Review: Dischordia – Triptych

Review by Sandre the Giant

Entering their twelve year as a unit but only just dropping their third full length, Oklahoma’s Dischordia know to take their time to really give their work time to evolve and grow from each initial idea seed. ‘Triptych’ is album number three and it is out at the end of April through Transcending Obscurity.

The band play pummelling technical death metal in the style of Atheist, latter period Death and even a little Pestilence thrown in too. Their work is never absolutely razor sharp and clean, instead deciding to remain in the shadows, maddening time signature changes and technical wizardry suffocating under a miasmic atmosphere. It feels very early 90s, before everything got too surgical. You’ve got fascinating detours as well, like the eerie interlude to ‘Bodies of Ash’ which feels like some folk band in the 60s decided to get dark and evil with their panpipe, or the delicate acoustics in ‘Spirits of Dirt’. There’s a lot of discordant riffing in play too, like the Gorguts-esque churn of the uncomfortable ‘The Wheel’ while the mammoth ‘The Carriage’ is a wildly convoluted, monstrous entity of chaotic death metal violence and beauty.

Everything starts to get denser, weirder and more complex throughout the stunning ‘Panopticon’, and there’s clear parallels with the more modern dissonant tech death like Ulcerate as well as ‘Purifying Flame’ assaults the senses with a barrage of riffs before a sudden break takes us into an improvisational, almost jazzy interlude before that pounding returns. I also should mention the production job here is excellent, ensuring that the murky atmopshere I referenced earlier is an enhancer, not a barrier to the music. You can still appreciate every nuance on repeated listens, and they begin to rise from this omnipresent oppressive atmosphere of their own accord, naturally. When the album comes to a close with massive jarring dissonance and what seems like a choir of the damned in the background, it is truly apparent how far beyond everyone else Dischordia are moving.

‘Triptych’ is an album that I will be returning to again and again this year. It is challenging, brutally heavy at times and also gives you all the technical death metal riffs you can handle, without that saccharine, shiny clean sound to the instruments. No, this is tech death the way it was played in the old days, and yet even more impressive with modern sensibilities presenting a united front. Dischordia have written one of 2022’s most challenging records, and also one of the finest!

https://www.facebook.com/dischordiaband

https://dischordia.bandcamp.com/

https://transcendingobscurity.bandcamp.com/

Review: Night Hag – Phantasmal Scourge

Review by Sandre the Giant

The debut full length from American death/doom band Night Hag has been a long time coming, Formed in 2010, with a brief break up/reformation in 2012, ‘Phantasmal Scourge’ has been awoken by the band’s most recent work on the ‘Insemination Rites of the Succubus’ demo from 2018 and their ‘Swollen with Rancid Phlegm’ split with Cryptic Brood in 2020, and it is out now through Rotted Life Records.

‘Slowly Festering in Rigor Mortis’ is possibly the most appropriate name for a track like this; monstrous sludgy death riffs moving at a glacial pace with guttural roars belching filth over the top. There are moments of this record where the pace picks up and Night Hag become the reincarnation of early Autopsy but they are at their inviolable best when they are carving mighty cliffs of riff from unbroken, ancient stone.The uneasy sway of the title track imagines Immolation at Sunn0))) speed, ‘Degradation of a Putrid Soul’ groans and rattles like prime Coffins, while the guttural low end of ‘Birth After Death’ as it fades out is truly abyss scraping. ‘Witching Hour Violation’ has the potential to be the most destructive piece of death/doom you’ll hear this year, starting with a barrage of primal death metal before descending into a heaving collapse of doom riffs.

Their guitar tones are embalmed in tar, their drums are covered in moss, the vocals are hellish growls from a cavernous underworld; I could go on but why should I? Night Hag’s work speaks for itself. ‘Phantasmal Scourge’ is a monstrous, seemingly infinite pit of misery awaiting victims to feed the beasts within. Add to their own excellent material two covers of Mortician and Necrophagia classics and you’re probably looking at one of 2022’s most viscerally brutal records.

https://www.facebook.com/nighthagva/

https://nighthag666.bandcamp.com/

https://rottedlife.bandcamp.com/album/phantasmal-scourge

Review: Valais – Valais

Review by Sandre the Giant

Originally released last year, Irish black metallers Valais are having their debut, self titled record issued on CD, vinyl and cassette formats by Signal Rex in 2022, with the CD/tape release due at the start of March. A band drawn out of the Bandcamp wilderness for a record label release on their first go around has to be worth investigating, yes?

