Relapse Records

Tombs – Savage Gold Review

By Grymm on May 29, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Black Metal, Post-Rock, Relapse, Black Metal, Post-Metal, 10 comments

“Alchemy is a powerful philosophical practice that would lead their followers to perceived unlimited power. One of those goals ultimately outlined by alchemists is the ability to transmute lesser metals (such as lead) to more noble, socially-desirable metals such as gold. This romantic and idealistic viewpoint of bettering simple metals can be reflected onto the human race as well, with one’s desire to elevate themselves from more modest, humble origins to become something greater, more powerful. And yet, somehow retain their primal instincts while transmogrifying into their ideal form. Such is the basis of Brooklyn, New York’s Tombs and their newest album, the rightfully-titled Savage Gold.” Deep thoughts, profound words, nasty music. Enjoy!

The Drip – A Presentation of Gruesome Poetics Review

By Madam X on April 8, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Crust Punk, Grind, Hardcore, Relapse, Reviews, Hardcore, 1 comment

“Looking for some seething death grind that attacks you like a horde of rotting zombies crudely ripping your intestines from your gut? Of course you are, who wouldn’t be!” Can The Drip deliver the zombie-tastic carnage or are they just another brain dead clone? That name certainly isn’t helping them any.

Nothing – Guilty of Everything Review

By Madam X on February 23, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Not Metal, Relapse, Reviews, Shoegaze, Not Metal, Shoegaze, 6 comments

“An odd album crept its way onto the Angry Metal promo list in this past month, one that while plenty dark, is far removed from metal, and despite all it’s heavily worded promise, as wholly lacking in anger as I’ve come across in a while. At its most basic, it appears the band couldn’t come up with a decent band name and so took the easy way out, calling themselves Nothing…” Madam X has reviewed nothing lately and frankly, we expected more from her. That said, here goes Nothing.

Culted – Oblique to All Paths Review

By Grymm on January 13, 2014 in 2014, Canadian Metal, Doom Metal, Relapse, Reviews, Black Metal, Doom Metal, 3 comments

“The Internet is a wonderful thing. You can find pretty much everything via the web: your future ex-wife/husband, unnecessary lists you never knew you wanted to read, questionable porn based on whatever, and yes, even band members. Culted are a unique group. Three-quarters of the band live in Manitoba, Canada, and they’ve never met their vocalist, Swedish-based Daniel Jansson, with the exception of file-sharing and email correspondence. Remarkably, even without ever being in the same room, they craft some seriously cold, bleak soundscapes.” These guys run their band like AMG runs this website. It’s all about distance, isolation and cold, inhuman technology!

Toxic Holocaust – Chemistry of Consciousness Review

By Steel Druhm on October 22, 2013 in 2013, American Metal, Relapse, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Thrash Metal, 9 comments

“Well slap my ass and call me Skippy, the premier name in super-mega, old school, retro, throwback thrash (rethrash for short) is back to teach another post-grad lesson in violence. For those not in the know, that means a new album from Joel Grind’s Toxic Holocaust. Yes folks, things don’t get more painfully stuck in the 80s than the speed churned out by Mr. Grind and if there was ever a man born too late, it’s him. You see, Joel was meant to exist during that original wave of thrash, releasing revolutionary new music to shock the world alongside the likes of Slayer and Exodus. Alas, the Fates turned a mean skein and he was cast forward to this cruel future, where all his best thrashing and bashing is considered tired, recycled and irrelevant by many. Tis quite the shame too, since the man has a true gift for penning genuine 80s thrash and his stuff always has an aura of authenticity that’s lacking in most rethrash.” When I say rethrash, you say Grind!! That was fun, right? But is this album fun? Steel Druhm, a veteran of the rethrash wars, will chime in.

