“To write about Gensho, the latest in a 15 years long series of collaborations between illustrious Japanese experimental metal, rock, and everything in-between trio Boris and legendary noise musician Merzbow (alias Masami Akita), is to write about three different records: a Boris shoegaze-cum-drone meditation, a Merzbow harsh noise attack, and a mammothian combination of the two.” What’s with guys who like drone and writing run on sentences, anyway?
“diSEMBOWELMENT left quite a mark with their one-and-only album, 1993’s brilliant Transcendence into the Peripheral, before disbanding later that year. In the ensuing decades since, many doom/death hybrids have come and gone and few have come close to attaining the lofty heights ascended by the sadly-missed Australians. So, when bassist (now guitarist) Matthew Skarajew and drummer Paul Mazziotta would regroup as d.USK in 2011 playing the old classics with new members, I was excited to check out a band that I missed after they had called it a day.” They’re back, but is it bowely enough?
“What now?” That’s the question Akróasis, unfairly or otherwise, is supposed to answer. Obscura in 2016 is solely within the hands of founder, guitarist, and vocalist Steffen Kummerer. With the core of the band as we knew it between Cosmic Genesis and Omnivium gone—and that’s an impressive list: Hannes Grossman on drums, Jeroen Paul Thesseling on bass, and Christian Münzner on guitars—Akróasis is a moment for a new statement of intent.
“My flailing interest in grindcore has been reinvigorated over the past couple of years, due to a handful of excellent bands combining intelligent songcraft with the genre’s typical blasting, white knuckle intensity. So when the opportunity arose to review the latest output from long running grinders Agoraphobic Nosebleed, perpetrators of gleefully brilliant past offerings such as Frozen Corpse Stuffed with Dope, I was stoked for what these drum machine wielding maniacs would have in store for us.” Let the nose run red!
“Supergroups make me weary. For every Down, Vhöl, or Borknagar that comes our way, we get subjected to bands that don’t vary much (if at all) from their more established main groups. The prospect of checking out yet another supergroup doesn’t exactly get my blood pumping, no matter how highly acclaimed that group is promoted by the critics and fans.” The prospects are definitely improving!
“Windhand is the bane of those cursed with ADD. They write long, glacially slow, minimalist doom songs with little variation or tempo shifts. Their songwriting approach is mostly limited to unearthing one mammoth riff and beating you with it for anywhere from six to fourteen minutes without respite, mercy or bathroom breaks.” The beatings will continue until morale improves and/or cake is served.
“Danish one woman black metal project Myrkur burst onto the scene in a shroud of mystery with her debut self-titled EP last year. When her identity was revealed to be New York based artist Amalie Bruun of indie-pop duo Ex-Cops, the fickle factions of the wider metal community were seemingly more concerned about her apparently dubious metal cred than the frigid blast of old school Norwegian black metal, post-metal atmospherics and melancholic folk the EP delivered.” Damn those fickle factions to Hell!
““Black metal, noise, krautrock, post-rock and something else, but none of the above at the same time,” wrote Alex Franquelli about Locrian’s previous record Return to Annihilation. These words ring truer than ever on Infinite Dissolution, a record that eschews categorization and shows the Chicago/Baltimore trio carrying their sound into unexplored and inexplicable structures, bringing together disparate worlds, and moving even farther away from the slow ambient noise and drone that marked the first, hyper-productive part of their career.”
“For years I’ve tried to figure out why I can’t stand Suffocation and the only reason I can come up is that they are from New York. Which gets me thinking about Skinless. Which makes me sad that they haven’t put anything out since 2006’s crushing Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead. Then it dawns on me that the real issue I have with the whole bru/oo/00tal death scene is that I just miss Skinless.” Flay it again, Sam.
“Now here’s a cannibal of a different color. Some may be aware of the Death To All tours that happened over the last few years, but for the unfamiliar, Death to All is a cover act paying homage to Death and the late, great Chuck Schuldiner by running through the greatest hits of the seminal band’s discography live. From that loving tribute tour, a loving side project was spawned. Savage Land is a new kind of tribute to Death, written to be an an album slotted between Leprosy and Spiritual Healing in the Death discography.” No individual thought patterns here, but hey, they’re only human.
