Review: Indus Valley Kings – Origin

Review by Sandre the Giant

Long Island, New York is not my first thought for some good old fashioned stoner metal but Indus Valley Kings are here to prove me wrong. Following up 2021’s self titled debut, ‘Origin’ is out now and looks to build upon their foundation. It was an album I missed last year and I hope to right that wrong on this review.

The driving ‘Clown’ kicks us off, with a sleazy groove rumbling underneath a haunting crooned vocal. It’s fuzzy, it’s rocking, it’s a little off kilter; this is an immediate hit for me. That satisfying groove takes the bluesy ‘…and the Dead Shall Rise’ to a new level, where a low end powered swagger consistently keeps the head nodding. Indus Valley Kings are no one note Kyuss rip off band though, their sound maintains a traditional stoner metal feel but they kick up the pace in the grimy blast of ‘Drowned’, trudge down psychedelic hallways in ‘Dark Side of the Sun’ and even a slab of old school doom in the stomp of ‘Demon Beast’. You get a full soulful range of driving stoner doom with grasping melodies drifting through an ethereal sky wreathed in smoke, and sometimes that is all you need. There’s a number of tracks who shapeshift throughout this album into different forms, like the dreamy groove of closer ‘Sky King’ where you can just submerge yourself away into hazy riffs and smooth vocal refrains.

What I will say is that ‘Origin’ can get a little long in the tooth in the later numbers. This isn’t a bad thing per say, or even to be amended in any way, it just is what it is; a slightly overlong stoner metal record with sparkling guitar work and a real grasp on what makes this stuff so good and fun as well. Indus Valley Kings have nailed it here, and you’ll probably keep finding little rewards the further in you get.

https://www.facebook.com/Indusvalleykings/

https://indusvalleykings.bandcamp.com/

Review: Upper Decker – Family Dinner

Review by Sandre the Giant

The debut EP from French brutal death metallers Upper Decker, ‘Family Dinner’, looks like they are approaching the genre with a wry sense of humour, as that album cover is fairly disturbing and comical at the same time. Also they describe themselves as ‘stupid death metal’ so I’m a bit iffy on how this is going to go. It is out now through Bandcamp.

Opener ‘Albert Fish n’ Chips’ is a solid, brutal death opener, pummelling you immediately with a Suffocation-esque riff style. It’s fairly but not overly technical, relying on some interesting swooning Immolation riffs to draw your attention into the weight of the music. There’s maybe even a little ‘Covenant’-era Morbid Angel in there too? ‘Paul’s Thrower’ is a crusher, loaded with some nice atonal melody lines and a little thrashy feel in there too. There’s obvious links to early Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus and even the more esoteric death metal approaches too. Upper Decker’s work feels more genuine and serious than a lot of modern brutal death bands do, despite outer appearances. Yes there’s some big knuckle dragging breakdowns, some djenty tech death sleekness in ‘Jared the Subway Guy’, but when ‘Simon the Toilet Beast’ turns from terrible name to clanging, atonal monster with some dissonant black metal influences, I’m in. There’s even some serious crossover thrash ingredients to the speedy ‘Chuck No Risk’ that ends with a brutal, Bolt Thrower esque chug as well.

As ‘Derek, Your Neighbour is a Paranoaic Guy Who Saw Aliens’ comes to a thunderous end, I come to a realisation. Upper Decker get me through this EP on musical talent and a keen sense of when to exert dynamic shifts. I was worried this was going to be a sample heavy, ‘comedy’ brutal death EP but ‘Family Dinner’ keeps that to a minimum while beating you senseless with strong songwriting and an obvious enthusiasm for the genre. A lot of the time, that’s all you need. This is a shit load of fun.

https://www.facebook.com/upperdecker11

https://upperdecker.bandcamp.com/album/family-dinner

Anniversary Series 020: Darkthrone – The Underground Resistance

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

My anniversary series project has swollen to almost unmanageable proportions, and so I might have to be a little judicious in what gets an article going forward, but Darkthrone records will never be missed. The fact that I got to do two in the same month was a delightful bonus. 2013’s ‘The Underground Resistance’ was a culmination of an almost 7 year journey of evolution and finding your own path. Let me take you back.

