SHORT REVIEWS Our forty-first (41st) edition of Short Reviews for 2023 finds me grabbing at six releases from the general pool at the end of November, some of the best albums of the month cut down to mostly non-black metal stuff. This is the second to last Short Reviews entry for 2023 as I begin to work on a different format for 2024. 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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Portuguese black metal quartet Angrenost have offered a shadowed form of black metal since forming in the mid-90’s wherein their earlier work was marked by use of celestially-shot synth/keyboards and frayed guitar tones, reaching a brilliant depth with their decade plus forged debut ‘Planet Muscaria‘ (2013). I’d gotten the impression that their first two records had different lead songwriters, though I can’t confirm this, and as a result my only expectation built for this third full-length was that it would be different from the prior two. Though the lyrics/song titles read to me as a sort of Dion Fortune inspired lunar poetry the album professes to explore mortality and does so through fantastical occult symbolism.

Though the previous album wasn’t so necessarily framed by the use of keyboards/synthesizers on this album we find their use less as additive melodic device and moreso in creation of transitional spaces (see: endpoint of “Corcunda: Da prata gibosa, a foice do Mago”) or ghostly choral insertion. When a song does call for additional intrigue such as the choral spouts found on “Minguante: No coração de pedra, a fortaleza do Ermita” these tend to be set aback to a hesitant distance, lending an ethereal quality rather than an empyrean charge; Angrenost‘s composers have never resolutely shied away from mid-paced songcraft but I’d felt the mastery available to this record arrives within the contrast allowed by what I’d consider dark metal movements, such as the first part of “Água Real: Na ampulheta o diabo, enxofre por firmamento”, which sends us reeling into the second half, or middle third… however the three-sided double LP shakes out. This is where the full listen ripens, the penance of the journey weighs heavier and bloodier as each extended piece grows thornier without necessarily blasting through its paces.

With each piece offering its own intrigue and arc in longer stretches there was no need for a grand finale, though I’d found myself expecting a more resolute point of punctuation, a cold death or struggle toward the end on some level. A finely crafted black metal record which does well to fill its ~hourlong run with substance enough to warrant returning to its meditation upon death more than a few times.

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Mallorcan melodic death metal standouts Æolian continue to escalate their station as one of the most compelling melodic metal bands around today with this third and most approachable full-length album. You could tell they were searching for their own incomparable soul on ‘The Negationist‘ (2020) but I think they’ve made a much bigger stride in that direction here and of course it comes down to more than just melodic interest. Instead of heading in the more typical progressive/power metal loft of moderne melodeath today their work has seemingly taken some of the rousing yet bleak majesty of Dissection and rounded those moments out with the intimacy of the late 90’s/early 2000’s guitar driven hooks of Rotting Christ propelling their signature ‘anthemic’ tonality into a darker yet even more catchy realm. That isn’t to say that they sound like those other bands, or that they have escaped the golden standard of late 90’s melodeath at peak popularity, but that we can at least be sure they are still rightfully choosing that high standard over the ephemera of today. If you’re a melodic death elitist of sorts, if those still exist, there will be familiar and welcoming elements here that will undoubtedly charm and surprise here as these folks continue to improve with every step. Expect this one on my Best of November list, no question. Don’t miss: The title track (“Echoes of the Future”), “Like a Blackened Sun”, and “Dreams or Reality”.

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This debut full-length album from Aarhus, Denmark-based death metal quintet Temple of Scorn completely bulldozes the expectations set by their 2021 released debut EP (‘Preliminary Mass‘) taking their Immolation-esque crawl and blasted-at style of pure and ranting death metal and making a delirious morbid march of it. Earth quaking doomed rhythms and hammer-to-skull hits generate a here-and-now but also timeless stroke of death metal menace which focuses not only on the riff but the grind and blast of their punishing rhythms. A classic death metal sound given a terrifyingly cold and murderous tone as the band drifts in and out of their fits of aggression. By the time we reach “Portals to Dystopia” it begins to feel like being forcibly shoved down the stairs, grappling and embattled feebly against the hand of death. You’ll have to make your own judgement as to whether this record feels consistent, sturdy in its rough and riff-heavy wares or if it lands with a sameness throughout but the more time I’d spend with ‘Funeral Altar Epiphanies‘ the sooner I’d appreciated just how squarely they’d nailed this gloomed-over sensation of impending doom within this downward-cast and ominous death metal record. Check this one out if you’re a fan of Orthodoxy, Drowned, and Cruciamentum.

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German experimental rock trio Zahn combine the ethos and pulse of krautrock with ’79 post-punk whims, dramatic post-rock turns, and noise rock rattle on this otherwise beat-heavy electro-chilled exploration wherein members of Heads. and Einstürzende Neubauten collaborate without any too-tight strictures on sub-genre in mind. ‘Adria‘ is an instrumental double LP which concerns itself with what I’d interpreted as the mundanity of ideation, or, at least the existential dread I’ve always felt taking a “vacation” in a controlled tourist environment. I’d gotten a sense of captivity and restlessness from this thread of pieces which begin juxtaposing glittery beats with sludged noise rock jams, Neu! gone hip-hop beats, and some eerie post-metallic electro to start. The trip presented here is remarkably engaging for an ~80 minute release and very little of it felt like it’d just as well get shoved into the background. An hourlong sweaty live performance vid with a Vaseline-smeared lens is all that is missing here. Up there with the best non-metal selections of the year for my taste.

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Inspired by the timeless science fiction horror of the Alien film saga Spanish ‘old school’ death metal trio Deimler return a couple of years beyond their debut LP with another early 90’s-era Scandinavian death metal influenced record. I’d enjoyed their first full-length album (‘A Thousand Suns, 2020) a few years back but it feels like they’ve generally stepped up the riffcraft for this second album, loosening up on some of their more thrashing movements for the sake of something slightly more mid-paced and groove oriented (see: “Acheron’s Lethal Tongue”, “Suffocating Parasite”, etc.) as we push beyond the first half. My favorite pieces on this record had an anthemic or maybe even a light melodeath feeling to their movement, specifically “Corrosive Blood” and “Immortalized” alongside the subtly technical ‘Necroticism…‘-esque ride of songs like “Biomechanical Necrophageous. It drones on a bit longer than it needs to, the riffs start to run low toward the end, but I’d found this balanced out a bit thanks to the presentation otherwise especially the album art.

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‘Magma Tres‘ is the third full-length album from Cantabria, Spain-based psychedelic/stoner rock quartet Wet Cactus who continue to impress with their unhindered, celebratory exploration of 90’s desert rock adjacent sounds, taking that style to their own tuneful and meditative extremes. There is something to be said for a nowadays band that’ve the sense to make an entire world (or, a catchy heavy rock song with a bit of drive to it) from a simple punkish guitar progression and this (“Self Bitten Snake”, “Profound Dream”, “Million Tears”) is where these folks kinda hit their mark hardest. At twelve songs and ~45 minutes they stretch this grungy impact with their psych-leaning (“Mirage”) and shorter interludes which act as chapter markers on our way through. There is a push-and-pull to the variety of moods and pace explored here and it makes for an entertaining ride through overall, though I’d like to see the band explore different vocal arrangements and inflection more often as to break things up.

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