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In a continuing attempt to cover more music that would all-too-oft slip through the very large cracks, we slumbering scribes are making an effort to publish the little one-off reviews that were previously (and arbitrarily) deemed too short for publication. Here's a mini-review of a delightfully slimy death metal EP.
Written by: The Administrator
The roster of underground death metal bands that deserve more attention is nigh-infinite, and while underappreciation is inevitable, everyone needs to stop sleeping on Cork's own Bodydrinkers. In an attempt to remedy this scenario, we slumbering scribes try our hand at rousing the masses. Wake up! Plug this into your earholes! A mere three tracks, Swamp Hammer is nonetheless a beast. The titular track kicks things off with glorious belligerence, a churning muscular barrage accompanied by an engaging range of vocal delivery. The riffage roils with pythonian strength, and while delivering an effective bludgeoning, the track does not overstay its welcome. My personal favorite track, the follow-up "Byzantine Blinding," opts for a slower yet no less pugilistic angle. The vocals here are truly monstrous, and play inordinately well off the massive surge of instrumentation. Closer "Bio Terroristic Occult Sermon" threads the needle between the two extremes, delivering a slightly more grindy and unhinged take on Bodydrinkers' apparent trademark aggression. The variety presented herein is quite enjoyable, and the short runtime simply isn't enough. I crave more. Given the EP title and slimy descriptor, I was admittedly expecting a little more sludgy lumbering and dripping riffage, but as a fan of the mire, that's on me. What we get instead is top-notch stuff, no bones about it. Swamp Hammer is delightfully aggressive and takes no prisoners in the sonic bombardment department. I highly recommend checking this one out! Listen here and snag a tape from (the illustrative) Fiadh Productionshere. Bodydrinkers - Swamp Hammer was released January 20th, 2023 (Digital) and June 2nd, 2023 (Cassette) via Fiadh Productions
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Written by: Blackie Skulless
Charonyx are an Indianapolis-based thrash metal band that have been around for nearly a decade. Being one of the many projects of frontman Max Barber, their releases are rather sparse, but often worth the wait. Their 2019 debut full-length The Ultimate Judas was a serviceable enough dose of thrash metal, but it’s this year's EP Persistent Soul that actually hooked me. In a world of constant thrash by the numbers, hearing something a little more unique is refreshing. Naturally, its strengths lie in the combination of advanced song construction with several faces meeting a very precise mixing and transitional style. Cleaner vocal approaches meeting growls work as the main ingredient over bubbly bass hooks paired with tech-thrashy chops. You’d be hard pressed to say it moves into death metal territory, but these harsher sections mold into the cracks of the melody-drenched areas better than you’d expect. Packing all of this into a rather short release is if nothing else, impressive. 
Written by: The Administrator
There is nothing, methinks, like a journey into unfamiliar genre tags to kick off the new year. Onfang's bandcamp page lists "comfy synth, faery synth, fantasy synth, and forest synth," and while I have dabbled in synth-y waters, these particular microgenres represent a whole new world. The appropriately entitled Sugar Jar--digitally released in August of 2022, and pending a January 20th release on cassette via Fiadh Productions--serves as the perfect introduction. Sugar Jar is, simply put, an absolute delight. It contains a brief five tracks; the listening experience is more akin to enjoying a well-portioned confectionary rather than conducting a Bruce Bogtrotter-esque exercise in gluttony. Although certainly sitting in an arena that overlaps comfortably with more traditional dungeon synth, Onfang demonstrates a uniquely intrinsic sweetness that feels homey and familiar rather than overtly saccharine or sappy. The atmosphere might very well suit rose-cheeked cherubs, but when closing my eyes, I can imagine a Hansel and Gretel styled gingerbread house, albeit inhabited by a kindly and supportive faery godmother rather than, y'know, a murderous witch. 
Written by: The Administrator
Each year, I inevitably spend a whole lot o' time with EPs. Is this due to my bafflingly short attention span? Yes. Is it also because EPs often feel like the perfect vehicle for a band to flaunt their strengths in a concise and well-trimmed manner? Also yes. Listening to a well-constructed EP is perhaps my favorite way to spend time with music, and so here I am, an eclectic collection of favorites gripped in outstretched grubby fingers. But first, some housekeeping! There are, assuming I counted correctly, 30 entries. I was planning on 20, but have no real interest in trimming a list of untrimmable favorites. In that spirit, hopefully you find something here that worms its way into your favorites as well. This list is not sorted by genre despite featuring a lot of different genres. I apologize for the whiplash, but sorting feels antithetical to the overall notion that listening habits should not be confined for the sake of convenient lists. And lastly, this is utterly unranked--if something appears here, please know that it comes highly, highly recommended! Anyways. Let's get into it. 
