SHORT REVIEWS Our twenty-seventh edition of Short Reviews for 2023 finds us picking through the second week of July’s new releases, most of these will release July 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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Exploring the mind-body connection and expanding upon the boundaries of their sound on ‘The Body‘ and ‘The Ghost‘ EPs back in 2020 seems to have reinforced Lafayette, Louisiana-based progressive/sludge metal duo Radiant Knife‘s already distinct signature on this second full-length. Don’t go in expecting anything less than a face-clawing riff n’ rhythm record, though, as ‘Pressure‘ brings the kinetic, psyched-out meter these folks are known for in droves as they cut right the riffs right out the gate. Though their sound doesn’t seem to have caught on with tons of folks over the years their unique tech-touched and post-metal toned style of progressive sludge which has certainly impressed me by way of the syncopation of post-‘Meantime‘ alt-metal beneath the waves as they go harder at ‘Remission‘-era Mastodon tautness with a bit of Lightning Bolt-juiced discharge in mind. They don’t necessarily touch upon the headier atmospheric pull of ‘The Ghost‘ here beyond a few extra layers of synth but I’ve no real complaint to file here since they’ve stuck to the pocket and cranked out an entertaining follow-up to their high-rated debut.

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Phoenix, Arizona-based quartet Nuclear Remains have worked out an interesting enough chunk of ‘old school’ brutal death metal on this debut full-length wherein these fairly young folks have some interest in the mid-to-late 90’s spectrum of the niche which wasn’t yet too far removed from the early decade boon. The standard they seem to be aiming for is something akin to ‘Purification Through Violence’-era Dying Fetus but with a more ragged presentation a la Horror of Horrors‘ ‘Sounds of the Eerie‘, or early Skinless if they were more interested in slamming grooves than post-‘The Bleeding‘ era riffcraft. The rawness of this record alongside a few ex-thrasher riff moments kinda hit back to the mid-90’s but eh, I don’t know who could walk away from this record and not reference the pinging snare sound and how they’ve used it here since it invokes a chunkier, uglier ‘Festival of Death‘ from Brodequin (see also: Dissevered‘s LP). From my vantage point the drum sound is an old meme, distraction from a pretty standard classics-minded brutal death record which hasn’t quite found any particular finesse or signature in its riffcraft. That said ‘Dawn of Eternal Suffering‘ isn’t half bad despite the sluggish guitar work and demo level shambling of the recording. If this is a first step, a point to expand from, and not a gimmick then I think there is some promise here in terms of tributing the old and brutal ways.

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I’ll spare the reader any more illustrative language about the ritual/black ambient work of Sutekh Hexen on my part but I’ve been a fan of the ominous atmosphere they create for a handful of years now. On this new double LP the artist collaborates with Canadian artist Harlow MacFarlane aka Funerary Call and it turns out to be a good fit with each entity having worked with extreme metal intent, power electronics, field recordings and such over the years and merging well as far as I gather. Since I’ve only heard ‘Nightside Emanations‘ from the latter artist’s discography I’m not able to pinpoint what specific pieces of their signature appears most prominently here but the merger makes great use of vocal threads, whispers, and spoken sections to provide the sensation of unknown subterranean horrors. A captivating hour if you’re interested in black ambiance.

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Almería, Andalusia-based brutal death metal duo Encephalic is one of the more recent projects from prolific musician Óscar Company which likewise features guitarist Sergio, whom you might recognize from their deathgrind project Deceit. This third album once again reprises their serial killer-per-song theme and features pretty straightforward brutal death style which hits upon the slam side of things far less often than their second record had. The style of riffcraft here feels fairly specific with its inspiration with some heavy dose of Suffocation‘s post-‘Souls to Deny‘ reach in the rhythms which are intricate but relentless in their movement, not fully blasted to the hilt like early Disavowed and with some of the tremolo riding Putrid Pile does to transition between riffs. This feels like a throwback record in some sense, setting aside some of the bass-boosted modernism of their first two records for simpler vocal performances and a different death metal rhythm machine altogether. It landed a lot more serious than expected, especially after the sprinkler-head flapping of the bass drums on ‘Exalted Perversity‘. Less over the top, far more listenable and certainly their best recording to date for sure but more importantly their best riffs are all here by a wide margin.

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Milan, Italy-based stoner/doom metal duo Witchsnake originally self-released this debut back in late 2022 but now it finds its way to CD and 12″ vinyl. ‘Witchsnake‘ is the product of two sessions, first a looser demo-days trio of songs from July 2022 which makes up Side B and a second session from August 2022 which makes up Side A. The parity between these two sessions isn’t precise beyond maybe the fuzz-thickened guitar tone and Electric Wizard level vocal effects and scuzz doom riffcraft. The newer sessions here are suggested as the main event and these are what I’d consider psychedelic doom metal with an occasionally improvised and noisome edge, obscurant but in a heady way which speaks to the free movement of some pieces. The more chaotic their use of feedback, guitar effects and such gets the more grounded the core doom metal riff of each piece becomes, the effect being somewhat ritualistic at times. The earlier session, or, demo recordings are even more loose with their jammed rhythms. Though I didn’t find this release memorable for its songcraft I did appreciate the psychedelic rock level application of jammed-loose grooves and their use of abrasive noise and effects to fill the air.

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London, England-based blackened hardcore/post-metal quintet Calligram return with a second full-length album which has all the right bluster, loudness and endlessly billowing movement needed to imply a grand work of emotional heft but very little in the way of substantive songcraft to keep the mind coming back to its spastic melodramatism. They’ve checked a lot of boxes here in terms of sub-genre, finding a bit of post-hardcore’s slippery melodicism and neocrust kicking (“Ex-Sistere”) while tying it into a clean study of modern black metal-isms (see: “Eschilo”) yet all of this soon begins to feel like acting, an impersonation or character built to produce a form of black metal-adjacent music that might be palatable to folks with more of a foundation in sludge and metalcore’s oft tuneless cinematics. In this sense I’m not sure the target for this record is necessarily a dedicated black metal fan; The vocals are particularly strained for sincerity here and feature no real dynamic presence, a dryly squawking rasp (in Italian?) which is fine for a moderne hardcore noir feature but certainly not about to win over discerning black metal fandom, and not for the sake of tradition but because these performances land forced and unrelated to the dark, often quite dramatic tone of the songs themselves which deserve much more life breathed into their dreary, sorrowful lilt (“Ostranenie”). Without question Calligram‘ve put the work into developing this sound, which does represent a leap beyond the halfway-there notions proposed on ‘The Eye is the First Circle‘, and they do eventually break ground on some solid ideas but it didn’t hit it out of the park in terms of the ever-widened worlds of blackened hardcore and post-black metal for my taste.

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