SHORT REVIEWS Our thirty-third (33rd) edition of Short Reviews for 2023 finds me grabbing at six notable releases from later in the month of September, highlighting some consistent beasts and new-league thrashers worth talking about. 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 and casual 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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After sixteen albums and 35 years Cannibal Corpse have proven themselves workhorse performers who’d not only pushed the limits of brutality within the early death metal headspace of the late 80’s/early 90’s but found themselves the first name and figurehead of the sub-genre after popular culture immortalized them early on in their career. There are two different camps when it comes to addressing their consistent output: One type of death metal fan treats their work as the genre standard, the generic basal guide for death metal and an exemplar beginner’s guide/gateway to the gory furor of the real thing as it has evolved over the years. Another type willfully skips over the nuance to be found in their imposing body of work and assumes the trickle-down effect of their success is where the most interesting death metal comes from. Both takes have some truth to ’em but I tend to lean towards the idea that most ‘legacy’ death metal bands exist as such because their work was either influential or they’d simply wrote memorable songs in an era when songcraft counted most, both observations end up being true for this group. So, anyhow, where are they at in 2023?

‘Chaos Horrific‘ is the second LP from Cannibal Corpse to feature Erik Rutan as a performer and co-songwriter and this creates some parity of experience shared with the previous release (‘Violence Unimagined‘, 2021) as the guitarist is a legend himself not only for his work as a producer (including each Cannibal Corpse release since ‘Kill‘ back in 2006) but of course in Morbid Angel, Ripping Corpse and Hate Eternal. It is a good partnership, a great fit and an addition that interests me far more than most anything the band did between 2009-2017. For my own taste there are albums from this group that just click, that hit for different reasons such as the underrated ‘Gallery of Suicide‘ (1998) and some of the more technical Webster-heavy writing in the 2000’s but the releases after ‘Kill‘ do admittedly begin to bleed together and I’m not sure if this is due to just how consistent their sound design and approach to songcraft/riffcraft became from that point or if it I’d only really paid closer attention to the releases which featured a new second guitarist and how their work matched up with Rob Barrett‘s (ex-Malevolent Creation) endless graveyard of riffs. It’d almost be easier to meta-explain this band in anecdotes than to actually tackle what ‘Chaos Horrific‘ because there really isn’t much left one could surprise a longtime fan with in terms of observations.

Same sound, exploratory dynamic is the short of the nuance to be found here and from my point of view this generally recalls the change felt around the late 90’s transition into the new millennium, even if slower chunkier groove pieces weren’t as prominent around that time. No, they’re not writing death/doom metal songs or exploring dissonant tech-death but we do find the thrashing and occasionally odd-timed or atmospheric riff progressions of their work butting heads (see: “Frenzied Feeding”) in a way that serves entertaining preamble to bigger grooves and shredding leads which are still main components of Cannibal Corpse‘s work. “Vengeful Invasion”, “Pitchfork Impalement” and the lead-heavy opener “Overlords of Violence” provide the sort of bloody threshing severity I’d want from the group and this’d left me wishing some of the chunkier pieces on the album (“Drain You Empty”, “Blood Blind”) felt as big and enthused as the rest. Otherwise this one took a while to really start chipping away at its best moments, not the quickest “in” for a Cannibal Corpse record. Not their best, not their worst but still certainly above average material from these folks.

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New York-based bestial death metal band Ruin Lust have returned for a fourth full-length album and for good reason, their sound has always been notable for its focus on the riff and on finding mean grooves within a style that is technically most adjacent to war metal or black/death metal at their most clashing points of intensity. For ‘Dissimulant‘ they’ve cranked the guitar noise while separating the two main rhythmic nodes, a feature of the sound design that splits the skull and mystifies when they really get ripping and grinding in terms of pace and chaotic riffing. Fans of the blazing death metallic side of Archgoat or the grinding edge of the first Vermin Womb album who’d prefer screaming leads and tons of heaping layers to the experience will immediately warm to these violently beaten horrors. Because there is some direct continuity between this album and the previous two the score stays on that same level but I will say that the level of nuance to the guitar work did not go unnoticed during the time I’d spent with this record. The best songs take on a primitive bashing Proclamation-esque buzz and bash which I’d particularly enjoyed though ultimately I’d had to conclude I wanted something else, something extra from this release that might’ve stood out in mind a bit longer.

