Sweat drips from my brow as I shovel yet another lump of gunk out of the chute. The heat is so dense and humid that I can see it rise from the floor, bending light so violently that everything swirls before me, making me dizzy. But I soldier on, with the help of a few unfortunate souls, my colleagues, my subjects. We will, one way or another, clear this filtration system of its burden.
And you, the privileged reader, shall bask in a surplus of good to very good cuts of mystery meat that we find here, not quite rancid enough to poison you (some of it is Impossible™ brand, too, so hopefully folks who prefer that can root it out of the pile). Bone apple teeth!
Kenstrosity’s Engorged Absorptions
SLUGG // Orichalcum [May 5th, 2023 – Self-Released]
Long form sludgy stoner doom with death and post-metal touches; immediately, two-thirds of our readers flee the scene. The remainder get to experience the heft and verve of Rome’s SLUGG and their brobdingnagian debut, Orichalcum. Not content to lumber on at a languid pace, SLUGG open things up with a swaggering tune worthy of similar acts like Forming the Void or even Boss Keloid. Thundering grooves motivate monolithic tunes like opening duo “Yonder” and “Opal.” Lots of subtle effects, eerie blips and bloops go a long way in these four epics to generate a ton of cool, otherworldly atmosphere as well, contributing another dynamic element to the whole. The most impressive aspect of Orichalcum is how varied and textured it is. Each song has its own voice, its own palette, and yet they fit quite well together. Therefore, while these songs are indeed phat and slow, and by their titanic nature risk overstaying their welcome, Orichalcum flows fluidly across its tight forty-three-minute runtime. If you’re looking for some slimy, slithery stoner slabs to sample, SLUGG’s got the good stuff.
Frozen Soul // Glacial Domination [May 5th, 2023 – Century Media]
Back in 2021, my very first review was for Frozen Soul’s debut record, Crypt of Ice. I cited it as a clinic in fist-pumping, club-wielding, prehistoric death riffs frozen in time and thawed out for consumption in the modern age. That premise holds true for the Texan death troupe in 2023 with sophomore effort Glacial Domination. However, the execution is more feral and red-blooded than ever before, with opening trio “Invisible Tormentor,” “Arsenal of War,” and “Death and Glory” ripping limb from limb with a fervent ferocity hitherto untouched. My only guess is that Frozen Soul read my previous review, replete as it was with terrible ice jokes, and decided I needed to be hunted and slain immediately. At an ideal forty-two minutes, Glacial Domination’s eleven tracks never outstay their welcome, and yet cram a great variety of ideas into their truncated runtimes. Swedeath (“Invisible Tormentor”), Floridian groove (“Frozen Soul” f.t. GosT, “Atomic Winter”), New York brutality (“Best Served Cold,” “Abominable (ft. Matt Heafy)”), Bolt Thrower marches (“Glacial Domination”), even slam even makes an appearance to my great glee, with “Death and Glory” and “Morbid Effigy” dropping hammers from the sky with wild abandon. Instrumental interlude “Annihilation” wins me over, too, with an unexpected slice of synthwave, though I wish those aesthetics featured more frequently. Nonetheless, this is one mighty slab of old-school death with tons of character and massive tusks. Get in on this before the next mass extinction!
Dear Hollow’s Fuckin’ Muckin’ Goo
Olkoth // At the Eye of Chaos [May 26th, 2023 – Everlasting Spew Records]
Olkoth may not fill the Sulphur Aeon-shaped hole in your heart, but with enough unknowable horror scorching its cosmic tentacles into your brain, this South Carolina trio will still rip you in half with similar abandon. A new act with just a demo under its meager belt yet boasting veteran blood from acts like Imperivm, Rapheumets Well, and Enthean, the trio signed to the up-and-coming Everlasting Spew Records, and what an investment it becomes. Balancing a groove-heavy death metal with a maddening warp of technicality and a blackened edge that casts dark and eerie shadows across its movements, its ultimate goal of madness and formidability is hard to miss. Songs like the visceral “Thousand Faced Moon” or “To Eat of the Lotus” hit hard and infect with a beastly groove hard to shake, while “Alhazred” and “The Resurrectionist” cut loose with off-the-rails technicality that live up to their chaotic names, and “Incendiary Prayer” and “Eidolon in the Flames” utilize blackened blastbeats and ominous shrieks to drive the nail through its writhing heart. While we can always appreciate Suphur Aeon for their genre elusiveness and allegiance to the art of darkness, Olkoth takes more the path of Nile but nonetheless maintains this impressive balance – with madness as its ultimate aim. Clocking in at a reasonable thirty-five minutes, make time for this Lovecraftian supplement.
