ALBUMS YOU MISSED… Is a yearly tradition of highlighting albums I did not have time to review, all of which are above average. I’d encourage folks to never be “done” with records after the release year passes, and recognize that the true fan will continue seeking the best of what is available and not only what is “current” to the greater perceived conversation. The plastic these were (likely) printed onto will take longer to decompose than you will, so, take a minute and see what escaped your periphery and what might stick. Take a deep breath, frown deeply, 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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‘Blood Orgies Beneath Disgrace Temples‘ is the first half-breath of fire we’ve gotten from occult death metal quartet Porphyrion, a ~26 minute chunk of death metal spanning what I’d consider an ambitious number of tracks. The style here is mildly bestial in its roughed-out shapes, slow-blasted and experimenting with pace and levels of precision alongside multi-vocal tirades as they’ve chosen to pursue a mid-paced, kinda thrashing approach. We get the evil-thrashing brunt of it by the time the exemplar “Triumph of Unholy War” rolls in. Comprised of quick 2-3 minute songs all of which bear similarly growling head-down approach, the main issue I’ve had with this album is differentiating one piece from another as they all kinda fire from the same clip and at similar speed. Even if none of these pieces fully explode to the point of differentiation the results are still effectively infernal, even when jogging (“Reborn in Vulvic Fire”) or attempting something slower, dirtier (“The One Who is Many”). This kind of lines up with the tendencies of some of their related projects (Noroth, Re-Buried) in terms of persistent pacing and giving off the sense that they’ve jammed these songs to build an organic performance on record rather than the rigidity which comes with having done it remotely.

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Though Swiss technical death/melodic black metal band Stortregn began their career primarily inspired by auld melodic black metal their sound has been honed into a unique form of tech death level progressive melodic death with surface level black metal aesthetics. Now reaching their fifth LP, and having gotten it especially right on album number four (which I’d reviewed), they’ve made some moves which additionally justify their being set as a unique jewel on prog-tech label The Artisan Era. While they don’t quite have the catchy knack that a band like Xoth do these folks have managed an impressive fusion of modern progressive metal which shows great interest in both darker textures and challenging time signatures, juxtaposing throat-gripping hiss with butt-shaking rhythms at their most surreal peaks on this new record. This finds the first half of the record less mired in the Arsis-esque style of tech-melodeath and instead pushes for a truly contemporary sound in terms of finding something quite new feeling within fairly well explored territories. I’d loved the movement of this record and its persistently needled at rhythms but it was always the moment they’d break out of brutality for a beauteous hit of fingerstyle guitar or pro dalliance that the personality of the band seemed to find a natural high.

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Having been there and engaged with the work of German quintet Sulphur Aeon since their first 7″ I am predictably in the camp of fandom which still vividly recalls their uniquely stated form of deeply atmospheric yet melodic blackened death metal, which of course had found its sort of sweet spot somewhere nearby ‘Gateway to the Antisphere‘ (2015). That was a grand success in terms of their original goal and it seems each release beyond that point has intently focused on soul searching, dreaming up increasingly ‘epic’ features and intimate muse. This latest time around some collaborations with fellowes from Chapel of Disease and Secrets of the Moon bring a bit of softness and dramatism to their declarative narration, vital contrasting textures and voices which are again steeped in auld Lovecraft. This is going to be the most challenging record from the band to date, no matter the fellowe approaching it, and I say this because it is such a punch outside of their usual skin in terms of accessible points of gothic metal fusion and this tendency for all ailments to arrive at once, creating a wretchedly loud experience where the nuance and dynamic flow of it all comes with the bigger picture and a bit of patience. Yes, the guitar hooks are there and they are beautiful but they’ll drag you toward some awkward clean vocals, bad spoken word sectors, and a few strange heavy rock feeling leads. It is an album of highest highs and lowest lows and of course by design, it certainly feels like something new for this beloved band.

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When one sits down face-to-trampling feet with ‘Agonal Hymns‘ the debut LP from brutal death metal project Nithing the first conclusion drawn is the most obvious: Drummer and multi-talented musician/engineer Matt Kilner (Gorgasm, Vitriol) is clearly a spartan athlete graced with alien DNA and a maniac compulsion to kill as there is no safe space for silence, breath, or hesitation on this rapturous ~24 minute brutal death LP. Released the same day as the equally nutso-smasho hoarker from Trichomoniasis, we’ve got the eerie warped soul of early 2000’s brutal death at doubled speed to the point where it’d all be complete gibberish and chunk if not for wild gutturals and some of the best BDM drumming you’ll hear all year. This style should be exactly this over the top and I’d have rated it way higher if the riffs fully cut it the whole way through, otherwise it manages to be one of the most memorable trampling deaths in recent memory.

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New Jersey-based ‘old school’ inspired death/doom metal duo Anharat return a couple years beyond their debut tape/EP with an impressive debut full-length album which holds fast to the old methods of cryptic and morbid summoning available to United States and Netherlands death/doom metal inceptions as well as a deeply atmospheric, almost blackened funereal drift to some movements. This means very slow, unhindered riff driven doom which rolls its morbid fog out with a steadiness you’ll find in more recent Runemagick and Mortiferum today. Though previously a solo project from Yith‘s Brian H. this album feels quite a bit more serious and deadly thanks to the addition of drummer Tim C. (Caged), this not only grounds their performances in reality but allows for a depth of recording which was previously out of reach, and I suppose despite how simple and straightforward this recording is as a true underground artifact. For most listeners the skin-deep passage through this gloomy hallway is substantive enough but if you’ll take a stab at the lyrics you’ll find well-considered poems which take classic folk horror (and ghost stories, referencing strange fiction authors M.R. James and Clark Ashton Smith) and reducing them down to ghostly imagery.

