• SHRT REVWS • This condensed version of short(er) reviews focuses on releases arriving in the first half of April covering melodic black metal, melodic technical death metal, traditional heavy metal, slamming brutal death metal, progressive black metal, stoner 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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Italian musician SadoMaster‘s MORCOLAC return with another spirited tribute to Finnish black metal (re: Satanic Warmaster, Warmoon Lord, etc.) via the line-up from the catchy-ass ‘Drawbridge to Citadel of No More Dawn‘ EP which you might recall I’d enjoyed a fair deal in 2024. For this third full-length album, ‘Sanguinaria‘, we find that same upbeat and striding charge given even more prominent license to lead with keyboard/organ driven gallop making for tuneful to a fault melodic black metal. There is an infectious, highly repeatable quality to this simpler, driving style of what I generally refer to as “Castlevania” black metal with a folken step. I certainly isn’t such a deep experience so much as an unpretentious revelry in symphonic black metal influences entirely in service to a melodic directive. Keyboardist Azghâl (Amalekim, Argesh) is a great asset here per appropriate tonal choices and general prominent feature in the mix as we find an easily sketched line from the previous EP and this new album in terms of melodic voice. Otherwise I’d felt like the recording of the drums is better contained this time around making for an easier repeat listen. Since I’d not had time to get around to this album during March I’d recommend giving this one a chance, you should know if it is your kind of thing within seconds.

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Fort Collins, Colorado-based progressive death metal quintet ALLEGAEON are best known as a dark horse among the second-gen of tech-melodic death metal modernity (circa the late 2000’s) beyond the morphological influence of bands like Psycroptic and Arsis, the high standard set being Quo Vadis‘ ‘Defiant Imagination‘ for my own taste. If you are familiar with the band’s first three LPs in the 2010’s don’t expect a pure return to that exact style here solely because the band’s original vocalist has returned but rather dive into this one readied for a similar dynamic aimed at that melodic tech-death style. The dramatic sluice of “Carried by Delusion” and the skittering pulse-charges of “Dies Irae” represent that node of interest best but I would emphasize that the progressive metal interest of their work hasn’t been rescinded on that the kinetic aggression is louder still this time around. “Dark Matter Dynamics” is the major showcase of the full spread, the high-brained and fleet fingered muse of the band resounding in general but the same praise for Allegaeon hasn’t changed in that they’ve always done well marrying the current modern standards for brutality and melodicism in a compelling enough fashion. Not every moment of this record is for me, such as the Deron Miller-sounding harmonized choruses on “Driftwood”, and their prog-death side has never interested me as much as the sharper tech-death rallies managed but I’d still gotten a kick out of the ride through.

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Atlanta, Georgia-based blackened progressive metal act TÓMARÚM return for another gorgeously set, lushly rolled-out double LP with ‘Beyond Obsidian Euphoria‘ as they generally reprise the greater structure of their debut with an even finer hand applied to their shredding and galloping muse. The ‘hook’ here should be obvious enough for those keeping track as the bass guitar performances guide us through the torrential scattering and floating prog-death clamor of these longer form pieces. A fantastical concept album centered around processing depression (or, mental ails in general) and trauma follows the blustering, extravagantly stated run-on opener “In Search of Triumph Beyond… (Obsidian Overture)” but don’t expect the tone to remain joyously over the top, exuberant in its unfurl throughout. I’d found some clear distinction between songs which were all-hands-in prog metal readied to tell a story with their obvious skill level shining through and others which were clearly just a showcase for technical skill and prog-metal tropes. The major standouts here for my own taste all emphasize a well-set bass guitar tone into the fray and find a voice for it, making for curiously faceted islands of rhythmic interest within the most ambitious pieces. The second LP is probably the one to impress most in the long run for my own taste between the escalating weave of “Silver, Ashe Tears” and the vacillating intensities of the albums grand exit via “The Final Pursuit of Light”. While I am more excited by the thought of a new Lunar Chamber record outright this’d been a surprisingly immersive record with grand expressive qualities tucked into its thousand-pocketed reveal.

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The narrative outline for this latest EP release from Bay Area heavy metal legendry THE LORD WEIRD SLOUGH FEG almost sounds like the plot for a later season of Dragon Ball Z at a glance but in fact it is their return to Marc Miller’s Traveller, a space-faring series of role-playing games devised in the late 70’s, as a world to tell their tales within. If you are not familiar with the band’s fourth full-length album ‘Traveller‘ (2003) remedy that first and foremost, it really is the band’s most classic point of early momentum or at the very least a personal favorite. ‘Traveller Supplement I: The Ephemeral Glades‘ sets us as fugitives within the dormancy of planet Mithril as its natural cycle nears a brief period of thaw leading to an explosion of life that threatens to break our cover, “we” being protagonist Baltech Budapest. Where the imagination runs and Slough Feg insert themselves with high-energy magical things happen especially as Mike Scalzi‘s voice carries some extra grit (a la Mark Shelton) as the years pass, adding to the character of these galloping-and-spiraling heavy metal pieces. The ride through is

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Judging by what inoffensive social media-safe trash that passes for brutal death metal today you’re probably too much of a wimp to hang with the obnoxious, inadvisable extreme infestation oozing from the slamming grooves of ‘Aberrant Vaginal Gestation‘. Italian slamming brutal death metal crew VULVECTOMY were among some of the earlier limit-pushers on the Amputated Vein Records ecosystem of rank gore and slam which was indebted to Devourment and Disgorge for their chunking riffs. If you were big on Kraanium, Cephalotripsy, or even Visceral Disgorge a few years later you’d probably backwards hat bedroom moshed to ‘Post-Abortion Slut Fuck‘ (2010) at least once as that was where thier guttural vocals and maximal sound (programmed drums included) was a real horrifying spectacle beyond a kinda plain first album. Anyhow their last album released back in 2013 and founder/guitarist Mario Di Giambattista has pretty exclusively focused on Corpsefucking Art and the unholy Devangelic in the years since so I was pretty surprised to find a brand new Vulvectomy record in my inbox in 2025 and even better, this time around they’ve brought in drummer Marco Coghe (Devangelic, Posthuman Abomination) for this one. The album art is insane, the drums add a classic cavernous bap to the scene, and they’ve still got a mind for brutally beaten slam but the big deal here for my taste is vocalist Diego Fanelli still carrying a mean-assed guttural. It all counts toward a despicable, deplorable caveman-brained killer of a brutal death metal record. Biggest riffs: “Geriatric Ass Fucker”, “Conceived in Vaginal Sores”.

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As soon as ‘Satanic Panic Attack‘ fires up (via “The Cauldron Born”) it almost can’t help but recreate the opening moments from Kvelertak‘s self-titled debut but, in kinda slow motion with some (earlier) Ghost-like features in the back of their minds. Don’t let that set the entire tone for this latest album from Oslo, Norway-based quintet HÅNDGEMENG as they’ve shown on previous records their knack for Scandinavian rock flavored sludge, doom-rock n’ stoner metal roll. You’ll get the bigger picture within the broader set stage of “Medieval Knievel” beyond that point and they’re for sure having fun with their themes, poking fun at mass hysteria before leaning back into a psych-rock edged, stonier meld. The palette is broad here and some of the songs do hit but deep in Side B I’m not necessarily finding deep cuts so much as a loss of focus. The first four or five songs generate a lot of smoke, though, and I had a good time with this one overall.

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