The October Filter Report is here and we have some interesting things to break down for you. Get stuck!
Nails
Walking Corpse – Our Hands, Your Throat Review
“Heavyweights Gridlink and Rotten Sound have led the grindcore charge in 2023, but to discount less heralded acts carving a presence in the modern grind scene runs the risk of overlooking the next big thing. Hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden, Walking Corpse independently released an EP and debut full-length, 2020’s The Fear Takes Hold, before inking a deal with one of heavy music’s more impressive modern labels, Transcending Obscurity.” Dead man walking!!
Fuming Mouth – Last Day of Sun Review
“A concept album is risky when you’re as meatheaded as Massachusetts’ Fuming Mouth. Don’t get me wrong, Last Day of Sun’s concept is unique and powerful, an apocalyptic vision of a world destined for darkness in twenty-four hours (hence the title) – a story further fueled by the act’s mastermind, vocalist, and guitarist Mark Whelan’s triumphant battle over cancer. For an act that has rarely been called the “thinking man’s” anything, it’s pretty high-brow to fuse an approach of death metal and hardcore with such heart-wrenching emotion.” Sun’s out, HM-2 out.
Burning Tongue – Prisoner’s Cinema Review
“Burning Tongue is a quartet from New York, citing bands like Trap Them, His Hero is Gone, Bathory, and Celtic Frost as influences. Debut full-length Prisoner’s Cinema is their first release in eight years, since EP Blackest. At heart a hardcore punk band, these New Yorkers spew nihilistic sermons with fervor and intensity, dragging in influences of grind and death metal for a foray whose comparison feels a tad like a more hardcore-influenced Nails or Great American Ghost minus the deathcore.” Criminal entertainment.
Our Place of Worship Is Silence – Disavowed, and Left Hopeless Review
“Don’t you hate it when people randomly come up to you and force you into happiness? You know, the types that just get in your face and tell you that “You’d be (prettier, handsomer, approachable, etc.) if you’d just smile more”? Because there are fewer things more unnerving and anger-inducing as toxic positivity, especially when we’re still a good couple of feet underwater when it comes to the pandemic, American politics, and the world continuously burning all around us. Californian duo Our Place of Worship Is Silence knows this, having thrown down just three years ago with With Inexorable Suffering, a promising album that combined the ugliness of sludge, the brutality of hardcore, and the murk of French black metal.” Worship the unsilent rage.
The Generals – To Hell Review
“The Generals are a Swedish quartet from Åmål, releasing two full-lengths and a split since their 2002 formation. 2009 debut Stand Up Straight and 2013’s Blood for Blood were both solid slabs of Wolverine Blues mimicry that, despite their simplicity, had no need to fix what wasn’t broken. To Hell, the first effort since 2013, continues and capitalizes upon its “death metal-cigarette with a rock ‘n’ roll filter” aesthetic with chunky riffs, blazing solos, pissed-off barks, and a Swedeath buzzsaw tone that commands respect.” Hell ain’t a bad place.
Leeched – To Dull the Blades of Your Abuse Review
“Every year, January is the token month when seemingly every label releases all their one-person black metal projects en masse, and it usually falls on my furry shoulders to find new, creative ways to say, yet again, how a band sounds like certain outfits we no longer talk about. But no, not this year! This year, this damn January, Leeched saw fit to release To Dull the Blades of Your Abuse, the hotly anticipated (by me, at least) follow-up to their impressive debut, 2018’s You Took the Sun When You Left. I was eagerly awaiting filthy, undulating industrialized hardcore with so much dirt and grime that not even a lifetime supply of either Dove soap or Orbit gum could ever clean or freshen up.” Dirty deeds.
Cleric – Serpent Psalms Review
“In Cleric’s own words, their second full-length is “Swedish-style death metal that mixes in the elements of doom that [they] used to play. Think Entombed mixed with Asphyx and pepper with a pinch of Candlemass.” If this is the recipe, boy oh boy, is it tasty.” Taste the Cleric.
Beaten to Death – Agronomicon Review
“The Norwegians’ 2015 masterclass Unplugged earned every bit of praise it received as it ruined thousands of scoliosis patients’ dreams of reaching the top shelf. I’ll say it up front: fourth record Agronomicon doesn’t top it, doesn’t even try. But don’t you dare to call it inferior; if anything, Agronomicon testifies to Beaten to Death’s staying power as a force in the grind scene.” The list beating goes on and on.
Leeched – You Took the Sun When You Left Review
“In one month, I’ll be having my 5-year anniversary with Angry Metal Guy and His Amazing Super-Friends, and I’ve learned some major lessons in those five years. First, you never ever leave the toilet seat up in the bathroom next to the dungeon my office. Second, use of the word “samey” is grounds for immediate extraction from our building by way of a high-powered pneumatic catapult. And finally, critique the music you are subjected to without the beautifully colored shades of hype from others.” Taking the sun and going home.
