• IN BRIEF… • This latest short review column focuses on releases will arrive a few times a month, or, roughly every two weeks covering new releases depending on the current month’s release schedule. In an attempt to be more conversational these are more easygoing and casual than longform reviews, so relax and think for yourself as I attempt to find something, anything to say about multitudes of new releases relevant to my interests. — 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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As the season slowly turns to sickly grey and all green drains into a browning, sepia toned chill here in the Pacific northwest so do the last ditch summer slummers and unwitting musos fill September with darker, more disturbed efforts alongside the most commercial shit of the year. This always means making tough choices between underground records that should’ve probably waited until February to make their debut and viable records from touring bands that’d skipped fests/touring this summer. This is hardly a complaint as this is prime mayhem, a colosseum of poorly matched plebs and a few inhuman monstrosities competing for entirely ephemeral mindshare.

If there is a sure to be stampeded but still viably entertaining combatant amidst the crowd it is DEMON SLUICE a blackened death metal project from musician Valefor with puked, wailed and roared vocals from Garry Brents (Sallow Moth, Gone Mage, et al.) which features overloud programmed drumming and a guitar tone which is either a dry-bones plugin or programmed itself. This gives ‘Dancers Beneath Shores of Fire‘ a curiously violent edge in terms of its entirely tactless movement which recalls the era of bedroom goregrind/death metal and the anything goes Bandcamp slop of the late 2000’s/early 2010’s. The whole thing mashes its buttons hard throughout both in terms of pacing and riffs, most of which could’ve been edited down to their core efficacy rather than spinning in circles trying to find an exit from phrase to phrase. While this is a debut LP I’d consider it a demonstration of bigger ideas which needs a human touch and a bit of editing for potency, the shape of things still ultimately works. Otherwise there is an immediate slap felt here which should entertain on a surface level.

As if a mention of Bandcamp slop were an invocation set to call forth the winds of primal introversion so arrives thee indefatigable leader of an unnamed cult of introverted, unknowable forces in French artist Asthâghul who returns with yet another gloriously over-poured opus via his main solo project ESOCTRILIHUM. This twelfth album under his name ‘Ghostigmatah – Spiritual Rites of the Psychopomp Abxulöm‘ is no less blasting, only slightly less scathing in tone, and carries so many ideas new-and-old into its ~87 minute stroll through maximally stated madness. Since there is no reasonable argument to be made for brevity, editing and such I will say that these pieces generally make sense in groups of two or three and feature as arcs of support in terms of a somewhat listenable feature centered around surrealistic and overwhelming atmospheric glom.

The use of clean vocals in the first few songs here is well implemented and the major strength of the artist continues to be the use of instrumentation which is non-traditional per heavy/extreme metal (see: “Flesh Pierced By The Blades Of Thritônh, Eyes Devoured By Vulth Suidarl, The Giant Fly”) otherwise some of the heavier layered “symphonic” bluster of a few songs give some notable shape to the flatly throttled din of it all. Favorite song would be tough to pick, the whole thing is yet a wall of nox and disarray, but there was inarguable magick happening within late album track “Mauled, Swallowed And Dissolved Into Nothingness By The 8-Eyed Psychopomp”. Much as I like all of the things in this fellow’s buckets of ideas I am yet left wanting for more than purely hallucinogenic muse in yet another melted-together and monstrous spectacle.

Taking a step away from the monstrosities of the unknown vortex of the self-spiraling mind and now reaching for the cold, icy death to be found within the glorious forests of Czechia I’d welcomed this debut full-length from ISEN a project from WolfKult (now UlvKult) who is best known for… or, virtually unknown for another demo only solo project Wintermord. Under his command and under the suggested influence of “the late Norwegian second wave” alongside the melodic black metal of Swedish inclination we find a patiently developed series of melodic arcs given to pagan black metal tropes and the occasional sweetly sword swinging traditional heavy metal shape. Don’t let the opening track throw you off entirely, though it is pretty damned good, as most of this album focuses on ~5 minute black metal songs. The most provocative piece up front was probably “Skrze brány věčnosti a zapomnění (Through the Gates of eternity and oblivion)” where the vocalist brings in some howling, over the top expression which recalls more recent Cénotaphe to some small degree.

