• SHRT REVWS • This condensed version of short(er) reviews focuses on releases arriving in the second half of March covering death metal, black metal, death/crust, black/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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‘1972‘ is a collaboration between Argentinian experimental artist Anla Courtis (Reynols) and Finnish madman Jussi Lehtisalo (Circle, Pharaoh Overlord, et al.) which seems to watermark each joint creation as a “dialogue” of pieces passed between and completed by the pair one-by-one. A nostalgic hypnosis made possible via today’s technology this album specifically serves a need to experiment, enforcing an mindset which takes us back in time, outside of time, and stands readied to improvise whenever the moment calls. The two artists represent analog/organic sounds as well as heavily entranced modulation, mouth-foaming synth experiments and tape-ripping beats over the occasional morphed touch of a guitar (“Mustikkandano 01.10.1972”). The album is a bit of a grab bag to start, for example “Limtruuna 03.02.1972” sounds fitting as part of a soundtrack, a setting for an alternate dark world in an unreleased psychological thriller adventure video game. “Papuuro 30.04.1972” is built upon the unsettling sound of drums played through a concrete wall while chain-link fences and locks rattle in the wind, setting aluminum upon steel (see also: “Naroranssiranja 31.12.1972”). These are largely slow-droning pieces, centered around a beat or a looping progression (“Cebopula 09.07.1972”) which are then given exploratory layers, additional acoustic guitar loops or reeling back-and-forth synthesizer movement is overlain with a lead guitar spot that fades in and out as if improvised over the piece and clipped down to suit the groove created by the greater collage.

Much of the full listen lulls and fizzles, producing the sensation of being hissed to sleep by a glitched machine in some idealized vision of cyberpunk vagrancy where wandering the maze eternal also means leaning up against a wall and feeling the hypnotic buzz of the torture machine-learning in action while catching Z’s (“Sokerucar 21.09.1972”). Being the primitive ape-man that I am the pieces with warbling, shattered, fuzzed and torqued guitar sounds tended to catch my attention best when given a live-wire treatment (“Omenzana 07.10.1972”) though it were the beats, the percussive thumping served few and far between that’d left the biggest indentation. The greater sensation (the vibe) provided by this album is foreboding, something bigger is promised to be looming behind the mysterious shroud of noise as it hums in a loose spiral. The dread may be about as serious as dropping a keepsake down a garbage disposal or ramped up to a soul-wracking din that scrapes away every last neuron in action (“Naroranssiranja 31.12.1972”) but either way we end in a place of cacophony and drain which I’d found satisfyingly damning as an endpoint.

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Silesian blackened brutal death metal quartet EMBRIONAL return for album number four charged with a satisfyingly abrupt crack through their first few pieces, hitting the severity of “The World Deserves Self-Destruction” and “Inspiration to Slay” like it is 2003 (the year they’d formed) when both Brazil and Poland became more broadly known for a new breed of blasphemic and brutal death metal. This album notably features current Hate drummer Daniel Rutkowski and new second guitarist Chłosta of death metal band Battlekopf and this seems to have encouraged the band to push harder at their brutal side, trading some of their Immolation-esque streaks for a more direct early Krisiun or Hate Eternal clobber on Side A. There are blackened pieces here and there, some lingering atmosphere passages (there are even keys/orchestration on “Lies of God”) but these feel much in the tradition of Polish death metal in the late 90’s, blasphemic and monstrous in its attack. I’d been a big fan of their 2019 record ‘Evil Dead‘ but this feels like a paradigm shift for the group both in terms of exploring their own voice and reaping the rewards of a much improved production value. Best riffs for my own taste can be found on “Sadistic Desire” and “The Shrine of Collapse” but “Inspiration to Slay” smokes too.

