• MASSIVE REVIEWING CAPCITY • is our latest short review column focusing on stray quality releases a few times a month, or, roughly every two weeks depending on the current month’s release schedule. In an attempt to be more conversational these are easygoing and casual thoughts for the most part, 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 a record 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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Basel, Switzerland-based crew TOTAL ANNIHILATION hit their second decade milestone in 2026 with album number four, ‘Mountains of Madness‘, another churn through death, thrash and metallic hardcore/groove inspired aggression. Often compared to the post-melodeath era of revivalist death/thrash metal (re: Deathchain, Dew-Scented, et al.) in the past this time around they’ve promised more aggression and intensity which is generally served. To me their work occasionally recalls the grey area where late 80’s/early 90’s death and thrash metal bands transitioned to groove metal, at least the few who’d simplified things without losing their rhythmic volatility but you’ll otherwise find a modern ideation of death/thrash metal here. Riffcraft here is consistent but nothing unheard-of, a few pieces hit like Power Trip and others might fit on a Defleshed album, none of ’em bad but also lacking any one standout showing of force. A well-made record overall, some less thoughtful or stifled pieces crop up toward the end but it’ll prove nothing to sneer at for a spin or two.

The main reasons I’d not covered Chicago, Illinois-based quartet PELICAN‘s seventh full-length album, ‘Flickering Resonance‘, last year appear hideously pragmatic in hindsight. Much of what there was to say about their return would be cribbed from my review of ‘Nighttime Stories‘ back in 2019, once again reasserting their pioneering, shaping status for “post-metal” and touting the lack of diminishing returns in their work compared to any suggested peer. Wilting away from the challenge of feeling along the walls with said album I’d missed a chance to champion their prog-lite post-hardcore mountaineer hand pulling further out of the mud and murk into scalar climb. This latest EP is essentially a 12″ single for “Ascending” an ~8 minute butt-clenching, gravel riddled trek. Though it appears to carry us toward a different tonal summit outright, perhaps a nighttime scene compared to the midday beamed exude of their 2025 LP, we do eventually land upon a sparkling peak.

Side B otherwise includes previously digital only singles (“Adrift”, “Tending the Embers”) which I’d also praised in brief review back in 2024 alongside a new version of “Cascading Crescent” from ‘Flickering Resonance‘ which features vocals from Geoff Rickly (Thursday). I’d loved the Unwound cover the band produced with the vocalist from Pinebender back in 2023 though this allows for a different level of expression which is equal in spectacle to that of the main single (“Ascending”). This’d left me curious as to how Rickly and/or other vocalists might approach interpretations of Pelican‘s best pieces, a worthy side-quest in any case. This release is naturally for collectors/completionists and best suited for folks who’re looking for an extension of album number seven.

Oldenburg, Germany-based trio KARLOFF is a project from Tom Horrified of Hallucinate and Graveyard Ghoul which upon first impression seemed to revolve around a style of punkish black/heavy metal not-so distant in tone from labelmates Barbarian via a brusque Celtic Frost-esque movement in hand. For this second album, ‘Revered by Death‘, the band take quite a few more liberties with their sound as evidenced by the strange choice of a ~4 minute dark ambient instrumental set mid-album (“On Weathered Altar”) and generally barked and rocking step, almost resembling the shouted and irrational grooves of early 90’s post-hardcore/noise rock at times (“Crown Cult Fate”, “When The Flames Devour You All”.) Not sure what to think of the full listen here in terms of easy categorization but they are either onto something original here or haven’t quite realized the core alchemical formula conceived.

Dallas, Texas-based trio TEMPTRESS create a surreal, disconnected realm of reflection informed by psychedelic/stoner metal, post-rock and alt-rock on this sophomore full-length album. At their most kicking (“These Walls”) ‘Hear‘ resembles the warm tumbling of earlier Scandinavian stoner muse as they’ve cut away the longer song lengths of their debut, tempering those searching psychedelia loaded moments into tension addled ~5-6 minute meditations (“Narrows”, “Be Still”, “Edge”) as prime directive. The proggy chop of the riffs on “Edge” juxtaposed with the 90’s Big Muff-fed rock rippler “Now or Never” shows a band willing to extend their reach though their most captivating movements here approximate (and betray) the connections one could make between stoney sounds and post-rock informed float. I’d found this album difficult to approach, odd in its pacing overall, but tuneful nonetheless.

