SHORT REVIEWS Our fifteenth edition of Short Reviews for 2023 finds us selecting our second strike at new releases from April and we’ve another week of solid releases ahead of us, most all landing on the 14th. I’ve done my best to showcase the most interesting works that I come across while still presenting some decent variety here but choices boil down to what sticks, what inspires or what is worth writing about. These are more easygoing than longform reviews, so relax and think for yourself — If you find something you dig go tell the band on social media and support them with a purchase! If you’d like your music reviewed, read the FAQ and send promos to: grizzlybutts@hotmail.com

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Though their combination of gothic rock vocal timbre, sparse acoustic guitars, scattered yet noisome guitar feedback and post-industrial undercarriage should naturally lead us somewhere nearby peak Rome (for my taste, ‘Nera‘-era) neofolk much of what anonymous New England-based troupe The Infinity Ring does ends up landing a bit disinterested, yet glowingly so. The affect of ‘Nemesis & Nativity‘ initially suggests some pressing statement, a lingering thought waiting to break the surface, setting quite a lot of weight upon the vocal timbre up front yet I’d found the lyricism questionably profound. Even if I’m not buying the melancholia herein that’d end up being the only real gripe to be had with the listening experience, a feat which evolves in considerable ways between its far more accessible “post-rocker” take on Ordo Equilibrio for the masses and the a la ‘Forever Burned‘-era Swans listlessness of the whole thing. Side B will be the decider here for folks who decide to take the full dip. No doubt if you duck out after “Gift of Life” your experience will not be whole as much of the implied post-industrial/folk admixture drains into guitar noise collages and the bulk of the experimental side of the project therein. This shouldn’t be overlooked even if the spectacularly gloomy mood of Side A is a hundred times more compelling at face value.

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Extermination Order is a (mostly) Germany-based death metal project from members/ex-members of Heaven Shall Burn, Fall of Serenity, and some lesser known acts. ‘The Siege of Ascalon‘ is their debut EP and, well, if the band’s logo hadn’t already tipped you off the music will speak for itself as heavily influenced by Bolt Thrower. This shouldn’t suggest this is a cheap or quick side-project, I mean they’ve put some obvious polish on this thing between the production values and the templar themed Eliran Kantor album artwork, but they -have- kind of walked their introduction into corner with that logo since there is a bit more to their sound than semi-melodic death metal informed by the ‘Mercenary‘ and ‘Honor. Valor. Pride‘-era of the U.K.’s best but also early Amon Amarth. Granted, the leads aren’t all golden and the songs fairly tepid in terms of their overall tunefulness yet the collective effect of this EP does take at least one step beyond nostalgia. Though I’m not sure they’ve anywhere all that interesting to take a full-length sized version of this sound songs like “An Iron Shroud” at least make the case for this being one of the more memorable Bolt Thrower influenced things out this month.

With ten-thousand stabs by the trishula of Kali loaded into their arms’ action this Kolkata, India-based war machine arrives with a truly extreme, noisome first assault on this ~17 minute mLP. ‘Refracted Lights of a Blind God‘ is so over the top that it reaches a point of nigh utter noise at its most harried. At some point a few songs had me cranking up the volume to try and find any definition supplied by the riffs, which create a kaleidoscopic yet blurry burn-path as they proceed. A band like Kaal Nagini is hard to review if only for the sake of it being too brutal to parse into anything but unearthly emanations beyond a few chunking stops in the action which break the lightspeed vacuum they’ve whipped up. The title track does hit upon some mid-paced movements and slower discordant meandering and I think this is where the real strength of the first impression lies. They’ve pushed the limit just enough to make this first release unfit for the general public this certainly bodes well for where they’ll take it next.

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San Jose, California-based deathgrind quartet Deathgrave return with LP number two about five years later and they’ve still got most of that frenzied energy lingering throughout ‘It’s Only Midnight‘. They’ve simultaneously eased off some of their more powerviolence/thrashcore inspired ways and stepped up their heftier, weirding grindcore side which makes for a manic ride compared to the unsteady but still flowing head full of ideas found on their debut. It makes for a less engaging but still appreciably underground feeling deathgrind record that bridges the 90’s and the mid-2000’s states of excess. The main references I could pull from my review of their previous record still generally apply: The grooving deathgrind riffs of mid-90’s Skeletal Earth, the crooked punkish gloom of Abscess, and a bit of an early Earache grinding crossover feeling overall. While I’d enjoyed the energetic kick I’d gotten out of thier previous album this time around I’d found the vocals less imaginative, though I’d appreciated “Lonely Streets” offering a break in the belching n’ screeching elsewhere, and overall this one just kinda dragged a bit for me until the very last group of four or so songs where it seemed to perk up with a few last minute ideas.

