SHORT REVIEWS Our twenty-ninth edition of Short Reviews for 2023 finds us picking through the final week of July’s new releases, most of these will release on July 28th. 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

---

Chicago, Illinois-based quartet Fleshvessel introduced themselves a short while back with a single ~25 minute piece, vagabond progressive rock which’d been clumped together underneath an umbrella of stiff death metal drumming. It’d landed like an alien invasion upon a hapless planet, two unrelated things that’d mashed together with a deleterious result. For their debut full-length the group have merged their ideas under a banner which does not so heavily depend upon the mechanical spectrum of death metal for focus. These are clearly quite skilled folks who’re not only capable of multi-instrumental and multi-modal virtuosity but they’ve found a way to weave together myriad influences into the fabric of their own form of progressive rock/metal which occasionally whirls up a bout of esoteric black/death metal at a 3:1 ratio. While the running order features a few vignettes each of the four main 10+ minute suites often feel like a progression of vignettes themselves, sewn together per each intended mood. While I’d found the album brilliant on each listen there’d been a transient feeling aftertaste left beyond each listen where I’d felt a bit lost for meaning after the momentum faded. If the extreme metal portion of their work could resolve with some manner of tuneful impact without disrupting the free-moving, lounge and rant headiness elsewhere I think it’d have gripped me more, or, at least called me back for deeper listening.

---

Flight is a mid-70’s style hard rock group from Kolbotn, Norway who feature folks you’ll recognize from past lives in extreme thrash metal groups Condor, Gouge, and Black Viper among others. I use the term “hard rock” loosely to describe their sound as their whole gig has evolved into a tune-forward popular (throwback) rock mode aiming for catchier-than-thou yet earnest results built from blend of genuine throwback sounds. Their songcraft fills in the blanks per the lens of today’s revisionist heavy rock/metal sensibilities wherein the comfortable, starry-eyed and Vaseline smeared lens sleepiness of Cauldron, Night and Spell apply here but before any of ’em had touched upon the dramatism of the early 80’s, stopping just short of AOR-level bop. In terms of finding a better approximation of an analog-recorded, unfiltered classic sound this is probably the best production value the band’ve achieved to date and it helps that their arrangements, particularly the guitar work, seems to have gained some insight into restrained efficacy which leaves the mind hanging on the thread. Not quite as lasting as some of their Swedish counterparts but still the best yet release from thes folks.

---

Having followed U.K./U.S. industrial experimental black metal trio Decoherence‘s work since their first mLP I’ve noticed a consistent pattern of revulsion and slow acceptance as I approach each release. My first instinct is to avoid the puddle, to step around the murk of this third full-length ‘Order‘ and be on my way but after the first listen there is yet some manner of gravitas generated by the thoroughly buried nuance within that continues to call me back for further listening. Some additional rhythmic mastery and deeper-layered movement persists beyond the project’s impressive second album ‘Unitarity‘ (2020) and per my own taste anytime they’ve built upon the post-industrial fusion within their sound has been a net positive gain. Though I enjoyed ‘Order‘ for its bleak, whirring atmospheric black metal trip the most typical pieces of the lot which focus on a mechanized, distant black metal sound (“The Future Behind Them”) are the least interesting overall whereas the slower kick of “Degenerate Ground States” feels like the breakthrough hinted at on the previous album.

---

Australian raw black metal project Kommodus return a few years beyond to their well-received, surprisingly slick self-titled debut LP back in 2020 having applied a much heavier grade of sandpaper to their sound. If you’re already familiar with the project, headed by one Lepidus Plague, they’d more-or-less released four nigh full-lengths between 2017-2019 all of which made it to vinyl in relatively scarce quantities despite high demand. As a result you can hop over to Discogs right now and get gouged for $50-200 per album which… of course has nothing to do with the music itself at the end of the day — Discovery matters but access is not guaranteed. From my point of view the early works of the band eventually lived up to the hype per increasingly ambitious themes rather than actual black metal content. That perception changed for me with demo #4, ‘An Imperial Sun Rises‘ (2019), to some degree but it was ‘Kommodus‘ (2020) which’d been undeniably inspired, well-curated and (again) surprisingly well recorded to the point that it was an easy “in”.

