Review: Sahlm – Sense of Light

Review by Sandre the Giant

Mexico’s one man depressive doom/post black metal/shoegaze artist Sahlm’s new record ‘Sense of Light’ is the work of Suk Ho, someone who has first hand experience of the depression and suicidal emotions that this record is bathed in. A record that is part of a healing process of personal demons is always going to be an intense experience, and ‘Sense of Light’ is out now through Colloquial Sound Recordings.

The haunting thud of opener ‘Prelude to Our Suffering’ draws you in, like a thunderous heartbeat as deep synth builds in the background. A doomy riff appears, shrouded in a fuzzy atmosphere like an old My Bloody Valentine vibe taking over something like Jesu maybe. Jesu is actually a good comparison for some of Sahlm’s sound; that bleak doom mixed with shoegaze/ambient vibes, but Sahlm give you a little more Paradise Lost about it too. That Paradise Lost/Anathema/My Dying Bride feel seeps into the whole record, and while it doesn’t quite reach the same level of guttural moroseness, tracks like ‘Tears of Despair’ and the shimmering darkness of ‘Soothe’ are poignant in their gloom. There’s also a lot of Woods of Ypres influence in here too, from the guitar tone to that charismatic David Gold-esque vocal delivery in ‘Reflection’. It comes to a head in ‘Light’, where the black metal rasp meets weeping funeral doom riffs in a monolith of bleakness.

While the work of one man, there are live members so maybe we will get to see these tunes of misery live one day. That would be an experience I would enjoy. ‘Sense of Light’ is a record that provokes some real feelings in you, investing you in its sense of loss and its hope of recovery. When it reaches the true potential of its My Dying Bride-esque gloomy beauty during ‘Closure’, then you’ll feel every moment of it in your bones, and those are the best records.

https://www.facebook.com/sahlm.band

https://colloquialsoundrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/sense-of-light

https://www.colloquialsoundrecordings.com/

Review: Warfield Within – Pure Purge

Review by Sandre the Giant

The new EP from German death/thrashers Warfield Within comes hot on the heels of last year’s ‘Beast Inside’, and is an exclusively digital release through Bandcamp. There was a thirteen year wait between their 2010 debut and last year’s full length, so it is good to see they haven’t rested on their laurels and got straight back out there with ‘Pure Purge’.

‘Zeitgeist’ is a big chunky opener, solid thrash riffs reminding me of modern Destruction with death metal vocals and brutal double kicks. That’s the general tone of the whole piece, a mix of Teutonic heavy thrash and a Benediction/Bolt Thrower style of death metal, giving you six tracks of solid ragers. ‘Godlike’ has a bit more of a savage edge to it that I like, feeling a little rawer in the vocals which matches well with the rolling chugs. The guttural ‘World War III’ is my personal highlight, a real bruiser that has a little hardcore vibe sneaking in there too, while the title track is a steamrolling finale of riffs, led by a mighty hardcore breakdown at the beginning before the thrash kicks in at full gear..

‘Pure Purge’ might not light the world on fire with originality, but when you need a solid thud of straightforward thrashy death metal with a real weight to it and an undeniable enthusiasm for crushing brutality, you could do a lot worse than Warfield Within. A satisfying 23 minutes of power and death.

https://www.facebook.com/warfieldwithinmetal/

https://warfieldwithin.bandcamp.com/album/pure-purge

Review: Terminal Nation – Echoes of the Devil’s Den

Review by Sandre the Giant

When Terminal Nation’s debut full length ‘Holocene Extinction’ came out in 2020, the Killchain were very impressed by it, seen in our review here. Their blend of death metal and hardcore was done properly, not just breakdowns, brees and lurid artwork. But the hype has been building for the follow up, 4 years on, and it is finally here. ‘Echoes of the Devil’s Den’ is out now through 20 Buck Spin.

A tolling bell? Gothic organ? The title track opens with all my favourite flourishes into a big knuckle dragging doomy riff, and then bursts into deathly hardcore thunder. There’s a little taste of Swedish death guitar tone crunching through the thick low end (hello start of ‘Bullet for a Stone’), and the deadly chug of ‘Written by the Victor’ is assisted by a guest appearance by Nails’ Todd Jones. As if we needed more brutality. Lyrically, Terminal Nation have taken more inspiration from our collapsing society of selfishness and greed, which has only been exacerbated in the past four years, and you can see the results in the glorious shimmering crush of Empire in Decay’, or the soon-to-be modern classic ‘Merchants of Bloodshed’, that features Jesse Leach on clean vocals. It is a new thing for Terminal Nation, but one that doesn’t feel out of place. This is a band whose execution of its style is so pure and powerful that almost anything they try works brilliantly. ‘Embers of Humanity’ opens with clean, quiet tones that evolve into a spiralling melodic powerhouse, never losing that primal underlying heaviness but remaining evocative, as if you are looking with remorse at the smoking remains of our civilisation.

