Review: Crucifucked – Four Songs to Ruin Your Life

Spanish metallers Crucifucked have just released their debut EP, ‘Four Tracks to Ruin Your Life’, and look to set out a stall for some hard hitting stuff. Download it from their Bandcamp now!

‘Rotten Roots’ erupts like some old school thrashy death, even featuring your typical Tom G. Warrior grunt, and has a really good energy and almost hard rock quality lurking under the grimy outer layer. ‘The Goat of Mendez’ chugs along with some solid riffs, and there is some nice old school heavy metal riffing patterns later on. ‘Crows of Downtown’ is a little one dimensional though though, and I think the band will struggle to put together a compelling full length on just this style. The imperious opening to ‘Love is War’ shows what they can do though, and this is a great closer.

A solid and promising debut EP, but Crucifucked have got some work to build on this and create something a little more original and inventive to stand out. Nothing much to criticise here but there hopefully is more to come.

https://crvcifvcked.bandcamp.com/releases

https://www.facebook.com/crvcifvcked/

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Review: Warfist – Grünberger

Polish thrashers Warfist bring the riffs on their latest full length ‘Grünberger’, and their intoxicating blend of heavy riffing and speed plays right into the Killchain’s wheelhouse. It is out now through Godz ov War Productions.

Drawing deep from the well of The Haunted, ‘Grünberger’ is a massive sounding record, as each riff is thick and chunky. There’s a bit of Dew-Scented in there too, and it is refreshing to hear some thrash that doesn’t just steal from either the Bay Area or Sodom. This is deathly, dense thrash riffs with a rough edged production which gives it a bit of grit. The neck snapping speed of ‘The Burning Flames of Ignorance’ is a delight, as is the thunderous chug of ‘The Punishment’ and the poisonous edge to the title track sneaks some blackened action in there too.

Everything you need in a metal album is right here. Warfist have all the riffs you’d need to make a good night of it, an infectious turn of pace and a guitar tone that’ll inspire many pits from here on. ‘Grünberger’ is a beast of record, full of energy and heaviosity that makes it a must. By the time the rampant ‘Atrocious Saviour’ brings the record to a close, you’ll be broken, battered and thoroughly entertained! Fuck Yeah!

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/gr-nberger

https://www.facebook.com/warfisthorde/

Review: Chalice of Suffering – Lost Eternally

Chalice of Suffering’s last record, ‘For You I Die’ was a monument to pure misery and doom, and their new record ‘Lost Eternally’ looks to build on that work and create something truly emotionally draining. It is out now through Transcending Obscurity and is here to sap you of your lifeforce.

When you go for walks in misted woodlands or on rugged fells as a metalhead, you immediately hear music like this in your brain. There is a primal, Gaian sweep to this record, creaking with the weight of a million generations of life on its shoulders. The opener ‘In the Mist of Once Was’ hits you in that same emotional way that My Dying Bride’s earliest pieces did. The haunting pipes echoing in the background speak of lost kingdoms, of shattered ancestry and of lost loves. You’d think that such a gut punch to start couldn’t be bettered, but the band have more ideas.

The groaning growls of ‘Emancipation of Pain’ echo over tectonic rumbles, while the hypnotic grooves of ‘Forever Winter’ wash over you like miserable waves. Every moent is laced with atmosphere, weaving a tapestry of depressive misery into which we can lose ourselves. Chalice of Suffering’s cup runneth over with moments of guttural death, but their subtler touches are the best. The tinkling keys under the title track’s mammoth sway is a mere  glimpse into their repetoire.

‘Lost Eternally’ is a suitable album title, as you will find yourself lost amongst the huge riffs and the heartrending pain summoned through every song. A titanic offering, that will inject your summer with a heathly dose of rain and sorrow. Buy it now!

https://www.facebook.com/ChaliceOfSuffering

https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.de/shop-en

https://chaliceofsuffering.bandcamp.com/

Review: Burial Remains – Trinity of Deception

This Dutch/German death metal squad contains members of the likes of Dimaeon and Fleshcrawl, and therefore their debut on Transcending Obscurity ‘Trinity of Deception’ is likely to savagely rip some heads off. It is due out in July, and is a ferocious addition to 2019’s death metal lists.

Churning carnage kicks this record off immediately with ‘Crucifixion of the Vanquished’, powered with the sounds of bloodthirsty crowds thunders from the speakers in a torrent of chainsawing death riffs. An example of a record that gets all its shit in then gets out before you could be tired of it, ‘Trinity of Deception’ is only twenty five minutes long but what a blast it is. The title track slips in some eerie samples, and the more said about the neck snapping ‘Days of Dread’ the better. But the whole album is best experienced in one go, rendering you numb with its fury. By the time ‘Tormentor’ drags you back to your grave, you’ll be sated.