Entranced by the psyche-shaking revelations of Baudelaire and assumedly Lovecraft Graz, Austria-based quartet GUYOĐ generate a surreal form of atmospheric death metal within this latest EP, combining the pulverizing munitions of blackened death metal with eerie post-doom metal informed atmospheric slither (re: “A Thousand Invisible Eyes”). This only begins to describe how the band’ve developed beyond their 2023 released debut LP as ‘Death Throes of a Drowning God‘ steadily reveals their take on dissonance-in-groove, declarative vocal commands (“Behind Walls of Ice”), and a chasmic sound fans of 2010’s The Ruins of Beverast should appreciate in scope and bleak lustre. Closer “Hestia Drowning” and “Behind Walls of Ice” are probably the best pieces to preview here as they make the scope of the recording clear in its sprawl and prove the band’ve at least a few notable riffs and an impressive vocal range to throw around. Though I am generally indifferent to the trope of interludium set between each piece in this case it feels like it dilates time in a meaningful way, making a ~29 minute experience feel like a forty minute ordeal. Among all of the items given short reviews this month this is probably the highest recommendation.

Milan, Italy-based psychedelic doom/sludge metal quartet SACRI SUONI return for another voiceless monolithic clobber with ‘Time to Harvest‘, a second and even more solidifying argument for instrumental doom metal writ as purely imposing presence. Stoney, surrealistic production values and groaning guitar tones do a lot of the heavy lifting here in terms of bringing sludge/post-metal cinema into the oaken horror of stoner doom metal but there’ll be no escaping the feeling of background music to well-worn ears sans any vocal contributions. Use of electric organ (“Dissolve to Reunite in Varanasi”) and extended drifts into ambiance (see: second half of “Soothe”) bring flashes of brilliance in the suggested colliding realms. Without any notable central voicing beyond a handful of riffs the spectacle generated sums to a moderately repeatable session on my part.

Visceral, death-driven yet not exactly deconstructive in fashioning its improvised gesturing this self-titled debut LP from Umeå, Sweden-based quartet BACKENGRILLEN promises destruction and “stupid” ugliness as an act of defiance against systems of control and oppression. Written, rehearsed and recorded in the span of three days ‘Backengrillen‘ manages a surprisingly relational stature and likely for the sake of three of these folks having featured in Refused together ’til the end but also with the inclusion of brilliant reedist Mats Gustafsson and his impossible to contain handle of the saxophone. Informed by free jazz in its partly improvised dispersal but built from repetitious punk and sludge/doom metal ritualism each of these five pieces finds their own angle to crash into the proposed combination. Highly expressive, painfully gutted vocals and damaging riffs saunter in their shouted, slowly stamped-out movement here with the exception of the jazz-punk bap found within “Repeater II” which dances in its own irregularly circling pace. Call it art-metal or freak sludge, whatever suits the moment the feeling conveyed is frustrated, carnally yanked from a place of revulsion at the very least. I believe this act is slated for Roadburn this year and their album reads appropriately built around performance, likely in support of heavy improvisational venture and I’m almost more stoked to hear/see these folks in action live than continue to be ground down by this record.

‘Heralds of the Atemporal Blight‘ is a split album in feature of two notable Floridian bands including St. Petersburg-based atmospheric black metal quintet GRAVE GNOSIS and Tampa-based melodic black metal trio TUNNELS OF SET both of whom bring esoteric occult spirituality into their personage. The former has been around since the late 2000’s having released five full-lengths in the process of developing a cavernous, nigh hallucinatory effect oft prone to longer form pieces just as we find here via the two droning ~10.5 minute songs which serve as their half of the action. The latter’s style reminds me of the type of black/death metal that’d been heavily featured in the popular French scene in the late 2000’s/early 2010’s as a caustic yet melodious hand presses at the skull with high intensity throughout each of their three works. Though I wasn’t familiar with either band heading into this one I’d found their very different styles were complimentarily immersive, fixated on the sinister spells being cast as purpose and each generally stylized in their own performances. For my own taste Grave Gnosis edges closer to my own taste but again this pairing makes sense and the juxtaposition of styles avoids any dips in the action.

https://thusspakeqayinrecords.bandcamp.com/album/heralds-of-the-atemporal-blight

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