SHORT REVIEWS Our forty-second (42nd) edition of Short Reviews for 2023 finds me grabbing at seven releases from the general pool from December, some of the best albums of the month cut down to highest interest. This is the 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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Into Darkness is an Italian ‘old school’ death metal band fronted by vocalist/guitarist Doomed Warrior who takes heavy inspiration from Dutch death metal (late 90’s Asphyx, Soulburn, Pentacle) for this latest mLP which arrives ten years beyond the last. Now reformed with members of Extirpation and Thulsa Doom their style still focuses on the general doomed death metal spectrum with a set of pretty substantial mid-paced death metal pieces all aiming to illustrate a science-fiction narrative related to the Cassini-Huygens space mission to Saturn. The space exploration theme of the album, which I’ve not explored in terms of the lyrics, seems to connect with the music by way of spaced-out rifts between pieces or key transitions between songs and this generally amounts to an eventful and fairly immersive mLP at nearly a half hour. There isn’t much that stands out here in terms of any one particular riff or song for my own taste but I’d appreciated they’ve found a worthy sense of atmosphere and mid-paced death which is a huge improvement beyond past work. This’d originally been released by Unholy Domain Records back in March of this year but this 12″ vinyl version arrived earlier this month.

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Though they’ve focused on Scandinavian folklore for their first several releases Nornír is a Freiburg, Germany-based pagan black metal quartet who manage a “raw” and semi-melodic form here on this second full-length album. Cold, sterile production values and a dramatic presentation clash a bit here on this largely mid-paced 50+ minute record though the guitar work carries this experience through its first half well enough with a venomous, aggressive tone and a few catchier melodic interjections (“Krigsgrop”). By the time the Wardruna cover and the instrumental break beyond it arrive I’d largely lost interest but a couple of the more drawn out pieces (“Ere the World Falls”, Dedicated to the Night”) were worth returning to on successive listens. If you’re up for something with a slight epic flair to its gait I’d say this one only just avoids a plain, average result per this style.

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Slow (or, SLOW) is a funeral doom metal duo from Belgium-based musician Déhà and Lore (who’d also collaborated in Ter Ziele) that’d initially been a dark ambient project and is now known for their atmospheric approach to funeral doom. Though this newly numbered title beyond their first six main entries implies different subject matter these four songs are equally focused on long stretches of strained yet lofty atmospheric development as ‘VI – Dantalion‘ (2019) had been, using fairly simple arrangements for dramatic effect and to the traditional pace of funeral doom, which is key. If nothing else the composer here truly understands the glacial movement of the sub-genre and rightfully stretches each hit to the point of ecstatic strain, longtime fans of funeral doom will appreciate this atmospheric tension and nigh unintelligible sense of movement as its greatest point of immersion. While I enjoy this style and their more recent treatment of it this release took a few runs through to catch my ear, Déhà‘s vocals and arrangements are effective until one begins looking for shapes and understanding in grasp and in this sense there weren’t enough handholds on the trek through to pull me back in beyond that point. “Abyss” is the standout for my taste though it all ideally works together as one sitting.

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Embracing maximal color on a dark plane of existence this “neon metal” band from Ecuadoran duo Avræ Lvnæ comes from the minds of the folks behind Wampyric Rites and Dungeon Steel where they’ve taken the auld and rusted 70’s heavy rock/black metal charge of (earliest) Black Magick SS and filled in the blanks with nods to the most spaced and glistening parts of late 2000’s Inquisition on this debut LP ‘Ntddd Strl‘. Of course I’d immediately took to this album, a feast of organs and struggling progressions which glows sickly green as the title track/opener simultaneous charges forth while also melting into view. That first song might be all you need for a first impression, its effect being novel and stretched through over six minutes of fanfare but in truth this is the coffin like agape, the first step into several dimensions of interest as we find some haunting melodic guitar theatrics on “N I Mjstvs Nch” with a gothic metal tinged aftertaste lingering as they create these strangely upturned, majestic pieces which are both punkish yet surreal depending on the moment of captivity chosen. The best pieces here carry a bit of everything in its pocket, such as the twisted ‘Triarchy…‘-era Rotting Christ gait of “Ls Strols sn Is Js Csmcs” given a steadily increasing wash of lysergic drapery as it proceeds, and the least interesting parts borrow from Scandinavian fare in a plain, unembellished sort of way (“Crpt Strl”, “Scndnd ls Nfns Cnfn Strl”). A bit of a mixed bag but still I think they’ve unloaded just as many great ideas as they have somewhat average and it all works out to an entertaining spin when returned to over time.

