• SHORT REVIEWS • Our seventeenth edition of Short Reviews for 2024 releases finds me grabbing at as many releases from the second half of May. This group of six records focus on some variety but the big releases to highlight are mostly death metal. // 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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‘Unholy Descent‘ is the twelfth full-length album from San Diego, California brutal death metal fixture PATHOLOGY who’ve notably featured Dave Astor, founding drummer for The Locust and Cattle Decapitation, as the spine of their deal since forming in the mid-2000’s. They’ve always been entirely consistent but this current stretch beyond 2017 wherein the line-up was basically 75% replaced, has been solid in presenting a modern not-so trendy vision of brutal death. That said with the current guitarist for Condemned and the vocalist from Inherit Disease up front they’ve moved further from the gory side of things and been more ambitious with variety, credit is due here for the variety of mood and pacing showcased. There aren’t a ton of bands that’d put equal time into slammed-up songs like “Psychotronic Abominations” one minute and the more atmospheric “Whispers of the Sun” and still find time to keep the brutal, kinda technical reach of their gig up. Pushing through thirteen ~three minute songs without dragging is admirable enough and a few of these songs are memorable in their own right but the appeal of this band is moreso steady, ‘tasteful’ brutal death metal action and not whatever flavor of the month shit is going on.

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SQUELCHING FLESH is a newer duo featuring two members of Reeking Aura, including Tom Anderer (Grey Skies Fallen) and Terrell Grannum (Thætas), who’ve taken their own creative liberties within this combination of early-days slamming brutal death metal’s cleverly exaggerative, hardcorish grooves and goregrind’s chug-rocking violence. If you can hang with giga belch-toned vocals and the chaos of opener “Old Fingers”, which features a guest spot from Will Smith (Afterbirth), you should find the level of detail pumped into every minute of this EP all the more entertaining once the initial spectacle of their sound has a few minutes to sink in. Granted they crack through these nine songs in ~18 minutes, a blip for brutal death but an opus for a goregrind head, and kinda find their own groove somewhere around the middle with the more swinging press of “Masterminding” b/w “All Day”. Wild-ass stuff overall which finds a way to link classic goregrind and brutality in a way that isn’t predictable, or, at least typical.

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Madrid, Spain-borne old school blasphemic brutal death metal crew CHRIST DENIED is one of several pioneering groups from the mind of Dave Rotten (Avulsed, Holycide, et al.) which has persisted through today though it has been just over a decade since their last release. Though I am not all that familiar with their 2013 release I’ve long used their ’96 album ‘…Got What He Deserved‘ as an example of the prime era of brutal death for my own taste where atmosphere, tempo changes, Deicide riffs, all of the best things about death metal that remained despite it having been cast out as a non-viable corporate commodity beyond ’95. This is one case where you know you’re walking into the work of folks who care about upholding the good traditions of their name and in that sense we have another serious classic brutal death metal album in the Christ Denied style here. Rotten‘s vocals have evolved beyond the guttural roar of his early work and instead of phoning it in like most folks with as many albums and years under his belt there are new techniques, tics, and vocal arrangements on most every song here be it the Mortician-esque dual roars on “A Blinding Light” or the faster deathgrind blips on opener “Scream Bloody Blasphemy”. Few folks do this kind of stuff right anymore and I was beyond stoked to sit with this album spin after spin. Otherwise this album has pretty straightforward appeal, a set number of things it does to keep the skull entertained, and only the true die-hard brutal death fan will stick around for the whole thing. Bonus points for the solid Cryptopsy cover at the end, too.

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The fourteenth full-length album from Hellenic black metal legends ROTTING CHRIST celebrates their thirty-fifth year beyond their first official release (1989) and themes itself after the era before Christ, referenced as tribute to ancient pagan wisdom and those who fought against the oppression and cultural erasure by the sinister hand of Christendom. Back in 2019 it seemed like this group, or, specifically Sakis Tolis was just enjoying the ride of his legacy and certainly don’t mean that in a negative way but that ‘The Heretics‘ (2019) seemed to be reflecting and relishing in signature above directive in some respect. Pandemic years found the artist releasing a unique solo album or two both under his own name and χ ξ ς’ and those sidebars seem to have inspired the reach and the stature of ‘Pro Xristou‘. Gone are the automated feeling vignettes of the previous album and here songs like “Like Father, Like Son” b/w “The Sixth Day” have that auld 1996-1999 ‘epic’ melodic black/dark metal feeling unique to the artists hand. Depending on your preference within their extensive discography this will just be one blip on the radar as choral arrangements, soaring leads, and slow-thundering pieces (“The Apostate”, “La Lettera del Diavolo”) a la ‘Rituals‘ (2016) also factor into the hourlong dynamic of the full listen.

In fact if I have one complaint here it is that there is just too much to dig through here, two album’s worth of material which doesn’t always feel as connected as it intends. After some extensive listening I’d felt like this album more-or-less takes a tour of many of Rotting Christ‘s best moments and inserts the effect of each under one banner. This works well in theory, especially when the shout-along anthems (such as “Saoirse”) are at peak charge and upholding an effective level of momentum throughout yet there were several pieces which didn’t fit anywhere in the greater puzzle, such as “ᛦᚵᛑᚱᛆᛋᛁᛚ (Yggdrasil)” and the dull late album grab of “Primal Resurrection”. Though a single sitting of ~56 minutes isn’t all that daunting I don’t think every song on ‘Pro Xristou‘ felt a thousand percent necessary here, leaving me skipping at least four or five of these songs beyond my tenth or so spin.

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Growling and hissing through their teeth for the duration of this ~40 minute buzzing stoner/sludge metal tank Montréal, Quebec-based band DOPETHRONE seethe, sweat and curse out six years worth of work here on album number six. Another example of these folks doing what they do best ‘Broke Sabbath‘ gets to the point quick, digging into fairly minimal bass-heavy sludge metal of the mean and aggressively rasped variety. No pretty progressive-isms, no alternative rock hooks, just uglier than thou grinding front to back and for my own taste this is the right balance between heavy rock and doom metal inspired movement (“Rock Slock”) and the general existential dread filled snarl sludge should have. Choice songs: “Uniworse”, “Truckstop Warlock”.

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‘Naturmystik‘ is a split CD between two impressive black metal acts with my preference being for the work of HÄXANU, who made it to the top of my Best of 2023 list with their most recent full-length, though they do not overshadow the always impressive work of Swartadauþuz‘ in GREVE. I’d found the material from Häxanu aimed slightly more atmospheric in its reach per its guitar tone this time around which clashes more readily with the drums to fill the space with a more echoic, thundering sound. This is more-or-less comparable to the band’s sound and approach on their recent split with Collier d’Ombre in early April. Otherwise this is the first we’ve heard from Greve in a couple of years as Swartadauþuz seems to have banked work in Secrets, Balwezo Westijiz, Muvitium and such in the meantime. These songs generally recall the style found on ‘Föllo af svavel, lifvets dimridå‘ which is to say that most all of their material has been fairly similar in that they present glowingly atmospheric “symphonic” black metal though not in the typical late 90’s/2000’s style.

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