• SHRT REVWS • This condensed version of short(er) reviews focuses on releases arriving in the first half of July covering black metal, sludge metal, heavy metal, hard rock, noise rock and death metal. // 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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There are no real surprises or grand inventive streaks to be found within this fifth LP from Lancaster, England-based heavy rock troupe WYTCH HAZEL as their work once again features consistent iteration beyond their celebrated second LP. The British folk-isms and NWOBHM-adjacent era sounds of their earliest work have been largely cut aback to make room for simply stated, immediately catchy hymnal rock songs most of which center around Christian praise or lending encouragement and personal reinforcement to the listener. This might make ‘V: Lamentations‘ read as almost patronizing to some but I’ve no doubt the folks behind this work not only mean well but should be appreciated for having brought a unique enough purpose to an oftentimes purposeless and self-effacing medium. Their work is otherwise catchy olden-feeling heavy rock with an oaken, ethereal sensibility which should speak equally loud to both reverently stoned minds and distraught spiritualists in need of a lift.

Though there are a few 80’s heavy metal chargers here (“Run the Race”, “Racing Forwards”) and the pace is quickened a bit beyond Wytch Hazel‘s two prior releases the melodic tendencies of frontman Colin Hendra in terms of both voice and lead guitar voicing are effective yet overly similar to one another. I’m not one to jaw anyone in terms of wordiness with any seriousness yet all is ornately drawn within these otherwise simply shaped songs. This’d serve less of an issue with space reserved between vocal directive and instrumental feature yet their approach to one song applies to the next, all is meticulously arranged and cohesive throughout in this sense yet there isn’t much room to jam out beyond the assigned prayer book. Nowadays I describe this band as “What you might think Blue Öyster Cult and Thin Lizzy sound like if you’d only heard the hits” and that description (and the band’s sound) generally still works for me, even if it threatens to stale after five rounds.

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Le Mans, France-based epic atmospheric black metal project EMINENTIA TENEBRIS return for a fourth full-length album in ‘Whispers of the Undying‘ where the band delve deeper into folken-atmospheric melodicism at a stride which escapes the cold and dark distance depicted within previous albums, colorizing their work with “symphonic” and power metal-adjacent musing. This features in more of a heroic stance, anthemic wonderment (re: “Beneath the Moon”) which flows from one piece to the next. The guitar driven and sometimes string-braced melody here is not without substance but their implementation is at times indebted to the Scandinavian expression in terms of any wrathful-toned vocal cadence and the aplomb of their drummer’s chopping movement. Their otherwise oaken and “epic” result is often caught between atmospheric intimacy, a sort of escapist tirade soldiering away, and the vaunt of that initial symphonic black read. There is a sincere dramatic tone struck here which almost escapes its colorful high-fantasy imagery yet the overall effect is relevant to both this style of black metal and heavy metal in general.

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Bounding, crumbling tones and doomed riffs greet us on this latest record from Denver, Colorado-based sludge metal trio IN THE COMPANY OF SERPENTS. Though their distantly coughed vocals forebode in tone the kinda early 90’s noise rock/sludge bumble of that opener easily hypnotized me into digging deeper, discovering the first sign of what they call a ‘spaghetti western’ bent: Not so much in the Wailin Storms kinda vein but rather a jammed loose, doomed and dark desert bound adventure through heat-stroke and occult madness. Just one song removed from that event we get a Tom Waits kind of shuffle on the way to even bigger sludge apropos riffing and roaring step, suggesting the variety of experience isn’t so squarely rooted in just on sub-genre level juxtaposition. While I’d had nothing but compliments to serve the band’s 2020 release ‘Lux‘ the marriage of desert-bound folken grime and mean yet meandering sludge-rocked hulking this time around feels even more considered with each song standing on its own as spectacular fusion of forms. “Cinders” is prob ably my favorite piece along the way as the band work through the first half but as we step into Side B the earth shifts a bit and longer, more frustrated songs beset by neofolk-isms speak more to the Neurosis-adept part of my brain. I continue to find this band compelling, offering a fairly unique sound and another (mostly) memorable record.

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We, the high-powered businessmen behind Mystification Zine, wish to extend our appreciation to Tempe, Arizona-based noise rock/punk upstarts BRIGHT SUNSHINE for the dynamic and exuberant energies they’ve contributed within this latest album, ‘Executive Power Supreme‘. All work surpassed the minimum expectations for excellence. We seek deliverables that are profoundly impactful, consistently embodying maximum effectiveness —akin to the most “classic” transcendent soundscapes, a -product- which reads as an elevated experience to the average consumer. Here they’ve met exceptional standards for explosive sarcasm, a balking dread reminiscent of “going postal” in an office-type setting with strong, believable characterization. Brilliantly psycho stuff, well worth checking out.

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After spending some reasonable amount of time with each of the bands indicated within the Order of the Broken Sword I haven’t encountered any truly standout effect or invocation. Their work in SIGORSPÉD‘s debut LP ‘Everlasting Wisdom of the Ancients‘ bears a non-specific atmospheric whim to it which is mechanical, allowing too much space for their bland drumming in the mix and following along too closely. The main vocal thread appears in service to the chasm applied, an animalistic and ragged expression which reads as a war metal application considering the false reverb caked around the edges. The band present a pagan aesthetic and intent by suggestion and the fantasies of power and adventure explored within aren’t served well by the riffcraft. When setting aside the drum sound and effects-garbled sound design the temperament of the band the main question here for my own taste, it conveys very little in the way of wrathful violence, misery, or fantastic wonderment beyond a melodic line or two on later pieces (re: “Requiem for the Fallen”, “The Ties Which Bind an Eternal Brotherhood”). There is an interesting idea which sits beyond the cobbled together feeling of Sigorspéd‘s work though this LP doesn’t manage to stand out all that much. Luring have become more interesting with each pass and I believe this band will follow suit with iteration.

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Denver, Colorado-based death metal quartet CRONOS COMPULSION return several years beyond their debut EP with their first full-length album, ‘Lawgiver‘ and it more-or-less continues where they’d left off. Readied to sprawl into dissonant, grinding fare from the outset these folks bring even more suffocating and sludgy death metal here as they provide a “critique of late-stage capitalism” in theme. At ~24 minutes and nine songs they’re in and out with their ideas quick, running out of steam early on as the experience reads about as primitive and plain as one’d expect in line with previous material where their songs were short and their sound primitively struck. While this is a fine enough record it, like so many other death metal albums out of the United States/U.K. in recent memory, relies far too much on hardcore induced riffs and song structures to the point that it lacks in providing repeatable, profound experience. The dry chugging and roaring found on the title track was the nail in the coffin here in my experience, a typical translation of beatdown hardcore into something like mid-paced death metal where its brief and slow-grinding movement doesn’t seem all that sure of what it is or where to take that core idea beyond a breakdown or two.

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