Opener ‘I’ builds with a mix of necrotic atmosphere and wonderful melodic lead guitar swelling above the darkness, before a shrieking rasp and thick old school black metal vibe comes in heavy. Coupling dissonant riffs, thudding drums and a true sense of bleak, to me it feels like the most honest successor to a second wave crown in modern black metal. The delicate, haunting piano of ‘II’ provides the frame where ‘III’ hangs in monocromatic, moody thunder. The jarring change between the tracks is a beautiful juxtaposition of styles that create the same result. Both will haunt your mind for a while after hearing them but in different ways. ‘III’ is a mid paced rager, concetrating on creating an atmosphere rather than peppering you with blastbeats. They work in a lot of Blut Aus Nord-esque dissonance, but there’s a lot of more orthodox black metal staples here too. ‘IV’ gives you that same respite as ‘II’, but led with acoustic guitar in stead of piano, while epic closer ‘V’ is a churning ocean of black metal, the inky depths rising to drag you down into the oppressive darkness. The section around the five minute mark, when the riffs become almost seasick in execution is glorious and the closing rattle of chimes is perfect.

Valais approach black metal with a poise and a regality rarely found at this stage of a career, working within a framework of oppressive sound but with a wonderful grasp of melody. A strand of black metal history, taken and woven into a familiar and yet unique tapestry of sound. Valais the band are a revelation; ‘Valais’ the album is must hear.

https://www.facebook.com/Valaisband/

https://valaisband.bandcamp.com/releases

https://signalrex.bandcamp.com/album/valais

https://signalrex.com/store/

Review: Tymo – The Art of a Maniac

Review by Sandre the Giant

Canadian thrashers Tymo are back with their new record, ‘The Art of a Maniac’, featuring a wonderful tribute to the legendary Bob Ross in true 80s thrash aesthetic. I love it. The band have self released it, and it is out now!

Opener ‘Tymonicide’ opens with the kind of spiralling soloing that reminds you when Dave Mustaine is onto a winner. This instrumental opener shows off exactly what the band can do musically, with galloping riffs and technical melodies flying everywhere straight into the headbanging rush of ‘Sanity Clause’. I’m getting a lot of Lich King, Toxic Holocaust, that new wave of thrash from the 2000s, but plenty of classic influences too. ‘Mars Attacks’ is pure Exodus worship, while the harder, faster, darker approach of ‘Estrogenocide’ belies that cover art’s suggestion that you may getting something a little stereotypical. Tymo are striding ahead of the pack in the Canadian thrash underground, with energetic blasts like ‘The Roy Parson Project’ and the killer, chuggy rampage of ‘War Beneath the Skull’ proving beyond a shadow of a doubt they are at the top of their game

Drenched in classic thrash’s greatest hits but carving a determined identity from all this 80s goodness, Tymo’s work is exemplary. At what point could you want anything else from a modern thrash record? Seriously, put that title track on and tell me if you’ve heard a better thrash track than that in the past year or so? I’m not sure I have. Get this now!

https://www.facebook.com/tymoband/

https://tymoband.bandcamp.com/

Review: Cerebral Incubation – Fermenting Cranial Inebriating Fluids

Review by Sandre the Giant

American slammers Cerebral Incubation are back, five years after their last full length with their new EP ‘Fermented Cranial Inebriating Fluids’. Out now through Brutal Mind Productions, you almost certainly know what you’re in for with the album art and band name, and brutal brutal death is what is coming your way indeed.

Big massive slam riffs meets guttural vocal belches and a furious drumming performance, but it feels like more is going on in opener ‘Euphoric Rapture by Decapodiformes’, that has more than a little sway of Immolation hiding in there. The title track is pure Devourment worship, an explosion of bowel scraping death riffs clash with devastating breakdowns and more vocals that sound like Satan with a sore throat. It is uncomfortably heavy at times, with a certain uneasy atmosphere shackled to the massive crush. Each track has its own sinister sample leading you in,  threatening violence, murder, torture and every other unpleasant activity you can imagine. ‘Throbbing Abnormalities of a Mutilated Cropharynx’ slays with a more focused carpet bombing attack, a barrage wall of sound that erodes most of your defences in a mere two and a half minutes

I always find the sweet spot of brutal/slam death metal records is 25-30 minutes, no more. It gives you all the brutality and never stays long enough to get repetitive. ‘Fermented Cranial Inebriating Fluids’ is only 13 minutes long but crams enough crushing death metal into its time it feels like a more fleshed out release. The material is of course aimed squarely at being devastatingly heavy but there are some nice touches in here too, like the guitar work in ‘Infatuated Acroposthion’, or that seasick sway in the opener. Here’s looking forward to even more soon!

https://www.facebook.com/CerebralIncubation

https://brutalmind.bandcamp.com/

https://brutal-mind.com/

Review: Chemicide – Common Sense

Review by Sandre the Giant

Costa Rican thrashers Chemicide are releasing their newest record, ‘Common Sense’, on the 15th of March through RipTide Records, and to be honest we need a bit of common sense these days. Bright colour has always been a feature of their cover art but we’ve gone full lurid dayglo nuclear waste green this time, which is a nice touch!

