• 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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Popular Finnish death metal troupe HOODED MENACE might’ve chosen to forego touring any longer but it hasn’t daunted the quality of their studio work as we find their thread of Paradise Lost, Amorphis and Mercyful Fate inspired work continuing down the path cut by ‘The Tritonus Bell‘ (2021) where their exploration includes a very 80’s dual lead guitar display around every corner, plenty of shredding and such, with a body built by ‘Gothic‘-era sweatiness. The worst of it is probably their six plus minute cover of Duran Duran‘s “Save a Prayer” while sounding… well, basically just sounding even more like early 90’s Paradise Lost. While I love all of these components and the blend of heavy metal into death/doom metal is choice the songwriting here is hindered by dry atmosphere and a lack of physical presence to most of the riffcraft. Closer “Into Haunted Oblivion” finds somewhere interesting to go with it and no doubt there are some bruiser-class riffs finagled throughout but I dunno this one feels like all it does is pine for the same mid-to-late 90’s dark metal shit everyone is doing this year. I mean they do it better than most, so, credit due and all that but I think I’m happy enough with their 2018-and-prior discography at this point.

UMULAMAHRI is a side project and collaboration between Andrew Hawkins (Baring Teeth) and Doug Moore (Pyrrhon, Weeping Sores, et al.) who’ve suggested the purpose of this undertaking centers around pushing perceived limits of extreme music. Sure, but it also sounds like they’re just fucking around having a good time. Their combination of gut-grabbing bellows and an almost brutal prog (which is a thing) attack applied to cold industrial sludge-death metallic rile is intentionally abrasive and chaotic to start, gushing of a hundred guitar pedals (applied to a bass?) and a wall of studio effects. Their focus on brutality and atmospheric horror in equal sized bursts initially recalls Labyrinth of Stars for a moment but this is a restless spirit in conjoin and one that mixes things up to the point that this EP (?) serves a jumble of “playful” brutality which is a jam and only just that in terms of its impact. ‘Learning the Secrets of Acid‘ makes the case that something big is coming, they’re building up to something wild, yet the big reveal comes when they pump the breaks and let session drummer Kevin Paradis style a bit (“VVVVRMS”.)

Though it appears they’d gone into their process with little more than a general shape, a method in place, French black metal duo INRITVM allowed their collaboration to take on its own voluminous fate through expansion of personnel and heavily layered atmospheric black metal pieces per this debut LP. When I suggest “atmospheric” I am being practical rather than sub-genre specific as ‘Ex Nihilo Ad Nihilum‘ largely features riff-driven, neck-craning black metal which is distanced per its venomous mist-tones and assemblage of interlaced samples. Lead by the hands of Syht (Haemoth) and Akhaeus (Bael) and joined by fellowes from Antaeus, Deviant among others the greater channeling which occurs herein is unmistakably bleak, an unsteady alchemical concoct aimed upon existential nihilism. This is reflected in the surreal ghostly orchestra which trails between both exit and entrance to most of these (sometimes) longform and occasionally slow to develop pieces. The whole experience is deflating, wrathful, and even manages a few tragedian strokes by the end.

Since I wrote something like ~1,700 words for my review of TODAY IS THE DAY‘s eleventh album back in 2020, and loved it, I’ll cut my thoughts back considerably for album number twelve. ‘Never Give In‘. This is more-or-less a “pandemic” (never ends) album that must’ve been borne in reaction to isolation and illness before continuing to reflect the authoritarian political climate in the United States. Because of this and with respect for its reactionary themes it’d make more sense to appreciate where Steve Austin is today rather than reflect on my own nostalgia any further though I will say this is a bizarre and experimental record and yes, with consideration for the fact that it comes from a fellow known for making ’em. Discordant guitar runs, buzzed-up bass guitar tones, synth/moog buffered freakery suit an album which intentionally goes off the rails and says “anything goes”. The hummed and dismal purring of the first three or four songs speak to isolation, psychosis and do so in an honest mid-80’s kind of Black Flag herky-jerk to their rhythms but by the time we hit “Secret Police” (see also: “Pain and Frustration”) the roaring art-metal/atmosludge.. prog-psych vibe starts to hit deeper. I guess the best endorsement for this album is that it is worth digging beyond its modest exterior and finding both earnest and left-field venture within.