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You might recall I’d been hot under the collar for Missouri-based noise rock/post-hardcore group Nerver‘s ‘Cash‘ record last year and I’ve been frickin’ wacky for Oklahoma’s finest Chat Pile‘s sludge-heavy take on the same category since their first couple EPs hit Bandcamp so, this is one I couldn’t miss. Noise rock adjacent music has been pretty tepid, or, at least underserved for my own taste but each of these bands hit upon something unusually heavy which pings the part of my brain that still fundamentally likes pre-post-metal sludge, eh. Nerver‘s side is aggressive, grungy in its growling neuroses and Chat Pile‘s side is some kind of distraught emo-sludge which hits its frenzy with “Cut”. Two songs each, eight minutes each side, both are pretty copacetic thanks to Magnus Lindberg‘s always pristine touch, and I think we’ve got he first legit noise rock or nearby record of 2023. If I missed something else rad, message me a recommendation.

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Gesso are a psychedelic/doom rock trio from northern Portugal who’ve left a full decade long gap between releases here as they return with the psychedelic doom metal leaning ‘Nunca os Céus Se Tornarão Lugares‘, which they’ve presented as a sort of medium between Pentagram and Crystal Castles with plenty of dread-filled atmospheric pieces of doom noir that occasionally drifting into what sound like analog synthesizer rants. The result is not exactly as ancient sounding as that might imply but the organische feeling is there alongside a serious-faced bad acid trip within reason. Opener “Nao Me Levem” is the most, I guess typical piece on the record as a slowly revealed doom-rock haunt and closer “Berco Em Flor” brings a certain late 60’s heavy psych meets Sabbath groove which feels appropriate but the two pieces in between are more laid back, playing with their integration of synthesizers a bit more readily. For a half hour psychedelic doom metal record with a sombre register I’d found it entirely pleasant, contemplative and sentimental but not entirely tragedian to the point of dramatism. There could be stronger contrast applied, there could be bigger riffs, but there is something special about this subtle atmospheric dread they’ve conjured here and in the music videos they’ve put together which feels bleak not exploitative of whatever emotion went into it. An oddball choice for some but an easy record to enjoy for its heavy riffs and unique synth treatment.

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Witte Wieven is one of several atmospheric metal projects from Netherlands-based musician Carmen Raats (Freja, Vuur & Zijde) who has collaborated with drummer Sarban Grimminck in this particular gig since 2014. Though they’d leaned towards a more black metal direction on some of their earlier releases this album opts for a largely instrumental focus which leans towards post-metal with ethereal clean vocals still quite intermittently parsed within each piece and the occasional hit of rasped delivery (“Kringen”) typically set alongside a bit of Fluisteraars or Laster-esque bustle. Though Raats‘ vocals are now becoming more and more a part of this sound they are yet entirely tentative, hummed in ghostly register from a short distance with a fairly deadpan reach in terms of expression. While this might imply a mysterious atmosphere up front this becomes little more than a tertiary hum in the back of the ear upon repeat listening wherein post-rock song structures weave their steady cascades throughout this release in a frankly somewhat typified realm. It is a fine enough record but a bit of a strange debut, as they’ve tacked on a live recording from Roadburn 2019 which eats up a full 9+ minutes of the sequence as unnecessary filler. If they’d had one more “Kringen” styled piece I think this record might’ve left more of a dent but as is, it is just alright.

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German blackened post-metal quintet Moribund Mantras are looking to return from the impressive response garnered of their second full-length ‘Golden Void‘ with a more personal, intense and present follow-up and in this sense they’ve succeeded. Though ‘…Of Fathomless Depths‘ and its atmospheric sludge attuned version of post-black metal isn’t at all to my own taste I can appreciate the turbulence and expressivity of its movement. Where I fall off of this record very quickly comes with the overdone and quite loud set vocals while insist on a strained and often layered shouted insertion into all the wrong places. The album escapes its profundity for these more blunt vocals but, again, the experience taken in as atmospheric dread is yet effective enough to entertain. Likewise the production values and general compositional wrath of the band each find improvement here to the point that it is a good time, at least until the vocals begin to grate.

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