Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
Zora: Scream Your HateOut 28th February on Great Dane Records (originally released in 2016) Direct, linear death metal benefits the form by stripping away any unnecessary fat, leaving a precision timed device of aggressive, energetic percussive noise. The format may be simple, but the playing is precise, with pin sharp rhythms forcing what are at... Continue Reading →
Oblations in AtrocityOut 15th February, self-released Captures a sense of amateur possibility missing in much of the overly curated gestures to lo-fi black metal in the contemporary landscape. In this regard it mirrors early Ungod in its bisection of idiosyncratic riff signatures that nevertheless thrive within traditional melodic forms elevated by a drab ambience that... Continue Reading →
The official history of Immolation By Kevin Stewart-Panko Immolation are the band that made me fall in love with death metal. Having purchased โDawn of Possessionโ on a whim back in 2005(?) on one of many surreptitious trips to Guildford HMV, something about this album clarified the small print of this genre for me. For... Continue Reading →
Vengeance EvangelOut 14th February on Lavadome Productions โTechnical death metalโ is a problematic label. Genre names often refer to some specific technique or dominant feature of the music itself. To apportion off a subgenre by simply asserting that itโs more technically demanding than its mothership can be something of a misnomer. Just exactly how or... Continue Reading →
How to avoid sex through music Spring is here. Trees are budding. Birds engage in their annual renewal of the housing stock. Days are lengthening, and somehow even the rainfall seems charged with heavy handed virility. The very air you breathe oozes sex. Of course this is all something Iโm thoroughly against. The listening rotation... Continue Reading →
Aedes: Odius ImprecationOut 31st January on Blood Harvest (originally released in 2023) Essentially a modern love letter to early Morbid Angel via the more chromatic tangents of the mid-90s exercised by Trey and the gang alongside Immolation. Whether intentional or not, there is a rawness to the delivery, a sense in which the music is... Continue Reading →
Tribulated BellsOut 24th January on Hammerheat Records (originally released in 1992) Coinciding neatly with our recent discussion on Chilean metal comes this reissue from Hammerheat Records of Sadismโs โTribulated Bellsโ, an early intervention in Chilean extreme metal. Notable alongside the likes of Torturer for being one of a handful of bands to make inroads into... Continue Reading →
Vspolokh: ะัััะฒะพะทะตะผัOut 25th December on Purity Through Fire Coats the stoic austerity of Slavic black metal with a dusting of populist melodic metal sugar, resulting in an exhilarating and rewarding experience on a visceral level, but one that nevertheless leaves one feeling cheated. Architecturally, there is a clear articulation of identity, intent, and purpose. A... Continue Reading →
Megalit al PutrefacศieiOut 20th January on Memento Mori Not far into this competent but generic rendition of slow, primal, backward looking death metal, I was struck by a particular guitar lead that sounded awfully familiar. I immediately looked Putred up and found that they were from Romania. Another Romanian outfit (just) made my top picks... Continue Reading →
At the Altar of the Horned God: ElementsOut 13th December on I, Voidhanger Records Having already signalled their love of various goth formulas through their manipulation of ritualistic melodrama and black metal furniture to create a kind of hybrid style that was appealing in concept even if it fell short in execution, itโs unsurprising to... Continue Reading →
Hate Meditations 