February 25th, 2022

If you’d stumbled across the term New Wave of Finnish Suomi Rock in reference to Hebosagil, yeah that is an inside joke which should register with anyone who’d ever made even the most basic effort to translate or bump into Finnish music. I think that is a more profound point to make than most would consider since the band generally express themselves in the Finnish language, it’ll take a special sort of engaged international fandom to pick one of their records up and get to know it and likely via shoddy translation. Plus hey, to be fair “atmospheric sludge metal infused psychedelic noise rock” would’ve sounded a bit contrived coming from these anxious, ominous, and punk-swatted Oulu-based fellowes who’d move from punk/thrash to modern sludge metal between 2003 and 2008 when their debut album released. From there the trip has been tangential along the way but largely focused on creating tension within what most would consider post-metal/sludge, as off-base as that classification is in practice. Anyhow, you won’t get the same thing from these folks twice and

The big side story within their discography for my own taste is ‘Ura‘ (2011) a fine noise rock leaning album that’d had me looking for Scandinavian sludge and noise punk more often from that point on. In terms of nowadays-minded tyrants their key paradigm shift into post-metal was made circa 2016 with ‘Lohtu‘, a feat which they’ve absorbed in oeuvre (see: “Yksin helvettiin”) but have not repeated since.

With ‘Yössä‘ the band find themselves melting together past and present until it is a fresh shipwreck of atmospheric rock infused sludge-heavy music, a momentum savoring bigger-scaled record which fans of ‘Svartir sandar‘-era Sólstafir will likely appreciate at face value. Opener “Tämä on nähty” makes it clear Hebosagil have their own point of view and sound in hand even if the elements they’re working with are familiar within the realms of modern sludge and noise rock extremes, and because of songs like this (also: “Mitä jos” and “Olen valmis lähtemään”) ‘Yössä‘ feels like a one of a kind, alien experience.

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Info:
ARTIST:	SEPULCHRAL
TITLE:	From Beyond the Burial Mound
LABEL(S):	Soulseller Records
RELEASE DATE:	February 25th, 2022

Sepulchral is an Spanish ‘old school’ minded death metal project formed by Basque musician Dusk (Arvalastra, Saguzar) in 2016 and their style is entirely straight forward as an extension of classic Swedish death metal in the spectre of early Autopsy, HM-2 driven attacks somewhere along the lines of Mass Burial, Fleshcrawl, and early Horrid (Italy). The riffs don’t really begin to start to kick into gear until the fourth song “Sepulchral Fumes” begins to really make good use of their outsized and slightly digital sounding distortion levels, crunching out seriously well-defined bottom end while making good use of easier pacing. Though this album doesn’t really go places beyond this high point of cemetery freaking classic death metal and d-beaten kicks the performances are tight and entirely consistent. No whiffed solos, a minimum of throwaway riffs and a few great hits of speed (“Coffin Miasma”) make for a solid if unflinching death metal record. One spin through was a major kick in the ass but I didn’t find myself crazed for another run through.

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Info:
ARTIST:	RITUAL NECROMANCY / FOSSILIZATION
TITLE:	Ritual Necromancy / Fossilization
LABEL(S):	Everlasting Spew Records
RELEASE DATE:	February 25th, 2022

Splits aren’t necessarily my thing these days unless the bands are purposefully paired or the material is especially fine but in the case of this split EP between Portland, Oregon-based death metal band Ritual Necromancy and Brazilian death/doom metal duo Fossilization I am genuinely curious to see what each band are up to next. As it turns out they also pair together incredibly well. In terms of Ritual Necromancy we get what is by far their longest and most involved piece to date with the fifteen and a half minute “Enter the Depths” which greatly emphasizes their ‘Mortal Throne of Nazarene‘ influenced sound between extended doomed sections and its steady riffing first half. If they’re pushing in this direction with longer form songs man I hope it isn’t just an experiment because I found this to be one of their most engaging songs to date. The big surprise here is this material from Fossilization whom seem to have stepped up their riffcraft and generally flooded their sound with far more direct doom influence since their first EP last year. Coming from folks who are best known for their atmospheric sludge/death metal work it was only a matter of time before they’d start finding their own rhythms and I’d say these two songs are a sign of much bigger moves to come.

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Info:
ARTIST:	DEATHLESS VOID
TITLE:	Deathless Void
LABEL(S):	Iron Bonehead Productions
RELEASE DATE:	February 4th, 2022

Harsh noisome craft from anonymous rifts within the Netherlands, this debut demo from black metal trio Deathless Void insists upon creeping and scathing the ear with four minutes of debilitating noise cycles and ringing chord modulation before they tear into their blitzkrieg form of psychedelic-echoing black metal terror. Furious as classic Katharsis but angular and over the limit as a Mystískaos variant ‘Deathless Void‘ crafts feral black metal from shadows and smoke, implying chaos with layers of haze and finger-straining chords ringing atop. “Crossing the Threshold” is the piece to convince after “The Shattered Realms of Man Become the Abyss” provides the right ripening energy. Plenty of noise and a few choice progressions is all it takes to whip up a storm here and the effect is still pretty thrilling. If they amp up the riffcraft in the future I’m all for more of this… whatever it is.

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Info:
ARTIST:	EIGHT BELLS
TITLE:	Legacy of Ruin
LABEL(S):	Prophecy Productions
RELEASE DATE:	February 25th, 2022

‘Legacy of Ruin‘ is the third full-length from Portland, Oregon-based experimental/post-metal band Eight Bells, a project formed and fronted by guitarist/vocalist Melynda Jackson after the dissolution of progressive/psychedelic rock band SubArachnoid Space circa 2011 or so. The project had made some serious waves back in the early-to-mid 2010’s with a pair of inventive, disaffected ‘post-metal’ albums taking some unique liberties with elements of classic psychedelic/space rock, cinematic doom metal progressions, and even some modern extreme metal movements. Stylistic mashing wasn’t the major appeal so much as the fraught and depressive weight of those records at the time and this wandering, yearning trait carries over best of all unto this third album nearly six years later. The first two pieces that lead the way, “Destroyer” and “The Well”, show some considerable refinement of atmospheric control with eight and eleven minute opuses amounting to over a third of the albums runtime as they build a sort of psychedelic doom meets post-music event.

What’d once felt like a strange avant-doom outlier with dreamy guitar affect now lands as a cryptic yet world class experience. Think of Eight Bells as a more organic, lucid-dreaming counterpart to Kayo Dot albeit built from entirely different DNA but working at a similarly high level of insight, developed to such a degree that no portion of their movement feels derivative in direct or indirect sense. The rest of the album develops quite a bit beyond its opening twenty minutes, emphasizing dual vocal harmonies while balancing prog-rock levels of detail with manic extreme metal rushes and plenty of easier, catchier grooves along the way. Anyhow, it’ll certainly take quite a bit more time to digest this record but at this point the recommendation won’t recede on my part.

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