Another rerelease on Morbid Chapel Records this year is Seattle’s Noroth’s debut record ‘It Dwells Among Us’. Released last year on cassette by Cagliari Records, this cavernous death metal record needs to be heard by more people. It is out now.
Opener ‘Shadow, My Patriarch’ is straight forward, chunky murky death metal goodness. A defiantly old school tune, it has all the hallmarks of a early 90s rager like Bolt Thrower heaviness and an almost Swedish approach to the relentless forward motion. ‘Ironclad, Primitive Intent’ is a bulldozer with mighty bending riffs that bring to mind Immolation, while the raucous thunder of ‘Mount ov Misery’ brings a very necrotic feel to it. ‘Extinction, Prisoner ov Splendour’ groans with pestilent riffs, a crushing slow death/doom hymn that is my favourite piece here, closely followed by the rampant closer ‘Vengeful Tribulations’. When Noroth take that path downward into the deep, churning abyss of torturously slow riffs, that is when they are at their zenith.
Old school death metal can get samey and repetitive at times, but Noroth escape that fate by keeping everything short, sharp and honed to precision. Eight songs in twenty three mins keeps everything tight, and the death metal they bring is old school-inspired as fuck but never overly derivative. ‘It Dwells Among Us’ is a nice addition to the burgeoning death metal collection this year, and it deserves to be heard by more people.
“You want heavy? Metallica gives you heavy baby!!” Well it seems sad but true that the biggest metal band in the world have not heard of the even heavier 71TonMan. Hailing from the beautiful city of Wroclaw in Poland, 71TonMan have not just picked a heavy name, no. They show you with the incredibly heavy sludge and doom they play on their latest EP, the George Orwell “1984” inspired, ‘War Is Peace/Peace is Slavery’ which is out now on Trancending Obscurity Records.
Opener ‘War is Peace’ starts with brooding tones, a building sense of hopelessness. Heavy riffing is followed by bellows and snarls. Thick fuzzing guitars and doomful drums build upon the malign mood being created before the double kicks up the aggression. The cleaner notes being played as the track rumbles to its conclusion only add to the sense of darkness. ‘Peace is Slavery’ spends less time building tension and instead batters right into you. Combative guitar playing and threatening drums are complimented with warlike vocals. Going at a speed that is borderline death metal, nothing is held back early on. The brakes are hit at a moment’s notice and we are back down to a slower pace, trudging through life, wading through the gloom once again. The last snarl of vocals at the end here is raw and powerful. You would be forgiven for thinking that the third and final track on this EP would be a further onslaught to you ears however ‘Ignorance is Strength’ is a shoegaze noise journey. In a way it reminds me of the soundtrack of desert scenes of the movie ‘Dune’ which is an odd twist of fate that was made in 1984. The vast expanse, hopelessness, an unending oppression of things beyond your control. Quotations from the famous book are read through the track via a vocal distortion effect (further twisting of the truth perhaps?!) and culminates with the same quote used by a few other metal bands, “if you want a picture of the future”.
There is no mistaking the message with this EP, from the artwork on the cover, the track names and quotes used. The full matter is too big a can of worms just now but suffice to say that on the musical front 71TonMan do zero messing around. They know how to deliver a quality slab of sludge and doom and continue to offer more upon repeated listens. Grim up your day with 23 minutes of glorious darkness.
Following hot on the heels of last year’s ‘Ghost Songs’, Death on Fire’s new EP ‘Six Foot Box’ adds more fuel to the fire powering these Indiana death thrashers. It is out in July through the band themselves.
The opening title track is not what I expected at all, with a gravelly throated vocal looming over cold, melodic, soulful rock with a harder edge. I was wondering if I had put the wrong record on, as a gloomy, almost gothic swagger lumbers through. Second track ‘A Hell of Our Own Design’ is much more traditional metal, with a nice range of thrashy riffs giving a real Haunted vibe about it especially that unfortunately brief killer solo. ‘Begging for Air’ is a dissonant, chugging monster that closes the EP with a sense of unsettling progressiveness, experimenting with different styles and compositions.
I thought that Death on Fire would play it safe for this new EP, stick to a formula that made ‘Ghost Songs’ so enjoyable. Instead, they’ve been bold and tired something new. I have to commend them for that, and I think ‘Six Foot Box’ has some really fun moments for metal fans out there.
