I always enjoy reviewing grindcore. You can rely on its pace, energy and brevity, ensuring that it won’t be a chore to summarise. Narakah, sporting just a couple of other releases under their belt, has arrived in 2022 with a 20-minute “full-length” album entitled Nemesis Cloak. Despite this band’s relative youth, the members include alumni of a host of Pittsburgh metal and hardcore groups, including Slaves BC First Day Dead and Meth Quarry.” Cloak of Grinding.
“I like to think of myself as a somewhat open-minded man-cat. After all, you don’t learn anything about people, places, things, food, and conflicting opinions with blinders on at all times. That said, after five wonderful years writing for Angry Metal Guy, I know what my limits are. Two things raise the hairs on my paws, neck, and face with no effort: one-person black metal and supergroups. So it only makes sense that my last non-Thing You Might Have Missed review of the year would be Hymnal, the debut full-length album by Arête, an American supergroup consisting of band members who all have their own one-man black metal projects.” Too many one-mans.
“Remember Dodecahedron, oooh and how a certain timeless scribe-god lauded their last effort as being worthy of emulation? Yeah, I ‘member, and I also ‘member thinking the lad a tad light in the heart box when he confessed to its ability to bring him to actual physical discomfort. ‘That’s not a thing!’ says I, omitting a slanderous phrase or six from this recollection for the sake of the children. Dialing up the reverb and deliberately hitting ‘wrong’ notes can establish a malevolent aesthetic effectively enough, yet I have never encountered music genuinely able to instill honest-to-God fear in me through sound alone. Well, ‘had’ never.” Fear and the Muppet.