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Pagan black metal duo NYKTMYST both lead and close this debut EP with extended acoustic passages, adding a 90’s feeling thorniness to their point of entrance. These Netherlands-based folks include the vocalist/drummer from Infinity on drums and with unknown musician Srg performing everything else as he is assumedly the mastermind behind these songs as well as the sharp bit of piano work on “Via Nokturna”. That vignette in the second half of the EP is probably the most interesting revelation here in terms of taking the nocturne stance and seeing that type of composition mirrored in their black metal compositions to some degree. Otherwise the major draw here is their take on 90’s pagan black metal in a post-Ulver era with some obvious modern tics to the guitar work here and there; “Noctivagant” is the peak of this EP’s craft beyond its acoustic guitar and piano segments, the most cohesive song with some immediate resonance to it. Otherwise the amount of space and performative segue between the three black metal songs here is warranted per this style though for my own taste this is as much interlude as any ~30-45 minute record would need and this record is roughly half that length. Not a mind-shattering release per my experience but a great start, the quality is there on the black metal songs and I’d appreciated the album cover.

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Curitiba, Brazil-based morbid hardcore punk quartet CLAN DOS MORTOS CICATRIZ take inspiration from black metal and post-punk for their sometimes experimental vision. In the case of this latest LP, ‘Técnicas de Morte‘, which we can largely compare with the material on their latest compilation (‘Débil’) finds the band pulling off something far more straightforward at face value with shouted and thrashing hardcore punk delivered with some Brazilian and Japanese crust inspiration to a few of the songs. The blackened (“Caixão”) and gothic rock/post-punk (“Pregos podres”) fumed stuff doesn’t strike in such obvious ways, most of it hits early on in the album and neither trait is the major focus of the album. That isn’t such a big deal as each moment passes through toward the straight forward side of the band, their general attack is entertaining enough for ~1-2 minute bursts as it hits rapid fire. I went in expecting something far more wild and experimental based on their earlier stuff but this album still thrives through its nuanced, darker-etched treatment of hardcore punk.

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Porto, Portugal-based experimental rock/progressive metal trio VERBIAN focus on post-metal lilt and imaginative grooves in developing the seven largely instrumental pieces of ‘Casarder‘, rarely repeating themselves in passage down a puzzlingly pleasure-dome of interruptus and broad-minded sounds. While there are prime prog-jammed flexes (“Vozes da Ilha”) all over this record their use of ambient and surreal electronics (guitar synth?) ends up being the most promising aspect of their journey. The whole of the experience is a trip but not a wild one despite how immersive and luxuriously presented it ends up being. Developing so many ideas within each of these pieces without vocals means it passes in one ear, congests the senses, and leaves via the other ear without and too-grand impact when all is said and done. Thankfully the sheer variety of texture helps pull the ear back in for one more listen as these folks entertained in their musicianship even if I’d found few points to connect with on the way through.

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Kalamata/Athens, Greece-based black metal quintet NO HAND PATH have been around in some form since the mid-2000’s and notably consists of a rhythm section that currently features in Varathron and Aenaon. ‘Μυστικισμός της Ενηλικίωσης’ is their first LP in fifteen years and as such it naturally consists of a great leap in both musicianship and conceptual vision making for an expansive set of varied and atmospheric black metal pieces which are rife with both modern and classicist interest in admirable fusion. Citing inspiration from the semi-dissonant vaunt of Icelandic black metal and the dramatic, modernist presentation of Cascadian black metal there is naturally a sort of post-black/prog-black edge to some of these pieces but only just on the verge of that territory, manifesting as a tension that threatens to break into relief but never fully collapses. “Εξορκισμός (Exorcism)” is a brilliant example of this fusion exploring on its own, finding a sombre chorale to stir things up toward the song’s briefly ranting apex. Several of these songs manifest their own mountainous build-and-breaking points in similar ways where the bass guitar tone weaving low in the background (re: opener “Διαφθορέας (Corruptor)”) helped to make it a extradimensional mind-churner and an easy piece to connect with; It became clear during extended listening that this was a record that benefitted from steeping in its immersive value and less so from quick preview, suggesting some lasting depth beyond even just a handful of closer listens. I’ll likely continue to return to this one for the rest of this month as I’d felt it deserved much more time and attentive listening.

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