After spending a fair amount of time with ‘Wreath of Bleeding Snowfall‘, a somewhat different record in sound and scope of narrative it does feel like they’ve intentionally scummed up the works here for a grittier result which is ultimately not a bad thing if you can live with the bedroom closet stuffed bass guitar tone and blown out rhythm guitar layers long enough to absorb the character and unholy charm of their work. For all of the bluster afforded by the crusted-over sound design here we’ve a fairly warm, classic black metal groove riding beneath the waves and one which focuses on rowdy-rocking riffs (“Shelter Within a Whale Carcass”) which often feel hardcorish in motion (see: “Winter Blade (Of the War Wraith)”) which give the full listen a nicely rounded rhythmic notion. The best moment for my own taste comes with the doom-level swing of opener “Birthed From a Chrysalis of Ice” towards its slippery and distraught conclusion, the sort of song that keeps its cold distance but obviously wants to jam on a riff worthy of playing in a room full of crooked folks. Might seem like a meme group up front but there is some value buried within.

---

By virtue of being driven by the riff and taking cues from all over the spectrum of United States classic death metal canon Pennsylvania-based death metal/hardcore crew Outer Heaven naturally appear all over the damned map as they hammer away at this sophomore full-length while pulling in a rolodex’ worth of spots throughout, including fretless bass from Tomb Mold‘s Derrick Vella. So, no disrespect to folks who’ve got attention-deficit brains but as a continuation of their debut this record still has that “can’t sit still, won’t sit still” twitch that’d made their debut both exhilarating in the moment and lacking in a distinct stamp of its own. It isn’t that there is an identity crisis at the core of the band’s modus but that their exuberance for death metal finds ’em pulled in many directions and all of ’em entirely ~fly. Like, where did the ‘Necroticism…‘-esque song (“Pallasite Chambers”) come from? In that case, and several others on this 11 song ~46 minute record continuity didn’t really factor into my experience because their choices were consistently good and none of the songs exist in any singularly defined context. Anyhow, whether we are juicing up the ‘old school’ zeitgeist or talking about a ‘new old school’ band like this a great set of rhythm guitarists lining ’em up is still all any real death metal band needs to stand out and these folks have the knack.

I could, and did, spin this record for hours at a time picking through the concrete that girds their tower looking for a signature that says “This is Outer Heaven” yet my conclusion would be more of a general demographic per the riff obsessed United States death metal fan in their 30’s with little interest in melodeath, metalcore, or tech/prog dimensions beyond 1996 but with some appreciation for 90’s brutal death. “Rotting Stone/D.M.T.” pulls a lot of what they do best together while showcasing this need to evolve, yank in some new ideas without pulling away from proper death metal aggression and chug obsession. I’m not sure “Unspeakable Aura” works as it dips into the vocal experiment placed at the outset of this final third but only because they’d not gone all the way with it, outfitting the whole song with the eerie vocal harmonies which bubble up. The inclusion of bold choices like this are admirable but it is still too early to say if these are passing whims meant to juice a bit more flavor into every piece or if there is an avant-garde bit-o’-freakery in their future. For the revisionist death metal fandom looking to roll hard into a big riff record no doubt Outer Heaven have one-upped their first record with a bigger-brained dog.

---

Laguna, Philippines-based death metal quartet Formless Oedon are a relatively new formation from the tight-knit crew who’d brought us death-thrashers Desolator and ‘old school’ death metal band Nullification wherein this time around they’re focused on a Lovecraftian Immolation-esque sound as they take a step beyond their death/doom metal focused demo from 2020. I’ll do my best to overlook the AI-generated album art this one time (I don’t want to live in a world where sloppy, plagiaristic AI prompts create art that defines underground music and sub-culture) because I like these guys’ work and I appreciate the almost crumbling, falling-out of tune guitar sound here which lends a shambling touch to this record. It took some time to warm up to the dry production sound and shaky, off-time riffing but I’d ultimately appreciated the garage-level death metal atmosphere of the full listen and its clearly lain thread of rhythm guitar focused work throughout. “Beyond the Eclipse of Time” was the peak of the experience for my own taste.

---

---