• MASSIVE REVIEWING CAPACITY • 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

---

Berlin, Germany-based death metal trio BELLIGERENCE reemerge for a second EP roughly two years beyond the last carrying their modern and aggressive style into greater complexity and very light black/death edge. Referencing the brutal and technical early days of Decapitated most readily their work has a sort of Deicide-esque edge to it by proxy. Sharply produced and driven by a veritable bulldozer of early 2000’s styled brutality we could slot their vision somewhere nearby generalist neo-‘old school’ stuff like Living Gate or even fellowe Berliners Maat for that matter to get a rough idea of their impact. Familiar as these fonts of inspiration are the real boon to be found here lies in the frantically shifting ebb of their aggression, going places with each thread rather than circling back quickly or falling into repetition too readily. Songs like “Vengeful Slaughter” recall the early era of bands like Anata, ambitious in their weave but also fundamentally brutal. The only real gripe I’ve got here concerns the guitar solos as they’re purely functional and could bring more character to the band’s work.

---

Boston-based stoner metal/blues rock crew GOZU have leaned heavier into their hi-fi alt rock edge as they intend a more “soulful, straight forward, guitar-driven” sixth album. The result is more fun, more personal and not especially my kind of gig beyond the obvious hustle n’ hook bound “Banacek”. The real anchor of the experience is of course vocalist/guitarist Marc Gaffney, a soulful central voice who carries their gear up towards the similarly broad-ranged kinda stoney stuff like Greenleaf and Lo-Pan. I’d checked out almost immediately when the slower, softer stuff hit (“Corner Lariot” specifically) but the doomed out crawl through “Midnight Express” was a solid highlight otherwise.

---

Stockholm, Sweden-based quartet GODDESS offer themselves as spiritual succession to the since-2023 defunct Goatess, a group known for their stonier and sometimes heavy rocking take on psychedelic doom. The name change comes with a different line-up but the actual sound of ‘Ritual of the Cloven Hoof‘ isn’t so far removed from the somber and disconnected ‘Blood and Wine‘ (2019). The mix of sleepier Sabbath grooves, stoner rock stirred movement and solemn vocals (re: “Inquisition” esp.) is a quality vibe from my perspective and much like their past life it takes some patience to see through. If you’re a fan of the mid-to-late 90’s side of Swedish stoner metal, even just stuff like Terra Firma you might find a song like “To Be King” weirdly related to that dynamic if not slowed and slugged out getting there… at least ’til the end of the song where they kinda truck into a sludge/death slow trampled gnash. Fans of their previous incarnation will no doubt appreciate this record off the jump but I think their focus on sleepier, introspective gloom-toned muse should pull in more doomed souls.

---

Barcelona, Spain-based war metal duo PVRGATORII pack a ton of subversive, obnoxious noise into this four song single-sided 12″ EP and they’ve packed a supposedly substantive zine in with it. I don’t have access to the latter but the songs included here freak out hard enough to get a reaction out of me. If you’re a fan of echoic, simplified wrath in the grinding black metal spectrum some of their choices should read as extreme enough though the main point of interest here is the hardcore punk-esque stamp to their movement. I don’t know if ‘Profane Rites for Cursed Times‘ stands out beyond style beyond the audacious clap of it all, the riffs aren’t really there to the point that they can carry ~four minute song anywhere interesting but the surreal blitz of it all should hit well enough the first time it fires up.

---

With this third and latest full-length album Japan-based goregrinding death metal act PHARMACIST take their sound closer to the ideal of records like ‘Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious‘ by way of tighter, more technically adrift machinations fueled by thrash, brutal death and more. Spitting, coughing and grooving bigger than the already impressive step-up of ‘Flourishing Extremities on Unspoiled Mental Grounds‘ (2022) the general crush through ‘Vertebrae After Vertebrae‘ is just as much of a leap in terms of force and riffcraft. The best albums in this goregrind/deathgrind and ‘old school’ death attuned realm typically offer shorter pieces that get into a groove and drop out before it gets old but this guy can write a song with serious enough momentum that full ~5-6 minute pieces actually hold up even without the sticker ear-worming grooves of Carcass past. “Endogenica” (see also: “Mimicking the Organics”) is the loudest proofing here outright but there isn’t an actual turd of a song amongst the seven included here, making for a dense and cacophonic trample through but one that I could hang with every time I put it on. Drum sound kind of sucks on headphones but otherwise this one was a great time.

---

Uppsala, Sweden-borne melodic death metal quartet SARCASM return for a sixth full-length album and basically a full-fledged (well, indirect) companion to 2024’s ‘Mourninghoul‘. That is to say that ‘Lifeforce Omnibound‘ retains the highly polished production values and aggressively swatted push of the previous album while leaning into increasingly blazing speed and sometimes moderately technical movement rather than the dramatic gloom of ‘Stellar Stream Obscured‘ (2022). They’d never lost their voice and intended style but they’ve definitely refined performances and songcraft down to a cleaner science, for sure away the messier early 90’s melodic black/death of the past and now onto more modern grooves. I am more the ‘old school’ obsessed fandom for this type of thing and lost that connection somewhere beyond the third LP but that doesn’t disqualify their impact here, the more pro-level their action gets the closer it seems to get to long-held ambitious works and this album reflects that reach. Didn’t really stick for me but inarguably a fine effort.

---

Expanded into a quintet and arriving upon the conclusion of what they’re calling the “visions trilogy” of full-lengths the return of West Yorkshire, England-based troupe GODTHRYMM finds the band no longer searching so much as blossoming into their own anxious, contorted form. Though the band stepped pretty far from my interest within the second half of ‘Distortions‘ (2023) the gothic, death metallic epic doom of ‘Projections‘ amalgamates ambitious chunks of dramatism in compelling enough fashion that I’d been drawn back in. Though it’d be fair to read their collective work as moderne conduit for the still-popular 90’s melodic death/doom metal thing ’til gothic metal phenom the stomp into “Truth in My Own” reminds that maestro Glencross has more than hysteric gesturing in mind, or, at least can still write a mean-assed doom metal riff. If you’ve no issue with the wildly dark, claustrophobia-inducing melodrama of it all there is a great death metal incensed doom metal record here, a far more original result from these folks in general. Otherwise I’d say Catherine Glencross‘ vocals being more prominent is a fine addition which further characterizes their work, I’d like to see what’d happen if they could pull Stainthorpe deeper into the fray too.

---

Berlin, Germany-based shoegazing kraut-kicked psychedelic rock crew BLKE caught my eye with their self-applied “psych-noise rock” tag but the noise part of that equation is broadly suggested to the ear. The paranoid sprawl of their kraut-rock tapped psychedelia is the main attraction. Entirely heady rituals are loosed into madly glistening wide-eyed space and floated via a variety of moody spectacle, landing without high impact beyond vexing, meditative state. The darker-shaken breathlessness of “So Do I” in descent is probably my favorite piece overall but the creep-assed slur through grungier, garage punk roll of “Satellite” lodged itself in mind from the first hit.

---