The bliss available to an album like ‘Zaklínání poslední zimy (Summoning the Last Winter)‘ comes with patience and some appreciation for where it’d intend to place you as an ancient warrior surviving in the harrowing chill of winter’s grip. With that said imagery and authorship are two different things in the realm of black metal and I’d found many of the lyrics centered around darker, shadowy corners of nigh high fantasy realms in fantastical description. The subject of darkness and living death don’t demand gloom-stricken or downtrodden sounds necessarily, though “Curse of Undeath” feels like it strikes the right mood, as we otherwise find inspirational and stridently howled persistence in the majority of these pieces. Though you’ve likely heard records in this style, tone and mode if you’re adventurous enough to dig it up in the first place I do think there is something more than worthwhile within this fellowe’s efforts as the inspiration within these acts comes across louder than any suggested imitation.

From the desperation of survival within the boreal beauty and folkloric curses of Czechia we then embrace fiery death within the icy graves of Stockholm as Swedish quintet ELDFÖDD present their debut EP ‘Risen from the Flames‘. This release finds the project expanding into a five man troupe after maestro Sebastian Ramsteadt (Necrophobic, ex-Morpheus) had previously released an entirely solo-built demo just a few months ago. This troupe arrives much in the same vein of say, Bloodbath I suppose, and perhaps many others who’ve gone looking authenticity in the revival the original Swedish death metal sound(s) from their hometown alongside classics of the late 80’s/early 90’s. This means we get Boss HM-2 hammered tones throughout, and not a bad version of ’em, but overall something very familiar and decidedly ‘old school’ death metal in muse.

This exceptional pile of veteran extreme metal talent includes folks from In Aeternum, Interment, Under the Church, Firespawn, and General Surgery as all involved bring something of interest here beyond a name drop. What I’d picked up on my trip through these four songs was some love for ‘Severed Survival‘ in the context of Entombed, some great leads, and strong use of melody on a couple of pieces. “Silence of the Gods” and “Beyond the Fire” are probably the standouts here for me. While they’re of course “album ready” as I’d put it in terms of putting a simple death metal tune together with some manner of exciting performance involved the aesthetic here is not right at all in terms of the ugly album art, their logo smokes though.

I’ll rarely turn down a submission of a black metal band inspired by nature as long as there is something natural, ferally sourced within the music itself yet in the case of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil-based atmospheric black metal artist AUTREST the glassy-eyed cinema of modern melodic metal in hand takes us to a place of glaring light and careening mountainsides. This sophomore full-length album from the artist, ‘Burning Embers, Forgotten Wolves‘, clearly has a bit of strong love for the vision of groups like Saor, Eldamar, and perhaps Lustre in that a folken version of pagan black metal inspired by atmoblack schmaltz drives each avenue toward an uplifting slow-clap in shimmering reveal. Natural’s not in it and here I’d felt as strong a connection to nature as I do staring at faux hardwood flooring in terms of the tonal muse of the full listen. With that said it is a nicely glowing event with a handful of endearing, perhaps over-sweetened melodies in hand. “Forgotten Wolves” is probably the standout piece here for its unearthly vocal tones and slowly blasted pace.