UNSOULING is an experimental metal band from Minneapolis, Minnesota-based artist A.S. who is best known for his work in Wolvhammer and Feral Light. Although it’d have been fair to connect the exit of his previous band as presage for the thus far two LPs from this one Unsouling is less concerned with lining up with the structures of black and death metal in terms of generating both atmosphere and arrangement. The result here on album number two, ‘Outward Streams of Devotional Woe‘ is surely better focused on its darkwave infused death metallic post-metal glow. I think the big song here that brings something new, tactful and impressive would have to be “Grief Reconfigured” and naturally that lines up with my interest in sombre doom otherwise. I’d appreciated that this time around their work was just that much more approachable and doesn’t so quickly dive into its maze of ideas.

I believe back in 2021 or so I’d suggested that maybe abstract black/death metal trio SUFFERING HOUR were ready to move onto a variety of other interests, that the band had kinda worked themselves into a corner with the impressive ‘The Cyclic Reckoning‘ but damn, I think I’ll have to rescind that thoughtcrime after sitting with their latest EP, ‘Impelling Rebirth‘ most of today. The opener/title track (“Impelling Rebirth”) still bears the reaching tendrils of dissonance in its general forbode but here we find the band already reaching for more riffs and less of an atmospherically splashed focus and this feels like a proper next-stage evolution, or just a revived hand for these folks. The thrashing stab through the gloriously ripping “Anamnesis” and the death-thrashing fracas of standout “Incessant Dissent” might be two of my favorite digs from the group since ‘Dwell‘ and partly because they’ve done so much with just a couple of minute stretches each… but I think most folks will spurge out hardest over closer “Inexorable Downfall”. Every song only hits bigger than the last here and the whole deal kills on repeat, huge fan of this return.

Described as “progressive noise rock” and themed by classic sci-fi graphic novels French trio CRATOPHANE brace their interest in extreme metal, jazz fusion and off-kilter stuff like Voivod within longform pieces that’re both ominous and adventurous in movement. They’ve referenced some of the best in this general field with Blind Idiot God and Aluk Todolo being mentioned in the same breath though I’d say if you’re a fan of the second Oranssi Pazuzu record and its space rock bolstered movements but have a think for Pelican‘s style of arrangement (incl. post-rock stuff) there’ll be a vibe here that’ll catch you quick. Darker ambiance and bigger alt-metal surges keep things heavy and moving along at a decent clip but ultimately this feels like a sans-voix blueprint for a great progressive/avant-sludge rock album more than it does a longform noise rock adventure.

Italian “rhythmic noise” (re: experimental/industrial) duo OVO return for their eleventh album in ‘Gemma‘, an album intending to convey transformation via a harsh bloom into a new beast. I think anyone who already knows the band expects something over the top from vocalist Stefania Pedretti and something earth-electro otherwise, a soil strewn machine caked in oil and filth and of course they deliver on both fronts. Thump, scream, buzz, repeat is the gist of this one as they use broken distorted guitars and too-loud raw beats to scorch right at the ear for the first half of these ~40 minutes. I was in too dep by the time “Cobalto” hit but the album chills quite a bit beyond that point. Not a total skull chewer but it definitely feels relentless on the first pass through.

If you are a fan of noir eclectic side of bands like Messa but’d prefer something more doomed the psychedelia and fuzz-enriched hand of Berlin, Germany based quartet MRIODOM who incorporate saxophone and clarinet into their slinking, deeply considered form of doom moderne. I cannot emphasize enough how effective their placement and use of reed instruments is on this album, not only providing some solos and following the riff but accentuating them toward intoxicating result. Though their sound is made stark by the amount of echo applied to some of the vocals and there is room for polish in a few areas ‘Vlies‘ is an incredibly fine debut and perhaps too sophisticate for their rumbling stoner-doom adjacent bustle. I particularly enjoyed the death metal grows inserted into the already surreal climb of “Rache Des Berges” as we begin to feel they’re both attuned to the real thing in terms of psychedelic doom but also have enough of an ouevre to begin to tell stories with their “epic” I figure they’d do well at a show with a band like Daevar or nearby. Definitely should’ve done a longform review for this album but I’d recommend it highly either way.

