It’s not exactly a stretch to suggest death and black metal already are bizarre art forms on the surface, especially for the uninitiated. But for those of us who have been listening to these styles of music for decades, it’s hard to find things that warp our senses and raise our eyebrows because we’ve heard it all before. Being surprised happens less frequently, but when it does, it really sticks in the back of your brain.

Italian force Hadit fall into the category of bands that eschews the typical and leans heavily into the unconventional. Just look at the title of this record—“Metaphysical Engines Approaching the Event Horizon.” Right away it feels like you’re confronting something harsh and brain bending, and if that’s an alluring idea for you, then you’ll melt your brain taking on this record. Over eight tracks and 48 minutes, the band—vocalist/guitarist Xn, bassist/synth player/guitarist/backing vocalist G.G., drummer Fulgŭrātŏr—takes it to you physically and psychologically, twisting death and black metal to express their bizarre mythologies, keeping you guessing at every turn. In fact, repeat listens reveal twists and turns you may have missed the previous excursions, and that’s one of the things that makes this album so enthralling. It feels like a new journey every time.

“Becoming the Light Eternally Driving on the Photon Sphere” opens with drums echoing and spacious dreaming, coating the vicious growls in combustible elements. The playing blisters as the speed ratchets up, the drums carve pathways in the earth, and the punishing pace zaps and crunches bone to power. “Interstellar Medium’s Rhapsody” brings grim and beastly growls that mix into sludgy punishment that buries you in echo. A synth glaze rises and enchants as the band crushes wills, wailing away until the air is sucked out of the room. “Three Ways of Death After Gravitational Collapse” mangles as the screams scar, retching as the guitars churn, clean singing adding a different level of depth to their power. Tingling and blistering, you’re piledriven into the mud as the growls engorge, and sinewy leads lap with intensity. The singing freezes, the pace mauls, and fires consume whatever’s left. “Screaming From the Throat of a Reversed Light Being” starts with numbing guitars and growls that eat through flesh, lurching through the filth, the bass slinking just as brutality rages anew. Keys echo as the blood thickens, bells chime and cause you to lose balance, and a heavy fog envelopes and disappears into mystery.

“Find Your Death, Cosmic Wreckage” is utter demolition as it enters, the growls welling and erupting into a monstrous chasm, the bass buzzing as mystical keys begin to establish a hypnotic tone. The band pummels as the drumming lays waste, stripping away flesh as the inhuman howls land before an abrupt end. “Blood and Gods Know Where Weakness Is” combusts, trucking over prone bodies, the growls trampling as the playing turns smothering in a hurry. The guitars squeal as the playing hammers, spreading ferocity and sending chills down your spine, bleeding into the ground. “The Eternals’ Dream Out of Time and Frames” opens with guitars glimmering and punches thrown generously, laying in the numbing blows. The playing is warped and heated, blazing with ill intent, the darkness swelling as the leads pulsate and dig into your psyche, leaving you shaking uncontrollably. Closer “Del Tramonto Sul Nulla, Dove Fuoco Diventa Cielo” dawns with guitars blurring and drubbing, menacing darkness spreading as doom bells toll. The tension carves and teases, causing the earth to quake beneath you. Things continue to get more ominous, the growls eat into your nervous system, and the fires smear, causing flesh to peel from your body, hypnotic power finally giving itself up to a wall of noise.

“Metaphysical Engines Approaching the Event Horizon” certainly is a strange record, one that bends death and black metal into bizarre shapes, making these styles seem like something alien. That’s been something Hadit practiced in their decade as a unit, and it seems like their exploration efforts are just getting started. More records like this one will keep these sounds fresh and expanding, making the potential for what’s possible nearly astronomical.  

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/HADITDEATHMETAL

To buy the album (U.S.), go here: https://metalodyssey.8merch.us/

Or here (Europe): https://metalodyssey.8merch.com/

For more on the label, go here: https://www.facebook.com/i.voidhanger.records/

With all of the negativity and awful news that seemingly surround our everyday lives, it’s sometimes hard to remember there are good things woven into all of the shit. It’s not always easy finding the bright side or even some hidden gems when things seem to be at their bleakest, but seeking those things can soothe a lot of woes.