2006 saw Darkthrone release ‘The Cult is Alive’, a blast of punk/crust influenced black metal that changed the band’s outlook almost entirely. ‘Sardonic Wrath’ preceding it was more traditional black metal, but ‘The Cult is Alive’ had a bit of humour about it, an approach that the dynamic duo carried through ‘F.O.A.D.’, ‘Circle the Wagons’ and ‘Dark Thrones and Black Flags’. Each record had a few more clues than the last, from the brilliant ‘Canadian Metal’ to ‘I am the Grave of the 80s’ to ‘Hiking Metal Punks’. It seemed inevitable that the transformation of Darkthrone into a slightly throaty, rough and ready heavy metal was due and opener ‘Dead Early’ was the completion of that. There’s so much classic NWOBHM influence here, from the gallop to the killer choruses and the infectious melodies. ‘Valkyrie’ has this swelling intro building up to an explosive rampage as a classic speed metal track.

It is hard to equate this record as the same band that put down such necro classics as ‘Transilvanian Hunger’ or ‘Ravishing Grimness’, but the spirit of rebellion is still here in spades. ‘Lesser Men’ still has a little of that grit from the previous couple of years, a more moody and melancholic piece of heavy metal but with an inpsired solo tearing through it like an air raid siren. ‘The Ones You Leave Behind’ is a little Angel Witch, a little Motorhead, with Nocturno’s unique clean vocal timbre and even a classic metal ‘WAAAAA’) in there too, while the doomy rumble of ‘Come Warfare, the Entire Doom’ channels some Sabbath, some Cirith Ungol and the like to give this classic doom feeling. But the closer ‘Leave No Cross Unturned’ is where everything coalesces into the perfect. This is the point I think where even the band themselves realise that this works, so fucking well, and this is the way forward. This is a proper heavy metal epic, from the galloping riffs and Halford shriek at the start, through the mid tempo stomp in the middle and the title refrain coming back to hook itself into your brain. It is more headbangable than their entire discography at this point, and it solidifies the turn to me as a genius idea.

There is always one easy way to sum up the modern Darkthrone sound and albums; they don’t give a fuck what you think and they’re making the music they want to. More power to them. More bands should be brave enough to experiment, to write what they want and know that the quality will defeat any stupid ‘well that’s not black metal’ arguments. No, ‘The Underground Resistance’ shares little with their classic sound but the untamed spirit of black metal, the fuck you and your beliefs attitude, the truth of what that embodies, is alive and well. Darkthrone understand that better than anyone. It survives to this day on the likes of ‘Astral Fortress’ as strongly as ever, and it remains the reason why Darkthrone are peerless icons.

https://www.facebook.com/Darkthroneofficial/

Review: Imperial Demonic – Beneath the Crimson Eclipse

Review by Sandre the Giant

The debut full length effort from Northern Irish black metallers Imperial Demonic, ‘Beneath the Crimson Eclipse’, is the culmination of efforts by project architect Cameron Åhslund-Glass (Darkest Era), getting a full band together to help showcase the solo work he had created under the moniker. Now a five piece, Black Lion Records are ready to unleash this upon us in April 2023.

It is funny how I was just recently bemoaning the late 90s/early 00s era of black metal when Imperial Demonic come along and draw very heavily from this time in the genre’s storied history. Thankfully they seem to have learned the right lessons, as ‘The Furnace’ is full of clean melodic riffing enveloped in an atmospheric cloak of darkness. It is kind of like Crade of Filth or Dimmu Borgir of this era if you stripped away all the extra fannying around and left behind just the black metal. Fearsome riffing soaring through icy skies on the delightful ‘Ways of the Secular Flesh’, blastbeats peppering the forested epic ‘The Path of Night’ while ‘Dawn of the Infernal Age’ channels somebody like Abigail Williams or Graveworm to graceful yet furios effect. This is the kind of black metal I love, dynamic and rich, taking that ‘In the Nightside Eclipse’ blueprint and adding a lot of modernity to that framework.

‘Beneath the Crimson Eclipse’ ends far too early for my liking with the superb title track, and while 26 minutes is sometimes just about enough of some bands, this is nowhere near enough for me of Imperial Demonic. Their gloriously atmospheric, epic, symphonic-without-the-symphony black metal is pure poetry to me. Ferocious, melodic, grandiose and yet utterly focused, Imperial Demonic’s work is stellar and I need more of this immediately.

https://www.facebook.com/imperialdemonic

https://imperialdemonicblacklion.bandcamp.com/album/beneath-the-crimson-eclipse

https://blacklionrecords.bandcamp.com/

Review: Minenwerfer – Feuerwalze

Review by Sandre the Giant

The newest record from highly regarded American black metallers Minenwerfer, ‘Feuerwalze’, comes four years after their excellent ‘Alpenpässe’ and looks to continue their World War I focused blitzkrieg of raw and visceral black metal. ‘Feuerwalze’ in particular is themed around the horrors of the Somme, and it is out in March through the venerable Osmose Productions.

