• SHORT REVIEWS • Our sixteenth edition of Short Reviews for 2024 releases finds me grabbing at as many releases from the ~third week of May as I could. This group of six records were the bulk of what was entirely worthy. // 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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Bergen, Norway-based heavy psychedelic rock/proto-metal quartet VESTINDIEN began as a rowdy hardcore punk and black metal inspired crew in the early 2010’s but they’d disappeared just as quickly as they’d appeared, reviving the band ten years later with an entirely different sound. Gloom stricken 70’s rock isn’t such an unheard-of feat but their take on it was unique when they’d presented ‘Null‘ back in 2021 wherein elements of ancient hardcore punk, an early first wave black metal snarl, and a surreal psych rock touch had me impressed upon review. For this second album they press deeper into that same territory aiming for similarly anthemic yet distraught pieces which they’ve set loose into a clearer-stated yet deeply spaced out presence. This time around they’ve more or less stuck to the feeling of their gig but softened its impact and eased into something nearly progressive rock tinged. The most essential thing to say about this record is that it does a fine job of expanding their reach into classic sounds while retaining their dire tone, this time around the whole event is slightly more aspirational rather than dread-filled. The only thing that’d kinda kicked me off the record to start was the style of vocals that’d opened the first track but in the grand scheme of the full listen it wasn’t such a big detractor.

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Oakland, California-based melodic death metal quartet DARKNESS EVERYWHERE comes by way of folks best known for their work in Light This City, Crepuscule, and Sarcoptes. Their focus is pretty clearly stated as the vision of vocalist/guitarist Ben Murray taking inspiration from mid-to-late 90’s Swedish melodic death metal and sounding well in tune with ‘The Jester Race‘ in general on this debut. Though these songs are brief they’ve not been phoned in, arriving at their point quickly and not overstating the hook in each case. While a sub-half hour debut LP from a melodeath band in 2024 might seem light on depth I’d felt like their focus was singular enough that anything more might’ve overstated their approach. Much like Astralborne‘s album last year I think it’d be easy to quickly categorize and overlook a record in this style but those who stick around will find more than a few memorable, or, at least heavily repeatable and surprisingly “pure” melodic death metal songs with simple enough appeal.

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SLUGPIT is a relatively new project based out of Ljubljana, Slovenia which features folks best known for their time in experimental crust band Natt and prog-death thrashers Teleport. Where those two realities meet is an experimental form of blackened death metal infused and grinding hardcore punk, an unreal sound inspired by everything from d-beat and sludge to modern forward-looking bands like Gulch and Artificial Brain. You’re right in assuming that the effect is an everything-bagel of extreme metalpunk but a fully coherent and well-formed sound that makes for a rush of a debut EP to start. They pack a lot into these ~12 minutes with six songs each cutting right to their action which is memorable enough in terms of many stylized twists and turns taken. I guess my continued interest in how they expand this sound depends on how well they can stretch into songs over ~1-2 minutes in length, or, at least hold the rush and groove of their sound together for a doubly long release. Something to look forward to at the very least and I definitely see the potential for this band to catch ears with all that they pack into every moment.

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From the first strikes of bestial hammering and divebombed wailing that introduce this album I was pretty much on board as Serbian black metal act NADSVEST present what they’ve described as an epic poem inspiring the primal force of the warrior unto death. While you will undoubtedly hear some manner of general 90’s black metal glow at the core of this experience per its use of atmospheric keyboards there is very little that is outright typical in terms of style and performance when pecking at the details of ‘Slovo meseca i krvi‘. Formed between current Gorgoroth vocalist S. and the always impressive A. (Bròn, Barshasketh, et al.) this duo manage to combine the thrashing heavy metal cut of the first wave with bestial black metal rhythms and tie it all together with what I’d read as an almost Mayhem-esque quality to their more propulsive, eerie stretches of song. There is of course more to than just that, even, but at some point we can give them credit for a unique sense of style as well as sound design that bolsters their ‘epic’ but wrathful creed.

Though I am not familiar with Serbian folk music in general terms the suggestion is that they’ve braced some of the horrified yet elegant black metal fusion happening here with it in depiction of the haunted side of local folklore. As much as these folks do to create a varietal showing within these extended and adventurous pieces the expected result is a supreme level of immersion beyond the sensation of unfamiliar roads taken, surreal combinations under the umbrella of black metal which comes with a psychotic delirium as its main personae. The whole thing is a thrill, even within ~9 minute stretches of song, and still has more to show on Side B where a huge Bathory type stride (“Pojanje crno”) and a most theatrical point of death (“Trijumf silnika – Smrt sveta”) present value, additional angles on their greater mastery of forms at every turn. Though it took a few spins to wrap my head around Nadsvest‘s intent and get a sense of what’d been going on within their fusion of generational ideals I’d walked away from this album beyond impressed with how they’d managed to keep the many limbs of interest functional here and still hit me with a few undeniably memorable songs.