Written by: The Administrator
Let's get the obvious out of the way. If you're reading a review for a band called, erm, Chestcrush, and haven't yet mentally and physically prepared to have your sternum mercilessly shattered and ground down into the finest of bonemeal, you might want to swiftly backpedal into calmer waters. Two parts of this three-track monstrosity are perhaps the most belligerent and violent manifestations of the Chestcrush approach to date, which is saying something if you are familiar with their prior work. Indeed, Apechtheia is as crushingly malevolent as 2021’s stellar Vdelygmia. The aggression displayed is frankly pretty stunning. However, on this latest, the stakes feel grander and the violence at play feels more calculated, more sinister. The tracks are certainly longer, trading the comfort of familiar song structure for more expansive odysseys through grinding blackened death and, perhaps more uncomfortable, a viciously introspective brand of nihilism. Apechtheia is progressive in the sense that it truly feels like a deliberate progression beyond that which came before. It feels like a genuine maturation. 
Written by: Blackie Skulless
Since the band’s black metal inception, Worm have slowly moved away from that raw and punishing sound towards something far more layered, swiftly becoming a doom/death icon. Last year’s Foreverglade (review here!) saw a complete realization of this, cleaning up all of the loose ends that Gloomlord beheld. The early black metal influence certainly still peaked its head, but each subsequent record would see it become more and more of a background technique. This isn’t to say that it wasn’t present, just less obvious. And then Bluenothing happened. One year following the album that really sent them to a broader scope, Worm dropped an EP that takes the influence they mastered and brings forth more atmosphere and reflects more on the black metal. Fear not, as this is still packed with the bleak and empty voids of cleaner doom wails crossed with rhythms holding the force of a hydraulic press. But there’s a higher presence of keys to coincide with the higher guitar wails, and contrast the harsher death metal bottom. 
Written by: The Administrator
Here in the ivory tower of our dusty scriptorium, we slumbering scribes often get caught up in our own machinations and obsessions. The other residents of Ye Olde Sleeping Village find us aloof, at times, and in the interest of furthering their musical opinions, a little intervention is rightfully required. Take this morning, for instance, when the guy who rubs cow brains on cow skin shouldered his way through our door and demanded that we leave the highfalutin horseshit behind and set our quills to a death metal review for once. I, for one, am not prepared to argue with anyone drenched in cow brains, let alone a burly tanner, so here we are, presenting a death metal review. Extensive intro aside, let's get bloody, shall we? 
Written by: The Administrator
Doom and thrash might not be the most common (or expected) bedfellows, but there's a certain appeal to the confluence of, say, Motörhead's breakneck bombast and Sleep's fuzzy weight. On their debut 4-track EP–Thrice Majestic, for those taking notes–LA's own The Cimmerian taps into the implicit speedy thrust and plodding gravitas of component genre parts, riding the pendulum betwixt the two with a delightful barbarism. The tracks herein do an excellent job of maintaining variation in terms of sonic makeup, which makes avoiding a track-by-track analysis difficult. It also makes selecting a favorite track near-impossible, as everything feels fresh and essential to the overall picture. In that spirit, let's dive right in!
This year, in an attempt to cover more music that would all-too-oft slip through the very large cracks, we're trying something new and novel around these parts. Namely, we're gonna actually publish the little one-off reviews that were previously (and arbitrarily) deemed too short for publication. In that spirit, here's a mini-review of an EP from 2020.
Written by: Blackie Skulless
Anything that calls itself “black ‘n roll” is going to have my attention immediately. A recent spike in blackened traditional metal that seems to stick with the NWOBHM riffs under a harsh and dark haze offers all sorts of interesting ideas. But New Jersey’s The Gauntlet rides almost entirely on slower, steady riffing that hooks the ear every time. War And Guilt is their sole release (outside of some splits), a twenty-two minute EP from 2020 with solid proportions. Looking at the art work, you would never expect this, as I didn’t. Something that screams generic party thrash turning out to actually be music this compelling caught me off guard. In a way, the entire tape works as one massive song, in the sense that each of the five tracks weave into each other, using the same trick for every execution. Shifts in speed and tone help break this up some. Small licks like the bridge in “Damnation Calls With Haste” certainly add some life before the solo and resolution, and those rumbling drums under the bass in “Old Lord” will shake your insides. War And Guilt displays a pretty impressive ear for gradual layering across the board. The harsh, stagnant shrieks somewhat mask the tweaks in patterns, allowing haunting, Bathory-like rhythms to make their way in. As you can imagine, it does feel a bit same-y at times due to the fact that it’s mostly a one trick pony. Don’t go into this expecting the tag to be too literal, The Gauntlet isn’t going to be Van Halen or Blue Oyster Cult under shrieking vocals. But for what we’re given, it scratches the itch every time. The Gauntlet -War and Guilt was released August 26th, 2020. Find it here! 
Written by: The Administrator
This particular scribe tends to wallow in the oppressive confines of tar-thick riffage, but the occasional jaunt through more spacious environs certainly has its perks. Enter The Holy Water EP, the swiftly forthcoming release (June 15th) from the ever-talented genre-spanning Witnesses. At times an expression of sparse ambiance, at others a more traditional doom project, Greg Schwan and friends consistently deliver music with an expansive scope and a cinematic flair. While the deliberate separation remains, this latest three-track manages to combine multiple aspects of the bifurcated Witnesses formula into a single entity. This is doom at its most open, its most atmospheric, and arguably its most emotive. |
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