Soulkeeper // Holy Design [May 12th, 2023 – Self-Released]
Mathcore is my main boo when it comes to the filter, cuz no one else seems to want it. It gets tiring dragging the same Dillinger– and Converge-inspired shenanigans kicking and screaming in off-key and arrhythmic fashion, making AMG himself furious with its repeated uses of the phrase “angular riff.” So is Minneapolis’ Soulkeeper born of a similar breed? Well, yeah kinda. With a four-pronged attack, debut full-length Holy Design features mathcore’s infamous “squeeee,” but dragged back to earth by deathcore beatdowns, steamrolled by nu-metalcore sensibilities, and slingshot into the digital age by its cybergrind electronic presence. Soulkeeper wastes no time in its twenty-five minutes, recalling the shuddering sledgehammers of Frontierer or Car Bomb. Tracks like “Inflorescence” and “Gorgeous” are unpredictable neon affairs of jolting rhythms and white-hot electronics, “Hyperfine Transition” and “Zero Point” attack atmospherics with Dillinger-esque math-riff abandon, while “Three Parts Disdain” and “Sweet Vitriol” inject its deathcore weight with a tangible skronk, with the frantic mathcore-meets-nu vocal attack that recalls a Gift Giver-meets-Knocked Loose vibe. While certainly not for everyone, Soulkeeper offers a blasting intensity that is as vicious as it is infectious.
A Constant Knowledge of Death // Dissecting a One-Winged Bird [May 26th, 2023 – Self-Released]
Rarely do we get a beast as perplexing as A Constant Knowledge of Death’s third full-length Dissecting a One-Winged Bird. Drawing from the shores of post-metal, the swamps of sludge, and the meaty flexes of hardcore-tinged death metal, its true star is its fluidity, exchanging bludgeoning punishment for menacing plucking, sanguine atmospherics, and esoteric noise throughout its quarter-hour runtime. Thick and murky like any self-respecting OSDM band while organic in the lulling dormancy and unflinching in sludgy hardcore beatdowns, tracks like “Breach Glass Horizon,” “You Will Be Conscious,” and “ACKOD” are packed with meandering post-metal clarity and Isis-esque atmospherics, while “The Hallowed Castration of Throne” and “Speak III” channel Thou and Xibalba in two-ton beatdowns. Although “It Isn’t the Museum It Should Be” is a perplexingly atonal JK Flesh-inspired noisy electronics piece and the dissonant punk of “Bleed for You” could have easily fit in with “You Will Be Conscious,” every element of A Constant Knowledge of Death’s formidable ensemble is undeniably fluid and comprise the whole of ominousness and an emphasis on atmosphere and dynamics.
Dolphin Whisperer’s Freestyle Flings
Cypherium // Moral Injury [May 1st, 2023 – Self Release]
Ok, yes, this is an instrumental release. But do you know what this weird-ass NYC quartet has decided to let helm what would be a vocal attack? One talented fucking trumpet player (Amadeus Sanchez). Cypherium might play the most intentionally horny metal I’ve heard since Acrania’s Fearless, but Moral Injury boasts a different energy to that beast. In fact, the bounce and sway with which Cypherium fills their urban yet sing-song patterns reminds me of a regional companion Dysrhythmia, whose math rock-influenced take on instrumental metal often results in propulsive explorations. Cypherium doesn’t lean much on guitar sounds to make a metal impression though, Ron Rowe’s tasteful playing instead chiming through psych rock wails (“Stay Focused,” “Moral Injury”), cocked funk chords (“Heroic”), and, only at the end, diving into some furious fretwork and shredding (“Instinct”). Drummer James Jones’ quick dives into pummeling kick runs, hot snare trembles, and octopus-logic fills define the most metal moments here, but much of what Cypherium serves with this debut falls under a metal-informed fusion—not that that makes this record any less enjoyable. Its fluid nature allows for jazzy call-and-response to shift instrumental moods across Moral Injury, allowing the obvious talents of this troupe to shine without delving into tech metal madness. Though if you pay careful attention to Eddie Adamkowski’s bass runs (intro to “Stay Focused,” the soft popping across “Heroic”) or which of Jones’ limbs is keeping time, you’ll notice that this adventure expresses its virtuosity in sneaky ways. Initially penned as a cinematic tale that navigates a soldier’s psychological experience (at and after war), Moral Injury strikes a careful balance between incidental, swelling, and stewing that delivers a listening journey that’s hard to come by in a more standard metal environment. If you’re looking for a way to expand your listening horizon, consider giving the unknown Cypherium a chance.