Wrpaped in a glorious piece of art by Adam Burke of Nightjar Illustration, who captured the apocalyptic feel and almost mythical heaviness of Terminal Nation’s sound perfectly, ‘Echoes of the Devil’s Den’ is THE record for our modern world. It captures the ugliness, the pain and the devastation we are leaving in our wake, but also a touch of the introspection we who are trying to make things better feel. This is a record that I will be spending a lot of time with in the near future.

https://www.facebook.com/terminalnation

https://terminalnationhc.bandcamp.com/album/one-party-system

https://www.20buckspin.com/

Review: Violet Eternal – Reload the Violet

Review by Sandre the Giant

An international power metal collaboration between Italian and Japanese musicians who just wanted to create music just for the love of the game? Sign me up to the debut record from Violet Eternal, a meeting of musical minds Jien Takahashi and Ivan Giannini, as well as featuring a number of guest musicians. ‘Reload the Violet’ is out now through Rockshot Records.

If you are into classical power metal like Stratovarius, Hammerfall or Gamma Ray, then this is the album for you. A ridiculously catchy and melodic record full of epic cuts, ‘Reload the Violet’ has been written with pure power in mind. The galloping ‘Now and Forever’, the slower Hammerfall-esque chug of ‘Ember Flame’; each track is an ode to how good power metal can be when it is performed with a real passion and love for the genre. The stomp of ‘Heartless’ brings to mind 2000s Firewind or Power Quest, and while this is full of European power metal staples, it lacks some of the over the top symphonic elements that could have crept in. This way, nothing feels overwrought or too grandiose, ‘Reload the Violet’ maintains a healthy dose of classic metal songwriting and keeping that super melodic sound nice and fresh. We’ve even got a cameo from former Stratovarius legend Timo Tolkki, who contributes songwriting to final track ‘Sonata Black’, and it truly reeks of classic Stratovarius in the best way.

Violet Eternal clearly love what they do, and you’ll always find support for that ethos here at the Killchain. It also helps that ‘Reload the Violet’ is full of crazy catchy hooks, melodies that’ll slip into your mind for days at a time and enough epic moments to make your invisible orange fists cramp in place. If you can’t deal with an overly saccharine take on power metal this might be a little much for you at points, but with its neoclassical power metal gallops and lack of pretension, it’s worth your time anyway.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555241974232

https://lnk.to/vaG5Pz

https://www.rockshots.eu/

Review: Chunked – Inhaling the Infestation

Review by Sandre the Giant

Originally released back at the start of 2023, the debut EP from Tennessee death metallers Chunked, ‘Inhaling the Infestation’ has been given a rerelease through Gore House Productions, a label who specialise in just this range of putrid death metal ugliness. It is out now on CD and cassette.

Put out by mainman Adrian Mauk, who seems to have gathered a full band behind him to move forward into their debut full length (coming soon hopefully), ‘Inhaling the Infestation’ is old school death metal in the vein of old Cannibal Corpse or Dying Fetus. Opener ‘Pulsing Excrement’ is a chuggy, guttural belch of bloodsoaked death metal, midpaced but laser focused on a steamrolling riff and filthy tone. There’s a hint or two of hardcore creeping in as well, the likes of ‘Concrete Veins’ definitely gives you a taste of that, while closer ‘Submerged in Rotten Sewage’ is swooning, rumbling caveman death metal in the best way. The title track remains my favourite track though, a lumbering beast of brutal slam riffs and guttural roars that drags your head into a neck wrecking symphony.

‘Inhaling the Infestation’ isn’t a very long EP, coming in just under twenty minutes, but it packs a lot of gory and gurgling brutality into that time. Chunked are not going for anything super technical and complicated; their work is simple but devastingly effective and there’s something kind of refreshing to listen to a band who aren’t trying to reinvent or redefine, just playing brutal riffs and hailing death. We’ll see how this works over a full length sometime soon, but in an EP form it works. Check it out

https://www.facebook.com/ChunkedBand

https://chunkedband.bandcamp.com/album/inhaling-the-infestation

https://gorehouseproductions.bandcamp.com/

Review: Witch Vomit – Funeral Sanctum

Review by Sandre the Giant

Portland’s Witch Vomit have got quite a bit of expectation riding on them for their new record ‘Funeral Sanctum’, given how good their previous work has been (particularly ‘A Scream from the Tomb Below). They are also under the umbrella of 20 Buck Spin, a label that specialises in high quality death metal releases so it seems like the perfect partnership, right? All portents and omens seem to be good thus far…

