• 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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Despite creating a fully approachable apparatus in configuration Berlin, Germany-based trio ZAHN don’t squarely fit the description, at least not any description of their style that suits the mood generated. Sure there is a clear love of krautrock’s motorik bap, retro electronic rock sounds/beats, and even some history with the machinery that drives modern noise rock/post-hardcore (a couple of these guys also feature in the brilliant Heads.) but what we find here is a jam on those elements. What I mean is that each piece on their third LP, ‘Purpur‘, finds its core idea via beat or riff and builds on it ’til the moment runs its course in a fairly natural process. The lax easy-shouldered organic pulse, oftentimes a bassline, which glues the experience together might occasionally threaten to unravel (see: “Gensher”) as any given riff escalates but for every rise in pulse there’ll be a soothing force deployed to round the edges of any given statement. This all becomes harder to contain with increasing use of guitars, I think I described their previous album as a “beat record”, and what I’d consider retro/analog synthesizers act as the leading voice as well as the diffuser for their lean into heavier vignette. Despite some obvious evolution of their interactions occurring here my recommendation hasn’t bent out of shape since the last as I find these folks collaboration engrossing, repeatable to no end, and adventurous in a way which is never amateurish or off-mark.

Warsaw, Poland-based psychedelic rock/stoner metal quintet WEEDPECKER continue to evolve in easier-going waves as their fifth full-length album fills the air with heady delayed vocal layers and nigh prog-metallic guitar buzz. While it’d be fair to describe their work as adjacent to the shift found in Elder‘s work in recent years the end result is yet entirely different in voice and verve, dramatic on the level of an album like ‘Omens‘ (see: “Ash”) but oftentimes more immediate and intricate in their guitar driven moments. This is all far too chill for my own taste much of the time, most of ‘V‘ hits like a ‘lude beyond a few big hooks on the first couple of songs, but the depth of statement and performance is there via repeated listens.

‘Purgatory‘ is the third full-length album from PHASMA a blackened death metal band from folks based in Greece (Kawir‘s current guitarist) and the United States (Gravecarver‘s vocalist) and aimed at a modern interpretation of said style which involves some interest in technical and brutal death metal. When I’d first put this record on I’d expected some manner of bestial death metal based on the artwork but this album spends most of its time developing swinging grooves and deathcore inspired aggression. If you are a fan of bands like Noctambulist but prefer something which leans heavier into the atmospheric tech-death/deathcore realm this might be your style but it just wasn’t for me.

Bogotá, Colombia-based black/speed metal trio ROTTEN BLASPHEMY might’ve been around since 2011 or so but they still sound like a brand new act on this debut full-length album ‘Worshippers Of Chaös‘. Choppy beats, choked-out vocals, and speed metalpunk inspired riffs all sound like my kind of underground grime fest but in practice it doesn’t really hit outside of some of their more bestially struck black metal ideas, such as the slow-blasted trample that kicks off “Opponent”. The black n’ roll flavored aftertaste of this album put me off from the start and not for the sake of disliking that style, rather the fact that it didn’t make for any manner of tuneful payoff.

Without any intended disrespect to Revocation and their body of work they’ve long proven superior to any band they’ve inspired wherein metalcore, technical death metal and some manner of thrash inform a very specific sound. England-based quartet UNBURIER generally approximate that sound with high competency, slashing through this third EP, ‘As Time Awaits‘ in about fifteen minutes without leaving much of a dent in mind. The bassist is pretty solid and the riff ideas occasionally flare up into a notable riff or two but it all comes together in a way which is just too familiar in cadence and style. Fans of Sylosis and Man Must Die should appreciate this take but these three songs failed to stand out in my experience.

