• SHORT REVIEWS • Our eleventh edition of Short Reviews for 2024 releases finds me grabbing at six more releases from the general pool of 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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With an infamous history spanning several cycles of death and rebirth since 1991 southern France-borne black metal project Mütiilation are best known for their Les Légions Noires adjacent years ’til first death in 1996 though per my own experience their 2000’s material found some interesting enough variation far beyond the brilliant simplicity of ‘Hail Satanas We Are the Black Legions‘. Their most recent false start came in the late 2010’s wherein after a few years of trying to make live appearances work Meyhna’ch ended their return (excepting numerous over due reissues) and quickly turned out two full-length albums in a similar style under the name Meyhnach, without being too reductive these were from the same soul under a new vessel especially ‘Miseria de Profundis‘ (2022). So, stepping into ‘Black Metal Cult‘ with as little fanfare and pomp as possible we are getting Mütiilation from the most natural font Meyhna’ch can manage, feigning zero naiveté in terms of musicianship yet consciously avoiding an overworked result as we find pieces written for two guitars with early second wave-levels of harmonization available to their violent and rawly presented crush.

‘Black Metal Cult‘ is not a direct follow-up to the ‘epic’ longform strides of ‘Sorrow Galaxies‘ (2007) and again I’d say the best direct precedence for some of this material is the most recent Meyhnach record but I would suggest that the first half of this record reminds us where (or, when) this fellowe was at his most deranged ~’99-’03 and a time when every album called for a bigger devolution, a more complete decimation and derangement of the human race. The title alone should signal this mindset revived though the music itself has not been intentionally limited to that era of guitar technique or anti-sound design. Granted I am admittedly not an expert on this sect of French black metal so, on a more surface level this invokes the right feeling thanks to a grainy distortion applied to the vocals and sickly, nauseated riffcraft leading the more blunt pieces of the lot (“Hominicide”) though there are some impressive and kinda tuneful songs here which reach for more than rotten aggression such as “From the Plains of Ice and Death” and the peaking eruption of “The Fall of Islam”.

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Portland, Oregon-based bestial occult black-death metal trio Diabolic Oath return for a second full-length album and though their explosive, chaotic sound is bound to go off the rails at some point within the full listen it opens with a more defined shape than I recall their debut ‘Profane Death Exodus‘ having back in 2020. Between an ongoing process of mastery per their use of fretless guitars and basses in the context of wrathful death metal and an increasing focus on surreal, unnerving atmosphere (also, a triangulated pack of vocalists) means their work retains its over the top slapping violence but leads with a bit more clarity, or, definition between each actor’s performance. “Serpent Coils Suffocating the Mortal Wound” is kinda the type of moment I’d been wanting from the band at this point, surrealistic sounds one would only get from their configuration which fit seamlessly within their crushing aptitudes otherwise. “Winged Ouroboros Mutating Unto Gold” applies a decidedly brutal whip to the drums while veering into Azagthothian guitar territory briefly as the potency of the action on Side A has something vile or impressive to catch the ear with. The second half of the full listen consists of two longer form songs which don’t necessarily stretch for time as much as they emphasize the eerie atmosphere suggested. While I’m not sure there is a long conversation to be had within the very direct clobbering sensation which greets the ear upon introduction to ‘Oracular Hexations‘ the full listen does go places and finds a way to mix things up with new sounds and shocking moments as it completes its run.

