• SHRT REVWS • This condensed version of short(er) reviews focuses on releases arriving in the final week of September covering traditional doom metal, black/thrash, grindcore, melodic black metal, melodic death metal, and black/death 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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Italian traditional doom metal trio BOTTOMLESS paired with Brazilian traditional doom metal duo WITCHING ALTAR makes for a sublime pairing on this split 12″ LP, particularly if you are a fan of the old guard where the rocking gloom of Pentagram and the stamping jog of Reverend Bizarre find some spiritual revival in the hands of these artists respectively. Of course the Treviso/Bologna-built collective go first and once again showcase why they are one of the absolute best in this style these days. Punchy riffs, easy swinging grooves, and solos with real bite and melodic value only compound the status of a band I already admire a great deal for their two full-lengths from 2021 and 2023 respectively. I particularly love the easier-riding swing of opener “Burning of the Vampire” but it is “Shadows Call” that rocked my shit, a hard buzzer which arrives upon the give-and-take heavy rock inspired feel of the Maryland trad-doom metal sound and gives it an early 80’s stride to start. The harmonized vocals which check in around ~2:10 minutes in the song are exceptional. Bottomless‘ side of the album already made this LP essential per my own fandom, brilliant work across the board, but I’d been surprised by Witching Altar to some degree in terms of the Trouble-esque step into their first couple of songs and despite the undercurrent of Finnish doom metal feel running through most of their work. When I wasn’t just leaving “Shadows Call” on repeat and blissing out on it the early Lord Vicar feeling “The Crypts Below” from these fellowes was just about as captivating. ‘Graveyard Hunter’ is a great match-up here between the two bands, reinforcement for my fandom of Bottomless and a great introduction to Witching Altar.

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This sixth full-length album from Medellin, Colombia-based evil speed metal quartet WITCHTRAP smokes out the gate with “Built For the Kill” a piece which showcases its ‘Infernal Overkill‘-type guitar tone and rapidly kicked pace up front as they reinforce the prime aggression of the mid-80’s Teutonic aggressors of Venom-spun speed metal. Heading into this experience we could of course assume they’d stuck with their own traditions, a very straight forward attack and a classic sound delivered with snarling action and un-fucked with riffs throughout. Though I’d appreciated their previous album this one is a bit easier to pick up and rip through, it feels somewhat more to-the-point and with production values that feature a bit more clarity than their previous LP. ‘Hungry as the Beast‘ has technically been out since April digitally, since March for the self-released CD, and now Hells have picked it up for broader release on all formats. Very straightforward release and as such I’ve no real notes to provide here beyond it being a ripper in the best tradition.

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Take a wide-eyed look at that crusty logo and two-color album art and no doubt you’re likely thinking you’ve scored a ratty throwback Swedish death metal record but in fact ‘Harmony Dies‘ is the second LP from Palermo, Italy-based classic grindcore killers ERASER who’ve gathered up a late 80’s/early 90’s death-infused and roaring bout of Terrorizer inspired neck twisters, a full clip of twenty-two songs delivered in ~28 minutes. They don’t have a centimeter to fuck around with and every song hits a riff, a roar, or some manner of hardcore punk inflected reactive extremism as is tradition. Some of my favorite songs of the lot are the big groove hitters a la “Radintoxescalation” and “Neanderthal Tomorrow” but the stuff that’d caught my ear most was kind of early 90’s hardcore influenced guitar shapes given a wild grinding swing, keeping the momentum up for nearly a half hour is tough as shit when you’re just kicking through everything and they do a fine job of repeatedly upping the anxious whip of it all repeatedly throughout the album.

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After nine full-length albums and over two decades at it Detroit, Michigan-borne melodic death metal band THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER lost their charismatic frontman under abrupt, unfortunate circumstances and they were definitely not alone in that post-pandemic era where mental health crises affected countless musical acts in similar ways. So, with that in mind I’m not sure how sensitive it is to say that they’ve not really skipped a beat here beyond taking a year or two longer to produce album number ten, ‘Servitude‘, as they continue down the path they’d set for themselves pretty much beyond their second peak in popularity back in 2007 with ‘Nocturnal‘. They’ve been a machine since then in terms of touring and pulling off decidedly less melodic metalcore infused records and this latest record amounts to a fine reprisal for the band after bringing back early-to-mid 2010’s era guitarist Ryan Knight and promoting co-founder Brian Eschbach to vocals, it doesn’t at all fuck with the flow or formula of their long-standing ethic.

