Phisenomie is a collection of tracks that roughly deal in the same kind of sound as Vredehammer — blackened death metal focused on furious riffs that trade blows across the songs. Where Marrowomb manage to stand out is in some odd rhythms and use of dissonant chords that is a clear heritage from its creators time in Polyptych. As it stand, tough, our Gator may have a few bones to pick with its dedication to the mighty riff.
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Sleep Paralysis – Sleep Paralysis Review
If that amazing album cover doesn’t freak you out then I don’t know what to tell you. I always find it amazing when visual art and the theme of an album gel together well, and so I was hoping that Sleep Paralysis would be a powerful statement on its theme, matching that image. A bird in the hand is better than two in the forest. Spiders tho…?
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Pissgrave – Malignant Worthlessness Review
Metal bands often aim to be mysterious and ambivalent. They feature cover art that is truly great, with hidden meanings, and band names that make you wonder how they came up with such clever names and what they really mean. Today, however, I am going to write about Pissgrave—the exact opposite of what I just described. Their band name and album art advertise exactly what you’re going to get: death.
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Tubal Cain – Slime Abyss Review
Black metal used to be about icy feelings — depression, hate , borderless self-expression. Scuttlegoat, for one, is quite glad that black metal musicians have discovered that having material that can actually be grabbed on to is beneficial. He wholly welcomes the rise of blackened traditional metal, which Tubal Cain and Slime Abyss fall into nicely. What once was kvvl is now kvlt again.
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Pentagram – Lightning in a Bottle Review
What about Pentagram has ever been “Lightning in a Bottle”? Pentagram are, fundamentally, the first all-American Sabbath rip-off. Given, Pentagram were early adopters, releasing singles all throughout the ’70s even if the first full-length only materialized in the mid-’80s. Being early is not always a good thing. Good thing lightning in a bottle strikes exactly when it needs to. Like a wizard. That’s how that works, right?
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The Cimmerian – An Age Undreamed Of Review
The promo describes The Cimmerian as a doom/thrash band, and given Peat regards regard those two genres as going in two opposite directions, he was really curious to see just how exactly that would work. Is this genre fusion or just another midlife crisis?
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Pillar of Light – Caldera Review
The second a band chooses to use a Lewandowski painting for their cover, they set a certain expectation. Ever since his association with Bell Witch’s seminal funeral doom album, Mirror Reaper, this decision implies a certain confidence in quality. Detroit’s own Pillar of Light should know this. With the quiet-loud formula brought to bear on their debut album, Caldera, they make the case that they earn this monolithic cover through sheer emotional heft. It just might blow your top off.
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Gigan – Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus Review
Gigan have crafted one hell of a technical death metal album, with an extra emphasis on technical riff craft and song composition, rather than a flurry of notes flung the listener’s way in a masturbatory ode to self-excess. More brain, less bludgeon.
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Veilburner – The Duality of Decapitation and Wisdom Review
The number seven often holds special significance in western culture; a significance that goes beyond intra-number cannibalism. Artists have at times tried to transport this mystique to musical composition. As standard Western musical scales already hold seven individual notes, many artists seem to have tried their hand at incorporating the number seven into their rhythmic framework. But has anyone ever tried cutting off its head?
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Crypts of the Unknown: Incubator – McGillroy the Housefly