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A trio of artists, teachers, and experimental collaborators Chicago-borne post-metal/drone rock pushers Locrian manage a tapestry of finger-tapped guitar loops, synth-driven bops, and distantly shouted dismay for some of their heaviest yet stuff. This comes in in somewhat stark contrast to their previous album ‘New Catastrophism‘ (2022) a dark ambient record that’d slowly developed its kick at the end, here we start with a rousing number (“Chronoscapes”) and feel the drain beyond that point with the exception of mid-album throbber “Excarnate Light” and parts of the seemingly atmo-post black inspired “In the Throes of Petrification” nearby the endpoint. Those should serve as beacons for folks looking for direct engagement whereas the bulk of the album expends its energy illustrating a trash-heaped apocalyptic scene where psychotic apathy and illness are widespread symptoms of an unavoidable endpoint. “Chronoscapes” will catch the ear to start and the songs mentioned carry that momentum through but a deeper listen should eventually favor the immersive revelations of “Utopias” as complimentary to that starting point before the purely despondent “The World is Gone, There is No World” helps to rounds the album out for my own taste. The running order is excessive for my own taste with a few pieces that belabor or even interrupt the drowned out vibe of ‘End Terrain‘ but that didn’t staunch my enjoyment of its more resonant points of interest.

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The return of Australian atmospheric black/dark metal duo Austere was a bit of a surprise back in 2023 and almost exactly a year later they’ve returned with a continuation of that sound, this time focusing more intently upon the depressive dark metal sound rather than their black metal edge work. This might seem like a drastic change to those who might not’ve studied the previous album closely but the only major change comes with harmonized clean vocals which feature in most every song. These manifest a bit like a darker vision of the vocal dynamic on Amorphis‘ ‘Elegy‘ or the transitional period of Katatonia when clean vocals were introduced, especially as we reach the lead guitar driven melodic drift of “Cold Cerecloth”. This also necessitates shorter, more to-the-point songs which develop their peaks through dual vocal trade-off and slowly simmering movements that often surprise with their dramatic turns and steadily burning progression. We could potentially consider this style the suggested “blackgaze” tag but the buried placement of the vocals and stylized sound design keep it from feeling like outwardly commercial melodic metal, the distanced and introverted sensation of ‘Beneath the Threshold‘ lends some appreciable character to the experience that was surprisingly enjoyable despite expectations for Austere‘s sound being met with profound change. From this vantage point it is each to see how catchier, tightened guitar hooks and bigger harmonized choral dirges might surface through iteration but either way I’d found this one captivating, tuneful, and on some level eerily reserved.

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‘Transcendent Unveiling of Dimensions‘ is the debut demo from Kingsport, Tennessee death metal quintet Purulency who’d formed as a duo back in 2018 and eventually worked up to a complete line-up around 2022 prior to the recording of this four song ~19 minute record in 2023. Purulency initially worked with Caligari Records for the cassette and CD versions of this release in January/February and now Pulverised Records are releasing the 12″ mLP version here in April. The chaotic and menacing cover art is a good indication of what this demo beholds as its cavernous vocals and jogging Swedish death metal rhythms eventually begin to grind and blast with the fervor of classic Finnish death metal of the late 80’s/early 90’s without fully reaching for the more complex, weirding strafe of that riff style. So, not exactly Abhorrence or Carnifex (Fin) but not that far off either in terms of spreading their focus between harried and grinding blasted-at pieces and slower, doomed excursions. Much as I like the Carnage-style jogs that kick off this record it was the slower buzzing death/doom at the endpoint that’d kept me interested in repeated listening. A solid grab for folks interested in ‘old school’ death metal with an early Scandinavian ‘Reek of Putrefaction‘-meets-‘Severed Survival‘ touch.

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Tenebrific is a blackened death metal project which features Australian guitarist Adam Martin (who features on bass in Golgothan Remains and Sarcophagum) and U.K.-based vocalist Cris Bassan (Decrepid) who are joined by guests and session musicians, including talented Australian drummer Robin Stone, to realize this first vision. This three-song and ~23 minute mLP does a fantastic job of introducing their dramatic vision of despairing, existentially spent death metal which features heavy use of melodic lead guitars which serve to quickly differentiate this undertaking from related projects. They’ve made twenty plus minutes of high-drama obsidian death music feel like six and done an exceptional job curating both the artwork/aesthetic and engrossing production values here and I see great potential for what vision they could bring to an even more melodic and/or devastated, apocalyptically charged LP.

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