• 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

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Birkeland, Norway-borne atmospheric black metal project VETTER return for a very different third LP with ‘Sort var Bogen der Bragte Os Hid‘ wherein their folken hand is heaviest and the rawness of their first two records is now polished into something lightly atmoblack/post-black in nature. The provided literature references both Ulver and Vemod in positioning the listener in the exact right headspace here, a style which avoids Cascadian levels of froth and/or crescendo-core but establishes a solemn neofolk tinged (re: “Aff Blod oc Bly”) experience which floats past quicker than expected. Much as I was compelled to wave a hand at this one to start the oaken downtempo hum of their work caught some wind beyond the second listen, an immersive quality that sustains well off the back of key pieces “Messefeld” and the hymnal “Een Sørgechoral”. Though the album is themed on Norwegian folklore, a narrative surrounding the black book depicted on the cover art, it’d read to me as sublimely dissociative with a bit of muscle behind its rhythm section here and there. I’d enjoyed the raw side of the band when they’d returned back in 2021 but this is far more impressive.

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Themed by connections made between Slavic nomadic traditions and Aghori asceticism Slovenian black metal act CVINGER‘s fourth full-length album ‘Rites ov Flesh‘ offers a compelling enough premise off the bat but ultimately delivers a mixed bag of rocking and rawed-up black metal style. You’ll find some direct inspiration taken from the more typical spectrum of Norwegian black metal style here where thrashing n’ rolling attacks (re: “Blood, Seed, and Alchemy”) are delivered in a rehearsal room sized space and swatted mercilessly (“Mass Incineration for the Divine Resurrection”). The drummer is pretty decent when the fills are flinging about and a few riffs here were surprisingly solid (“Žerc pogubljenih”) but overall the whole thing feels half-baked in sequence and execution. Not a problem in the black metal realm, of course, but ideas like “Abomination” were maybe too ambitious and don’t appear supported or related to the aggressive atmosphere of the record otherwise.

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Helsinki, Finland-based trio RAPID bring the echoic fumbling of late NWOBHM era black and speed metal into a blurry, punkish heavy metal spectacle on this ambitious debut full-length album. Though they’ve long relied upon scratchy black/speed metal riffs and reverb to peddle their 80’s set temperament here it seems they’ve taken the time to write short but worthy heavy metal pieces, almost sounding like late 80’s Manilla Road on songs like “Necromantic Warriors”. Overall a gruff strutter like “Black Poison” is probably better representative of the band’s ‘tude and style but you’ll find a fair amount of variety sourced across this eleven song ~44 minute record where the band’s love of stuff like Samhain eventually becomes more obvious (re: “Moonless Night”) and their clever songwriting begins to dry up. Can’t really deny the bizarre Venom-isms abounding or the odd lengthier songs (“Beyond the Gates of the Rapid Flames”) though, if that higher grade punkish 80’s heavy metal songcraft was cinched up a bit this one would’ve nuked me.

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For as bizarro as San Jose, California-based deathgrind quartet DEATHGRAVE were on their debut LP back in 2018 they’ve definitely toned it down on each of their two records released since. They’re not holding back in any sense so much as working to achieve total fusion of the death, grind, punk and doom fed ideals they collectively represent and in that sense ‘Hell is Evil‘ manifests their most seamless signature feat to date. The noise rocking, Black Flag-esque swerve of their debut is still kinda there but the powerviolent whipping of it isn’t and instead we get a grinding ’til doomed experience where the grand finale (somewhere nearby “Won’t See You in Heaven”) signals a full ouevre dump by the end. Standouts here come via the Chris Reifert spot on “Hard to Swallow”, the heady warp of “Smaller and Smaller”, and the exceptional ride through “Born From Death” with each capturing all the best characteristics of the band’s gig in succinct, still-spastic chunks.

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The last time I’d written about Portland, Maine-based blackened progressive death metal trio SHABTI was back in 2019 wherein most of my praise went to their high-capable performances and fleet handed crossing of headier prog-death ruminations with aggressive post-blackened death. Those glowing observations still suit this third LP, ‘Haze, Cacophony and White Light‘, though it resembles far more of a temperamental maze as they dig deeper into their own pocket of moody, sometimes spastic progressive death muse. In the works since 2022 this one took a few years to realized as Obsidian Tongue took priority ’til 2025, trials and tribulations suggested appear to have benefitted the album an extended cook time overall as this is probably the most knotted and squirrely movement from the band to date. I am still not a huge fan of the rasped black metal leaning side of the vocalist’s performances, and I don’t think they hit the brutal/percussive side of death metal with anything all that imposing riff-wise but following the greater thread of this album kept me guessing.

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Essen, Germany-based gothic rock/metal quartet THE NIGHT ETERNAL mark their major label debut with a third full-length album in ‘Cold Velvet‘ where their sound takes a few steps beyond the AOR oriented side of the NWOTHM they’d inhabited unto their own form of melodic hard rock. Though one could point to the faux 80’s delirium of bands like In Solitude or Lunar Shadow for reference in the past the band’s new developments begin to resemble more hackneyed gothic metal stuff like Unto Others, albeit far more serious in tone and motion. Vocalist Ricardo Baum is obviously a fine talent, particularly when gunning up some extra power as we find within the choruses of “Eurydice (Don’t Look Back)”, and he is rightfully given the leadership role overall. Too many vocal layers detract from this position, particularly when it comes time to croon and sprawl with slower (“The Watcher of the Burning Veil”) or poppier (“Caught in a Spell”) pieces. The songcraft at hand here is extremely straight forward in most cases, slightly hamstrung by the exclusively dire tonality of the album’s narrative where the dramatism never breaks and muscle is rarely applied. When the metal does flow here and there, such as the odd charging verses of “Shape of Sorrow”, you’ll get a glimpse of where the band’d excelled in the past but overall this one will likely be viewed as a clear point of transformation beyond ‘Fatale‘, even.

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This first 12″ EP from United States-based solo black metal project TSIRHIC is appreciably raw, starkly presented, and uneven in quality in the grand tradition of the post-classic era for the sub-genre. Uncertain in its passage between head hanging, monotonous droning and reaching semi-melodic passages much of ‘To Satan I Reply‘ retains an era-agnostic glom between “modern” guitar techniques, a hint of appreciation for orthodox/occult black drain, and harder stomping early 90’s simplicity. Each of the five songs presented here are clearly related, performed by the same hand and mouth, but rarely fused in relation to the full listen. The keys used on “God Dethroned” stood out in this sense as they weren’t used elsewhere, likewise the melodic pass through “The Prophecy of God” is unlike its surroundings beyond the slower step through its final third. Though the vocal performances here are bland, or, rote in terms of bedroom black metal standards the music as a whole is reasonably inspired in its hateful and sometimes melancholic buzzing about. “H.I.P.C.” and “Mockery of Solitude” are probably the most compelling performances here.

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