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For album number two musician Brian Ortiz (Xibalba, Mortuary Punishment) gathers a large crew of Los Angeles-area death metal folks to flesh out the TZOMPANTLI experience into what I’d consider much more of a death/doom metal sound than their “just alright”, kinda hardcorish debut album. This collab includes three-fourths of Teeth, Lord Foul from Civerous, and Justin Ton (Dead Heat, Spinebreaker) among several other suggested conspirators. This time around it feels like they’ve hit a higher bar for overall curation with much improved cover artwork, even bigger sound, a higher riff count, and the general implication of some indigenous instrumentation in their work. The primal heave of their mid-paced death metal side receives some much needed development here overall, they’ve some clear love for a solid thunder-level guitar tone, and this basically carries an otherwise pretty straight forward exploration of violent, occasionally gloom-ridden, and slow-burning death metal sounds.

There is a great history of pre-Hispanic Mexican death metal from pagan death metal bands like Mictlan to the more recent generations of brutal maniacs, such as the always over the top Xipe Totec, and in this sense a band like Tzompantli disappoints with a surface level treatment, limited to a few non-directional flute notes (which sound like a recorder) here and there and some tentative percussion rustling in between songs. The potential is so rich in terms of what atmosphere could be rattling through these songs that it feels like a real missed opportunity to step things up and especially considering the title of the record which (from my point of view) implied a focus on percussion which tied into the overarching theme.

While I don’t take any real issue with what these folks are doing at any given moment, most of this album rules on a basal sonic level, there isn’t one cohesive vision on tap here despite the emphasis on theme provided. It all kinda blurs out of focus a few songs in, at least in terms of musical direction and passage from song to song. We -do- get a hit of something new in the second half of “Tlayohualli”, a brief forlorn moment which soon breaks into late 90’s/early 2000’s Crowbar style shouts in the last few minutes of the same piece, which helps to further justify the “doom” tag but this standout moment doesn’t have any additional follow-through beyond maybe the mournful tone of closer “Inocuicatl”.

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If anyone deserves the last word, the name, and the legacy proper when it comes to Nocturnus it is inarguably Mike Browning, having arisen from the emergent Florida death metal scene as a co-founder of Morbid Angel in the 80’s to a mutinous firing from his follow-up band in the early 90’s, it is now more clear than ever where the talent, follies of youth, and the bad actors sat in the grand scheme of things. This draws a curious line through their discography, though, as the artist traces his efforts directly from ‘The Key‘ (1990) through a true afterlife (see: After Death) and revival of the major thread with ‘Paradox‘ circa 2019 in continuing with a novel’s worth of conception once deciding to take the full reigns once again. I’d been beyond enthusiastic for the long but rousing diabolism of that first Nocturnus A.D. album as it revived a high-definition vision in extension of one of my decided favorite bands from the old guard of weird death metal. Since I’d written a mile-long review of that record and we find ‘Unicursal‘ staged in direct continuation of it’s themes for most of its duration, I suppose there is no need to rattle on for another eight loaded paragraphs this time around.

Rather than present a completely focused lyrical theme front to back here the continued story of Dr. Magus is relayed through the first half of ‘Unicursal‘ via an specific level of exposition in keeping with the movement of ‘Paradox‘ while the second half changes the subject directly to the Kabbalistic sefirot, which I’ve no particular education in. Otherwise brightened production values, specifically clarity of Browning‘s voice in the mix and some exponential space allowed the drum kit, which leaves this album feeling more like a particularly wild speed-metallic progressive metal attack rather than an olden death metal record. You’re still getting signature Nocturnus sounds no doubt but I did not find this record intended to revive the classic Florida death metal sensory experience as much as ‘Paradox‘ had but rather give clarity to what is entirely unique about this group and its vision.

The horrifying crystalline realm of “CephaloGod”, the nigh orchestral swings taken by “Organism 46B” and the estranged tarantella of quick-changeling moods per “Yesod, The Dark Side of the Moon” each stood out to me most profoundly to start though the hour-long ride through ‘Unicursal‘ was steady yet surprisingly verbose as a listening experience. Overall I would say I was most engaged by the first five or so songs with consideration for the story being told but I’ll have to wait ’til I have the lyric sheet in hand to fully interpret the unfolding lore in any real sense. With this ultra-nerd type death metal spiritus still at the heart of Nocturnus A.D.‘s intent I’d found this an entirely worthy follow-up to the grand return that was ‘Paradox‘ five years ago, though I’m curious what the structure of this album suggests going forward.

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