• SHRT REVWS • This condensed version of short(er) reviews focuses on releases arriving in the first half of May covering epic heavy/doom metal, technical death metal, black/death metal, funeral doom 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

---

Croatian epic doom metal trio ELUSIVE GOD are reaching for the fallen stars here with an impressive sophomore full-length album in ‘Ambis‘ a deeply channeled serpentine road approached in the most classic tradition of late 80’s Candlemass-stoked doom with a true wailer up front (re: Solitude Aeturnus, Scald) with a heavier, moodier edge to much of their movement. Between the rounded clang of the bass guitar tone and the unruly verve of their riffs this is a masterfully crafted study of this specific tradition, the first several songs are brilliantly fixated on getting it exactly right and their work expands into harder, groovier territory later on. The dramatic gravitas and slow-twisting knife of their pacing is a glory to behold and even if I can’t understand a word of what they’re saying (I mean, ‘Alkahest‘ is one of my favorite doom records…) the conviction is certainly there. Apparently their reasoning for singing this album in Croatian rather than English was for the sake of more natural, earnest expressivity and in that sense I believe the vocalist adds some exceptional weight to these songs beyond the reach of their first LP. ‘Ambis‘ is a brilliant sophomore return and without a doubt one that should thrill the brains of epic/traditional doom metal fandom.

---

Bay Area technical death metal quintet OMINOUS RUIN return with a larger goal of high-rate expressivity and some limit-pushing craft here on album number two. As you might recall this Odious Mortem and Inanimate Existence related band was a big hit with me via their debut LP ‘Amidst Voices That Echo in Stone‘ not only for its showmanship and brutality but for the hard-edged clangor of their sound design, it was a wild record to pick up and get socked by every time. For album number two they’ve gone with something more ambitious, more song types, different tones, and from what I gather the intent to bring something more emotionally resonant to the artform. A moderate level of progressive and melodic tact is the result of their changing tune, a sound which fans of everything from The Zenith Passage to Psycroptic should appreciate for the range it covers.

Though the production values and harshened guitar tones play well to the tech-death ideal and there is some signature to be found in their treatment of it the true identity of the band at this point almost begins to shift towards progressive metal treatment as their most ambitious works on ‘Requiem‘ are inarguably their best, such as the eight minute cornucopia of distress found within “Architect of Undoing”. To be fair it is the peaking moment, the grand downward-shot crescendo of the album but earlier in the album “Eternal” takes us to a similarly grand station. Otherwise a focus on percussive tones, be they the basslines on “Staring Into the Abysm” or the steel string sounding guitar interlude “Bane of Syzygial Triality”, created a uniquely harsh and ear-biting characteristic which suits the band’s discography thus far. I’m probably more the type to roll with something as direct and wrathful as their debut but I’d enjoyed ‘Requiem‘ as a sort of second more dramatic and affected chapter that’d followed those events outright.

---

Portland, Oregon-based quartet DROUTH are an interesting prospect in terms of their thus far not-so specific treatment of blackened death metal from a perspective originally rooted in extreme forms of sludge metal. This time around their black metal treatments are the main feature, aligning with the vaguely melodious and mellowed directive of groove driven post-black metal. Interestingly enough their container for said muse is something more akin to progressive black metal, jettisoning any too-direct references to death metal from their sound. This prog-black extension of their gig might not fully reveal its wiles right off the bat, the first two pieces on ‘The Teeth of Time‘ are fairly direct, but it isn’t long before the ten minute title track takes us there. What troubles me about this release isn’t so much the style of it, I think this is a compellingly nuanced listen overall, but rather that for all of the effort put into stylizing, polishing, and presenting Drouth‘s ideas the music lands as nondescript, samey beyond the rotten howl of vocalist Matt Stikker. Closer “Exult, Ye Flagellant” bears no real distance from any other point in the album and the greater effect is about ~forty minutes on the same jogging treadmill. It is a purgatorial feeling I didn’t mind returning to but not one that’d stuck with me for all that long.

---

Behemoth are of course a popular staple who’ve arguably brought more eyes and ears to extreme metal than most, so, I’ve nothing but respect for their choice to continually stoke interest from fans in ways which are broadly divisive… though in this case the reveal of ‘The Shit ov God‘ felt like more of a meme than a statement. The choice to intentionally poke at the easily outraged and perhaps the wildly self-serious with the title/title track for this thirteenth full-length album has almost been more entertaining than the music itself, for better or worse. While the weirdly invested hot takes are flying about on release day I am once again more interested in boldness from their musical directive as I’ve found a decent enough, moderately tuneful rant embedded in the course of this album’s smirking wisdom.

Thirteen albums in and basically doing whatever they’d like over the course of their last three efforts Behemoth are once again stripped back to the anthemic, crowd-ready declarations that’ve followed ‘I Loved You at Your Darkest‘ (2018) but this time they’ve kept their digs fairly short and directly cut. ‘The Shit ov God‘ amounts to a ~40 minute arena metal record with big and glossy production values via Jens Bogren and it is a fairly natural result compared to the teeth pulling, cluttered shape of ‘Opvs Contra Natvram‘. The fire is still there overall you can feel it on “Sowing Salt”, “Lvciferaeon” and the highs provided by “To Drown the Svn in Wine” and oddly enough these are the songs with some of the more intense lyrics focused on defiant perspectives or darker times. What I don’t get from this non-linear directive from these folks is a real ear-worm, a point of songcraft which does more than outline shapes I feel like we’ve heard from the band with much more intensity in the past.

---

This third full-length album from Lyon, France-based blackened death metal quartet SKAPHOS once again brings a wrathful, semi-dissonant twinge to their often erratically fixated Lovecraft themed work. The thing that’d stood out to me about ‘Cult of Uzura‘ up front was their brevity, either a lack of vision for longer pieces or a focus on brutality keeps this record chopping through its ideas closer to the ~3-4 minute mark. Those shorter songs don’t lose any of their immersive value for the sake of points of flowing connectivity, simpler moments or hooks found in each song, or I suppose a few quick and ugly burner songs. “One-Eye Terror” and its second half (see also: “Echoes of the Damned”, “The Servant”) is a good example of these folks quickly finding a place to go with their core idea, getting there and cutting out while the getting is good and “Abyssal Tower” is an example of starting out in a compelling place and then getting a bit lost in the chunking mass of it all ’til the song loses its grasp on the action. At some point this last week I’d been staring down ~ten fairly average blackened death metal albums in consideration and for what its worth ‘Cult of Uzura‘ was the one with the most ideas, a compellingly atmospheric sound, and choice album art.

---

This year more than ever it feels like we’re missing Solitude Productions and their ilk from the doom metal ecosystem as out-of-the-blue debut LPs such as that of Minneapolis, Minnesota-based funeral doom metal project AN TÓRAMH arrive with the sort of flavor typically boosted within said commune. In the case of ‘Echoes of Eternal Night‘ there are shades of Loss‘ growling drift and perhaps the more fluid aggression of Worship but all exists within more melodic headspace, something like the more recent revival of Funeral (Norway) where patient movement communicates melancholia. There is yet a darker, underground feeling to this record and its chasmic atmosphere wherein vocals from Chalice of Suffering‘s John McGovern are deeper-than-thou, reaching that guttural weirdness that 90’s funeral doom tended to accentuate. The combined effect of their work is captivating at its best and ill-advised at its worst (“Shadows of Despair” is bleak in a bad way) but when the dual lead guitars get going and the vocals greet us at the door within (“Echoes of Eternal Night”, “Desolation”, “Sea of Sorrow”) there is some promising work to be found herein.

---