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Blood Serpent is a Hanoi, Vietnam-based black/death metal duo and I’d hesitate against simply lumping them in with “war metal” because they’ve manage a more ancient feeling and approach than most here on this debut LP. Taking inspiration from Blasphemy, Angelcorpse and even covering an old Black Witchery piece to top it off these folks seem to understand the grinding hardcore punk, thrash and late 80’s extremism that’d driven the more inventive rhythmic side of warfare noise and that means their sound is brutal, chaotic and violent but it still has riffs and we get a lot of uniquely stated interplay between the rhythm section. Veering between hyper-speed devastation down to a tank level roar ‘Bestial Extermination‘ impresses with unpredictable pacing to start but within that whirlwind they’re never bashing away at plain or oversimplified primitive ideas. Each song feels like a ride and I’d recommend “Blood Defilement” or “Wielder of Pestilent Flame” as pieces which run the gamut of their oeuvre and show they’re not just another war metal crew. Sharp but still ugly production values, brilliant album art, the whole thing comes together well above-average for my tastes.

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Revulsed is a Melbourne, Australia-based brutal death metal quartet (now a duo) and the main focus from longtime extreme metal fixture Jayson Sherlock whose career as a drummer stretches all the way back to pre-Mortification line-ups in the early 90’s. This is an entirely different realm, though, as these folks have thus far focused on the very high standards of mid-2000’s brutal death metal leaders ah via peak Deeds of Flesh, (earlier) Defeated Sanity and a Severe Torture level of cruel brutality. That early-Suffocation level of intensity and groove had been the prime driver of their impressive 2015 debut LP ‘Infernal Atrocity‘ makes its return on album number two though I’d say overall the technical side of the band shines more often as Sheldon D’Costa‘s style has clearly evolved in its intensity and in presenting longer stretches of contiguous flow. There is a substantial amount of depth available to the arrangements here and following the album’s ebb from riff to riff is thrilling enough for me as a longtime brutal death fan though I’d found the leads and deeper tips into shred, or vocal exaggerations, didn’t really pay off enough to pique my interest and felt like interruptions beyond the occasional late 90’s style ‘breakdown’ or feature of the bass guitar’s spring-loaded sound hammering through. Overall the ratio of technician versus cold killing machine is just right here and ‘Cerebral Contamination‘ doesn’t oppress to the point of becoming tiresome, it is sure to feel both comfortable and challenging to the seasoned brutal death fan without standing too far outside of well-trodden realms. Easily one of the most striking album artworks of the late year (per Aditia Wardhana) definitely a gatefold worth staring at once you’ve seen the whole image.

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With interest in coal mining and the history of oppressive labor practices a theme begins to surround this debut LP from Columbus, Ohio-based atmospheric black metal quintet Yfel. The visual might not entirely line-up with the theme to start as the (early Alexander Wyant painted) serene landscape from the Hudson River School and high fantasy logo on the cover point to a band who’d previously concerned themselves with both Celtic and Appalachian folklore. So, if you’ve locked on to something Saor-esque in mind we could instead redirect you towards a work which is a bit more ‘Diadem of 12 Stars‘ by design, hooded on-stage personae included. This group reads to me as a sort of hit-the-ground-running sort of deal, a collection of aesthetic ideas which’ve arrived from experienced folks before any clear (or, deeper) meaning or musical direction have formed and that’d been most clear when their first tape (‘Personification of Chaos‘, 2022) arrived raw and semi-melodic in erratic bursts. The notion was there but the knack was not, and this is generally how I’ve landed upon their debut LP.

Here Yfel‘ve settled their first impression down to far more basic dramatic forms, letting loose a few melodic highs on the first two pieces and allowing plenty of breathing room for a narrative focus which only just sustains its vision for those twenty or so minutes. “All Fleas Carry the Souls of Men” does well to yank the ear in with its pagan-black strum and faster pulse while the centerpiece of the album (“Battle of Blair Mountain”) is somewhat more typical in its patiently streamed development and nigh choral refrains. Fairly typical oaken bluster by USBM standards over the last twenty years but an interesting lyrical theme nonetheless. The album only just begins to stand out when they begin incorporating vocal harmonies, chanted movements into “Protectors of the Tomb” and this expands into somewhat lukewarm chorale on “The Father’s Path”. This is where I’d found Yfel most interesting as the second half of ‘Beneath the Mountain’s Vigil‘ began to develop a voice beyond typical fare. This record is above average all this considered and there is plenty enough potential lain out here if they hone in those most unique developments and lean into them.

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