Incantation

Vuohi – Witchcraft Warfare Review

Vuohi – Witchcraft Warfare Review

“It’s 6:50 PM on a cold Saturday night. I’m tapping my foot impatiently, waiting for my lovely girlfriend — a few months my elder, and perhaps a bit slower moving, therefore — to come out from her room. ‘Come on, darling,’ I say, double-checking my tie in the mirror, ‘we’ll be late if we don’t leave soon.’ I hear the door open, and expect to be floored; she always looks so good in dresses, and this is a formal event. I turn around and do a triple-take — she’s wearing a strawberry onesie. I’m left confused as to what her intentions were, and I may perhaps never figure it out. May as well make the most of it, right? This ethos permeated my listening time with the Finnish band Vuohi’s debut full-length Witchcraft Warfare.” Kitchen sink-core.

Ruin – Human Annihilation Review

Ruin – Human Annihilation Review

“The mystique surrounding Ruin — the band started in the ’90s, but members were incarcerated and institutionalized, and now their twisted musical vision is coming to life and they’re some sort of cult — seems, at the very least, exaggerated. To dive fully into — and thus to fully enjoy — their sophomore release Human Annihilation, we have to suspend our disbelief and think of Ruin not as a band but as a ‘death metal cult,’ as they would describe it. Only then can we dive into what they’re doing and what they seem to be trying to portray.” Metal from the big house.

Psychotomy – Aphotik Review

Psychotomy – Aphotik Review

“Italy’s Psychotomy is a new band with an old vision. Aphotik is a death metal record which is made of three main ingredients, like a cheese pizza. Our dough is Incantation, specifically their material after Diabolical Conquest; this is the foundation for the rest. Our sauce, perhaps the least important part, is the Immolation-isms of Ulcerate represented on The Destroyers of All. The sauce is not slathered on, but plays its part nonetheless in making it a pizza instead of cheesy dough.” Excuse me, there’s death in my pizza.

P.H.O.B.O.S. – Phlogiston Catharsis Review

P.H.O.B.O.S. – Phlogiston Catharsis Review

“If there’s any country you can trust to surrender untold riches ov blackened gold after relatively little investigative prodding, it’s France. Harboring such harbingers of box-breaching blackness as Alcest, Deathspell Omega, and Blut Aus Nord, the French black metal scene is very much alive and mentally unwell, and in France Muppet trusts. Muppet also trusts in Transcending Obscurity Records to the extent that a French black metal act appearing on their roster would normally be the epitome of Master-bait music.” Stop touching your promo.

Innumerable Forms – Punishment in Flesh Review

Innumerable Forms – Punishment in Flesh Review

“The humble tomato. Once thought fatal to humans, this plump berry of controversial dietary properties has become ubiquitous in world cuisine, and just as it has spread, it has diversified. You can pick up a watery, underripe reddish spheroid at any supermarket in America and it will usually get the job done for a salad or sandwich, but it’s the freshly picked, heirloom varieties that really showcase the tomato’s potential, not only as a part of your diet but also as a metaphor—a metaphor for death metal, perhaps.” Tomato, tom-ot-o, DIE!

Cemetery Urn – Barbaric Retribution Review

Cemetery Urn – Barbaric Retribution Review

“When it comes to pretension, quoting yourself is one of its masturbatory peaks. Allow me to indulge in a scratch that lingers slightly too long and paraphrase what I said about Australia’s Cemetery Urn in the distant year of 2017. The band’s self-titled release showed a great deal of promise with its punishing yet coherent death metal, making them a band worth paying close attention to. While I had been anticipating a new release, this quick of a turnaround is worrying. Can Barbaric Retribution be the result of a productive fit of inspiration or a public jettisoning of leftovers deemed unworthy of records past?” Respect isn’t given. It’s Urned.

Shed the Skin – We of Scorn Review

Shed the Skin – We of Scorn Review

“The music on the sophomore release by Cleveland’s death metal quintet Shed the Skin is deceptively simple. In its core, the band’s possessed, groove-laden death metal is propelled steadily forward at medium pace and with a certain brutality characteristic for Hells Headbangers’ roster. Around these straightforward and conventional structures, floating somewhere between thrash, old school, and modern death metal, the group cultivates an abundance of flair and an aura of tight frolic.” Frolic through the grave park.

Atavisma – The Chthonic Rituals Review

Atavisma – The Chthonic Rituals Review

“Get your shitkickers on and nightlights ‘n Prozac at the ready, yo, today we’re going somewhere filthy and utterly devoid of light or joy. France’s Atavisma will be dragging us pleasantly by the throat through a subterranean and sinister network ov nightmares which they call The Chthonic Rituals. I’m just here to narrate the whole ordeal and giggle as you lot wail and bump into each other in the dark.” Bumping in the night.

Drawn and Quartered – The One Who Lurks Review

Drawn and Quartered – The One Who Lurks Review

“To people unacquainted with beer, they’ll all taste the same. For those acquainted, the differences will be recognized but sometimes tough to adequately express. Such is it too with the genus of murky, cavernous death metal, the type which Drawn and Quartered traffic in on The One who Lurks.” Beer, lurking and death.

DeathgraVe – So Real, It’s Now Review

DeathgraVe – So Real, It’s Now Review

“The question of why we listen to this stuff is asked so frequently as to become quite meaningless. Sam Dunn’s Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey documentary concluded that you either “get it” or you don’t, and that’s fine. Find a seventeen-year-old who’s just heard Nile or Behemoth and they’ll inform you that metal is for the musically elite, wrapping words about history and antitheism in swathes of dizzyingly technical instrumentation (especially the drums). I disagree with both to some degree, and the question being posed by a great friend I have tremendous respect for led me to think more about it than normal.” Why do we metal?