• SHRT REVWS • This condensed version of short(er) reviews focuses on releases arriving in the first half of February covering heavy alt-rock, traditional heavy metal, sludge metal, blackened death metal, and more. // 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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Seattle, Washington-based post-metal quartet GUILTLESS introduced themselves formally circa 2024 via the ‘Thorns‘ EP, an album which’d carried a greying sentiment of familiar-yet fitting nihil in view of the still-brewing extinction event on the horizon for humanity. Vocalist/guitarist Josh Graham (A Storm of Light, ex-Red Sparowes) directed that main vision to start and now the full band, featuring folks from Intronaut and The Fibre…, aim to expand their sound beyond some obvious love for atmosludge/post-metal pillars Neurosis and Godflesh (or, Jesu.) I’m not sure they stray all that far from the old bones of mid-2000’s sludge metal grooves, the coldest kind at least, yet they do manage to take ‘Teeth to Sky‘ to a detritus strewn badlands of surrealistic and violent future-sight by way of a monolithic sound, a lumbering and tormented step. Dissonant, cracked and ringing chords quake across this thing as a noxious and clashing-hot machine focused within its most heated action. Not all is bleak as possible here but the whole of ‘Teeth to Sky‘ is serious-faced and unforgiving in its stance as they illustrate our demise via pick-scraping layers and mountainous production values. Being stuck in the place of concrete walled dreariness and thundering low-tuned guitar layers meant I’d found myself enjoying their simple, sometimes odd-timed thrum as it recalled a different era of music per my own experience though I appreciate how post-hardcore and noise rock influences bring some vital layering to a few of these songs. The only main criticism I have for this record is that the tentative atmosludge ‘tribal’ crawl-up goes on for a bit too long and the chance to flex different types of rhythms doesn’t quite reach a point of depth or idiosyncrasy that’d pull me back into this style once more.

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Ankara, Türkiye-based blackened death metal quintet SHRINE OF DENIAL manage a well-polished sound and ruthlessly severe tonality on this debut full-length album. ‘I, Moloch‘ largely impresses by way of its crossing of blasted-at death metal militance and some pointed exploration of melodic black/death metal ideas all without taking a break from the hammer of their approach. None of this ever reaching a point of particularly memorable statement but the arabesque melodies recalled the peak of bands like Melechesh at times (see: “I, Moloch”, “Headless Idol”) when their thrashing speed really hits. They blaze through these ~31 minutes incredibly fast and explore quick a bit within the compacted trench they’ve tunneled for themselves yet I’d found there wasn’t any particularly thrilling signature coming from the band beyond sheer speed and non-specific black/death metal mélange. Still, the quality of their work is nonetheless above-average in terms of an introductory release and beyond that I’d especially appreciated the album art.

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Arisen wide-eyed from the burning grip of possession Italian arcane metal trio MIDRYASI’S KULT chain together the madness of Pentagram-esque doom metal gloom with horrified psychedelic rock and first wave black metal on this esoteric and ambitiously stated 3-song debut demo tape. ‘Mountain Devil‘ comes from fellowes best known for their time in DoomSword, Fiurach, and Cultus Sanguine where we’ll find a bit of everything they stand for in each song here on this relatively brief ~15 minute showing. If you’re keen on the strange, paranoid and psych’d side of Italian doom metal they could maybe fit into that tradition but there is more to it when we start pecking at the guitar work, a punkish and buzzing muse that goes where it pleases and generally aims for a memorable or mock anthemic step. I particularly love the inclusion of the Hammond-esque organ on a couple of these songs (esp. the bluesy swagger of “M.I.M.”). The press release mentions an “upcoming DoomSword album” so I’m already hyped out of my skull here already but also anticipating whatever these folks do next, too, since I’d loved the creeped psychedelia and slung-low trip of these songs.

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A couple of years beyond the release of their eighth full-length album (‘The Garden‘, 2023) Mikkeli/Helsinki, Finland-based gothic/melodic metal septet (octet?) HANGING GARDEN return for an addendum via ‘The Unending‘ as they prepare a proper follow-up in the meantime. At twenty minutes and a fairly broad ouevre explored this doesn’t feel like a chunk of leftover ideas at a glance, rather a potent showing of pieces which utilized their large crew of diverse voices to present the beauty, the beast and the narrator/chorus. These particular songs blend in electronic beats more often than expected in presenting their sometimes anthemic and always melodramatic tone with little of their melodic death/doom metal lineage from the 2000’s in mind. I don’t have anything all that profound to say about this release otherwise, it isn’t to my own taste in any sense, but I’d appreciated the actual layering of the production and the “open” feeling of some of these arrangements despite how many voices are feeding into any given moment. Since I’d had a similar reaction to their most recent album I’d direct any fans of that record toward this one.

