“2024 is off to an interesting start for Steel! I grabbed the promo for Virginia’s At the Plates because it promised adventurous death metal, and I mistakenly assumed the album had something to do with lifting and gyming due to the moniker. I was wrong. At the Plates is a novel little act pushing a healthy eating theme and advocating for smart food choices.” Food for thought.
“Cryptworm’s 2022 Spewing Mephitic Putridity debut completely satisfied my shameful desires for a death metal album sounding like someone vomiting gut slime and mega-maggots for 33 minutes. It was repulsive, obnoxious, stupid, and fun. It was also really heavy, borrowing key chapters from Autopsy and early Carcass. I go back to it regularly, so the UK-based blokes did something right. Now hot on the heels of this grisly triumph, we get a brand new splatter platter called Ooozing Radioactive Vomition.” The Worm has (re)turned.
“Elitist’s debut A Mirage of Grandeur incorporates the grind velocity without being called “deathgrind,” with elements of dissonance, noise, and blackened death, for something that is indisputably death metal and unquestionably punishing.” One-percenter death metal.
“Surprise! I know many of you have been patiently waiting for Holdeneye‘s review of the fourth full-length from UK death sludge slingers Warcrab, given how he so shamelessly ran his tongue all over their exoskeleton’s undercarriage when he reviewed their last outing, Damned In Endless Night. Well this time you get me. Don’t worry, Holdy‘s fine. He’s certainly not bound and ball-gagged in my garden shed dressed like Adventure Time’s Finn the Human, slipping in and out of consciousness in a chloroform haze. He was simply busy this week and remembered how much I also enjoyed Warcrab’s last album, so he turned over reviewing duties to yours truly.” Pick the Crab!
“Entering the supposed twilight years of a lengthy career, Baltimore death metal legends Dying Fetus show no signs of losing their edge or slipping into a set-and-forget comfort zone. If anything, the veteran trio, consisting of band leader John Gallagher (guitars/uber low vox), Sean Beasley (bass/mid-low range growls), and Trey Williams (drums) have been on a tear since consolidating their slimmed-down power trio set-up back on 2009’s Descend into Depravity.” From Fetus to legend.
“Imagine taking fecal samples from early days Carcass, Exhumed, and Autopsy and smearing them all on rye toast. The titanic shit sandwich you’d create would be Portland’s own Dripping Decay. Why you would be smearing fecal samples on toast in the first place, I don’t know, but it seems appropriate considering the cesspool that Dripping Decay drips and spews all over their Festering Grotesqueries debut.” Rip and drip.
“Yakuza over the course of their 20-plus year career explore through the duality of reverent and incendiary identities how sound too can transform through iteration. Having not yet graced the halls of AMG, and generally living on the outside of the metal limelight, Yakuza‘s hazily hypnotic, startlingly shredded, and warped woodwind take on metal will catch you off guard. Sutra will help you find the light.” C’mon Sutra.
“What can be said about Cattle Decapitation that hasn’t already been said about your local ax murderer? They’re disgusting, blood-soaked, and pungent, yet oddly endearing once you get to know them. Following a uniquely Carcassian career trajectory, ,b>Cattle Decapitation first plopped on the abattoir floor as a vegan-powered grindcore outfit with their first full-length in 1999. 20+ years and nine albums later, they’ve evolved into a celebrated death metal band with more melodic (yet no less bloody) sensibilities.” Meat is back off the menu, boys!
Grymm has tidings of musical wisdom in his Top Ten(ish) of 2022. Partake of it.
Saunders and Felagund demand to have their Top Ten(ish) lists heard across the land. We obliged.