There is always a fear that these records will become a bit samey. Burial Remains avoid that simply due to their riff variety. Be it crushing Autopsian death/doom or ravaging Dismember gallops, you’ll be hard pressed to not bang your head frequently. ‘Trinity of Deception’ is a clawing, visceral journey through the primal and focused world of modern old school death metal. Burial Remains leave no survivors, and while their work has plenty of subtle moments, it is mostly death of the most ancient kind. Excellent.

https://burialremains.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/burialremains

https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.de/shop-en

https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/

Review: Grujza – I Iść dalej

The debut record from Polish black metallers Gruzja, ‘I Iść dalej’, is out now through Godz ov War Productions, and immediately faces an uphill task in standing out within the seething cauldron of the Polish black metal legions. But they take an interesting approach…

Gruzja’s approach to black metal is much like the scathing fire of Impaled Nazarene or necropunk Darkthrone. Their forte isn’t the supreme blasphemy, nor the icy introspection, but a kind of filthy, Bathory/Celtic Frost primal racket, layered with an uncomfortable tone. Songs are dosed in a poisonous smog, with a nasty edge to everything they do. The savage ‘Gruzini’ howls from the speakers with venomous rage, while the more midpaced grind of ‘Moja Ratyzbona’ has a rusted, ragged edge to it. Imagine Marduk if they were all junkies, and you can get a rough idea. It isn’t all one dimensional however; the likes of ‘Manam’ does have a bit of space to breathe, and the unsettling, industrial crawl of ‘Ilu nas było?’ brings to mind Anaal Nathrakh.

‘I Iść dalej’ is a record that rips at you with a nasty attitude, but also is capable to unsettling you deeply. Part vicious feral animal, part hypnotising void scraping, Gruzja don’t compete with their countrymen and their ideas of black metal. This is a record that sounds like no one else, and for that there is much commendation.

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/i-i-dalej

https://www.facebook.com/GodzOvWar/

http://godzovwar.com/shop/en/

Review: Popiół – Zabobony

The debut from Polish pagan black metallers Popiół is out now through Godz ov War Productions, and looks to add itself to the ranks of slightly off-piste black metal albums that melts folk and pagan rituals into the belching cauldron of black metal and creates something furious

A thoroughly deep, dense and absorbing album from the outset, ‘Zabobony’ hurls itself from your speakers with a Drudkh-like style. Opener ‘Wybiło’ twists and writhes through pagan atmospherics, and there is a definitive feel of eerie forests where dark and eldritch rituals are performed. The cold chanting of ‘Gdy słońce zgaśnie’ lends a touch of ancient darkness to the cascading tremolo riffing, and the smatterings of acoustic guitar are as haunting and blackened as the fiery force of distortion scorched riffing. Popiół infuse every piece with a melodic melancholy, and the richness of the textures woven through the songs belie their short career. Popiół are not afraid of the sweeping, majestic song structures that create these vast vistas of black metal; landscapes and environments that creak with an ancient knowledge and wistful remembrance.

‘Zabobony’ is a record that enchants and bewitches, drawing you in with the promise of bestowing a sight of the beyond. I was hooked within two songs, and an hour later I was ready to hear it all again. Intensely melodic and drowning in atmosphere, this is black metal for an ancient age.

https://www.facebook.com/Popiolofficial/

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/zabobony

Review: Feral Light – Fear Rides a Shadow

A two man, ferociously black metal machine, Feral Light’s second album ‘Fear Rides a Shadow’ is out now through Pulverised Records, and is another example of the malevolent fury seeping through the USBM scene.

The cold riffs permeating the opener, ‘Wake’, feels like the precursor to oblivion; the oblivion that arrives with the cascading savagery of ‘Arrow/Beast’, that is possessed of a thrilling juxtaposition of almost black and roll still riffing while being infested with a toxic, black metal fury. The production lends the guitar work a rough edge, and the unholy screams and growls accompany this ‘feral’ attitude. It immediately makes songs like ‘Spirit Inanimate’ feel more memorable, and some of the more unusual melody lines, particularly in the introverted rage of ‘Psychic Dirt’ are immediately earworms.

If you don’t feel moved by the type of black metal thrust upon you in album highlight ‘Cold Monochrome’, then your lust for black metal is truly one dimensional. Feral Light bring us the evolution, where the blasting and shrieking ferocity of the past meets the shapeshifting progression of the future. ‘Fear Rides a Shadow’ is an album that shows no fear, and takes no prisoners.

https://www.facebook.com/ferallight/

https://ferallight.bandcamp.com/

https://www.pulverised.net/