OK, that’s maybe a little much, but we can find things to make us happy while we dread the future. Like the new two-track EP from the reunited Pelican that’s their first new music in five years. Yes, I know Pelican never went away, but it hasn’t operated under its original lineup since 2012, that being guitarists Trevor Shelley de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec (who has returned to the fold), bassist Bryan Herweg, and drummer Larry Herweg. Yet that configuration returns here, and they also have a full record in their future that also gives us reason to be excited. These two tracks from this session provides but a small sip, but it’s a flavorful, exciting one that feels like slipping back into a familiar place, excited to see these surroundings once again.

“Adrift” stars with guitars slurring, the leads bathing in light as the bass begins to chug. Melodies glimmer as the playing goes from soaring to meatier, pummeling as the tempo sinks into your blood, settling in the atmosphere, basking in the clouds. In fact, the waning moments of the record kind of remind me of the cover art. “Tending the Embers” is the final track, trudging as the guitars slide, the playing tangling and then burning brightly. Guitars thicken as the melodies slink, the energy pulsating as the skies grow darker and more foreboding. Light finally sheds as the leads get your blood racing, the other elements flow and sting, and everything swells into the ground before coming to a rumbling end.

It might be a mere two songs, but it’s a hint of what’s ahead for Pelican, and it reunites their original lineup for the first time in more than a decade. This “Adrift / Tending the Embers” EP is a promising glimpse of their forthcoming next album, a snack-size portion of new music that gives hope for what’s ahead and energizes us in the present. It’s a new dawn for Pelican, and I’m excited to hear what this reformed version of the band has in store for us.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/pelicansong

To buy the album, go here: https://pelican.bandcamp.com/album/adrift-tending-the-embers

Hi, and welcome to It’s the Beer Video, a little piece my friend Helen and I have been doing for a little while now. It’s pretty simple: We try a beer we’ve never had before and react to what we’re tasting. We both are into metal, so we normally wear a different shirt each week and talk about bands we like. It’s super not edited or produced, but we have fun, and we hope you do too.

Everyone is on a personal journey for which we don’t know an end date nor do we know the trials and tribulations we’ll face along the way. For me, the last handful of years have been tumultuous and wrought with sadness and loss, life events that I long dreaded that happened all in a very short time frame. Yet, out of that, there are positives, and they are milestones once must face once tackling existence.

“Requiem for Eirênê” is the third record from funeral doom-based Isenordal, and the album tells of a similar journey they detail over five tracks and 55 minutes of power. The band—vocalist/guitarist Kerry Hall, viola player/vocalist Eva Vonne, guitarist Gordon Greenwood, keyboardist/vocalist Lieu Wolfe, bassist/cellist/flautist/string player Jeff King, drummer/vocalist Brian Spenser—truly spreads their collective wings on this record, creating an excursion through love, loss, grief, surrender, and finally a spiritual climax that is told through some of Isenordal’s heaviest moments yet and also some of their most delicate. It took me several sojourns with this music just to get to the point where I feel I can write about it, and I’m sure it’ll take many more for the push to be complete. I also connected emotionally just from having experienced some of what the band details here, and it’s been sort of a catharsis for me that continues to this second.

“A Moment Approached Eternity” is the 15:08-long opener, the lengthiest track here that basks in organs and sorrow, the howls landing as all the voices mix together, storming with multiple personalities telling the tale. The playing turns dramatic and driving, slipping into the cold, the whispers haunting and the strings carving pathways, stinging and chilling. The pace picks up again, and shrieks storm, the strings whipping up momentum, and the keys glazing as guttural force takes over. Wolfe and Vonne’s voices coat with freezing intensity, the guitars catch fire, and everything ends in ash. “Await Me, Ultima Thule” opens with rousing group singing and playing that makes your blood rush. “Carry me away,” they urge, the emotional force picking up the momentum, the shrieks crunching bones, icy melodies causing your flesh to quiver and ache. “You must find your way by starlight,” Wolfe calls as the playing storms heavily, and viciousness suddenly dawns. The playing blisters, the shrieks cave in skulls, and everything comes to a spellbinding end.