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Montague, Massachusetts-based death metal quartet Anthropophagous have thus far gone somewhat unsung as we fall down the basement stairs into this far clearer, still uglified sophomore full-length album of ancient and thrashing morbidity. Given vibrancy rather than a wiped ass the production values here are finely executed, letting the wounded murderer vocals of guitarist Steve D. retain their disturbed narration in familiar enough style while the rhythm section and riffs in general begin to find steadier walking speed, some heavier bursts into action and tightened-up riffs in general as they now have a dedicated bassist and the dual guitar setup/writing feels like a step up. Look no further than the head-down, hand gripping a rotten meat pile feeling of the title track to confirm they’re still an ill-advised bunch of creeps but as the album you can feel the doom, the thrash, and the macabre all lining up better than before especially as we chunk into “I Drink From Your Skull” and “Hidden Crematoriums”. At some point this sort of demo-level old timey death metal could very well usurp the disgusting weirdness of the old stuff and it’d probably be these folks doing it.

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Abject Mentor are a fairly new death metal quartet out of Aguascalientes, Mexico who’d formed during the pandemic and moved quickly toward a refined goal but hadn’t really landed on a prime target until this album surfaced independently in early 2023. I’d not caught a whiff of it until November when Chinese label Awakening Records picked it up on CD, so I figure many others had missed out on this very strong study of ‘old school’ death metal standards wherein the riffs crawl and spasm but retain their ex-thrasher declarative feeling in motion. From my point of view there is a sort of loose Immortalis-esque thrashing side to the band but also some crossover of Obituary style grooves, different eras of Death, and more laid back pacing which you’ll first notice on the death-thrasher “Blasfemo”. With some patience for their steady, sometimes complex build up these folks prove they’ve got a solid grasp on what is classic and old but also new… even if not every moment is smooth, or perfected to a point of mastery just yet. In that sense this feels like a true debut LP which is well-formed and moving toward its own gig. The use of samples are interruptive, the drum sound is somewhat thin, and a few pieces (“Apóstol del mal”) don’t seem to gel, or, add anything to the mix but overall I’d felt this was worth recommending to old heads looking for fresh blood.

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Italian quartet Morbid Sacrifice return with second warts-and-all testament to the art of putting evil attitude into simple death metal and not overthinking a second of it. Call it war metal, bestial death, or just late 80’s simplicity in a different form but ‘Ceremonial Blood Worship’ is just ugly and ancient death noise kicked through for a solid ~25 minutes, they’ve suggested that recording (and maybe writing it) took about two hours in a rehearsal space. Why are they named Morbid Sacrifice? They love Morbid and Sacrifice (as do I). Why is the album called ‘Ceremonial Blood Worship‘? They tributed the first two albums from Samael, as we all should. As a fan these types of simple answers from an unpretentious band who want to go and kill folks with rotten, fucked up Satanic death metal on stage are an inspiration. As a listening experience we have a late 80’s sounding death metal record with a Sodom cover chunked in the middle (Doomed Warrior of Into Darkness provides guest vocals), and some slower late first wave black metal dirges (“Serpent of Abomination” b/w “Bleed for the Horned King”) set at the end to change things up. Uncalculated and raw enough to be refreshing, short enough that it doesn’t become abrasive/played out.

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New York city-based technical brutal death metal crew Neurectomy made a great first impression but keyword: “Longstreth” was it for me in terms of taking a ride with this record even if I wasn’t likely going to manage a longform write-up; At work on this project since 2008 under some capacity and finished by way of a few session musicians the core duo behind this project, co-vocalists/guitarists Kris and Joe have managed a thrillingly over the top ~33 minute of non-stop engagement which may very well feel like a scrapbook of guitar techniques, rhythms, and blister-paced mania which spans the last two decades of the sphere. The mix of newer and older points of inspiration are hard to directly divine consider the ever-expanding worl of tech-death but they obviously they pulled the fellow from Origin in for a reason. We also find the constantly on-shred side of early Beneath the Massacre is part of their gig and get some Psyopus level tap on “Dolphin”, all delivered with a level of speed and finesse that only seems to intensify as the album reaches its mid-point. I’d reached the point of, “Alright, dude” around “Zombified” but found myself unable to break my engagement with the record for the sake of Neurectomy never really letting up, they just maul with this stuff at a level where I’d found it hard to step away and lose that momentum built.

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Bogside Sniper Squadron is a Na Trioblóidí-era Irish Republican Army themed melodic death metal band which has been anecdotally attributed to F. Kano (Devil Master, Spiter) and this first demo showcases what is essentially some of the better ‘Incorrigible Bigotry‘-era Arghoslent worship in quite some time, of course there is a bit of RAC melodicism in there, some of those copped late 80’s Running Wild guitar melodies, and a general Irish folk-melodic tint to all of it and these aren’t all symptoms of that core point of inspiration. Catchy, short, and inspired this was plain and simple one of the catchier and underrated bits of melodic death this year and it doesn’t seem very many folks are particularly accomplished this style anymore, save House of Atreus. Couldn’t be more stoked if they’ve got tours or more recordings planned.

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