‘Cemetary Fields’ is absolutely raw and savage in its execution. Ferocious blasting batters you from beneath a saturated distortion riddled guitar while nihilistic shrieks echo from within. It is seriously intense, feral and yet hiding a subtle complexity and technicality too. There are scalding solos, melodic leads that surface from the savagery before plunging back in. There’s nothing particularly accessible about the bludgeoning title track, but you are unlikely to forget its scathing assault, furious soloing or the blastbeat apocalypse it lays down. Every track has that same fury about it; helped by a suffocating production that really gives you that stuck in the trenches, poison gas everywhere kind of vibe.

Parts of this record are so genuinely claustrophobic and dense that you can feel a little uncomfortable. Minenwerfer’s work is unrelenting, almost never changing pace from a pyroclastic flow of molten second wave worship but there are so many nuanced moments hiding in there that you need to seek out. The technical and often surprisingly melodic guitar work is buried under layers of distorted hatred, but it is there and it is glorious. ‘Nachtshreck’ has a number of moments where the constant rampage is stripped back and the soul is bared before it submerges once more. There’s such a genuineness about the whole thing, Minenwerfer have absorbed their genre, absorbed their lyrical themes and created a record that captures the visceral, naked horror of trench warfare meticulously.

‘Feuerwalze’ is an album that has leapt into my consciousness recently and it will not leave. A dynamically superior black metal record you may not find this year, and when you combine that with the ferocious execution and the monochromatic hatred spewing forth, you’re getting something special. ‘Shrapnel Exsanguination’ showcases everything I’ve been talking about here perfectly, but to be honest I think anything on ‘Feuerwalze’ will blow you away if you’re into black metal. Utterly essential.

https://www.facebook.com/minenwerfer

https://www.osmoseproductions.com/

https://www.minenwerfer1914.com/

Anniversary Series 019: Drudkh – Forgotten Legends

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

It seems oddly apt that I write this piece while watching a bit of news about the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Drudkh are probably Ukraine’s most famous extreme music export, and this despite never doing interviews, live shows, publishing lyrics etc. Their particular form of black metal has been hugely influential on the scene as a whole, and their debut ‘Forgotten Legends’ came out 23rd February 2003. The late 90s into early 00s wasn’t exactly a peak time for black metal releases, so this was like a breath of frozen Slavic air to the genre.

You cannot talk about any Drudkh album however without first mentioning the accusations of them being a NSBM group. This seems to have come mainly from founding member Roman Saenko having played in Hate Forest who have had more explicit links to the NSBM scene, as well as Drudkh’s lyrical inspirations coming from many Ukrainian nationalist poets. Frankly, I’m not as educated on this as maybe I should be, but the likes of Oleksandr Oles and especially Taras Shevchenko cast long shadows across the whole issue. Ukraine and its people have a long and complex history with far right and nationalism that is far too much for me to get into here, nor am I qualified enough to properly explain it. I like Drudkh a lot, they are one of my favourite black metal bands and while I’m still reconciling some of the alleged aspects of their influences it doesn’t necessarily negate the influence nor special nature of their work.

‘Forgotten Legends’ is, however, a masterpiece of black metal atmosphere and songwriting. Four songs cover the course of forty minutes, a hefty chunk taken up by the 15 minute opener ‘False Dawn’ that flows like a river under thick ice. Coursing through thickets and over rocks, it condenses into an oddly melodic epic, taking much inspiration from Burzum (ironically) and the like. A glorious epoch to grandiose bleakness, evoking everything from the frozen steppes to mist rising on a lost lake, which is probably what the cover art. ‘Forests in Fire and Gold’ incorporates this feeling of space so well that you can become lost in the undulating dynamics. A long time favourite of mine, a track that captures some of that second wave essence so perfectly, with a slower pace and a rich atmosphere. ‘Eternal Turn of the Wheel’ feels Cascadian before Cascadian black metal was even a thing (maybe Wolves in the Throne Room should’ve been dubbed ‘Ukrainian steppe black metal’ instead?), a faster and much more intense piece that pounds along with a hypnotising power before closer ‘Smell of Rain’ takes us home through one of the more intense thunderstorm recordings you’ll hear on a metal album.

