• SHORT REVIEWS • Our tenth edition of Short Reviews for 2024 releases finds me grabbing at six more releases from the general pool of late March/early April. This year Short Reviews will arrive every ~1-2 weeks dependent on how many extra releases are worth talking about. // These are more easygoing and casual than longform reviews, so relax and think for yourself. 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. — 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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‘Metro‘ is the debut full-length album from Chemnitz, Germany-borne quartet L’Appel du Vide who continue to nurse their own vision of death rock singed post-punk which takes inspiration from modern noise rock (“Nacht”) and old hardcore punk (“Offenbarungseid”) in constructing this anxious tour of naked introspection and the angst that comes with city living. The most deliberately sparse and cold moments on this album often come with direct juxtaposition with their interest in melodic punk, “Fleisch” being the most direct example, and I’d found this ability to turn on a dime to be the core strength of the band though they obsess over stark and alienated tonality for the majority of the full listen. Nonetheless you’ll find something tuneful to appreciate within each of these nine songs, the mark of folks who aren’t likely as jaded as they sound considering the exuberant variety of guitar tones, tempos and song types approached herein. Of course the language barrier will likely bother folks considering how verbose many of these songs tend to be, so, if you don’t know a bit of German you’ll miss out on the dark intimacy and melodrama of the lyrics. An easy record to slap on repeat and eventually feel the waves of anxiety hit.

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This second full-length album from Karlsruhe, Germany-based melodic black metal quartet Vorga does well to focus on creating grand atmospheric climes which better match and manifest their science fiction themed aesthetic. A class act from the moment they’d arrived with their first EP back in 2019 these folks have stood out since for their avoidance of the usual modern post-black afflicted melodic black sound today, retaining some of the auld grandeur of the 90’s while still doing their own thing. Though I’d given a very high rating to Vorga‘s debut LP back in 2022 it’d definitely felt like some connection to the themes, or, a fiery soul was missing from their action which’d otherwise thrived at a high standard. It seems ‘Beyond the Palest Star‘ nearly overcalculates its launch away from the more pedestrian spectrum of melodic black metal, taking their already cinematically charged approach (see also: Wormwood, The Spirit) and focusing on the broader strokes of composition for effect. This doesn’t mean there aren’t big riffs, song-making leads, and guitar hooks abounding (opener “Voideath” proves overwise quickly) but rather that the feeling and movement of each song here reads as surprisingly grand in scale. To help keep it otherworldly they’ve incorporated more keyboard/synth of the celestial and eerie variety, elevating those movements which begin to veer heavier into spaced and dramatic station.

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Obsidian Sun is a black metal side project from Netherlands-based artist Obscura, who is best known as the vocalist/guitarist of Asagraum, and she is joined by drummer Averse Moon for this debut EP. ‘Burning Obsidian Sun‘ is a roughly twenty minute introduction to their gig and naturally the production values, songwriting, and voice of the artist should be familiar to fans of their other band at face value. Here the major differentiation found on this EP comes with ringing and arpeggiated guitar techniques which aim for an almost orthodox black metal style which is atmospheric and suggested as related to early 90’s German black metal in style, though I don’t personally pick up on that aspect until the second half of the EP picks up on the thrashing density of its attack. These four songs collectively speak to the developing oeuvre of the project which arrive with some strong musicianship and a vital sense of tension upheld throughout. There is just about enough to expand upon here that I’d expect a full-length in the near future.

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Mutilation Barbecue hail from Cleveland, Ohio and play what might initially appear to be groove oriented brutal death metal but as we scrub through their half hour maze of pinging snare hits, thrash/groove metal riffs, and more of a mid-paced chugging push to ‘Amalgamations of Gore‘ we can consider their style more along the lines of general death metal with some stylized ‘old school’ fixation. One of two offshoots from the split of death/thrash metal group Subtype Zero these folks went their way and 200 Stab Wounds went theirs for results that aren’t so fundamentally different, I’d say these folks generally have the whole song in mind and are able to incorporate a variety of approaches into their work as shades of early goregrind, some gory melodic bumps (“Xenomorphic Organ Rearrangement”), some boppin’ funkier hits (“Trampled Under 18 Wheels”) and the kick of first-gen meets nu-gen brutal death metal help to round out the full album experience. Solid production values, great cover art, and a unique enough range of riff-types all go a long way toward making a good first impression here. Slower, chunkier grooves aren’t necessarily my go-to for this type of death metal but these folks keep it entertaining.

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My first thought when approaching Seattle, Washington-based heavy/power metal quintet Greyhawk‘s debut back in 2020 was that their sound represented a reasonable point of distinction between the amorphous, “didn’t do the homework on 80’s rock habits” feeling of today’s perceived NWOTHM and the actual traditions of heavy metal. ‘Keepers of the Flame‘ wasn’t a perfect album yet it’d stuck with songwriting that felt authentically early-to-mid 80’s in spirit (Manowar, Riot) while some inspiration from nowadays epic heavy/power metal (Visigoth, Skelator) gave this band an outsized personality off the bat. Perhaps the most noticeable change felt on ‘Thunderheart‘ is the reduction of shred-obsessed parts as most of these songs gallop along at a steady pace with plenty of virtuosic accoutrement yet the vocals are in a more consistent leading position this time around. I’d found this makes for more of a storyteller’s experience, even if the lyrics stick to fairly generic fantasy metal subjects the bard effect hits well enough within the overall ride. Also: Keep an ear out for Glyph, another traditional heavy metal band releasing their debut LP this week (March 29th).

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‘Caw Entrance‘ is the eighth full-length album from Norwegian black metal solo act Furze, a long running project from Trondheim-based musician Woe J. Reaper who incorporates elements of psychedelia, doom metal, and heavy rock into his uniquely stated, often lo-fi sound and style. Each of his releases tends to be fairly different in tone and timbre though we can head in expecting menacing, hypnotic first wave black metal to be the vessel for his experimentation, in this case the majority of this album is spent buzzing through thrashing ‘old school’ black metal pieces with a few ~9-10 minute songs that run the gamut of psych jammed gloom to heavy metalpunk feeling ride. It ends up being a fine follow-up to ‘The Presence…‘ (2018), reprising some of the more adventurous rhythms of the past without fully falling back into ultra-raw production values. If you are the sort of listener who finds raw edges, imperfect musicianship, and out-of-left-field expression far more interesting than the status quo this is an authentic result from my point of view and a one of the better black metal/doom hybrid notions alongside Faustcoven and Barathrum.

https://furze.bandcamp.com/album/caw-entrance

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