First thing I did when this second LP from anonymous atmospheric black metal solo act AKOLYTH came on was crank the stereo up about 30% and not because it was especially hot shit (it is a solid album) but because they’ve recorded this thing in a padded cell. Despite the stylized production values here we find shades of doomed heavy metal, eclectic rhythmus, and hymnal surrealism woven into these four longform pieces. ‘Ecstatic Kingdom‘ feels well-evolved beyond the band’s debut as we find stylized movements introducing a variety of pacing and different guitar techniques into these songs which step well out of the early second wave grind that’d characterized their first album. “A Black Torch” and the title track are probably the most engaging pieces overall though I’d appreciate the slow-fading vortex of closer “Without Light” just as well.

I don’t know very much about Münster, Germany-based atmospheric black metal band NARRAT just yet beyond their mention of Thomas De Quincey’s Suspiria de Profundis as crucial to their theme, specifically the Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow essay. There is too much I could infer from that to even begin to sort a clear theme or message. Their sound isn’t as listless and built from circularly flowing wind a la Cascadian black metal nor is it as hard-edged and upward spiraling as Misþyrming but those appear to be suggested points of inspiration beyond the Wiegedood-esque thrum in their movement. Though the full listen of ‘Levana‘ starts out a little bit wonky with riffs that’re a bit lost the rambling, sometimes punkish throttle of their movement eventually steadies into entertaining fixation. The bigger standout of the four songs here for my own taste would be “Behold What is Greater Than Yourselves”.

If you are as big a fan of Obsequiae‘s guitar arrangements and their washed-upon atmospheric hum as I am no doubt you’re going to appreciate the style explored within Minneapolis, Minnesota-based melodic black metal artist MORKE‘s fourth full-length album. If I were to take the harmonic clashing of reverb-thicc lead guitars solely into account I’d suggest these songs are closer to the ‘Suspended in the Brume of Eos‘ era of that band as their trotting, folken movement works itself into similar knots and rushes of speed. As was the case with Weald + Woe earlier this year I don’t know if I find that these arrangements are always as profoundly set and the sound design does a lot to make it all shimmer a bit extra but this is a fine guitar driven ‘epic’ heavy metal album when reduced to its pure arrange. Around halfway in songs like “Coup D’oeil” hit and I feel my brain itching for some fresh air, to move beyond this sluggish mode where ‘To Carry On‘ settles into variations on a theme but there are a few spots of inspired movement (“Wisterian Arbor” esp.) which catch along the way.

Albuquerque, New Mexico-based spaced stoner/sludge metal quartet BLUE HERON put together this EP of covers and a live radio performance I believe while recording a Nine Inch Nails cover for an upcoming compilation. Opener “Grey” from Fudge Tunnel‘s ‘Creep Diets‘ is probably the toughest these folks’ve sounded to date as they tend toward a stonier croon most of the time (see: “Marigold) but the Clutch cover that comes after feels like a more natural fit despite the growled vocals. Either way they’re speaking my teenaged self’s language with their selections eventually closing with “Find Away” from Floor‘s way underrated 2014 album. Haven’t spent much time with the band’s stuff otherwise but I enjoyed their selections here.

Serbian-Italian “Hindustan psych”-rock/doom quartet LITANIA bring both structural and expressive fundaments of Indian music to heavy rock/doom metal pieces on this self-titled debut LP. ‘Litania‘ has a huge bass guitar tone and a strong organic sound to its “metal” component but they appear almost shy to chunk out a big riff as the album fires up as more stoic, lumbering doom pace naturally lines up with their rhythmic experimentation more easily. “Ghungru” sort of gets there and “Vighnaharta” finds a unique stride in its middle portion but their slow-burning doom metal side should be more of a crowd pleaser in the stoner/doom headspace. Though I don’t think it’d have much staying power on my shelf Litania‘s work of fusion here is distinct, and at times just outlandish enough in doom-rock context to remember.

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