• 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

---

New York hardcore punk/crossover honchos AGNOSTIC FRONT hit me in two waves as a kid, first as a choice included on a “pick your boots” VHS mailorder deal where you’d select 2-3 band names out of a list, send cash, and the guy dubbed a couple bootlegged shows. The show was from the late 80’s, probably pre-‘One Voice‘, and they were a mob, everyone knew all the songs and I wanted to be a part of it. That was hardcore punk to me and I’d loved it more than anything else when I was ~8-9 years old despite my older brother insisting there were far more hip, heavier bands out there. I’d soon after teach myself to play the guitar watching how they did it live. Beyond that point it was the late 90’s hardcore punk revival era where three albums on Epitaph hit and they were big, particularly ‘Somethings Gotta Give‘ (1998) as those tours produced some of my favorite experiences at all-ages shows. Otherwise writing about that album (and the next) earned me my first album reviews in print. I haven’t given two shits since 2004’s ‘Another Voice‘ beyond a few hits of nostalgia and that is mostly what they’ve served here, nostalgia with some general updates to their calls to remain defiant and united.

‘Echoes in Eternity‘ deliberately picks up on a sort of “greatest hits” of their hardcore punk side but notably doesn’t echo the tough guy and/or thrash hits of the past within these quick-to-fire and mostly tuneful pieces which pull maybe ~1-2 minutes on average. There are a few duds here, “Sunday Matinee” is dead-eyed and “Skip the Trial” doesn’t feel like it belongs on this tracklist at all, but for the most part these songs are believably from the mouth of Agnostic Front as we’ve known them. I’m not falling out of my chair windmill punching to the groove here but there are some genuinely catchy kickers here worth repeating.

Berlin, Germany-based hardcore punk quartet NUCLEAR CULT are a hundred percent my kind of deal as they’ve got their own grinding, rabid spasticity which, to me, rides the edge of powerviolence in the late 80’s/early 90’s but doesn’t go full fucking cornball blitz to make their point. The original version of ‘A Beautiful Day… …To Go Fuck Yourself‘ actually released back in 2023 with its ~21 or so songs via another label but with this Armageddon Label version you get the band’s full 73 song discography included. Their work is damned consistent as barked and snarled-out neck whipping stuff capable of wrangling a bopping punk rock song just as well as a grindcore freakout. (real) Hardcore punk discography compilations are my favorite kind of weekend listening so, good mileage ahead on this one.

‘Vulgus Illustrata‘ is the third full-length album from Olsztyn, Poland-based death metal quintet INSIDIUS who’d apparently been around for a couple years in the early 90’s but didn’t materialize again ’til 2012. This isn’t necessarily that ‘old school’ in terms of style and instead represents fairly typical groove-built and occasionally blackened death metal akin to the early 2000’s era from their countrymen. Rather than whipping blasts into abject brutality throughout they’ve managed a fair amount of approachable variety here, groove metal lumbering and bland chugging movements which are occasionally over-served (re: “A Darkness That Divides”). Where are the riffs, though? I don’t mind a straight forward roll through this style at all but the landscape here is barren, featureless to the point that I just couldn’t hang with the full listen more than a few times.

Rome, Italy-based gothic rock/progressive death-doom metal quintet NOVEMBRE have never been on my radar beyond exploring their solid death metal days from ’90-’93 as Catacomb as well as their first LP under this name ‘Wish I Could Dream it Again…‘ (1994). If you have interest in gothic melodic death/doom there are definitely many folks who sand behind their work. For me I have to say founder Carmelo Orlando‘s vocals may present and impressive ouevre but his interest in melodies and especially harmonies have never stirred me. Still, I’d found ‘Words of Indigo‘ believable as a continuation of their sound as they’ve been consistent spanning nine full-lengths to date. There are definitely progressive rock anthems here, such as “House of Rain” and to some degree “Post Poetic”, but in the process of picking through the guts of this release there are moments where their gothic melodic death metal atmosphere doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb, or, serve an interruption to the moment. I don’t know that I’d go back for another deeper pass through but it was interesting to find the band’s signature intact but also well-mutated.