Suffering Quota // Collide [May 26th, 2023 – Tartarus Records]
I don’t know if the Netherlands has enough major grind exports to qualify as reputable high-quality purveyor of the short and furious arts, but Suffering Quota has landed with a 19-minute manifesto to help the cause. Collide runs a blistering, freeform sprint packed with riffs, blast beats, and unintelligible shouts, which may not help form the most cohesive argument, but who are we to judge the Dutch for their silly accents? Leaning a bit more on a crusty identity, Suffering Quota fills each of their brief bombings with an overloaded bass heft—courtesy of Michel Jonker, the man behind Entrapment—however, the riffage lies closer to the tense scrapings of Discordance Axis (“Side,” “Time”). At other times, the death-thrash identity that you may find strewn about an Antigama pummel (“Grow,” “Pig”) shows its ugly face in chunky tremolo runs and stutter kick backings. For tracks that run mostly in the sub-two-minute lane, Suffering Quota packs layers and layers of tricky rhythmic work (“Rights,” “Miles”) and stank-face bass patterns (“Out,” “Drown”) that keep repetitions on this run easy and frequent. Collide, however, does not boast the most dynamic of masters, which can make the ears tired after a few consecutive tries at trying to parse out the snare trajectory on “What” while wind-milling. Collide may also cause damage to nearby furniture or passerby (for those who brave this in public) when Suffering Quota unleashes full-speed assaults (“Drown,” “False”). So, if you’ve read all this and have decided that this lean, punky, grindcore machine must soon make a forceful visit to your earholes, check your surroundings and flail responsibly.
Steel Druhm’s Toothsome Tidbits
Undead // Putrefactio [May 5th, 2023 – Redefining Darkness]
Spanish death metal act Undead have a pretty unoriginal name, and their 100% Dismember clone style of Swedeath isn’t digging a new channel for that Everflowing Stream. That said, sophomore platter Putrefactio is a fun, exuberant homage to the Stockholm sound in all its buzzy, d-beaty glory. You get 34 minutes of fast, furious, romp-n-stomp with a few minor bells and whistles included free of charge. Take opening cut Feast for the Worms” for instance, and appreciate the subtle Dark Tranquillity influence in the guitar phrasing. Or just revel in the speedy nihilism of “Serpent’s Gift” which will drag you right back to 1991. “Last Dark Age” hammers you into the mud with buzzed-out riffs and an angry attitude. With all the songs in the 3-4 minutes window, Putrefactio blasts by quickly. Add a big, vibrant production courtesy of Dan “the MAN” Swanö, and you have a tidy little death gem on your hands. Putrefactio is just slick enough to make a dent in an overcrowded and generally tired sub-genre. Give it a loud try.
Darklon // The Redeemer [May 19, 2023 – No Remorse]
We never get enough trve/epic metal in the promo sump to satiate my hunger for combat, and I was slated to review the second offering of just such metal from Greek warriors, Darklon but was prevented from it by life’s burdens. On second album The Redeemer, they offer straightforward trve glory in the same vein as Argus and Desolate Realm and they bring many swords to the ar,s market. Cuts like the title track and “Rancor and Agony” find that perfect balance between Manilla Road and Cirith Ungol and you will feel your back hair getting unruly as you listen. Punchy brawlers like “I Am Death,” “Iron Glory,” and “The Bloodstone” all deliver the steel with bravado and balls to spare with more than a little Ironsword influence to help punish the infidels. “Iron Glory” in particular has a hooky, hefty charm that sticks like an arrow in the chest. Nikos Mingus (Omen) has a rough, gravelly voice that suits the material to its bones, and Dave K. Krasonis brings much heavy metal thunder to the land with his guitar work. In a time of too few heroes, Darklon stand up and fight.