“Meat ain’t underwear unless its cooked“, “JuliaChildxDemilich“, and “that ain’t much of a riff“: The mind can’t help but dissolve in the process of being exposed to the many crimes, psychic and otherwise, per the enduring threat of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based shock metal act NECROSEXUAL. Their second full-length album ‘Road to Rubble‘ hits like a late 80’s Bulldozer record where shades of Venom and Death SS tunnel into something kinda punkish, theatric but still skilled enough to put a catchier song together here and there. “Kiss the Knife” is probably the whopper here and “Damned Romance” the flopper but I figure these songs are meant to hit live, or, to fill time on a VHS where he interviews metal bands and pole dances wrapped it cold cuts or whatever. I don’t think anyone should ever have fun with metal (at all) and most of humanity should just straight-up die a slow painful death trapped beneath the rubble of their stinking hubris but… I figure this fellowe brings some much needed personality to the realm.

GLADUM REGIS is an epic black metal/fantasy synth project from Italian artist Svafnir who is best known as the former vocalist for black metal bands Draugr and Sturmkaiser. Developed from ages old dungeon synth ideas already once-repurposed for D&D campaigning ‘Quest‘ is the artist’s vision for heroic fantasy applied to the epic black metal proposed by Summoning, a less sophisticated Bal-Sagoth and the symphonic/folken crossing of the late 90’s/early 2000’s in general. I’d consider this its own shade of pagan metal based on style alone but any fan of jubilant symphonic black metal or folk metal, even bits of power metal (“Durindana”) should appreciate the journey herein. I’d found the actual compositions fairly rote at times but the overall effect of the full listen warmly austere.

If you’ve not heard of Trondheim, Norway-based black metal act SLAGMAUR prior and approached this fourth full-length album expecting an avant-garde release you’ll be greeted by some manner of opposing force at face value. The rawly cut, digitally fried guitar tones and uneasy step of ‘Hulders Ritual‘ is the result of their intent to warp the accepted traditions of early Norwegian black metal into something… else but not too far from home. How this sorts out is rugged enough, believable to a certain extent via its moldering hum but lacking the driven darkness of the old ways. “Huldergeist” features some prime vocal interest and oddly veering movement nearby the end, a chaotic overdubbed froth of guitar takes eventually collapses all, but provides nothing so outlandish that the mold is broken apart. Keys and snarled vocal layers juice some outlandish temperament from the march through “Hexen Herjer” but overall I’m not sure this album transforms so much as participates in the zeitgeist.

Back in 1992 I had my first bass guitar in hand, a copy of ‘La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One‘ on cassette to peruse, and just enough capability to play “Thunder Kiss ’65” all the way through but it wasn’t until I was well-on in high school that everyone I knew had ROB ZOMBIE‘s name in their mouth via his solo debut LP. His music only really hit me in the 90’s at a time when industrial rock/metal was ready to die but I’d stuck around for House of 1000 Corpses and his remake of Halloween a few years after. So, in checking out this eighth studio album from his solo ventures my perspective solely rests on nostalgia for a period of time I’d been (heavily) experimenting with drugs, finding a way out of a small town, and playing some manner of guitar poorly. ‘The Great Satan‘ reprises that feeling well enough sans the tighter, busier groove driven songcraft of those first two albums, carrying on with the party of the early 2000’s while bringing back their guitarist (Mike Riggs) from that era too. While this type of eclectic aggro-rock just isn’t my thing any longer I’d appreciated the industrial metal edge of some of these pieces including the Ministry-esque (re: “Dead Inside”) scratch through “Heathen Days”.

Atmospheric/post-black metal duo OLHAVA have released seven full-length albums since forming ten years ago, specializing in sentimental longform pieces typically given some manner of balance between uplift and meandering instrumental muse. For this seventh album they’ve carried on the thread found in their third (‘Ladoga‘, 2020) and sixth (‘Sacrifice‘, 2024) records where long threads of limbo-inducing atmoblack stasis are summarily interrupted by faster-struck movement. While this all might appear relatively generic and featureless to start, as it generally is, the full ~78 minute float of ‘Memorial‘ yet achieves its own inward-looking solemnity through its ever-humming attrition. Though the “Ageless River” series of interludes and ambient pieces is a part of the continuity of their work it detracts from the impact of the pieces it’d surround in this case. Nothing amazing or out of bounds for the atmoblack/post-black floater but no great foul either.

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