• SHRT REVWS • This condensed version of short(er) reviews focuses on releases arriving in the first half of August covering thrash metal, death metal/hardcore, progressive metal, djent/mathcore, progressive black death metal, 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

---

Kraków, Poland-based crossover thrash metal quartet TERRORDOME return here for a fourth full-length album and ‘Plagued With Violence‘ is probably their most thrash metal leaning act to date, a grinding marauder which contrasts strongly with the kind of jokey neothrash stuff they’ve (mostly) put out in the past. A straight forward attack makes all the difference here for my own taste as they wheel through riffs that read to me as Carcass, Kreator and I guess Municipal Waste inspired. With that said songs like “Sorry For Being Late” and “The Torture Continues” still have a sense of humor and I can’t hang with a thrash metal band that’re enjoying themselves. Not a lot of depth here but a pretty entertaining spin through overall.

---

Formed just a year ago Oakland, California-borne death metal quintet BARBAROUS are comprised of folks from various Bay Area groove metal, deathcore, and brutal death metal acts yet their sound reflects the current ongoing trend of mostly mosh riff focused, hardcore infused death metal. Where they kinda stand out here is basically hitting hard a la earlier Xibalba and avoiding purely generic riffcraft as they keep the pace buzzing. My interest kinda dies there as they’re all impact, plenty of action and all that but no real lasting depth otherwise. The drum sound is kinda artificial, the vocalist just does the one thing, and there are a lot of redundancies that drag the flow of the record down in the second half but overall these folks do stand out for their attack alone. I dunno if I’d need a second LP unless they show up more on the hardcore side in the future.

---

Rather than coming “full circle” in the usual way and drawing a predictive line back upon one’s fading ghost of “self” this eleventh LP from Toby Driver‘s KAYO DOT use their brilliant 2003 debut release ‘Choirs of the Eye‘ as a foundational idiom for deeper abstraction. Self-identifying the result, ‘Every Rock, Every Half-Truth Under Reason‘, as “liminal metal” and pursuing unpredictive, anti-normative composition within the original line-up returns intending no direct reflection of the past. Tension is achieved here through microtonal instrumentation in minimal droning statements sans any sort of “rock” gait. Cold, at times hymnal tonal pooling of organs and frustrated shouts are the main ear-catching force here but they come gilded with oddly set percussion and wavering strings for an unkempt avant-jazz tinged container. The tag given works in this sense, always on the edge of a rounded thought but never indulging it and to the point that whole of the album reads as a collapse of reason, a sort of noir derangement designed which bites and gnashes for its first several pieces.

In their quest to avoid predictive, algorithmically sound construction a few of these generally longform pieces signal no clear end or beginning, little fanfare of any kind. In the case of “Closet Door in the Room Where She Died” a break in the action appears to take the whole sequence of events out of loop, abruptly finding an endpoint two thirds of the way through and then restarting. While taking a breath in a satisfyingly jarring way might sound mundane on paper but the immersive value Kayo Dot have built into these pieces allows both smaller and larger gesturing to stand out in feature. On the other hand it may just sound like an orchestra warm-up with some shouting at 33 rpm, depends on how engaged the listener is with the often dissonant, lingering chiming of the keys throughout.

By the time we get to the 20+ minute “Automatic Writing” the effect is ear-burning, horrifying in its constantly oscillating ring and to the point that the lovely vocals found on the piece are almost an interruptive force within the ruined, blown out guitar clangor and slow motion percussion in surround. The math rock jangling and vocal escalations of “Blind Creature of Slime” help to characterize it as my favorite piece here but only for the sake of how active their movements are in contrast to the pieces which come before it. Otherwise “Oracle by Severed Head” is the genius moment of the full listen, the point where fusion and avant-garde post-rock fluttering find their own uniquely elastic sense of progression. ‘Every Rock, Every Half-Truth Under Reason‘ ends up being one of the finer off-cuts from Kayo Dot to date a challenging release which wields a smarter, more subversive avant-garde hand than most.

---

Brooklyn, New York-based quartet CAR BOMB are probably best known for their 2016 record ‘Meta‘ where they’d found notable footing in a concoction which centered around Meshuggah‘s 2000’s-era grooves, alt-metal (Deftones, Fear Factory, Gojira, etc.) inspired outbursts, and a particularly juiced approximation of mathcore in glorious hi-fi. Think of their sound being along the lines of DEP at their most accessible. Of course none of this was/is to my own taste but I had some interest in the band for the sake of them representing musicians who’d made the transition from oddball late 90’s/early 2000’s hardcore/metalcore bands into nascent mathcore related ideas. Here the band return after a number of years with a three song 10″ record which reprises their sound. Wild grooves, loud guitars, lots of shouting… this type of deal isn’t all that unordinary anymore but these folks find value in both accessible (see: ~2:36 minutes into “Blindsides”) and off-kilter movements delivered at high density with frequent changes defining their trampled out, shotgunned movement. “Blindsides” is basically the band you remember cutting through their steel cable flapping riffs and whammy pulling odd-timed movements whereas the title track, “Tiles Whisper Dreams”, catches some ‘Destroy Erase Improve‘ (by way of AJFA) ex-thrasher movement. Again this isn’t my kind of deal but it’d proven ear catching enough to mention.

---

Citing brutal progressive death metal and classic post-rock as key points of inspiration Dallas, Texas-based project SALLOW MOTH makes a more official return beyond a 2024 EP with album number three. Though the belched vocals and post-hardcore chord juicing that occurs here could send the mind reeling in many directions at once the overall effect here is something like ‘Elvenefris‘ or even just Artificial Brain and that should give you a clear enough idea of both the mania and brain-wriggling respite available to ‘Mossbane Lantern‘. Since I’d praised the previous LP upon release only to discover Brents had dropped the project soon after it was a big surprise to not only have this one land in my inbox but also to find something new here… an emboldened, at-times brutal progressive metal album which just barely escapes the edge of chaos. While this is an entertaining ride it was ultimately too scatterbrained to lend itself to repeated listens.

---

‘Old school’ styled Swedish death metal quintet GRAND CADAVER return just a couple of years beyond their sophomore full-length with an EP much in the same style, mid-paced and somewhat melodic stuff with an apocalyptic message in hand. Comprised of members of Dark Tranquillity, Disrupted, The Grifted and Novarupta this is basically a pandemic spawned band that’d somehow kept the momentum hot for the last five years and no doubt having the maestro Stanne on vocals has helped. It took a few releases to sort out their more standard action from their knack and from my point of view the semi-melodic stuff, most of which has a modern melodeath quality to it, sticks in mind best without sounding like outright commercial rock or disco metal. Though I’m not the biggest fan of the artwork I’d otherwise found ‘The Rot Beneath‘ fully presentable stuff, some of their best songs to date, which avoids a lot (not all) of the dull tropes typically found within HM-2 driven Swedish death sounds.

---