Here we find something more squarely aligned with my own taste via black, death, and thrash inspired quintet KORP who’ve been a fixture of the Bollnäs, Sweden area since the mid-90’s having changed very little since their first demo tape (‘Utvald‘) back in 1996. My favorite record from the band is probably ‘Demon – Reborn‘ (1999) and probably because it reminded me of circa ’96 Necrophobic a bit at the time as there was a storming, riff-driven pummel through with some lingering leads woven through several pieces. I could say as much for this new LP ‘And Darker it Shall Become‘ though you’ll find the first half is a bit more of a barreling mid-paced strike and the gunned-out thrash inspired pieces don’t really hit until mid-album track “The Ritual” where you’ll find the elemental combination of their sound well stated between second wave linger, chopped at grooves and some dual rhythmic interplay which is distinctly Swedish in its own right. Any fan of late 90’s Swedish black/death metal and its transition into the 2000’s will appreciate what these folks do but you’re barking up the wrong ash tree looking for some kind of hipster innovation or whatnot, their work remains steadfast in its connection to its roots. If you’re already familiar with the band’s discography I’d say this one is slightly more focused on creating some homage to early melodic black/death metal (see: riffs on “Black Winter Masses”, etc.) and that’d been the main reason I’d enjoyed it.

Another release which is much more my style in terms of the greater European black metal panorama comes by way of German raw black n’ bestially struck trio DOOM CULT COMMANDO a newer conception notably fronted by Desaster founder/guitarist Infernal and two yet unnamed fellowes. Here the style is a blur of harried, rawly clubbed-out black metal in vortex (a la Katharsis) which vacillates with atmospheric yet declarative surrealism one could liken directly to Urfaust. Obfuscated yet martial in its attack there is a great idea contained within this demo’s cavernous haul which is well worth iterating upon though I think it’d all benefit from more stylized sound, something to separate it from the rehearsal stage just enough to cue immersion quicker. Otherwise the ear scraping sound here does a fine job of making sure their glom is contained yet feels spaciously cast.

Conceived twenty-two years ago and only briefly active before being set on the back burner INFERNAL THORNS is a blasphemic blackened death metal project from Valparaíso, Chile-based musician Andrés Arancibia (ex-Thornafire) alongside folks known for bands like King Heavy, Unchurch, Mortajas, Killtrozer and such. If you’re already familiar with their stuff this one is a bit different in that it reaches more clearly for Scandinavian black metal ideas whilst layering them atop furious, brutally whipped death metal attacks. Their sound now recalls a sort of Azarath-like quality where a foundation of earlier Deicide and early 90’s black metal tropes are extruded with extreme force. The idea is solid enough and these guys performances are up to a professional enough standard but the cranked to ten multi-tracked vocals drain any dynamic interest from their work and the riffs don’t necessarily carry the whole album. I’d felt like they were out of ideas halfway through the record but the second half has a few solid burners like “Finis Incipit”, the whole deal kinda feels like an Infestdead record, cool in spirit and hits the right nodes in the brain but dies in the details.

Although Portuguese quartet REDENÇÃO PELAS CHAMAS have been labeled “raw black metal” per their debut demo from 2022 this self-titled debut full-length album points to something more sophisticated than the dry and obfuscated harangue one’d expect and instead takes some pretty obvious inspiration from a certain era of French black metal for its sound, aesthetic and mournfully melodic affect. ‘Redenção Pelas Chamas‘ doesn’t fully reek of fading, morbid belle epoque inspired regalia as that might imply but the forlorn downward summon of their work is effectively immersive, almost reaching a point of tragedian affect save for a few triumphally resolved melodies in its first half. I particularly enjoyed the reprisal that is “Ritual Apotropaico” mid-album where a bit of their vigor returns, even mustering the strength for a few surprisingly ruptured grooves in the last third of the song. From there the tracklist holds onto some of its energetic demand with shorter songs (“Cruor” for example) and develops an interesting enough ouevre. As suggested in the press materials if you’re keen on late 90’s/early 2000’s Drakkar Productions spiteful regalia you’ll enter this realm speaking their language and likely enjoy this one, as I did.

