• SHRT REVWS • Our first edition of short(er) reviews for the month of July focuses on releases arriving on the 5th and covering a range of genres including progressive black metal, traditional black metal, psychedelic rock, noise rock, death metal, doom metal, stoner rock, and industrial/sludge metal. // In an attempt to be more conversational these are more easygoing and casual than longform reviews, so relax and think for yourself. — 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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If you are under the age of, I dunno, thirty-five you might not (ever) know or recognize the existence of symphonic progressive rock aka symphonic prog but maybe you’re an Opeth fan or whatever, eh, and you’ve got some basic understanding of the phenom via cursory mentions of Yes, King Crimson, Camel et al. Anyhow the last several years have found Queens, New York-founded progressive metal crew KRALLICE workshopping with different forms of authorship, performance, configuration and the results of these attempts at transmogrification have ranged from the rawest to the most celestial extremes available to a band who’d represented a new voice in avant-garde black metal starting back in the late 2000’s/early 2010’s. Their seventh album in the space of four years, ‘Inorganic Rites‘, roots itself in something akin to symphonic prog-tinged black metal presentation to start but finds elements of progressive electronic music, deeper exploration of spaced ambiance which weighs heavily here at around half the length of its ~67 minutes.

Though I love the scaling riffs and shouted vocals of songs like “Here Forever” and “Hinderer” I’ve always shown up for Krallice records for the bass guitar/chapman playing, at least beyond the immersive longform songs of their early days. While this still true I find myself just as entranced by their increasingly brain ogling synthesizer treatments as, specifically “Universe Ancestral Talisman” and the more active thrum of “Flatlines Encircled Residue” where the weird soul of this album floats up and stretches into more intensive dialogue acting as a reprieve from the more active irregular chunks of ~3-5 minute song elsewhere. They top it all off combining those modes on “Fatestorm Sanctuary”, probably the most effective piece on the album in terms of summing the experience. All of it is a trip, I didn’t experience any fidgety “filler” moments this time around. I’m not sure I’d expected their increasingly independent vision to amount to this level of free movement back in the day as I’d both enjoyed and dreaded the differences between albums like ‘Diotima‘ and ‘Years Past Matter‘ a decade+ ago. This one feels essential thus far per my own taste but that’ll likely depend on what you want and expect from these folks beyond 2017 or so.

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Is it inevitable that a band would eventually take stock of their locus, their point of creative origin when the need to reinvigorate calls? — Now stepping beyond their second decade as HORNED ALMIGHTY this seventh full-length from the Danish modern standard bearing quartet, ‘Contagion Zero‘, more-or-less kicks off tributing where they’d taken flight with their gig. Tackling a couple of straight forward Norwegian style black metal songs which focus on cold-cut riffs and a fairly clean, readable render these folks have never sounded as confidently set within their skin, almost to the point of laxity. Their previous album, ‘To Fathom the Master’s Grand Design‘, felt like a return to form that’d revised their sound but basically picked up where they’d left off back in 2014 but for this follow up we find the band looking back to their impetus and taking stock of the fundamental purpose and essence of their work. That is to say that no matter how one could spin it these folks still sound like themselves, able to step from slow-motion black/doom misery (“Ascension of Fever and Plague”) into faster paced traditional fare without breaking a sweat. This time around a succinct runtime ~37 minutes and a set of completely solid, unfucked with ~5 minute black metal songs makes for a classics-bound feeling record which has been successfully pecked over in order to eliminate any unnecessary elements. Again I find myself enjoying their mid-paced songs most though there is something impersonal and dry about the presentation here which set my mind wandering off during preliminary listens. Particular like the mix otherwise and found the bass guitar tone and presence perfect for this style (see: “Furnace of Sulphur and Fire”).

