Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
Psy-War: From Deep Depressions to the Borders of SuicideOut 27th November on La Caverna Records (originally released in 1992) Unsettling grindcore notable for shifting the traits of the genre – the micro tracks, the frantic speed, bricks and mortar power chord riffing, and hardcore sensibilities – to a bleaker, almost defeatist place. Basic, three or... Continue Reading →
Sanctvs: De l'Abîme au PlérômeOut 30th January on Osmose Productions Canadian black metal drawing on the Mayhem school in that the emphasis is more on jagged surrealism and light dissonance over explicit naturalism. This is undergirded by the vocals that adopt a more stretched, throaty howl as if to draw attention to the strained desperation... Continue Reading →
2025 audit of the year Well, that was a year. Got sued for a book review. Got divorced. And I think underground metal had one of its best years in quite a while. It’s fair to say I’ve been on a journey in my attitude toward album of the year posts. From revulsion to begrudgingly... Continue Reading →
Elsinore: The Vengeful Ghost/Tombstone HexOut 5th December on Caligari Records Brief but tight EP that reminds us that death metal, even in its germinal form, was always melodic in some sense. Explicit references to early Death sit happily alongside the journeying primitivism of Celtic Frost. The presentation is cleaner than the vintage implied by these... Continue Reading →
Fessus: Subcutaneous TombOut 26th November on Darkness Shall Rise Productions Competent if unremarkable OSDM apes the playful bounce of Autopsy alongside the heavier malevolence of Incantation. As a listening experience, ‘Subcutanerous Tomb’ is a “fill in the blanks” album. Moments of creative surrealism – usually expressed through the innovative lead guitar work – populate an... Continue Reading →
Gloombound: Dreaming DelusionOut 21st November on Gruesome Records Scrapes together the more downbeat elements of death/doom as a means of conjuring up a foundation for self-indulgent, achingly tedious balladeering. Much like Ahab before them, the pacing and content of these compositions is a hollow façade, leaning on depressed tempos to contrive tension and drama where... Continue Reading →
SAD: Fullmoon’s Bestial AwakeningOut 31st October on Purity Through Fire SAD continue their quest to appropriate generic second wave black metal sweet-nothings into what is essential punky rock ‘n’ roll. Despite the length of this album, and indeed the considerable girth of the tracks within, there is little to suggest they have expanded into a... Continue Reading →
Eldur: Rituals of Death and NecromancyOut 25th August on ATMF Combines the purposeful militarism of simplistic Swedish black metal with a mystical eccentricity borrowed from modern occultist metal. Whilst balancing these two competing forces occasionally pays off, Eldur lean into basic thrash or melodeath riffing to plug the gaps, thus rendering what could be quite... Continue Reading →
Coronation of the GrotesqueOut 15th August on Dark Descent Records Modern death metal is often guilty of running away from itself. Either gesturing at lofty, pseudo esoteric avant-garde affectations, or else leaning so aggressively into its own cliché that it begins to behave like novelty music. Castrator’s latest offering is something of a breath of... Continue Reading →
Incinerated: The Epitome of TransgressionOut 14th July on BlackSeed Lifts the clustered melodic density of late second wave black metal (think Cirith Gorgor or Gorgon) with a thread of fatalistic lamentation, topographically similar to modern dissodeath but pivoting more toward traditional melody, rendered abrasive by the freneticism of the performances. The strained emotion, and indeed... Continue Reading →
Hate Meditations 