Record(s) o’ the Month – May 2023

The year rolls on and we get closer and closer to being up to date with the Record(s) o’ the Month. And what did we learn from May? We learned that death metal can, and does, still rule the roost.

Honestly, this would be a sick bill.

Back in ’11,¹ I got to review Vomitory’s excellent Opus Mortis VIII. I never expected it to be the last Vomitory album when I wrote that review. And yet, until very recently, that’s what it was. Thankfully, 2023 finds the Swedish death metal legends crawling from the grave after 12 long years of torpor to—according to my notes—behead some folks. And in proper form, their riffs are the sharpened edge of their proverbial beheadin’ axe. All Heads Are Gonna Roll, out on May 26th from Metal Blade [Bandcamp] is riffy, grindy, and very good. Our venerable death metal enthusiast Steel Druhm probably ruffled some feathers in the Vomitory camp by saying that the album offered “nothing new,” but that’s just because they don’t know that Steel Druhm doesn’t think we need anything new. What he meant to say was this: “Vomitory are back producing exactly the death metal you want to be hearing. This is the good, home cooked meal of death metal. It might not be fancy or trendy, but it’s guaranteed to leave you satisfied, sore of neck and desirous of a replay when the record is over. Could we ask for much more? Sure, but that’s not what we need.” All the innovation we needed from Vomitory was Vomitory being Vomitory again after all this time.

Runner(s) Up:

Nightmarer // Deformity Adrift [May 5th, 2023 | Vendetta Records/Total Dissonance Worship | Bandcamp] — Nightmarer’s sophomore album hits hard and fast and, according to Dear Hollow, “rides the line neatly between the haunting devastation of its influences and a tantalizingly listenable quality that defies the need for abstraction.” Deformity Adrift offers listeners a unique blend of dissonant death metal in its core, orbited by death-doom, technical crunch, with hints of black metal or industrial elements. And, as the very best bands frequently do, Nightmarer somehow manages to blend all of that into a devastating album that leaves a listener winded after just 32 minutes. Dear Hollow was emphatic in his incredible act of overstatement: “Nightmarer has created something truly special with Deformity Adrift. Unforgivingly dissonant but far more immediate than the cloaked figures of its genre-mates, it balances cutthroat riff and bleak atmosphere for a unique death metal album that ought to challenge the echelon of 2023’s already formidable spread. With a palette of devastation that wastes no time in caving your skull in, it takes what made Cacophony of Terror and Monolith of Corrosion so tantalizing and capitalizes upon them. Deformity Adrift soars.”

Bloodgutter // Death Mountain [May 5th, 2023 | TrollZorn Records | No Bandcamp? Get with the times, TrollZorn!] — Everyone knows that Kenstrosity is an excitable boy. We don’t let him have sugar at AngryMetalGuy.com get-togethers, we make sure he doesn’t see horror movies after 7 pm. He’s just a bit sensitive, really. The much more talented spiritual successor to [REDACTED], Kenstrosity is just the kind of guy who feels ways about things, and he feels a lot of ways about Bloodgutter. And what’s not to love about a grimy death metal band called Bloodgutter whose newest album is named after everyone’s favorite Six Flags ride: Death Mountain! Fortunately for us all,² Kenstrosity’s enthusiasm is right on point. Bloodgutter’s riffs are sick, their guitar tone is scooped af, and their ability to balance grindy and groovy makes for a listen that makes me wanna mosh and drink PBR. Kenstrosity got jacked up on a six pack of Jolt Cola and needed you to know that: “This is simply a thoroughly entertaining, adventurous, and monstrous death metal record that has the potential to bring in new fans while thrilling long-standing ones in one fell swoop. It’s also a clear and present danger to my physical body.” Translation: Bloodgutter riffs so hard that Ken is going to end up a Spongebob shaped splatter on his wall.