In 2012, Terrorizer magazine here in the UK put this at 27 on its top 40 Black Metal Albums of All Time. Drudkh were a staple of that new awakening in black metal around the early 2000s, when bands like Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord and Watain all began to coalesce their work  into a new wave of blackened majesty. ‘Forgotten Legends’ is one of pagan black metal’s most stunning pieces, evocative and bleak but still incredible absorbing. Drudkh would go on to make many stunning records, including my personal favourite ‘Estrangement’ in 2007, but this is where the legend began.

https://www.facebook.com/Drudkh.Official

Anniversary Series 018: Sacred Reich – Independent

Scribed by Sandre the Giant

Arizona’s Sacred Reich are well renowned for their classic thrash records of the late 80s and early 90s but ‘Independent’ is a bit of a controversial one. A lynchpin in that second wave of classic American thrash along with Testament, Death Angel etc, ‘Ignorance’ and particularly ‘The American Way’ were classic double denim hi-top thrash gold, and the more said about ‘Surf Nicaragua’ the better. ‘Independent’ saw them heading a little groove-metal, which I think is what sets everyone off to be honest. You can see where the Cowboys from Hell have slithered in influence wise almost immediately. I think it is an important record though, as a case study of the issues of 90s thrash from maybe 92, 93 to the early 2000s.

The title track is a banger, I don’t care what anyone says. ‘Independent’ is catchy as fuck, featuring one of those excellent Sacred Reich shoutalong choruses, and that feeling does repeat in other songs throughout the record. But I can see where the criticisms are coming from in places. There’s nothing old school thrash about the likes of ‘Just Like That’ or ‘Supremacy’, with those settling into a more Pantera groove fairly quickly. Frontman Phil Rind’s voice is still great though, iconic half-snarl/half-clean that has voiced so many bangers in the past. You can’t really fault that bluesy swaggering groove of ‘Crawling’, sounds a little like a precursor to what 2000s Corrosion of Conformity would be putting out, but when you’re coming in looking for that Bay Area sound, this will sorely disappoint you. Where ‘Independent’ falls down is it is too damn long in places, and some of its songs are just a bit, well, mediocre. For every ‘Independent’ or ‘Pressure’, there’s ‘I Never Said Goodbye’, that just goes on forever and then ‘If Only’ which is a nice enough instrumental piece but there never seems to be any real urgency or gallop to the record. It has forever been a frustration of mine with Sacred Reich, their discography if curated into a live set is stellar (I saw them live not that long ago and they were incredible) but they don’t half write some fairly average stuff when left to their own devices.

I mean, the mid 90s weren’t exactly a hotbed of ‘classic’ thrash records was it? ‘Independent’ is much more of a symptom than a cause at this point. There were no classic thrash records from any of the big between 1992 and maybe 2001. Even the second wave struggled; Testament and Overkill were solid if not spectacular, Death Angel and Exodus were gone, even the Teutonic trio were struggling across the water. The explosion of grunge, groove metal and then nu-metal almost killed thrash entirely and some bands attempted to convert, some didn’t. Sacred Reich’ still had a unique enough voice in their groove metal phase, but it isn’t really enough. Looking back, ‘Independent’ isn’t a bad record, it’s a solid six out of ten, but it shouldn’t be maligned more than as an example of something that happened to all their peers. Thank fuck for Evile, Municipal Waste, Gama Bomb and the like for reviving the corpse of thrash, otherwise it may have been gone forever.

https://www.facebook.com/sacredreichofficial

Review: The Human Race is Filth – Cognitive Dissonance

Review by Sandre the Giant

The Human Race is Filth. Not only a great, GREAT, band name but a sentiment that seems to become more accurate every day. These deathgrinding hardcore sludgy monsters have been fairly productive since their inception in 2017 and their newest work is following last year’s ‘Echo Chambers’ EP, a real nasty piece of work. ‘Cognitive Dissonance’ is out in March through Bandcamp.

You can imagine what you’re going to get with a band called this, but the ferocity of it even surprised me. After the weird, mental breakdown noise jam of the opener ‘Life of Tyrants’, ‘Apes With Christ’ is a heinous slab of brutality. Thick grinding riffs, covered in crusty hardcore tones and massive guttural shouts, blast through into sludgy breakdowns that are just utterly poisonous. This is what PROPER death-core breakdowns should be like, the feral intensity of hardcore meeting the world ending riffs of death metal. The chugging, lurching growl of ‘Electronic Caterpillars’ is awesome, as is the barbed wire punch of ‘Cloaked in Shame’. ‘Bastardised’ starts a little more subdued but is a howling rabid animal by the fade out. ‘Hopes Wavered’ is a perfect sub-two minute deathcore track, all the genuine menace of old school death with the hardcore stomp of Sick of It All. It is my favourite, pushed close by the equally fearsome ‘Vomiting Strings of Human Decay’.

