• SHORT REVIEWS • Our eighteenth edition of Short Reviews for 2024 releases finds me grabbing at as many releases from late May/early June. // 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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The first impression Johnson City, Tennessee-based stoner/doom metal quartet WYNDRIDER make on this second full-length album is well in line with the blues-driven, simplified groan of mid-80’s United States doom metal and its heavy rock inspired existential drain. Formed in 2022 and already on their sophomore LP no doubt they’ve cranked ’em out easy thus far and you can kinda feel the quick and dirty of it in terms of the chemistry being there and ready to ooze while their greater statement, the larger experience remains indirect and unfussed. Leaving little in the way of memorable energy or experience beyond the opening numbers there is a horrified dissociative side to their work which first sparks up on “Judas” and just a bit later they lose all sensible directive on “Remember the Sabbath”, this’d quickly flatlined my interest in repeated full listens. No doubt ‘Revival‘ is a steady riding album for the most part but there is a lack of energy, a stoned languor that refuses to take the bull by the horns with a big personality. Much as I like the smokey blues driven doom of it all I’m not sure what they were thinking with the ranting verses and tuneless disarray of “The Wheel” (b/w “Judas”) though they are surely conveying a specific theme or feeling which might be more obvious in the lyrics. In this case it wasn’t long before I was jetting to the earlier songs and regularly skipping over a handful of tracks to get to the good stuff.

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French hermetic black metal band INCIPIENT CHAOS live up to their name here to start, scouring their way through the opener on this self-titled debut full-length album under frantic yet grinding command of their sandblasted attack. That first impression fades quick, though, as ‘Incipient Chaos‘ sprawls in scope beyond that most urgent note and sources a high-level classicist tradition and a ‘modern’ feeling violent sophistication which speaks the right sinister yet militant language right off the bat. This Nantes-based trio’ve been around since 2014 (plus session drummer CsR) and impressed me here from the first song by way of their dual-guitar attack and its ebb between ‘orthodox’ feeling aggression, the strength of the guitar tone, and the endless stream of riffcraft that flows through the first three or so songs at a persistent clip we get a good sense of their overall aim. The thrashing grooves of “The Apex” was more or less what’d gotten me to engage with the full listen and I was happy to see the bass guitar take an active role in the more adventurous turn the song takes in its second half, a first sign that they’d soon expand upon their reach. Though this approach is not unheard-of in terms of French black metal (see: Aosoth, etc.) where the warlike furor of their attack finds somewhere to go within its brutality the substance here comes by way of the violent (but never thoughtless) guitar work for my own taste.

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Formed back in 1989 and active ’til a nearly two decade hiatus in the 2000’s where they’d briefly explored symphonic black metal (Ninnghizhidda) German black metal quartet TSATTHOGGUA return here beyond 2019 with an original line-up (sans one guitarist?) and present ‘We Are God‘ as a surprise release here at the end of the month. By way of their associated acts on Osmose back in the day their late 90’s releases have most often been compared to black/thrash metal bands and the early evolution of Impaled Nazarene where some element of grindcore interruptus and use of keyboards made for an interesting, some would say provocateur-minded, but not as infamous impression back in the day. A quick glance at the cover art and sure, they’ve still got a mind for catching the eye with cover artwork but Tsatthoggua aren’t all about show here in the sense that their approach to grinding and thrashing black metal now involves a different level of songcraft, doubling the average length and focusing on what I’d consider a straight forward yet chaotic style of black metal. The declarative verses and melodic push of “The Doom-Scrawl of Taran-Ish” might seem out of place to start but the whole of the song, between its death-grinding turns and the break in the final third all comes together to show they’re not simply picking up from the late 90’s and doing it over. I dunno, you can always tell when a band returns after a long hiatus and no longer listen to metal anymore and in this case these folks still “get” it in terms of ultra-violent attack, whipping out riffs worth a shit, and keeping it mean and/or morbid.