With that said I was never a fan of the band’s early sound having been just old enough to be both a 90’s hardcore/early metalcore fan as well as a melodic death metal fan at the same time, finding the initial “melodic metalcore” movement insincere in tone, an unsuccessful crossover experience, and a most egregiously a weak live experience in most cases. They weren’t all that much like those bands, really but I didn’t realize that until the ‘Nocturnal‘-era tours hit and The Black Dahlia Murder changed my mind about their gig. I could get on board with some of the popular ‘The Ritual‘ (2011) and ‘Everblack‘ (2013)-era stuff from these guys even if it wasn’t exactly what I wanted from the sub-genre and that era kinda followed me into the tone and tension of this record as I caught up with their more recent records. In some sense all that ‘Servitude‘ needed to do was stick to the formula and carry on the sound to appease any doubting fans and I think they’ve done well in that regard.

While there is a fine line between gathering the best of what a band has to offer into one potent album and landing upon self-parody there is plenty enough energy and speed ripping through ‘Servitude‘ that it offers a solid melodic death metal experience which serves as a believable continuation of The Black Dahlia Murder. In terms of Eschbach‘s new role as frontman I’m not sure he is as much of a showman just yet but he does a fine job recreating some of Trevor Strnad‘s inflections which’ve added quite a bit to the band’s sound/personae over the years but now with more of a rasped delivery that suits the band just the same. I guess from somewhat of an outsider’s point of view (as in, not a die hard fan who enjoyed Strnad as a personality) it is definitely an “awesome but not fully necessary” thing to continue the band and I think it helps that this record isn’t bad at all.

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New Brighton, Pennsylvania-based quartet SATHANAS are old legends of the United States underground for their thrashing evil 80’s death metal sound early on, their pivot into the hugely underrated Bathym years in the early 90’s, and upholding that classic morbid blackened death metal sound since the mid-90’s. Their discography is probably not for you if you can’t handle raw-ass production values and a death-thrashing approach to blasphemic blackened death metal as they’re prone to lean into a more stomping sound rather than constantly abuse the double-bass kick and this helps this album and each of the eleven before it hold up in terms of consistent style. Most of ‘Into the Nocturne‘ tramples along at a mid-pace, finding similar blackened grooves (“Tyrants of the Southern Cross”) as they explore variations of that core rhythm almost sounding like an industrial groove metal band on “Raise the Chalice” as they get loose with it later on the album. Solid album if you’re familiar with their long-running gig and its evolution but this won’t necessarily blow your brains out your ass if you’ve never heard the band before.

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Part of what makes the phenomenon of self-sufficient or solo atmospheric black metal projects so interesting per the history of USBM is this unpredictable continuation of sound/style which occurs when the inevitable shift beyond long, droning atmospheric pieces gives way to ulterior interest in songcraft. Per the evolution of Minneapolis, Minnesota-based artist MORKE their movement away from the more standard style of their first couple of oaken atmospheric black metal in 2017 toward this current EP is both natural in its implementation and somewhat unexpected as ‘Forged in Steel and Love‘ emphasizes the role of lead guitar work as melodic directive to the point that the two original songs here straight up just sound like recent Obsequiae without the faster-looping harmonization of that project’s work and some simpler keyboard accompaniment. Not to be reductive though, this is a very good version of that sound and the overall effect is not to be missed. I think what’d interested me much more was actually their cover of “Falling Snow” from Agalloch, as this’d felt more in tune with the ‘We Are the River‘ (2021) album but emboldened the lead guitar tone in line with the other pieces on this EP. I suppose I’d walked away from this record assuming this would be the new direction of the band going forward though I didn’t fully connect the dots between the two originals and the cover outright I’d like to see what the artist could do with those run-on lead guitar melodies in stride with the cover song. Curious where their whole deal will go next.

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