It has been several years since I’ve been knocked out of my chair by a timeless and squarely shot technical death metal album and I haven’t budged in the presence of Florida-based quartet UNALIGNED thus far but their brand of prog-tech death infused hammer-and-shred craft is certainly delivered with brain melting energy as this debut full-length album, ‘A Form Beyond‘, kicks off its first couple of songs. Once you’ve hit “Unbecoming of I” you’ll get a hint of the two founding members involvement in blackened death groups Visitant and Accursed Creator but this sound is more directly akin to their own Withered Throne or the earlier The Artisan Era sound. While these are fantastic high-grade performers in terms of precision this album only bears brief glimpses of feel, flow and typically for the sake of a not-so connective prog metal respite. I figure if you’ve been hot for this sound since late 2000’s Unique Leader stuff popped off there you’re likely up for this but the minutiae here doesn’t strike me as substantive so much as status quo at this point. Still, an above average result all things considered.

Per an entirely sleek, pro-level presentation Borås, Sweden-based atmospheric doom/black metal trio JORD iterate upon the successes of their celebrated 2023 album ‘Tundra‘ with a deeper post-blackened dark metal record in ‘Emellan Träden‘. Distraught indie rock chord shapes, hazy backgrounded keys and a general atmoblack veneer make for quietly grieving tonality to start and an oaken gothic metal result where songs like “King of the Night” begin to expand that sound into increasingly performative and aggressive nodes. When the band are at thier most simply stated mixture of atmospheric doom, gothic metal and sleepy black metal (re: “Vid Muren”) the album carries its own strong melodramatic charm though this creates some contrast with the rocking, gothic metal meets post-rock dramatism taking over their sound (“Den Brandgula Salen”) and this is where I mentally check out a bit… not out of distaste but having heard it all backwards, forwards and every which way with this style. Their fixation didn’t ultimately hold for me but I can see the appeal here, plenty of movement between modes as the band’s ouevre only becomes more rich with each release.

Often described in relation to both speed and power metal interests new-and-old via their debut LP a few years back we can confidently suggest heavy metal as the overbearing spiritus and charge of Copenhagen, Denmark-based quartet EXELERATE as they return for a sophomore full-length album in ‘Hell for the Helpless‘. As the title suggests the subject or thematic arc of this record lyrically addresses mental illness and their serious tone on this record suits this as they take on a sound which strongly resembles peaking late 80’s Metal Church and the ilk. You’ll only get that golden era of US power-speed outta me in terms of comparisons as songs like “The Summoning” bring a bit more extensive vocal melody/shaping into their sound and chunkier 90’s power metal grooves (“A Painful Debt”) bring some muscle into their still high energy muse.

Of course the darker a band in this style gets the more interested I am so if you’re not big on growled vocals and some extreme bits (see: “Impending Doom”, “The Madness”) these might be too dark a bridge to cross but I remain impressed at how all of these ideas suit their approach. I hate the idea of accusing an artist of “confidence” in review but there is a somewhat better planned approach deployed here which speaks to both preparedness and inspiration, the latter of which is overflowing from this album. Hard to pick a favorite here but the real heat on this record for my own taste comes between the duo of quasi-ballad “Falling in Lust” and standout “Impending Doom”.

Though Danish quartet CRUCIBLE only formed a few years ago they’ve already nailed their NWOTHM informed take on classicist speed metal sounds per this inspired debut full-length album. ‘Hail to the Force‘ is built on hard charging, anthemic rhythms while depending on the well-capable vocals from Philip Butler (ex-Encyrcle) for directive. While their efforts don’t have any sort of twist or gimmick here beyond a classic, brash and energetic 80’s-cum-2000’s heavy metal sound I’d found this record was pretty damned each to hang with for its inspired power/speed metal informed presentation. This album won me over in terms of representing pure heavy metal with a big, loud and clearly stated presentation which is impossible to mistake as anything else. Otherwise my thoughts and enjoyment aren’t all that deep here, just a solid heavy metal record.