Manchester’s newest death metal act Sewer Fiend’s debut release, ‘Echoes from the Cistern’, is being released by both Dry Cough Records and Sewer Rot Records on cassette at the end of June. This is 3 tracks of rumbling, slow deathly brutality, wrapped in album art that is impressively repulsive.
Opener ‘Writhing in Stagnant Water’ is full of horror filled passages of atonal calm, while cavernous death metal surges around those dark melodies. They’ve got that haunting weirdness so characteristic of the likes of Portal or Disembowelment, but with huge doom riffs smothered in awful death metal filth. ‘Pulsating Mass of Worms’ has that feel of Gorguts playing Autopsy covers, where some of the progressive weirdness dissipates in sludgy, swamp death metal riffs. Belching roars echo around the chugging guitars and pounding drums, and when the monolithic title track begins to trudge into motion, you’ve possibly never felt so sick. Cold, clean guitar lurks around putrid riffs, and as atmosphere builds to an ending of hopeless dread, you’ll feel lost and alone as the death metal swallows you whole.
An eerie bludgeoning by Sewer Fiend, whose efforts to make their music truly unsettling and creepy have created something potent. I cannot wait for more from these dudes, because ‘Echoes from the Cistern’ may be the most evil piece of music I’ll hear this year. Death metal that truly feels like the cold, clammy hand of Fate over your mouth.
Swiss black metallers Supayniyux have had their 2014 demo, ‘Aniquilación de Cristo’, released on CD by From Deepest Records, which has brought this blackened death cult’s offerings to a whole new audience.
Opener ‘Adventum ad Diabolos’ begins with a choral hymnal vocal before machine gun fire and screaming leads us into a cataclysmic torrent of raw black/death metal fury. Unholy shrieks rip through the dense guitar, while a thudding drumming performance creates an atmosphere of warfare. If anything, the vocals become even more desperate and raw in the disturbing ‘Era de Semen y Sangre’, forlorn screams in a wind tunnel of hatred. Supayniyux dig deep into the rawest of black metal emotions here, ‘Aniquilación’ battering you into submission with ‘Deathcrush’-era Mayhem riffs and clattering drumming while harrowing samples of pain and suffering lead you into ‘Lepra Gloriosa’ where melody almost thinks about making an appearance in the background before it is overwhelmed by flaming fury.
You can quote all the traditional raw black metal cliches at Supayniyux you want, but for sheer raging ferocity you’ll find this very difficult to beat. ‘Aniquilación de Cristo’ is a blizzard of cacophonous black metal that does not have any regard for your ears or your life. Pure black fucking hatred, and excellent at that.
Polish black/death metallers Sarmat’s debut full length was released back in March, and ‘RS-28’ has been released through the band independently. It is just over half an hour of rumbling death metal loaded with black metal flourishes.
Chunky opener ” is full of prime death metal riffs, combining that kind of battery used by the American legends and the intense, forward driving riffs of countrymen Decapitated. it’s just the kind of opening salvo you need, straight to the point with few frills. The more sinister ‘Evilution’ follows, full of massive atonal riffing and odd time signatures. The whole album is full of these excellent, super low end aural batterings, from the openly Vader-esque title track, while the likes of the powerful grandeur of ‘You Don’t Live in My War’ and particularly the fearsome ‘Seeds of Uncertainty’ use that style as a base to paint vivid canvases of destruction and domination.
Closing with the two part ‘Blackout (Scenario for Tomorrow)’, where Sarmat lurch towards Behemothian levels of nightmarish blackened death metal vibrancy, ‘RS-28’ is a rock solid album of pure death metal riffs and attitude. There isn’t a massive amount of wheel reinventing but Sarmat’s work is tight and brutal, their influences are clearly local but this is no tribute; ‘RS-28’ is a record that stands proudly on its own. Support this band, as I see some good things coming in the future if this is anything to go by.
If you have a look on Lung Knots’ Bandcamp you will see that the description is brief, “Meditations in noise”. I don’t know if you have ever mediated but as someone who does on occasion I can safely say this is not whale songs. And in truth when describing it to The Killchain’s very own Sandre the Giant I said it was like mindfulness music if the object was nightmares to which he replied it was like if you combined Anaal Nathrakh and Godflesh and then slowed it down. The album cover at first looks like a piece of abstract art only to reveal on closure inspection something else, to me it looks like the hands of someone lying in an awkward pose, alive or dead I am not sure. If you are not already picking up what is being put down here ‘Golden Dirges, Molten Larynges” is a brutal, suffocating and fascinating step into the world of black metal and noise. Vinyl released by Tartarus Records, Cassettes co-released with Total Dissonance Worship.