Opener ‘Self Destruct’ has a serious turn of pace to it, but is also a bit chunkier than I anticipated it being. I figured we were looking at some Municipal Waste/Toxic Holocaust-esque work, but Chemicide have a nice full sound used to full effect with galloping riffs and a snarling vocal. ‘Lunar Eternity’ starts a bit slower, and gives you a chance to see Chemicide’s technical song writing abilities, as well as their thrash credentials. ‘Barred Existence’ is a chugging brutal number, guaranteed to wreck some pits in the near future, and the further you get through the record, the hits keep coming. The wild soloing of ‘False Democracy’, the galloping ‘Disposable’ or the superbly executed riffpocalypse of ‘Strike As One’, every one is an absolute gem of modern ‘retro thrash’. It somehow sounds like the 80s and the 2020s at the same time, and also brings to mind the heady days of my 20s getting drunk and rocking to the ‘nu-thrash revival’ of Municipal Waste, Evile, Gama Bomb etc. There’s something delightfully pure about the whole experience.

‘Common Sense’ is an awesome throwback to classic thrash like Sacred Reich or Overkill, avoiding too many comparisons with the Big Four but giving you plenty of killer cuts that they’d have been proud of. Add into that a definite socio-political ethos, some brilliant songwriting and oh so many fucking riffs, and you’ve got a serious ball busting record of thrash glory. I love it.

https://www.facebook.com/chemicide/

https://chemicide.bandcamp.com/

https://www.ripriderecords.com/

Review: Stargo – Dammbruch

Review by Sandre the Giant

Originally published here: https://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/stargo-dammbruch/

Stargo have been churning out psychedelic stoner doom since 2008, and their combination of raw power and hazy, cosmic freakouts have always been something to behold. ‘Dammbruch’ is their newest release and they’ve decided to go all instrumental for this work, which sounds like it could be a fun experiment. I first experienced their work on ‘Parasight’, which was their previous work, and Kyuss knows, these guys can play! ‘Dammbruch’ is out now self released.

The title track is our opener, building with a nice Tool-like guitar melody before the fuzz drenched doom riffs kicks in with a vengeance. Stargo are here to give you all of their sound, from that smooth psychedelica to a chunky, bluesy groove to even some blastbeats in there too. It is a tour de force, curling back and around itself like an ouroboros of smoldering joints, cosmic galaxies and earth shuddering riffs. There’s a ferocity that you wouldn’t normally expect to see in this world of chilled out vibes, and I really like that it even manages to slide in those vibes just at the end too. ‘Copter’ is a hypnotic stoner rock anthem, with a nice doomy low end and then it begins to change, morphing in that desert haze into something more open and spacious. It flows beautifully into closer ‘Bathysphere’, that lures you in with the cool evening clean guitar, before giving it some hard rocking power and really laying it in. It feels really fresh and interesting, as well as insisting you bang your goddamn head to it. When that starts to dissipate into the night sky, building atmosphere around some really evocative soloing and a sense of rising into that cosmic black, it is a thing of rare beauty.

Normally with instrumental records I have time to spend fitting my own narrative in my head to the music, telling your own story sort of thing. With Stargo, that isn’t needed. The story is there in front of you, it is the tale of ‘Dammbruch’ and a band showing you that it isn’t necessarily the words that draw you in, it is memorable music of high quality. A surprisingly evocative and atmospheric stoner doom record, an achievement in and of itself, and something to enjoy repeatedly over the next few months with clear skies and warm starlight.

https://www.facebook.com/stargo.rocks/

https://stargo.bandcamp.com/

Review: Beastiality – Sacrifical Chants

Review by Sandre the Giant

Sweden’s Beastiality first tore my ears a new arsehole in 2017, with their black thrashing chaos debut album ‘Worshippers of Unearthly Perversions’, and their newest EP ‘Sacrifical Chants’ is also out on Invictus Productions. You can probably guess from all the skulls, leather, studs and blasphemic icons on the cover that this is going to go hard.

