• SHRT REVWS • This condensed version of short(er) reviews focuses on releases arriving in the second half of July covering black metal, death metal, prog metal, stoner doom rock, 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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Houston, Texas-borne black metal project DOWNWARD comes by way of prolific black metal artist S. (aka Sad-ist) who’d taken on fairly rote but appreciably cavernous depressive black metal style on a two-song demo tape under this name back in 2009. Dormant since then beyond activity in I’m In a Coffin the fellow now returns acknowledging the inherent mediocrity of DSBM while resurrecting and rethinking the scope of Downward to suit a far more impressive set of skills. The moment you hear any one of the five songs on ‘To Lurk as Fever‘ your first comment will undoubtedly pertain to one of two things: First, the vocals appear to invoke the over-the-top howl of records like ‘Dictius Te Necare‘ to some degree, covering a broad array of deranged affect from song to song. Second, the largely mid-paced bent of their instrumentation stands out here as almost too clean in its presentation, featuring a handful of worthy arrangements for two rhythm guitars in dueling stance. The appeal of these two aspects in concert should is the disorienting expression of the vocals beside balmy, at times strangely technical guitar music as they generate two separate conversations in uncomfortable parallax. A few light tropes from USBM interrupt the experience, the vocals will naturally begin to grate, and the longer-form pieces here are sleepier than they needed to be (esp. “Spite”) yet the full listen has an addictive nausea to it, a disgusted wrath which I’d found compelling on repeat listens.

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Görlitz, Germany-based blackened, thrashing death metal duo MOUTH OF MADNESS return quite a few years beyond their 2016 released self-titled debut EP with a brief yet intense debut LP that largely carries on where they’d left off. The whole of ‘Event Horizon‘ tries quite hard to dress up what is a maze-like exploration of riffcraft… as if that weren’t enough. This is a record that could sell itself via its snaking and thrashing rhythms presented plain and pure yet the grotesque ochre-and-red painting on the cover, a number of unrelated ambient interludium (via Frank Fiedler, key sound designer for Popol Vuh) etc. speak to the need to distort the straightforward riff-driven appeal of their music with half-measures. I’d headed in expecting some kind of oddball per the suggestion of “originality” and yet the action in hand here is in line with where the black/death underground was stirring in the early 2010’s between 80’s death metal oak and clever extensions of rhythm influenced by black metal, thrash and rock music. The ~9 minute piece “Fireborn” lays all of this out thoroughly as they present an entertaining skate through auld sub-genre rhythmic tropes with a sort of ‘old school’ extreme flair. Otherwise the black-thrashing warp and chug of “Worms” and “Masaan” caught my attention consistently. The experience ultimately felt incomplete, hitting like a solid three quarters of an album presented in randomized order, and didn’t end up sticking with me beyond a handful of spins.

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PHANTOM SPELL is a progressive/hard rock solo project from Seven Sisters vocalist/guitarist Kyle McNeill who’d taken some inspiration from classic British heavy metal and mid-to-late 70’s progressive rock in developing a well-received debut album back in 2022. The distant, woodsy authenticity of that debut is replaced by a largely joyful and journeying scene here on album number two as ‘Heather & Hearth‘ speaks louder, more directly into crowd with the curious curl of synth/keyboards readied in hand(s). While we don’t fully get something like the post-’82 prog of NWOBHM-era troupe Demon as one might expect in embrace of this style we do find the anthemic, assured stride of an adventurer within these six pieces. This time around they’ve made plenty of room for soloing between the lead guitars and keys and this’ll serve enough of change to keep returning listeners juices flowing though I didn’t personally find any wild knack within the runs that we do get. I’d been more interested in the thoughtful, folk-rock side of things (re: “Siren Song”, “Old Pendle”) where the weave of McNeill‘s songcraft is most economical and engaged.

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This sixth full-length album from United States-based extreme metal band ABIGAIL WILLIAMS is essentially their “pandemic” record where lead vocalist/guitarist and visionary Ken Sorceron expresses existential dread, social uncertainty and personal identity crisis stoked by the early 2020’s. In illustrating these themes most of ‘A Void Within Existence‘ is relatively mid-paced, brooding and dramatically stated as elements of atmospheric black metal inflected guitar work sidle what I’d call “stadium metal”-readied rhythms. The first four or so songs here blow past, keeping their movement centered around rushed and chunkier grooves which read like a tech-death band hurrying through post-millennial black metal gesturing. The best selection from within that glom is probably the guitar work on “Nonexistence”. The final three songs are almost doubly long and begin to develop more steadied interest but for my own taste these attempts are drowned out by an over-emphasized drum presence (esp. “Talk to Your Sleep”) which often works against the atmosphere of the record. Otherwise ~9.5 minute closer “No Less Than Death” sounds like a call back to the peak popularity of, I dunno, Agalloch for a moment per its clean vocals but nothing particularly tuneful comes of their efforts in that direction. Without any particular catchiness imbued, or, any specific character behind this music it reads as average and over-polished.

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Birmingham, England-based stoner metal/doom rock trio MARGARITA WITCH CULT weren’t a flash in the pan after all as they return for a sophomore full-length album with even more loose-slung energy than before. Most of the bigger songs here hit up front and they’re mostly swinging along the lines of Uncle Acid and such, taking the crust of the 70’s and translating it few generations later with a simpler, loosened touch. The best example of this is probably the Alice Cooper-feeling chant and snarl of “Scream Bloody Murder” but the hit on this album is the bluesy Atomic Rooster-cum-Alice in Chains worthy swerve of opener “Crawl Home to Your Coffin” for my own taste. Otherwise we find these folks touching upon a fairly broad array of sounds as each piece here differentiates itself from the last once we’ve pushed past the bland “Witches Candle” and the awful mid-album cover of “White Wedding”. While I really enjoy that we’re getting a real gamut here from the sludgy grunge-punk groove of “Dig Your Way Out” to the Electric Wizarding horror of closer “Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm” but anytime I picked this record up I was basically there for the opener and rooting around in some just alright ideas otherwise.

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Geneva, Illinois-based sludge metal trio STOMACH reprises their cold, surreal take on drone-doom infused sounds, cranking plenty of guitar feedback and grinding distortion into otherwise pretty standard doomed shapes. These folks are best known for grindcore and powerviolence adjacent bands Weekend Nachos and Sick/Tired and this stuff isn’t so far from the heyday of experimental noise colliding with grind, sludge and whatnot so fans of Corrupted and Noothgrush should appreciate the cold misery and demented excess available to ‘Low Demon‘ without issue. “Get Through Winter” was the song to sell me on this record up front thanks to its feedback scrubbing intro and doom-punk stretch but don’t get too comfortable if you’re looking for a straightforward volley between fast and slow riff-focused stuff, most of this album consists of drones beyond “Bastard Scum” and “Oscillate” so I’d at least stick around for the ~17 minute closer “Shivers-Drafts” before you decide on this one. Beyond suggestion of style and the shape of the experience the true draw here is sonic excess, not just the crushed up amplifier scraping stuff but the crispy-ass nuclear guitar tone that drives the whole thing. The only reason I didn’t end up sticking with this one longer was the ratio of riffs to drones, I’d prefer more riffs.

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