Opener ‘Void Hymnal’ sounds like it was recorded in a chasm deep in the mountains. The sun could be beating down upon you and you would start to feel cold. The industrial feel is layered with screams and growls which in turn are layered in with the howling winds, only it’s not winds, it is screams in the distance, night is upon you, they are at your heels, you are trapped. Drums in the dark you cannot escape. Moments of ‘Devour Their Bodies Saturated with Brine’ remind me of the crushing industrial feel of the DOOM soundtrack if Mick Gordon had only gone a little darker. ‘Cessation’ could easily fit into a horror movie soundtrack and be perfect. ‘Our Torches Soaked in Oil’ offers a brief, and I do mean brief moment of beauty before snarling, rasping vocals cut over gentle keyboard playing. The contrast is stark and utterly engaging.
‘Rattling Mutter’ continues blending the feeling of cold unfeeling machines and the unrelenting cold of snow capped mountains and leads us into ‘Harrow Prayer’. The continuous pounding and spoken word screams leap into a frenzy before dropping to silence. Only then do you get a true sense of the soundscape crafted here. The weight and oppression that is now a familiar feeling meets the rambling words of a man whose will has been lost in ‘A Thicket of Abrasions and Open Wounds’, as though resigned to his fate. The reason why steam rolls in with howls, roars, screams which sounds so at odds with the hope that the synths are rising while the drums batter you into submission. Bringing the debut album to a close ‘Throat Flutters’ picks up where the desperation of the previous track left off. However where this sparse track separates itself are the vocals. Some of the roars, cries and screams here are hairs on the back of your arm raising. I know as music fans we appreciate the cathartic nature of it but here I can only assume there was quite a few demons being exorcised; there is real soul and rage behind the delivery.
Lung Knots aimed to create “aural terror through primal and mechanical means” and they achieved it. Where it to take physical form it would know doubt be a giant cyborg bear. Golden Dirges, Molten Larynges is not a classic easy listen, I cannot stress the change in the room when the album finishes, there is real and genuine weight to what’s been crafted. My first thought is to joke and say, “not one for a bad day!” but in all truth I have to go back to the catharsis of music. The raw rage and fury here is something to behold, it has reminded me of a time years ago when I was asked why I appeared so calm when I listened to “that angry stuff” and i would reply that I let it all flow through the feeling in the music, the music worked it out for me and I am ready for the day. ‘Golden Dirges, Molten Larynges’ is the antidote to the Monday blues, the long weeks or whatever else arises. Stick it on, play it loud and let the fury embrace you.
The rerelease of New Yorkers’ Grey Skies Fallen 2020 record ‘Cold Dead Lands’ through Grimm Distribution will be something of a highlight of 2021 for a lot of fans of bleak yet melodic doom. This is the band’s fifth effort, and it’s been mastered by Dan Swano at Unisound Studios with artwork from Travis Smith.
Opener ‘Visions from the Last Sunset’ has a wonderful, Candlemass feel to it with mourning riffs rumbling from beneath a soaring, powerful vocal performance. Poignant melodies weave like fireflies through a misted forest, bringing flashes of light to a morose crush while vocalist Rick Habeeb delivers an impassioned, funereal sermon. It is one of the year’s most potent openers for me, and sets a mighty tone for the rest of the album to follow. The title track has more of a death/doom feel to it, with harsher vocals and heaving melancholy culminating in a beautifully evocative solo. ‘Procession to the Tombs’ is defiantly brutal, a lumbering deathly tribute to Triptykon or Swallow the Sun with towering roars and dark riffs.
When Grey Skies Fallen hit their stride, they bring back misty-eyed memories of the first few Anathema albums, or a more harrowing take on the work of Solitude Aeternus, particularly the imperious ‘Ways of the World’ or the almost progressive death metal leanings of ‘Picking Up the Pieces’, a song that is one of the most impressive pieces of music I’ve heard this year. Closing with ‘After the Summer Comes the Fall’, Grey Skies Fallen have written one of the best complex and interesting doom records I’ve heard in a long time. Not content with merely being slow and heavy, ‘Cold Dead Lands’ moves in a different way, travels a different path and it is a hell of a journey. I love this.
Nuclear Winter Records is bringing us a rerelease of Australian blackened death metallers Laceration Mantra’s debut full length ‘Infested’. Originally released in 2016 on CD-R, then digitally in 2019 by the band, it is about time this gained a proper CD release.