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Norman, Oklahoma-based desert trippers RAINBOWS ARE FREE kept me guessing as this fifth full-length album from their long-standing crew buzzed up and relayed some urgent and surprisingly heavy news via opener “Your Girl”, finding their groove on their own time and keeping it twisted at both ends ’til the right time hit. ‘Silver and Gold‘ isn’t the typical stoner-whatever record it kinda looks like, as you’re in for some freaking out under the guidance of vocalist Brandon Kistler and the five other folks jamming their own channel of heavy psychedelic rock, and even some progressive rock flair, throughout. The full listen starts out floating between its hottest spots, wailing and rustling through what’re essentially ecstatic jams (see: “Solar Flare”) with a heavy almost proto-metallic feeling when the riff finds itself in focus. The heavier stuff (“The Light”) and the spaced stuff (“Fadeaway”) caught my ear most often but just as the album feels like it is building up to something you’ll kinda realize they were up to nothing specific, just feeling it out as the album clips the thread with “The Gift” without looking back. It was an awesome first ride through anyhow, and I think they’ll make quick fans with the weirdo strut of it all likely translating to an entertaining live set.

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Little Rock, Arkansas-based experimental/progressive sludge metal troupe RWAKE return after nearly fourteen years with their sixth (seventh if you count their ‘Xenoglossalgia‘ CD-r) album and the first we’ve heard from their camp (and related) beyond the third Deadbird record back in 2018 or so. ‘The Return of Magik‘ still generally sounds like the band you’d likely gotten to know in the late 2000’s, a trip through fraught yet adventurous southern grooves and sludge/doom metal shapes which’d caught onto the atmospheric and progressive nodes of sludge as the popularity of the sub-genre took various shapes. They were always a curious ever-shifting beast, one with mystic themes and rawly organic production values, and this is still part of what they’re all about. With ‘The Return of Magik‘ we’re getting pieces which communicate more directly, speak with intricately stated rasp and stammering enthusiasm to the point that this reappearance feels evolved, moreso than what they’d left us with back in 2011 with ‘Rest‘. Though I’m not having much luck connecting with sludge metal of late I do think these folks tell a story with more conviction than most per their abstract, declarative, and estranged sound. I’d particularly enjoyed the over the top, kitchen sink ruminations of the longer pieces here (re: “Distant Constellations and the Psychedelic Incarceration”) as it’d felt like the more room Rwake gave themselves to sprawl the more intense the result was. “In After Reverse” is probably my favorite piece here if only for its hypnotic main riff to start and the strange trip it takes beyond that starting point.

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Brooklyn, New York-based heavy metal trio SANHEDRIN have changed quite a bit since I’d last checked in with their work in brief review of their debut LP ‘A Funeral For the World‘ (2017) when it’d reissued circa 2018. They’d moved away from the doom metal adjacent sound of that album quickly, focusing on a distinctly 80’s heavy metal sound with shades of hard rock and punk tinged style fans of the middle-era of the NWOBHM will immediately appreciate. At a time when bands were trying their best to sound like early Dokken these folks were leaning into early 80’s Priest inspired vocal melodies and they’d impressed with a more eclectic, catchier spread on their Metal Blade debut ‘Lights On‘ which this album follows up. If you’d felt like that previous album was at its best keeping it shorter, straight-forward and aimed on catchier rouse you’ll generally find ‘Heat Lightning‘ thrives in that vein the majority of the time. They’re not a one-trick kind of group thus far and there is plenty of variety here as they experiment further with epic heavy balladry, quick and dirty punkish songs, and such. If you appreciate early 80’s stuff that still carries some heavy rock twang in its presentation, has some thrash-era adjacent heaviness in mind, and isn’t stuck on just one type of riff or pace there is a real classic feeling album here. Though I like the swinging ease and anthemic qualities of this record I’d been most impressed by “High Threshold for Pain”, the riffs are just bigger on that one and it’d stuck with me as deeper cut worth homing in on.

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