Basically, if you hate everything we as a species are becoming and need something that sums up that feeling very succinctly, then ‘Cognitive Dissonance is for you. The Human Race is Filth are a vital and visceral proposition in today’s modern scene, something reminding you that straight for the throat and bone meltingly heavy don’t need to be mutually exclusive. This is the kind of record I put on when I just need to blow the shit of the universe away. Blast it and grind until death.

https://www.facebook.com/thehumanraceisfilth

https://thrif.bandcamp.com/album/cognitive-dissonance

Review: Lüger – Revelations of the Sacred Skull

Review by Sandre the Giant

Originally published here: https://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/luger-revelations-sacred-skull/

Lüger hail from Montreal, Canada and their particular brand of sleazy doom rock/heavy metal has always been an infectious riot ever since I first came across them on 2020’s ‘Cosmic Horror’ EP. Their newest work, ‘Revelations of the Sacred Skull’, looks to keep this party rolling with more Motorhead/Discharge/High on Fire inspired tunes for those of us who enjoy a beer, Mad Max and maybe even some trippy 70s psychedelica. It is out now through Heavy Psych Records.

‘Black Acid’ kicks in with a filthy biker metal riff, immediately hitting that Motorhead/crust punk nerve with a joyous abandon. This record is loaded with references to all kinds of classic metal, from the killer hooks of speed-metal-classic-in-the-making ‘Motörcity Hellcats’ to the galloping crustpunk vibes of ‘Bloodmoon’. You’ve also got some classic doom rumblings (even an air raid siren!!) in the lumbering intro to ‘The Sacred Skull’ and the mesmerising Sabbathian groove of ‘Night of the Serpent Woman’. Kudos to whoever put that eerie, almost King Diamond-esque high notes in the background of ‘The Sacred Skull’ as well, that is awesome.

You’ve even got a dose of grim sludge in the nasty yet cinematic ‘Vipère’, which actually follows my favourite track here, ‘Toxic Sludge’, a crusty heavy metal banger that feels very outlaw biker in spirit. That is a track that has spun around and around my head since my first listen to it, as has the spacey desert rock of closer ‘The Rise of Witchcraft’, where hazy clean guitar and organ-led melodies combine into an acid trip stomp for modern psychedelics. It has everything those who worship classic doom and partake of the herb could want, like Mercyful Fate jamming with Mount Salem while Matt Pike watches.

You can tell that Lüger are probably an insanely fun live proposition, and this alcohol and exploitation fuelled raucous blast of heavy metal is just what you need if you’re feeling a bit down and need something to kick your arse into gear. It’s a bit like Chrome Division if they’d been raised on 70s B-movies as well as ‘Easy Rider’. ‘Revelations of the Sacred Skull’ is a shit ton of fun.

https://www.facebook.com/lugerheavymetal/

https://lugerband.bandcamp.com/album/cosmic-horr-r-2

https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/

Review: Lux Sine Lumine – Lux Sine Lumine

Review by Sandre the Giant

Centipede Abyss have been kicking out some of the weirdest and most brutal records at the moment, and their newest release will be Lux Sine Lumine’s self titled effort, due out March 16th. It says for fans of Khanate and Nadja in the promo stuff so this is likely to be some harrowing noise/sludge/doom? Let’s dive in.

Opener ‘Heliopause’ is immediately unsettling, dissonant notes and atonal chords lurk in a miasmic ambience while a slow, grindingly doom riff rumbles underneath. The guitar vanishes into creepy sounds, a sinister, almost tapping comes through as a slow yet inexorably rising drone begins to permeate the noise. There’s a lot of Axis of Perdition here, waves of distorted clanging sounds echoing around this work. ‘TrES-2b’ has a real churner of a riff to start, but then slowly begins to fall apart into odd noise and ambient portions, before that guitar comes back with a truly sickening tone to it. There’s a little Boris to that particular tone; a fuzzy drone piece that is followed by the discordance of Lux Sine Lumine’s whims and their experimental takes on sound. Closer ‘AR Scorpii’ is where I think the band get to a point where they are comfortable to create something really experimental. There’s very little of what feels like traditional instrumentation, or even any impetus to create something remotely palatable, and you’ve got to respect it.

At first I assumed that Lux Sine Lumine was going to be more of the dissonant death metal we’ve seen before on this label, but ‘Lux Sine Lumine’ bucked expectations by becoming one of the year’s most harrowing and sinister records, despite its short runtime. It is a work in which I admittedly felt lost and disturbed, but I think that;s what made it stick out so much for me. As a music record, you may struggle, but as a work of pure sound manipulation, it is real real good. If you liked Geino Yamashirogumi’s Akira soundtrack, you may find quite a bit to like here.

https://www.facebook.com/Centipedeabyss

https://centipedeabyss.bandcamp.com/album/lux-sine-lumine