If you don’t pick it up from the multi armed demon running at you, the band’s name in blood edged text then the opening seconds of ‘Infested’ lets you know that this is indeed a death metal album. Avalanche drums with dustings of blast beats? Yip. Vocals which bellow and screeching like they want your soul? Yip. Guitar and bass playing which grooves, soars, solos and riffs with fury and skill? Yip. These Australians ensure you have all you need so strap in and enjoy. Opener ‘Bled Out’ has all the hooks and brutality you need to make an impression not to mention a solo for the ages. There is a brilliant tinge of the 90s sound in there too. ‘Poisonous Preacher’ is immediate blasting and has an almost feral edge to it. The track listings on our promo copy is different to Bandcamp and to some other places, but ‘Infested’ is as aggressive a track as you are ever likely to hear. There are black metal screeching, death metal growls, grooves for head banging, technical solos and of course drums to demolish things to.
If you like your songs aggressive, murky and a conduit for rage then ‘Masochistic Laceration’ is for you. With means that escape me ‘Annihilation for Idolatry’ manages to sound like it is both the hunter and the hunted as part of some kind of horror chase scene. Giving a change of pace without dropping the aggression and menace levels ‘Healing Through Bleeding’ shows another side to the band, stepping more into a death/doom feel. And unlike the leeches used in the old medical practices, this does not suck at all. Highly engaging. I cannot say for certain but I feel that ‘Cellar Hell’ may have been inspired by a certain Austrian DIY enthusiast and if so absolutely captures the feeling of horror, claustrophobia and desperation that would have been felt in that situation. Aside from making for a morbidly funny image ‘Cadaver Detonation’ spends zero time messing about, the fury, the rage and battering ram assault continues. Hooks, follow blasting with screams and roars woven in and out.
It feels as though Laceration Mantra saved all their rage for this final track, ‘Dead When They’re Done’, the gutter anger flows out of this track, there is barely a moment to gather yourself and even when there is that moment is not an easy one. At just under 40 mins ‘Infested’ is an ideal death metal album; brutal, varied and full of hooks and grooves it sees the band stretch themselves while delivering what you want from a death metal record.
Spanish death and doom metal band Graveyard of Souls have released their latest album, ‘Infinity Equal Zero’, through Satanath Records around a month ago, and is their SEVENTH(!) full length since their formation in 2012.
Opener ‘Madre’ gives you an early taste of all that you can expect and what is brilliant about this record. Brutal pummeling of death metal, a mind raking growl but also a sprawling and expansive feel of exploration and wonder. The bleak title of ‘Your Children Will Be The Last’ is suitably matched by the music and vocals. I can easily visualise the scene in a post apocalyptic wasteland, the beauty of the silent landscape offset but the raw and endless challenges of life. The solo here must be singled out for some recognition, for it is excellent. ‘Mil planetas te dicen adios’ which is ‘A thousand planets say goodbye to you’ for those non Spanish readers, is the second longest track here and truly dives into the progressive side of doom. Continuing with the ability to write haunting music Graveyard of Souls have created something quite beautiful here. The spoken word part at the end adds another layer to this track.
Continuing the space theme ‘Distant Star’ does not mess about with a soaring bit of guitar playing to open. At this stage you know what you are in for, haunting and ranged music with equal parts brutality and growls. The longest track here ‘Eres Libre’ (You’re Free), takes a different approach to opening; it is tender, with a sense of awe then the doom hits to remind you reality and harshness are never too far away. You are free now, but for how long? You could close your eyes for this one and be taken on a wonderful journey, unless you are walking or driving, then please, keep your eyes open!!
‘Entre el todo y la nada’ (Between Everything and Nothing), grabs you by the shoulders and gives you a shake as the band yell, remember we do the heavy doom stuff too! A proper head banging exercise in heavy metal the band still squeeze in the soaring progressive touches which elevates this record throughout. Rounding us out with the appropriately titled ‘Time to Leave’ there is some hard to hear spoken word by a lady which sits on top of the quite stunning music being played here. It is a triumphant way to close the record. The expansive feel of the music matches the sense of infinity the album cover wishes to convey; the whole album does, hope, despair, the cycle that repeats.
My first thoughts when I listened to this album was that it was like a more aggressive Gojira, not the heaviness nor are the styles like for like, but that Graveyard of Souls are pushing the progressive edges of the genres they play. They are aggressive, the vocals are coming for you. It is both relaxing and unsettling. It is an excellent record and I encourage you to make the time for it.
The Killchain 