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Spanish ‘old school’ thrash metal inspired quartet HOLYCIDE return with their third full-length album three years beyond the last with ‘Towards Idiocracy‘, another strike at socio-political themed late 80’s styled thrash in the most classic sense. Back in 2020 ‘Fist to Face‘ was both kinda funny but also serious with its concerns lyrically speaking and this time around the riffs are meaner, the lyrics more focused and biting, and the whole experience is honed in every respect. If the aim is a very classics-but-now feeling version of thrash I think of their three LPs thus far this is the one that I’m most likely to return to not only for its honest and well-tuned production values but for the strong guitar work shared between Salva Esteban and Ancor Ramírez Santana who are not afraid to be predictable when it serves classics-attuned moment or a big groove (see: “Remote Control”) and this feels more authentic, less “neo-thrash” overall. I’d particularly liked the aggression of the title track, the harder scrape of “Technophobia”, the Exodus/Bay Area feeling groove of “Pleased to be Deceived”, and the deeper cut Atrophy cover for how well it sits next to their own songcraft. These folks have never gotten it wrong per se but this album is particularly solid, a ripping yet meaningfully crafted classic thrash statement that doesn’t miss a beat and doesn’t fuck around with any nonsense at all.

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Lewin Brzeski, Poland based trio KÖNIGREICHSSAAL shriek and crawl through the menacing groove which opens this second full-length album and give every hint that there is an imminent eruption on the way as “Iskarja” pops off but when the time comes to explode we get a funereal black drift, a doomed step which takes over the final movement of the piece. “Rubikon” clarifies their intent a but more as a mid-paced, deliriously delivered (eh, something like Urfaust in terms of non-lyrical vocalizations) style of black metal with some interest in modern/post-black dramatism on ‘Psalmen’o’delirium‘. This is primarily entertaining for the emergent, unexpected turns taken within each song which may not be served at a frantic pace but still generally make their mark upon any given piece. The best point of introduction here is probably the extended mid-album burner “Psalmen” for its eclectic reach, its ranting vocals, and representation of the tone of the first half of the album. Though I’m not sure I’d consider this record black-doom metal but there is a tendency toward the tension offered by a plodding, mid-paced delivery and cavernous sound. The full listen appears as a wounded, possessed beast and the atmosphere of the record matches the dramatic yet dungeon-bound tone of their work perfectly. Though some songs definitely had more impact and interest compared to others I will definitely remember the opener and the handful of pieces mentioned here.

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SWELLING REPULSION is a progressive/technical death metal trio with members split between the United States, Australia, and Slovakia and you might recall I’d not only reviewed their debut album (as a duo) ‘The Severed Path‘ back in 2021 but I’d also released it on CD that same year. In the years since they’ve added bassist Kristián Jablonický, put quite a bit more work into their overall render, and still have a unique flair to their gig which I’d always felt had great potential for getting weird with their own brand of brutality. Beyond generally better sorted production values their already tightly wound performances now find heartier structure on ‘Fatally Misguided‘ where flow is still key, repetition helps ideas to sink in better up front and they’ve found a way to incorporate the headier yet dissociative side of their work when called for.

Their brand of melodicism is typically centered around vignettes, scaling riffs which form seemingly out of the blue and gnarl off wherever they may (“Cesspool of Dismembered Memory”), an approach you can likewise see in the guitarist’s imaginative and detailed artwork. I guess the main thing they’ve done better this time around is swerve less often, keeping it on point and on subject long enough to develop one idea before moving onto the next, and in that sense the road is less bumpy than before but quite a bit easier to sit with for repeat listens. Granted I liked the turn-on-a-dime step of the previous record and that sense of meandering adventure still prevails but this feels like a death metal attack on solid ground more often, building its momentum rather than fading in and out of burst-fire consciousness. All in all it is great to see more of their potential realized and that signature continue to develop in meaningful self-directed ways.

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