On the road to Kathmandu armed only with free-spirited exuberance and a shade pf post-’69 psych rock comedown Swedish septet NEPAL DEATH have discovered themselves within this third full-length album, perhaps their most successfully blissful spiral of rapturously howled ‘on the road’ hippie rock to date. Though the roots of the early 70’s are boiling over their kettle to start ‘Pilgrims and Psychonauts‘ spares the listener no experimentation beyond Brian Jonestown Massacre-esque mountaintop entrancement (“Shooting Star”) and flits of krautrock tapped beats as sitar and flutes circle like buzzards above. The album moves quickly from inspiring outset to their “darker” side, eh, lyrically at least as we’d found on their previous records but this is by no means a heavy record so much as a pure but not so rootsy psychedelic rock record which avoids the alienation found in a lot of neopsych. The full spin is a bit overlong at ~50 minutes but it was always a joy to sit down and ride along with.

Heavily influenced by the alternative/stoner rock of the late 90’s/early 2000’s Brittany, France-based trio APPALOOZA carry some obvious inspiration taken from Queens of the Stone Age (see: “Tarantula”) into the humming and eerily harmonized vocal melodies which shape this fourth full-length album into a gloomy yet accessible spin. ‘The Emperor of Loss‘ is sported as a concept album which traces the entrenchment and potential psychic liberation of a woman experiencing Stockholm syndrome, presumably within a relationship. The serious tone of this suits their glum but groove-driven sounds yet I’d found the vocalist’s gravel coughing timbre doesn’t fully work as a leading device ’til the use of vocal harmonies kicks in as opener “Grieve” and especially “Stockholm” prove up front. Though I’d found the first few songs on this album compelling to start by the time I’d torn through it twice the full listen basically flows nowhere and the tone of the record never really makes a bold shift or meets up with the conviction available to their suggested inspiration. Above average in some sense but entirely not my kind of thing.

Spastic noise rock, metallic hardcore and post-hardcore bingers INTERCOURSE return for yet another full-length album with this one being their first recording done with ample studio time and preparedness, a situation which’d allowed the band to flex through their compositions a bit more as well as redraft their efforts to suit whichever state of mind called to ’em. ‘How I Fell in Love with the Void‘ once again features brutally honest sardonicism, inside jokes and such but this time around they’ve suggested an extra sprinkling of existential despair via impending divorce. I dunno if sub-genres really do this band any sort of service I mean its a guy yelling over angularly bent chord slapping, rhythms that slap and swerve around brashly shouted rants in the way that bands like Chat Pile and Karp do. Taking some extra time and worming their way out of the rehearsal space’s comforts finds the band hitting a few sludgier slower-paced strokes of depression which don’t read so much as “Wow, so random” funny as they hit upon defiant bitterness, plenty of bile in this one.

Industrial metal trio HOLD ME DOWN hail from Virginia yet they owe quite a bit to the early output from both Vancouver B.C. and U.K. scenery via this cold-beaten, kinda bumping sophomore full-length album. I’ll be pretty straight up here in say the vocals kinda suck here in terms of coming up with more than hyper-distorted rasps but there are a few surreal spoken or muttered sections that work (re: title track “Devour”). With that said their beats and grimier guitar tones, garbled and struggling through their chunking, make for a sound which might be slightly imitative but enjoyable nonetheless. “Infinity” and its Head of David worthy main riff is probably the killer here for my own taste but the hellish, dreary plod of “At the Gate” provides another more brooding angle where their gig works. Decent stuff but didn’t stick with me beyond a few songs.

‘Påhittad Värld‘ is the third full-length album from Stockholm, Sweden-based hardcore punk quartet SEX DWARF and certainly represents the band at their noisiest, most swinging scrape across the floor as we fall into the absolute abyss of the title track/opener “Påhittad Värld“. Beyond the feedback, fuzz and scrambling downward guitar progression their howling reaches a primal level of exasperation, just short of desperation before a series of ~1-2 minute hardcore punk songs spray beyond that point. The Sweden/Japan connection is strong within their general flow thanks to a screaming guitar tone and blunted but spaced-out d-beaten tracts supporting each rant and in this sense this is a pretty direct follow-up to what they were cranking on ‘Bara Mörker‘ back in 2019. Best song her for my own taste is probably the more abrupt hardcore punk strikes of “Korrupta Svin” but the opener slapping into “Illusion” is just as effective.

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