The first thing you will be wowed by on this record is the guitar playing. A wild mix of Morbid Angel and Obituary, powerful groove rumbles underneath while crazed riffing spirals over the top, infectious fretwork and a real sense of urgency. ‘Blood of Abomination’ could definitely have snuck onto the off cuts of ‘Altars of Madness’, while the caustic leads of ‘Dominion of a Darkened Realm’ are still burning through my synapses from the first time I heard it. It has almost a touch of classic Gothenburg melodicisms in there, and maybe even the slightest hint of Dissection too? The dark brutality of everything is excellent too, there’s a real sinister low rumble to ‘Serpentine Shadows’ that rears its obsidian head towards the end that shakes the earth. I’m not sure what my favourite track is, but the dive bombing abyssal leads and infectious chug of ‘Black Wings of Desolation’ is definitely up there. I also enjoyed that ‘Abject Silence’ gave us a little more of that Dissection melodicism, even if it was only an interlude, so we could see the potential for where Witch Vomit can go from here.

Maybe it has just been because I’ve stared at that glorious cover art for too long (blue album art supremacy!) but there is a certain element of frosted horror covering the burning USDM core of Witch Vomit’s sound. A slightly cold and detached vibe permeates ‘Funeral Sanctum’, as if the scalding power of classic US death metal is slowly becoming beneath them as they rise to a whole new plain of deathly supremacy. ‘Funeral Sanctum’ is an absolute blinder, and is going to be riding high in our end of year thoughts unless we have one of the best years ever. Superb.

https://www.facebook.com/WebsOfHorror

https://witchvomit1.bandcamp.com/

https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/funeral-sanctum

Review: Uttertomb – Nebulas of Self Desecration

Review by Sandre the Giant

I read the words ‘Chilean death metal’ in the email I received with the new Uttertomb record promo and I couldn’t have pressed play fast enough. It is their debut full length, but Uttertomb have been around for over a decade, kicking out quality EPs and splits since 2011. ‘Nebulas of Self Desecration’ is out now through Pulverised Records and looks to add itself to the conversation about Chile’s death metal scene.

There’s been some talk on the Twittermachine recently about intros to metal albums, and whether we need them. Well ‘Nec Spe Nec Metu’ is a perfect example of why we should have them; creating just the right level on unease to prepare yourself for the devasting rampage of ‘Exhumation of the Womb’s Splendour’. A cavernous, relentless barrage of death metal that reeks of ancient crypts and eldritch abominations, and when it slows to a creeping, clean interlude it becomes even more unsettling. The death metal soon comes back at full strength though, and this is just the first track! Uttertomb are a malignant entity of death metal, everything sounds abyssal and crushing, from the visceral ‘Aurora Cruoris’ to the mossy, dragging death/doom of ‘Opisthotonic Funerals’. As we work through, the songs gradually expand in length and scope, vistas of previously unknown realms of darkness emerge while void growls howl over these plains of death. ‘Seraphobia’ is one of the year’s more powerful death metal cuts, while the title track’s crumbling edifice of murky, sanity draining darkness takes us back down to the abyss from which Uttertomb crawled, complete with beautifully ugly dive bombing guitar lines and punishing blastbeats.

I’ll beat this drum until the end of time; the Chilean death metal scene just does not miss. I don’t know what the fuck is going on there, but their hit rate is insane. Uttertomb are another incredible proposition, and ‘Nebulas of Self-Desecration’ is a record that should be cherished and revered in 2024. Any bands that can still make death metal today feel as vital and essential as it ever has should be commended, and this is a record that will make you FEEL it in your bones.

https://www.facebook.com/uttertomb

https://uttertomb.bandcamp.com/album/heic-noenum-pax

http://www.pulverised.net/

Review: Onslaught Kommand – Visions of Blood and Gore

Review by Sandre the Giant

The disturbing artwork on the new EP from Chilean brutalisers Onslaught Kommand will probably give you a bit of a clue as to what to expect from ‘Visions of Blood and Gore’. Well, the name gives it away a bit too. It is out now through Godz Ov War Productions on digital and cassette.

That guitar tone on ‘Old Death Ripper’ is absolutely devastating, like the chainsaws of classic Swedeath but slowly being swallowed up by the darkness. The vocals are so low they sound almost inhuman, just a cataclysmic belch from the void. Their cavernous sound really matches that of the music, a murky and almost grind intensity and drive to it. ‘Headless’ gives you a bit of a slower, lurching chug with tons of sludgy atmosphere and Autopsy-esque moments, while the title track has touches of early Carcass smothered in that disgusting tone once again.