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As we here in the United States continue to pre-game for the upcoming co-headline tour from Amorphis and Dark Tranquillity we find yet another side-project from a member (see also: Tomi Koivusaari‘s Bjørkø) of the former with Olli-Pekka Laine taking many friends from his own projects such as Mannhai and Barren Earth as well as Finnish greats Rapture, Xysma, and Swallow the Sun for vocal spots on this album. ‘Beyond the Aeons’ is a strange prospect in this sense because its visuals offer a finely detailed kinda stoney, maybe prog look with some 70’s by way of 90’s layout work yet the music is quick to drop into its highly melodic progressive spirit with the death metal vocal affect up front with (main live vocalist) Mikko Kotamäki of Swallow the Sun up first and featured most often per three songs out of eight. Naturally you will feel the Amorphis vibe here, a service provided by the guitar melodies and general knack for dramatic arrangement, this feels unavoidable despite how many strange and different places OCTOPLOID takes us and perhaps the most enthusiastic fandom for this band will be folks who enjoy all sides of the main songwriter’s other band, from melodic death and stoney prog rock to the heavier melodic metal dramatism otherwise. I went in expecting something more like Dan Swanö’s ‘Moontower‘ based on previews but instead this feels like an expansion of traits we find in the musician’s other work, being allowed to breathe a bit deeper of Morricone-esque guitar breaks, indulge in extended leads and build up bigger Crimsonian dramatism. If you’re as big a fan of all things Amorphis as I am maybe you’ll see the unleashed, outward push of this record in the same way.

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Taking morbid dreams, tales of monstrous transformation and making music of it is a process that Italian psychedelic doom metal quartet MEIFU describe as self-actualization, meditation upon what rises up in throat and releases as ritualistic, often eastern melody inspired trails of shamanic doom. Their debut full-length record ‘Haunted Dreams‘ finds the band road-tested, readied with a personality and fully capable of carrying a record without many kinks to work out of the system. The star here is of course vocalist Mari whose vocals are especially varied between Arabesque vocalizations, death metal growls, and entranced narrative all of it fitting per the moment and the heavy mood. The groove is slow to develop but the action isn’t sleepy here and every moment seems to serve a purpose or, at least entertain for my own taste. Though there are many bands trying something in this style there are few who’ve something to add and I think over time these folks could only get more weird, and in this case the heavier and darker the approach the better.

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Since I’m not particularly familiar with the work of Chicago, Illinois-based death/black metal band KOMMANDANT beyond feature of ex-Cianide and Funereal guitarist James Bresnahan an EP like ‘Exhibition of Conquest‘ felt like a good jumping in point though the more I’d run back into their discography it became clear this was a step in a “mid-paced” black metal direction with their usual war metallic blast set aside for a still adrenaline kicked showing on these five songs. The moment that this EP becomes something special is debatable, I figure the opening song “Reborn Into Violence” is thrill enough for its main riff and patient cadence to start but when “Arsenal” rolls into its melodic chorales and the Deutsche begins to fly there is some strong inkling that this will be an important release, or, something worth talking about in their discography. As it turns out the slower dragging doomed sprawl of closer/title track “Exhibition of Conquest” further explores both the use of different group sung vocals and slower pacing to create one of the best songs of the lot though none of these pieces are underbaked or undersold in terms of being complete ~five minute black metal pieces with a light death metal inspiration. On paper maybe this sounds like what they’ve always been up to but here the pacing feels like a reinvention of Kommandant‘s sound. Not sure if this is a one-off kind of deal or if this is a new direction they’ll ultimately take but I’d enjoyed this quite a bit, substantial and with a classic feeling to it.