After the scene setting intro, (you know the score, rain, tolling bells, sense of impending doom), the title track comes tearing out the gates with unholy vocal screams and growls, speed metal riffs coated in venomous barbs slash at high speed while a cataclysmic drumming performance lays waste to us all. It is exactly what you need from this kind of release; straight to the point of a rusty knife. ‘Sinner’ is more of the same, serrated guitars stabbing solos into the blackness, while rampant thrashing riffs curse us. I’ll never know how they make that vocal effect that sounds like 10 people screaming at once, but I love it.

‘Sacrificial Chants’ is about as straightforward a release as you can get. Monochromatic cover, blackened thrash, unassailable savagery and murky atmospheres? Beastiality has it all, and this is a glorious successor to their last full length. Like a nuclear bomb full of rusty nails and anthrax, this is pure fucking bestial.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063773287597

https://beastiality.bandcamp.com/

https://invictusproductions666.bandcamp.com/

Review: Chapel Floods – Chapel Floods

Review by Sandre the Giant

British sludgers Chapel Floods have got their new demo out and about there on Bandcamp, and they take an old school DIY approach to their music which I love. Recorded live in their makeshift studio during the pandemic, written just as lockdown begins, it’s a fascinating snapshot of how the underground worked during our dark times. It is out now.

Opener ‘Time Servers’ has a nice groove to it, a little bit of eerie melody to it as well, and the vocals have a bit of grungeness to them, a dash of Cobain/Cornell adding some gruff melody in there too. I quite like this grimy, sludgy vibe with the added melody in there, as personified beautifully on the grumbling, roaring trudge of ‘Thousand Year Stare’. Cavernous groove meets ugly guitar tones but with haunting clean vocals woven in amongst, the band have really grasped how to make melody and sludgy stoner metal work well. Normally you would expect a more nihilistic scream with riffs like this, and you get a bit more of a snarl on the savage ‘Crooked Noose’, but the variety of vocal work is great. Also, that bass work on the last track is pure aural joy, rumbling with malicious intent and insatiable groove.

‘Chapel Floods’ is an excellent start for the band, and while as ever with a demo you’ve got to see how their sound plays out over a full length, I wouldn’t be too worried. It’s something a little different injected in the British underground, and the more stoner sludge we can draw out the better!

https://www.facebook.com/chapelfloods

https://chapelfloods.bandcamp.com/releases

Review: Astral Tomb – Soulgazer

Review by Sandre the Giant

Astral Tomb have left us salivating for a while for this debut full length for a while now, since their appearance on the excellent four way split ‘Chasms of Aeons’ and their debut EP ‘Degradation of Human Consciousness’ at the start of last year. Finally, ‘Soulgazer’ is here, and wrapped in this gloriously 70s sci fi cover art too! It is out in March through Blood Harvest Records.

Opener ‘Transcendental Visions’ is their clarion call to the world that Astral Tomb are all about that suffocating miasma of Gorguts-esque dissonant death metal, where strings bend to unholy levels and brutal death chugs beneath a soupy atmosphere. At one point, a spacey interlude appears, calming everything down into a sinister ambience before we get some seriously nice technical death metal moments, reminiscient of Atheist. It is a very technical piece, with a lot of moving pieces in its thirteen minutes of convoluted devastation. ‘Be Here Now…’ sounds like you’re being dragged into that spacey void on the cover, weird phasing effects and creepy ambience providing what you’d expect to be a respite but is actually just really unsettling, especially when the grinding brutality of ‘Inertia (Crashing through the Doorways of Eternity)’ comes at you immediately next.

Even that track plays with your expectations though, mosty an ugly savagery wrapped in torrid atmospheres of murk, but then a much softer close out, creating a lot of nice psychedelic vibes out there. The dichotomy of brutality and fragility seems like a good indicator of what Astral Tomb are going for, the balance of darkness and light, of crushing cosmic death and the glorious beauty of the stars. ‘Traversing the Wandering Star’ is a colossus of a track, again building in that post metal style from quiet to seriously heavy. It never feels quite as elegant outside of post metal, but ‘Soulgazer’ is an album where that transition is marked with big death riffs, not shimmering post metal guitar work.

As you experience the progression of ‘Ascending a Pillar of Light’, you really begin to understand the depths of death metal this record treads, and the lack of compromise that goes into creating this vision. ‘Soulgazer’ is an ambitious record, allowing a lot of complex song structure and writing while remaining true to the death metal style that birthed them, screaming into this dying world. You never feel like Astral Tomb are anything other than alien in their concepts and execution, and that is what makes me really interested. Weird is the best, right?

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063825054335

https://astraltomb.bandcamp.com/

http://www.bloodharvest.se/

https://bloodharvestrecords.bandcamp.com/