Despite funeral doom metal being in the air lately there are so few releases worth thoroughly delving into these days, most of it is “easy” Bandcamp-locked fluff… but since I’d recognized Sacramento, California-based duo OROMET as the band that’d been cut from a never-to-manifest sub-genre list (per their 2023 debut LP) a few years back I’ve made a point to give ‘The Sinking Isle‘ a serious ear. This time around they’ve structured their work more along the lines of post-metal, think a less active Lycus on extended opener “Hollow Dominion”, and something a bit more movement based a la Bell Witch on their “shorter” pieces. These are warm, echoic yet richly realized guitar driven pieces and yet they leave a sort of unstated residue behind, I’d felt like I’d spent ~43 minutes chasing a mirage through each song only to find no real resolution beyond whatever’d been left hanging in the air. In this way their work is less a “funeral” and moreso a glowing ritual, lacking the sorrowful pull I’d been looking for while carrying an ease, a strong enough sense of reverence.

Warsaw, Poland-based death metal trio MORAL IMPLANT can’t seem to land a decent solo so much as strangle their way through random scrabbling but their cavernous slap through blackened and brutal disarray impresses via this debut EP. These folks manage some pretty damned compelling action on the 17 minute ride through ‘Delusion‘ despite the disconnected relationship between their performances, I’d like to hear what this’d sound like live as their scraggly wall of riff has an Incantation-esque yet moshable chunk that’d likely play well to a crowd. I think it’d be fair to regard this recording as a sort of cobbled-together sketch but the potential is yet obvious enough for folks seeking miasmic, rippling estrangement in their death metal’s carve. Great album artwork, too.

‘Evoking the Abominations‘ is a four way split, two songs each, from some of the better lesser-known bands out of the ‘old school’ death metal scenery in Chile today. We haven’t heard from most of these bands since 2023 so I was stoked to check in with Sepulcrum and Blood Oath, both have proven themselves in the past and definitely represent themselves to the fullest here with the latter sustained as a real favorite of mine. Otherwise I’d been gratefully surprised by Nigromancia‘s rabid and wailing “Perverted Desires” as well as both tracks from Quilpué-based unknowns Phantom who might have a generic name but their trampling and technical riff-heavy pieces fit right in next to their peers. Hearing each of these bands given grime-ridden, foul sound design helps them all live under the same house of horrors and to me the effect recalls The Heralds of Oblivion compilation from back in the day… all different bands but each thrives under the same roof. Essential stuff for fans of real death metal.

It has been around five years since we’ve heard from Olympia, Washington-based sci-fi death metal mutantes WARP CHAMBER and nearly as long for Seinäjoki, Finland-borne crew BENOTHING but you’ll recall what both of these ‘old school’ minded space-cases are all about pretty quick via this split 7″. Each band coughs up one ~5 minute chunk of rotten cosmic dementia here with the US-based quartet delivering an obsessive crush through an ever-evolving progression and the Finns presenting a more traditionally structured form which appears on no less of a rant. Benothing truly transports with “Deathways”, almost reaching a sort of ‘Jar of Kingdom’ level weirdness on the trek through whereas “Warp III” from Warp Chamber feels like we’ve caught them in the middle of a thought which they pinch, rattle and chunk through. Stoked to see what both bands are cooking next but my interest is truly piqued by “Deathways”.

https://carbonizedrecords.bandcamp.com/album/warp-chamber-benothing

Indianapolis, Indiana-based death metal trio FLESHER return beyond their 2023 debut LP with ‘Gore on Gore‘ a ~22 minute EP which makes a pretty good case for their take on mid-paced ‘old school’ death metal a la mid-to-late 90’s Bolt Thrower and Jungle Rot. The bass is kinda crispy but I think the drum sound sticks out for being kind of rata-tat-tat during their snare heavy movements. It shouldn’t irk much since they’re bulldozing around most of the time and I figure real underground 90’s death metal, especially the Mortician and Obituary clones of the past, gave way less of a fuck so this feels like a stylized rhythm section (re: Morbific). “Trapped in the Void” is the big song here per my own ear but “Inciting Mutilation” hits as the most representative bout of groove n’ chug here.

---