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Delivering doom-punk, the devil and much more Austin, Texas-based quartet DUEL kinda thrash halfway through this fifth full-length album as they continue to tout a Samhain meets The Sword (by way of Red Fang) deal. Although I recall liking parts of their 2019 release ‘Valley of Shadows‘ there wasn’t much I’d recalled about the band that’d stood out as much as the personality available to this record which is kind of late 70’s garage psych’d punk one moment and early 80’s thrash another a la more recent Zig-Zags with some extra Pentagram level energy. Though I might’ve sat down and enjoyed this record each time I picked it up that didn’t mean it translated to much to say. I mean you get multi-generational songwriting inspiration and that translates directly to their big personality but Duel‘re pretty easygoing, inserting classic heavy metal riffs into horror punk melody and making bigger, catchier jams from it. For my own taste the connection to make here is the more raucous stoner metal side of Cathedral but I’m sure you’ve gotten the idea already. Catchy stuff, memorable cover, and a pretty driven pace through the whole ~40 minute ride all makes it a pretty easy to recommend ride.

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Bursting out loud, hitting a big chainsawed tone and howling at full volume throughout there is nothing cryptic or even slightly subtle about Finnish death metal quartet CRYPTIC HATRED on this second full-length album. The way I see a record like this is inspired by the impression that the very loudest quasi-old school stuff you find on bigger labels gives, that death metal’s “old school” apex was clean production and big grooves. This has been more and more commonplace within death metal generica beyond the early success of groups like Bloodbath. Anyhow, the bombast never lets up on ‘Internal Torment‘ as these young folks are all hitting at eleven outta ten throughout but leaving some piano, horror keys, and slower dips into atmospheric sprawl to bring some interest to their cannon fire. Much as I don’t mind the mosh metal scrubbing and groove metal exclamation of certain vocal parts this record as a whole grated on my ass quick and didn’t click overall, basically the same reason I don’t really touch Rogga Johansson stuff anymore: It doesn’t hold up without a specific point of view. Granted if you want a high professional standard but also a very standard approach they’ve nailed the big chunking death metal havoc many find thrilling, so, see if this one lines up with your own taste.

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A good noise rock band knows how to cause a bit of pain, how to conjure a guitar sound so heinous that it cuts through the skull like a laser beam (“B/B”) while still graciously cauterizing whatever damage they’ve done. The first thing I’d noticed while taking this ~14 minute EP from Granada, Spain-based noise rock/post-hardcore crew PALMAR DE TROYA for a spin was their grasp of guitar noise within the general boundaries of earlier punkish Sonic Youth and the bop of Fugazi‘s less distraught, quirkier post-hardcore rattle. The way they slink into “Bracit” and turn the nauseous psychedelic groove into an echoic bark over a megaphone is masterful, at least in the sense that they’ve not had to sneak up on you with a loud-quiet-loud deal to get their point across in just a few minutes. Each of the five songs here get their stab-to-the-ear in one way or another but more often than not some manner of post-punk beat (“Trauman”) or rocking swing (“Cold Snakes”) pulls their efforts direct from a jammed session feeling into a fairly tight performance that speaks to a spaced, disaffected headspace. I’d like to see what they could do with five or ten minutes of focus at this level of detail and energy.

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From Granada in the south now to Madrid up north in central Spain we find industrial sludge/death metal quintet INERTH returning beyond their 2022 debut LP with a four song EP, ‘Hybris‘ today. Back when I’d written about their debut I believe I compared it to mid-90’s Godflesh with some Fudge Tunnel and Neurosis aspects via that same era and as we ride into opener “Midlife Wasteland” we find their approach similar but maybe more outright tuneful to start. This type of music and its origins was very popular when I was entering my teenage years as the simple grooves, cathartic tone and heavier production values were geared for angst but in this case we find an atmosphere of existential dread, the miserable state of humanity examined through half-shut eyes. I particularly enjoyed the heavier bass tone and general stomp and push feeling of “A.I.” as it recalled the ‘Soul of a New Machine‘-era of Fear Factory when that group was a very different prospect for post-‘Streetcleaner‘ industrial metal. The distraught and surreal feeling of this record was effective enough from my point of view and overall I’d enjoyed returning to their sound even if not every song (“Fentanyl”) was as interesting as the others within repeated listens.

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