• SHORT REVIEWS • Our second edition of Short Reviews for 2024 releases finds me grabbing at six releases from the general pool of early January 19th through the 26th with an outlier or two. This year Short Reviews will arrive every TWO WEEKS dependent on how many extra releases are 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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We have a quick but impactful three song 7″ here from Heavy Sentence, one of the U.K.’s best throwback heavy metal groups of late which features members of Wode, Aggressive Perfector and Eliminator. The main single here, “Warriors of Madness” is the sort of Lizzy burnt anthem you’d expect from these folks after their brilliant debut LP (‘Bang to Rights‘, 2021) hit a few years ago and thankfully G. Howells‘ vocals are still as grizzled and tuneful as ever as the fellowes lead us off with a charger. “You’ll Never Take Us Alive” has a sort of ‘Overkill‘-era Motörhead B-side feel to it to start though they add more of a twang to it than that’d suggest, again plenty of energy and performance muscled into the piece even if it feels like a shove too far back to ’79. Finally we’ve got the other side, their ode to letting the night-suckers take what they will, “Give Yourself to the Night” and I think at that point I’d appreciated how consistent a feeling the composers in the band manage from release to release as every record they’ve released is entirely cohesive and unflinching in sounding like Heavy Sentence.

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The fifteenth full-length album from Master might’ve given me a chance to write about some of Paul Speckmann‘s best work per my own taste (Death Strike, Abomination) and such but I’d found I couldn’t muster all that much enthusiasm for this record. Though I’d liked a few of their releases beyond 1993 during the Pulverised and F.D.A. years I’ve found the only major changes made to the template year over year are updates to the subject of the lyrics and I’ve always had trouble following Speckmann‘s diction. Otherwise this one has some interesting punk inspiration to certain songs, some familiar song structures (“Minds Under Pressure”, “Marred and Diseased”) but lacks all-out riffs from my point of view. “The Wiseman” is a pretty damned interesting song to start but the tendency to lean on a wah pedal kinda kills the striding heavy metal ride of it all in the middle.

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Volksempf​ä​nger is a psychedelic rock duo featuring Ajay Saggar (Bhajan Bhoy) and Holly Habstritt from North Holland, Netherlands who’re uniquely fixated on 60’s pop vocal groups, early psychedelic/noise rock (specifically The Velvet Underground) and frame these points of inspiration within shades of shoegazing ebb and peacefully set vocal harmonies. Much as they describe it as some manner of harsh rock statement on paper ‘Attack of Sound‘ is more of a stroll through a well-kept park on a sunny day and the promise of spaced out rock is instead delivered in foamy clapped beats (“Attack of Sound”) early post-punk’s jangling meander (“How We Made it Seem”) and LSD dribbling hum-heavy rides (“Slipping By”) which are less than confrontational. While the varietal and purely pleasurable lobotomy available to the full listen is soothing to say the least the timid guitar feedback that whistles to start off most pieces feels unnecessary. This record was previously released in early December of last year and is just now getting its vinyl release.

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Stretching into their tenth year with a fifth full-length (and their first for Nuclear Blast) in hand Stockholm, Sweden-based heavy rock group Lucifer return with a strong, soulful follow-up to the darker edged themes and points of fusion ‘Lucifer IV‘ (2021) had sported. At this point they’ve broadened their reach within the 70’s inspired neo-occult rock headspace beyond heavy blues standards to include hymnal heavy metal pieces like “Fallen Angel” and “A Coffin Has No Silver Lining” which step well into the 80’s but the bulk of this album leans into the easier going heavy rock bustle of ‘Lucifer II‘ and ‘Lucifer III’. Light shades of Maiden, Blue Öyster Cult, and whatnot lead the way in but anyone familiar with Nicke Andersson‘s ear for verbose melodies and switch-footed rhythmic turns will appreciate songs like “Maculate Heart” and the ghostly “At the Mortuary” as the album burns on. I’m still partial to the first two records but I’d found this one easy to pick up and enjoy.

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For their third full-length album Polish quintet Kalt Vindur introduce a new drummer and a new translation of their intention to bring their “Podkarpacki Black Metal” sound into clearer resolution. Described as progressive early on per their first album and additionally given the “black/doom” tag for sullen atmospheric values on parts of the second I think a more broad application of the pagan black metal tag creates a more meaningful umbrella for their still-evolving ideal but I’m not sure their approach is as traditionalist in reach as that’d suggest. Acoustic guitars and irregularly stroked rhythms shatter any sense of outwardly tuneful experience yet nothing so vividly avant-garde rises from the foam they’ve created. The result is an album which takes a queasy, unsteady path from its driving opener/title track (“Magna Mater”) through some narrative pieces before the second half of this total ~35 minute ride grasps in all directions for ideas. I’d enjoyed the arabesque rhythms of “Agonizing Luminosity” and the anxious dread of “Bless Us” as the center point for the full listen but I’d found myself struggling for a knack, a hook, or any reason to return to the album for deeper listens. The fine art curation and sharp modern production values return to the high standard set by their second album yet this time around I’d fallen off of their work unusually fast.

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‘Aftermath of Death Vol. 1‘ is a split 12″ between two newer morbid entities from well-known Swedish dark-artists, first featuring the better known UNFORMULAS which is a newer project from Nicklas Rudolfsson (Runemagick, The Funeral Orchestra, et al.) and vocalist David Nilsson (Feral, Mace ‘n’ Chains) who’ve concocted an alchemic blurring of classic death metal trod, surrealistic doomed movement, and a curiously meandering “epic” float to certain pieces. This ends up landing as both recognizable as the artists work but also something which intends to step outside the box, toy with dissonance and upscaling movements while still making wrathful and heavy death metal. If you prefer to jump into the deep end you could maybe start with their album ‘Post Mortem Visionary‘ (2022) otherwise I’d felt like these three songs (essentially the ‘Spiritual Chaos Vortex‘ from November 2023) do well to introduce the darkest yet plumb into the depths of their sound, especially standout “Devouring Torn Souls” and its lumbering step.

Over on Side B we have CEREMONIAL DEATH a newer traditional Swedish death metal band with a rotten but also kinda digitally buzzed HM-2 guitar tone that sort of flaps in ear as they rip and roar through these two ~3.5 minute songs. Their lineup features members from Runemagick, Voodus, and Death Reich each of which has their own interesting hand in other realms but find a very simple point of commune here with hard-assed death metal riffs and simple song structures which revolve around a barging mid-paced stalk and the coiling electrified rumble of their wall-of-guitar toned work. “Torture” probably gets this simple point across best for my own taste as a mean-assed growling death metal burn but there are a few more complexly lain riffs on “From the Abyss” which does well to carry its central melody through the relatively short pieces. While I felt like this was an impressive split LP the Unformulas‘ side is over three times longer than the Ceremonial Death side so, I’d naturally gravitated towards the deeper pool of immersion to start but quickly came to appreciate the direct stabs felt by way of their two songs. Overall I’d say the bands are well matched in their heft and production values but my favorite here is this introduction to Unformulas style, which I’m hoping they continue to develop from this point.

Note: This was a late November release on digital and CD in 2023 and the vinyl LP became available around January 1st, 2024 so the release date in the graphic is a typo on my part.

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