Closing with a Pungent Stench cover, ‘Dead Body Love’, that fits in so well with their sound you’d think it was an Onslaught Kommand original, ‘Visions of Blood and Gore’ is over far too quickly, but the twelve minutes is bursting with a potential that makes me really want to see what they can do with this sound over a full length. Let’s hope that we get that full length sooner rather than later, because I’m addicted to this tone! A filthy grinding deathly masterpiece.

https://www.facebook.com/godzovwar

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/visions-of-blood-and-gore

Review: Septage – Septic Worship

Review by Sandre the Giant

Originally published: https://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/septage-septic-worship/

Danish gurgling grind monstrosity Septage have finally birthed their debut full length ‘Septic Worship (Intolerant Spree of Infesting Forms)’ after a number of highly regarded EPs and a brutal split with Hyperdontia. It is out now through a collaboration between Extremely Rotten Productions, Dark Descent and Me Saco Un Ojo Records, who are handling cassette, CD and vinyl respectively. If their early work is any indicator of what you can expect, this is going to be wild.

When you open with a five second blast of grind, then descend into uneasy scales of death metal guitar backed up by chaotic grind, gurgling vomiting vocals and a squealing solo, you know Septage mean business. There’s so much early Carcass all over this release, from the gurgling ‘Jorden Raser Efter Menneskekød’ to the rabid ‘Septic Deterioration and Decomposition (Lubricated in Feces for the Great Beyond)’,  but the raw miasmic atmosphere and production is my favourite part. Everything sounds so thick and murky, like it has been recorded inside a dead body. It seems spurious to say that the longer songs are my favourite, mainly because you have more time to absorb their carnage, but they also show that Septage have got a lot going on here. Anyone can attempt to recreate ‘You Suffer’, but the swaying uncomfortable guitar swagger that keeps cropping up in tracks like the title track or the sludgy drag of ‘Bushmeat Banquet’ is a real filthy treat. Balls to the wall is great, but if you can layer in some little slower hooks for us to be lacerated by, all the better. ‘Emetic Rites’ sounds like a lost Autopsy track from 1989, while closer ‘Başkasının Kusmuğu’ even has a little Bolt Thrower at the start, before it explodes into filthy deathgrind again.

It’s only twenty minutes long, but Septage pour 100 ideas into those twenty minutes, blend them into a deathgrind mush and then spew them back into your ears at a thousand decibels, creating one of the murkiest and most chaotic releases you’ll hear this year. It’s like if ‘Reek of Putrefaction’ dared to have a tune or two, or early Napalm Death if they’d been recorded while their heads were being held under sewage. ‘Septic Worship’ has taken all that promise shown in their EPs and somehow dialled it up even further. Ugly, violent and yet somehow really, really catchy, Septage are a revelation.

https://www.facebook.com/septagedeath/

https://septage.bandcamp.com/

https://mesacounojo.bandcamp.com/

https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/

https://extremelyrottenproductions.bandcamp.com/

Review: Altar of Betelgeuze – Echoes

Review by Sandre the Giant

The new record from Finnish death/doom merchants Altar of Betelgeuze, ‘Echoes’, is out now through Wiseblood Records and it has been a long 7 year wait since their awesome ‘Among the Ruins’ record. They have a lot of ground to make up in this latest death/doom odyssey, but if it’s anything like their last one, this should be real good.

Opener ‘On the Verge’ has a killer opening riff, and that lumbering heft continues throughout the song; a slow yet swaggering doom riff rolls under the powerful growls of frontman Matias Nastolin. It is a potent start, and the big thick bluesy groove of ‘Conclusion’ is beset with all sorts of atmospheric enhancement too. It may have a massive riff running throughout it but the rest of the song is spacious and provides a wistful melancholy to the action. Big, booming riffs and guttural roars is all you need with most death/doom, but Altar of Betelgeuze know that it is the atmosphere and the other little touches that really makes a record special. The cleaner vocals in ‘A Reflection’ have a touch of Matt Pike or even Layne Staley about them, which is a nice touch, while the classic doom stomp of ‘Salvation’ is a total curve away from the brutality but into new and uncharted melodic territory. We could take more of this guys, we really could. The stoner vibe of the wandering epic title track is beautifully crafted, blending into the gloomy vibe of the record perfectly but reminding us of their previous work.

‘Echoes’ is a somewhat ironic title for this, for it is an echo of Altar of Betelgeuze’s former work but with much more to offer in the way of atmosphere and gloom. ‘Among the Ruins’ was a glorious beginning to a jouney, but ‘Echoes’ is the body of the odyssey; an evolution in sound and a step above to a new frontier, a new vista to search. Death/doom rarely sounds this uplifting and well rounded, and that is all credit to Altar of Betelgeuze’s songwriting. A grand record.

https://www.facebook.com/Aobofficial

https://altarofbetelgeuze.bandcamp.com/album/echoes-2