• SHRT REVWS • This condensed version of short(er) reviews focuses on releases arriving in the second and third weeks of September covering black metal, noise rock, melodic punk, heavy/doom rock, stoner rock, and death/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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The most exciting thing about sitting with ‘After Image‘ and soaking up Osaka, Japan-based duo HYPER GAL‘s motorik-handed, glitched charm isn’t its surreal and oft unexpected wiles so much as the ingenuity of their work. With each release from the band they appear as mirage sculptors, using simple tools (drums, keyboards, vocals) in craft of multi-genre spanning work which only becomes more captivating the simpler their execution becomes. While one could pass the experience off as noxious spasm, quick caloric noise-pop, you might be surprised just how quickly a tripping step on the drums (happy to blast away ah via Melt Banana‘s early best) loop-happy keys and twee yet somehow deadpan vocals worm into mind and generate eerie focus. It makes for a truly psychoactive, kinda grating experience at its best when leaning into the late 80’s NY noise guitar trembling of “Ooparts”, though I appreciated their work as they achieve something akin to bite sized neo-psychedelic lid droop on “dot dot dot” and broken dance-punk on “Over Fussy”. It probably wouldn’t work if the ideas didn’t maintain regular flow throughout and after a few spins in a row its obsessive kicks do begin to grate but I’ve found every release from these folks adds another satisfying number of forks in the road worth following.

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Everything I had to say about Bergen, Norway-based stoner rock quartet SLOMOSA back in 2020 when their self-titled LP (‘Slomosa‘) released still applies as their loosie-goosy take on desert rock again finds its grunge-era chill on ‘Tundra Rock‘. I’d still at least reference the gloom of classic Snail as well as the early Swedish scenes but of course there are more obvious references down to very first lyric outta their mouths. They’re going for some kinda alt-rock vocal harmonies here and there but, again, not the radio ready shit for idiot corpo teens. The big deal here for my own taste is the growl of the guitar tone, a simple bite back that it gives when they’re letting it chug helps this one feel less like a tribute to old shit and more a new adaptation. Songs like “Cabin Fever” are pure melodrama and the opening of the album can be pretty damned sleepy from song to song but give this one a serious full spin for the sake of Side B where they work up a bit more nerve and pick up the pace on some of their more involved pieces (“Battling Guns” esp.) and by the time we’re shoulder deep in the hot fuss of “Monomann” the real essence of the old shit (per stoner rock and 90’s heavy psych tipped push otherwise) is resonating loudest, that’d been the hot spot on the album for my own taste. At any rate do not miss Side B. Solid record, great follow up, terrible “10 mins. on mspaint.exe” album art though.

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Twenty years on and seven albums deep it’d appear that Halden, Norway-based black metal band MORK only become more restless in the face of outright traditional black metal craft having ventured into dreamlike dread, a rocking step, folk metallic gilding, and such over the last few albums. This time around a unique enough progressive/pagan black feeling portal opens with ‘Syv‘, an album which kicks off sounding a bit like a mid-2000’s Taake album but quickly pivots into increasingly thoughtful, less predictable pieces. Though I particularly like the strings-aided folken grind of “Holmgang” and similar accoutrement on the n’ rolled “Heksebål” these are just a couple of facets to choose from as each piece out of the overall nine clearly intend to enforce variety and singularity. The main fellowe behind the largely solo venture, Thomas Eriksen, had taken an interesting detour with Udåd and I believe some familiarity with that font for a certain type of solemn black metal songcraft allows this project/album to do something different, as if a certain mode had to be bled from the system for something new to happen with Mork. And I think that says it best, this feels like something new and accomplished for the band. It probably won’t please the necro-enjoyers and greasepaint enhanced frowners abounding but for my own taste most every song kinda hits in a unique way this time around.

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Though the first impression given by its dramatic, painterly cover art (via Jamie Santiago Longa) suggests ‘Underworld‘ might be some manner of spiritual black metal portal in fact this second solo LP from Canadian musician Paulus Kressman‘s PAULUS incants the peaking gloom of neofolk, dark folk and martial ambiance. Best known for his drumming and vocal work in Sacramentary Abolishment as well as (more recently) Sacrilegia and Rites of Thy Degringolade this particular project from the artist is clearly driven by personal spiritual intent and a taste for honest yet surreal folk expression marked by unique diction and a bell-ringing, haunting sense of space. I think he’s done well to keep it a fairly easy to approach, focused listen at just over a half hour spent creating the greater dirge of this record but of course the actual style of the album should read as ambitious, purely estranged, and specifically built around Kressman‘s voice and its various harmonization. While said vocals might not be for curious black metal fandom the realm of neofolk bears plenty of precedence for this type of approach, often layered in strange tonal resonance and/or dripping with effects. A meaningful introduction though a brief thought ‘Underworld‘ is engaging as it needs to be without necessarily flattening me with its profundity.

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The unending dirge of the void, the ecstatic expansion of the universe via its entropic pull, or death itself pressed against the ear’s drum whatever it is that this latest album from Swedish artist David Johansson‘s OSCILLOTRON intends on depicting under the title ‘Oblivion‘ involves an hour of sustained droning guitar noise, a concrete and ringing dread-note amidst various “understated” swells. It is a magic eye poster that never produces an image, a wall of prayers unanswered for thousands of years, the putrescene that won’t wash off, there is really nothing to its layered hum of slow motion shuddering chords other than a few stereo swaps for the swilling and circling hum that it provides. There is no dynamic introduced, no relief fostered, no tuneful hand, and no real humanity to speak of as this founding member of Kongh bruises the mind and dulls the ear. There is nothing to gain from it, nothing to do with it (or to it) and all that is left to do under its palm is squirm restlessly while being slowly crushed. Without any expertise in what sort of effort goes into a piece like this I’m left fairly indifferent, eager to remove myself from the atmospheric pressure the listening experience creates.

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The promise of a 90’s shoegaze influenced post-metal band with some interest in the “grunge” movement feels built from buzzwords modern post-rock/sludge bands use to catch the eye of aging millennials. In the case of Bellevue, Ohio-based quartet FLOURISH it mostly fits as they mix some heavier wandering post-metal guitar driven songs with sleepier alternative rock (“Towpath”), pieces which are close enough to post-hardcore in spirit to kinda work. With a big-ass production sound, dreary mood and mostly ~5-6 minute songs this one hits somewhere in between the run-on cinema of Pelican and the more pensive, slow-going side of more recent Quicksand releases… but without anything particularly distinct or tuneful when it comes to the vocals. Most songs wander aimlessly, despondent and in similarly toned expression to the point that the shoegaze influence eventually makes sense. For my own taste this is probably the least interesting aspect of their sound and their adjacency to sludge/post-metal heft tends to be the most inspired movement. By the time they’re leaning into some aggro synth and snarl on “In the Shade of a Static Morning” this album crosses over into territory that isn’t for me but I did appreciate the general aim of their work when the vocal input was most restrained or least frequent.

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