• SHRT REVWS • This condensed version of short(er) reviews focuses on releases arriving in the first half of February covering brutal death metal, death/thrash metal, death/doom metal, sludge metal, sludge rock, black metal, black/death metal, and blackgaze. // 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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San Luis Obispo, California-based ‘old school’ brutal death-grind trio MEPHITIC CORPSE finally have a full-length readied beyond their 2019 demo tape and while it makes sense to mention brutal death groups like Immortal Fate and Horror of Horrors when speaking to lo-fi (or just demo era) death metal of a certain developmental period here the distorted buzz of their bass guitar work and messy slap of it all lines up with the early 90’s deathgrind kinda gear, too. If you’re into what bands like Septage and Caustic Wound have tapped into these last several years you’ll find a cousin to that goal and mindset here; They’re nowhere near as stupid and brutal as say, ye olde MySpace goregrind days of idiotic gunk, but it does sound like they had to put in some extra effort to scuff this ~half hour scrubber to keep in line with the right sound, keeping it ugly and old. Referential digs and chunk-blowing, hog squealing, ping whipped death metal action is one thing but this ain’t exactly Sequestrum either in the sense that these aren’t even kind of catchy or riff-tough songs. The riffs kinda struggle out like turds here and there, helped along by the brutal death drumming rudiments which slap their way to satisfaction haphazardly. Everything is blunt and raw and from my point of view (rhythmically) plain as possible gutter spew. I don’t think that is such a bad thing but this type of band always kinda had fun back in the day… ‘Sickness Attracts Sickness‘ only resembles that level of punk rattled nonsense in its aesthetic, likely appealing to the flexin’ in the mirror Mortician goon slightly more than the usual Impetigo type weirdo.

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Granby, Quebec-borne death/thrash metal quintet SARKASM had their first life back in the early-to-mid 90’s and are probably best known for their groove heavy demo tapes and vocalist Bruno Bernier joining Obliveon for that band’s kinda Meshuggah/Fear Factory side beyond 1994. They officially reformed in 2019 and with four out of five founding members they’ve now produced two full-length albums. You might recall I’d given a similarly stated short review for ‘As Empires Decay‘ in early 2023 appreciating that they’d basically upheld the soul of the band which split their sound between late 80’s death/thrash and the “half-thrash” or groove metal side of Bay Area thrash in the early 90’s. On album number two they’ve tightened up the production values, gotten the guitar sound just right, and kept their attack relatively simple and clearly stated now resembling a pure thrash band (from my point of view) more than ever. If you are a fan of Araya-esque vocal cadence, Grip Inc.‘s first album, and that early 90’s shotgunned style ex-thrasher groove this is a solid album. While I find their approach entirely one-dimensional and without all that much distinction within their expression beyond bigger rhythm guitar grooves that’d all check out pretty well in terms of what folks expect from classic thrash inspired works. Solid production values, concise spin, and altogether a big improvement over their debut.

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Quebec-based quartet NORILSK have been variously described as melodic death/doom, black/doom, post-metal and I’d say most of those tags count for something with the former being the most correct in terms of structure and intent. You’ll feel it most clearly as “D’ombre et de glace (l’asphyxie)” hits its first chorus and nearly droops into modern melodic metal territory or when the grungy chord progressions of “Locus Sanctus” give way to an extended dual lead break. Much of ‘Antipole‘ is fraught between accessible gothic metal muse, some indie rock/post-rock movements, and the right amount of doom n’ gloom as the band intentionally swings between extremes for the sake of representing contrast, duality in existence, presupposing an ongoing theme about the harsh reward of living in the far north. What’d been missing for me within this experience is its emotional weight, the romanticist profundity and longing one’d associate with this style as even the most lengthy and demanding pieces (re: “La chute du géant”) have a certain meandering dreaminess to them but carry an almost jaunty, melodic death trod that feels determined, dramatic but non-specific. Great looking and sounding record otherwise.

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San Diego, California-based sludge metal quartet -(16)- are one of few still-kicking bands that’d defined and sold the sludge metal sound to the masses in the early 90’s and for my own taste they’ve always proven substantial or at least provocative in their depressive punk-doom/alt-metal kind of gig. The big deal here is that guitarist and songwriter Bobby Ferry provides all the vocals here after years with Chris Jerue up front, they’ve been on a roll since 2016 or so and this doesn’t slow things down though it changes things up in terms of sheer variation from song to song. The evolution of the band’s sound beyond ‘Lifespan of a Moth‘ has been one of extroversion, moving the subject from conflict and disorder on a personal level to a broader view of humanity and in that sense their sound becomes easier to approach and less fucked up overall. While much has changed over the last several years a longer form review of ‘Guides for the Misguided‘ would read too similar to what I’d had to say about ‘Dream Squasher‘ back in 2020, I appreciate that they’re not trying to wrestle 90’s nostalgia out of mind and instead aim for what feels right and sticks today. The songwriting sense here is fine work even if it isn’t always my kind of gear.

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The idea with album number five from Bremen, Germany-based duo MANTAR is to do something different from the last and in that sense ‘Post Apocalyptic Depression‘ is intentionally off the cuff, written in loose and grungy shapes throughout and this brings us back to their more noisome beginnings. The idea with this level of simplicity is that it -can- be a guitar record, every song is defined by a few big fuzzy riffs when they’re written to count, though most of what works here is pure muscle memory movement. “Pit of Guilt” tries to throw in a bit of a line here and there, some bluesy riffs to break up the scummy, shouted blah of the full spin but we’re basically getting a not-so catchy L7 style record with raw vocals here. While I appreciate the freedom of this process, the abruptness and running-on-instinct approach to songcraft, there is little that grounds this album in any truly profound space as it goes… floats out the ear just as quickly as it arrives. As a big fan of a few of their albums this feels overconfident and just kinda bounced right off me every time I tried to sink into it.

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Mexico City, Mexico-based black metal quartet FUMES comes by way of current and former members of In Obscurity Revealed, Nigrum, and Infesticide among others and for this debut LP they’ve focused their death worship theme/aesthetic toward a focus on pre-Hispanic culture. ‘Skeletal Wings Threshold‘ was guaranteed to have riffs (see: “Hollow Teeth of Darkness”) considering the folks involved but I wasn’t expecting an infernal sort of circa ’92 black/death feeling roll through its introductory pieces and this been enough to pull me in for a closer listen up front. Fast, feral and echoic the gnashed-out side of the band is their best angle, specifically pieces like “Dead Morning Star” where they reach a point of floaty full-tilt action before pulling back at the halfway point finding a nice mix of bestial and arcane black metal feeling in the process. Though I found no real value in the three interludes on the second half of the album there was a very strong pre-’93 feeling to this portion of the album that’d kept me engaged and ultimately impressed with their ‘old school’ black metal sensibilities.

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Russian death metal band OBSCUREVIOLENCE is apparently an offshoot from current/former members of Horror God and one that initially appears blackened to some degree but these feel more like grinding and technical death related movements when taken in as a whole. The striking thing about this EP, which makes sure to put a weirdest foot forward with a protracted intro, is the band’s sensibility for heaviness created with negative space, a sense of tension which lets the mind float before they duck into blasting madness (see: “Spiritual Agony”). There is a chaotic, sometimes dissonant and gutturally released freakout happening here on this EP which I’d love to see them expand into a full-length even if these songs feel tentative in some of their approach and the aesthetic/band name don’t really catch my interest. I definitely see the potential indicated here within these quick and sometimes chaotic pieces.

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