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Solipnosis is a solo black/thrashing project by the bestial-alchemical wyrd-hand of Chilean musician Centavri who is otherwise best known for his work with Putrefactio and ‘Síntesis Silenciosa‘ arrives just a couple of years beyond his insane double LP debut ‘Clarividencia, introspección, retrospección‘ (2020) which earned the artist some notice for his esoteric vision which ranges from bestial speed metal to Voivod-esque chord whipping eerie jaunts and experimental black metal riff-warping strange. Fans of Malokarpatan and Culte des Ghoules should find an appropriately creeped experience here (see: “Separación del Qué y el Quién”) while also finding riffs hard and blistering enough to sate anyone interested in the mania of groups like Invocation Spells. As a ~36 minute mLP this does end up spinning like a full-length and should essentially function as a second LP for most listeners, just don’t pass up their previous record.

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Cincinnati, Ohio-based thrash metal project Acid Mass reminds me of the first album from Paul Speckmann‘s Abomination back in the late 80’s/early 90’s where you could tell certain aspects of Slayer‘s early run were still part of that gig but the intensity of crossover/thrash and death metal were pushing the idea all over the board. At the very least we can consider the already prolific fellow behind the project, Ben Ricketts, a longtime student of punk be it d-beaten thrashcore or steadier sing-along level songwriting. This translates to the energetic discharge of these songs which also take from black/speed metal for their attack. At just over 33 minutes long ‘Agonizer’ somehow manages to feel twice as long with its ten 2-3 minute songs, each packed with a riff or three and a different song idea and to the point that this might best serve the needs of the metalpunk inclined who want something darker, or, at least riff driven.

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Gothenburg, Sweden-based thrash metal quartet Tyranex have long been pro-quality screech and riff heavy ‘old school’ cranked stuff but they’d always been known best for their authentic cut of the riffs rather than catchier speed metal melodies. Over the span of three records it’d finally been time to take a few cues from the more melodic side of thrash and expand the range of vocalist, guitarist and founder Linnea Landstedt (Trotoar, Ice Age) who has a satisfyingly 80’s heavy metal bite to her work (think gremlin-era Dave Mustaine) which deserves acclaim beyond comparisons to Sabina Classen of Holy Moses in terms of range and personae achieved. Sure, this album has riffs but I’d kept coming back for the songwriting per how catchy certain pieces are, such as the brilliant freakery of “Megalomania” and they strident power/heavy charge and hum of “Full Circle” before it, each undeniable ear-worming pieces. In the past I’d brushed past this group after finding their sound a bit amateurish and incomplete but with this album they’ve put some intense work into the songs themselves and it has made all the difference.

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Over the last few years Milan, Italy-based solo project Bekor Qilish have only gotten more dense, more challenging in each statement in reflection of artist Andrea Bruzzone‘s taste for djent, mathcore and prog-metal rhythms which sate a desire for rhythmic interest, odd-timed movements and how they might serve a progressive extreme metal fixture. His second album under this project is arguably more substantial and accomplished than the first at a glance thanks to healthy use of keyboards, different vocal registers, and surprisingly enough he has composed the album and performed vocals here with the rest of the performances handed to other folks, most surprising is the accomplished drummer Bruzzone handing the drum work to the brilliant Giulio Galati (Hideous Divinity, Nero Di Marte) and only just doing the vocals himself. The point where I decided I’d stick around and see how things turned out was probably “Unearthly Dominion” for its stretch and snap back riffing to start and the use of keyboards in the middle third, a unique vibe which spreads its strange across the rest of the record. The only real fault I could point to here which stands out is probably the album art which is simply not to my taste with no strong reaction either way.

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