“With a career spanning over 20 years, French deathgrind wrecking crew Benighted are very much in the veteran class. This perennial favorite continues delivering top notch material, showing no signs of tempering their gnarled, awesomely potent, and over-the-top formula of brutal deathgrind, replete with oddball treats, technical mastery, gut-busting grooves and tasteful lashings of melody.” Own the Benight!
“The sounds of Skam‘s disease can be somewhat approximated by imagining the destructive Swedeath of Left Hand Path accelerated to the speed of Nasum and infused with the unhinged pandemonium of Anaal Nathrakh. Sounds of a Disease is a psychological pressure relief valve in the form of 13 tracks and 29 minutes of ferocious grooves, blasts, and screams.” Ill tidings.
“Length alone does not a smart song make. Anyone can throw a dozen disparate riffs together without rhyme or reason under the pretense of progressive songwriting. That’s what’s kind of amazing about Wardaemonic‘s fourth LP, Acts of Repentance. These songs aren’t necessarily clever, but what they lack in songwriting tact is made up for by a dense, captivating atmosphere.” Repentance, then war.
“When we last saw Californian black metal band Sicarius, they were receiving high praise from yours truly for their outstanding debut Serenade of Slitting Throats. I returned to Serenade so its follow-up God of Dead Roots can be put in proper context for this review. This was beneficial, as the differences were in little things – at face value, God of Dead Roots certainly sounds like Sicarius, and Mick Kenney finds himself back behind the boards.” Roots and replanting.
“The band are an institution and an interesting force in extreme metal for both their singular creativity and unflinchingly progressive politics in a genre dominated by derivation and incoherent edgelord lyricism. As I said in my review of The Anthropocene Extinction, Cattle Decapitation are just fucking cool.” Meat and greet.
“Carnifex released their best record to date in 2016’s Slow Death. What happened? Mick Kenney of Anaal Nathrakh was credited with production, programming, and writing. This was an interesting development: deathcore had been creeping into Anaal Nathrakh’s sound over the years, and now Kenney was directly influencing the genre which influenced his main project. Kenney is credited for vocal recording on World War X but is not credited as a writer. Nonetheless, Carnifex continues wisely down the path of deathcore influenced by the Anaal Nathrakh material influenced by deathcore.” Positive influences.
“Confession time: I am not the biggest fan of technical death metal. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the classics, such as Death and Atheist, as well as choice cuts from Cynic. But the genre as a whole suffers from either too many scale acrobatics, or way too much chugging on the low string on a 7-, 8-, or even 9-string guitar to even warrant such a overly abused tag such as “technical.” In other words, technical metal bores me to tears most of the time. You know what doesn’t bore me, though? Canada’s Gomorrah.” Smile back at this death.
“No matter one’s perspective on Christianity, it is hard to ignore the fact that its central theme of life emerging from death is built into the very fabric of our universe. Cells, plants, animals, worlds, stars, galaxies all die, their remains either fueling or becoming an integral part of something else. You don’t have to believe any specifics of the faith to see the beauty in accepting this death/life paradox and finding meaning in the metaphor. Norwegian band Drottnar seem to have a firm grip on this paradox of constant change and renewal as their 20-plus-year existence has been one of continual metamorphosis, starting as a standard death metal band and mutating into a hard-to-describe whirlwind of blackened complexity that explores Christian themes on their two previous full-lengths.” Rebuild to renew.
“Reign of the Odious is the debut album from Musmahhu, a one-man metal project helmed by a man known only as Swartadauþuz. Reign of the Odious integrated itself perfectly into my mood playlist, however, and made for a chaotic emotional outlet.” Feelz the pain.
Grymm and Kronos have been a this metal review thing a long, long time. Therefore, their Top Ten lists should be considered essential reading. Read and learn.