Revocation – Revocation Review

By Kronos on October 18, 2013 in 2013, American Metal, Death Metal, Progressive Death, Relapse, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Death Metal, Thrash Metal, 4 comments

At this point in their career, Revocation should certainly know what they’re good at, and fans should know what to expect out of the group’s consistently inventive and engaging brand of thrashy tech-death. A self-titled album then seems an appropriate fourth release for Davidson and Co., but topping the perfection of previous albums, especially the most recent thriller Chaos of Forms, is a tall order. Revocation, for the most part, delivers exactly what fans look for in a Revocation album; exciting, technical and catchy songs with all the heft and energy of a freight train.” Ladies and gentlemen, today is Tech-Death Albums We Missed Reviewing Day!! First up on the tardy list is the thrashy goodness of Revocation and doing the honors is our brand new probationary scribe, Kronos! New writer, long awaited review, what more can you ask for, you divas!!

Windhand – Soma Review

By Steel Druhm on September 6, 2013 in 2013, American Metal, Doom Metal, Relapse, Reviews, Stoner Rock, Doom Metal, Stoner Metal, 9 comments

“Windhand is like the next door neighbor who walks around his front yard in tidy whities whilst swigging from a can of Rheingold ®. You want to like him, but he makes it really tough. As purveyors of super fuzzed-out, monolithic stoner doom, they’re often mentioned in the same breath as Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats; likely due to the groovy, 60s/70s style vocals they utilize. However, where Uncle Acid writes relatively short, hooky doom-rock anthems, Windhand opts for huge, laboriously slow, long-winded odes to mammoth distortion similar to Electric Wizard and Dopesmoker-era Sleep.” Windhand, the cult heroes of ginormous stoner doom/drone are back to oppress the masses with the power of THE RIFF! Will Steel Druhm be oppressed? He’s always so damn anti-authority, so who knows?

Ulcerate – Vermis Review

By Jordan Campbell on September 4, 2013 in 2013, Death Metal, New Zealand Metal, Relapse, Reviews, Death Metal, 5 comments

“Ulcerate’s emergence was rather inauspicious. Their first work, The Coming of Genocide, didn’t hold much promise. It was pretty standard for mid-aughts uber-blast brutality, assaultive to the point of redundancy. But there were some gnarly guitar squalls nestled in their amateurish blastfuckery, and on their first true album, Of Fracture and Failure, things started to get wild. Then, Everything is Fire happened, and things got real.” First Carcass and now this? It’s all big releases, all the time and and Jordan Campbell is on the job with his always insightful musings.

Primitive Man – Scorn Review

By Alex Franquelli on August 24, 2013 in 2013, 4.0, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Hardcore, Relapse, Reviews, Sludge, Hardcore, 3 comments

Oh the pleasure of punishment without guilt, of terror without a motive, of sadistic pain with too much uncontrolled joy and salty drops of unrequited love. Primitive Man call the bluff we all know as life by showing the vulgar side of our existences. Our bodies reek when in fear because the matter doesn’t lie; we do; it doesn’t. If less than 40 minutes of raw, filthy music played without compromises may sound like a sonic déjà-vu, don’t worry: you may be right. Primitive Man’s music is, in fact, an end to itself: an epic journey through punishing dissonances mostly played at an excruciatingly slow tempo. Eyehategod? Maybe. But more than 20 years after an album like In the Name of Suffering graced our ears, the demise of black metal, the growth of drone-based trends and the evolution of what some term ‘extreme music’ all give us an updated version of that masterpiece. It hurt then as it does now and the bleak landscape remains the same. Hate doesn’t evolve; it just gets bigger.” Alex is here to discuss life’s ugliness and pain, glorious pain. Apparantly this album makes him go on like Pinhead in a bondage bar.

Exhumed – Necrocracy Review

By Dr. Fisting on July 30, 2013 in 2013, 4.0, American Metal, Death Metal, Grind, Relapse, Releases, Reviews, 4 comments

“After spending nearly a decade in the grave, the mighty Exhumed was, well, exhumed in 2011 to kick ass once more. I had the pleasure of reviewing the resulting comeback album, All Guts No Glory, which was a satisfying heap of gory-yet-melodic old-school death metal. Now, three years later, Matt Harvey and co. keep the party rolling with the awesomely-titled Necrocracy.” We put Exhumed in Mr. Fisting’s promo basket and then he got the hose again. Such is life at AMG Industries.