The title track is an instrumental piece that acts as a logical center point to the record, piano drips, delicate singing thaws, and everything flows gently and solemnly, the strings amplifying the ache, the keys flowing into “Epiphanies of Abhorrence and Futility.” Organs bubble to the surface, and then growls strike, the strings weaving thick stripes of doom into the mix. The screaming and singing mix as the playing batters slowly, and the strings glisten, the fire churning in everyone’s bellies. Singing pushes as the doom power drops and infects, the howls crush, and sonic violence comes and takes you down. Drama cascades as the singing chills, ending in a cataclysmic cloud. Closer “Saturnine Apotheosis” brings charring guitars, and it makes your foundation rattle, everyone singing and rousing your energies. Strings cloud as the melodies grow properly dreary, the drama thickens, and the fog grows to be insurmountable, the growls crumbling as the singing glows. Strings rivet until the ground quakes, the playing rushes forward, and the singing fills your chest with emotion. The guitars and strings glow, and the final words and melodies thicken before fading into the wind.

Insenordal’s power is growing before our eyes and ears, and “Requiem for Eirênê” demonstrates both their musical prowess and their creative fires grow dramatically. This record truly is a spiritual journey, as they note themselves, and every emotion and high and low one experiences along the way bursts from the seams, making this record feel utterly and perfectly human. This is a ferocious journey, one that demands repeat listens in order to absorb everything going on with this record and all of the messages this gifted band conveys here. Every trip back opens new doors and tributaries that rush to your senses and fill them with wonder.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/isenordal.metal

To buy the album, go here: https://us.spkr.media/us/Artists/Isenordal/

For more on the label, go here: https://en.prophecy.de/

The human experiment has come a long way, and it also seems fraught with failure, bound to end our collective existence with our own hubris and pigheadedness. Every day seems to be a different experiment in trying to keep our shit together while we watch political parties wage war on the underprivileged, social media continue to be a stinking cesspool, and we watch our environment erode at the benefit of rich fucks’ bank accounts.

It’s not that “Putrid | Obsolete,” the second record from Prisoner, addresses those matters exactly, but they do focus on humanity’s seemingly imminent downfall. Their brand of industrial-tinged noise and metal feels like skulls melting from insurmountable heat, brains scrambling, and our blood washing away forever. The band—Pete Rozsa (guitars, vocals, synth, samples), Dan Finn (guitars, vocals), Justin Hast (bass, vocals), Joel Hansen (drums, synth, samples), Adam Lake (synth, samples, programming)—creates eight tracks that punish over 45 minutes, and it’ll burn a hole in your psyche. Their amalgamation of noise, death metal, hardcore, and other fiery elements make them sound dangerous and dissolving at the seams, delivering a destructive record that mirrors human behavior.

“Flesh Dirge” bathes in a noise deluge, an uncomfortable and contorting start that spits acid as the howls trudge and destroy, the savagery acting as a battering ram. Beastly roars ravage as the guitars blaze, and the barnstorming takes apart bodies limb from limb. “Pool of Disgust” speeds through as growls carve, and the assault acts as a sort-of instant death knell. The drums decimate as the playing hulks and tears down buildings, crashing into “The Horde” that has guitars swarming and the punishment exploding. The growls retch as the intensity continues to increase dangerously, smashing faces, and the blasts incinerate as things blast into “Shroud.” Guitars drip as the drums mash, the howls storming and snaking, the pace crashing into a synth swarm. The assault continues and gets thicker, isolated melodies bleeding through bleak terror, molten heaviness mangling and rampaging into oblivion.

“Leaden Tomb” boils in industrial noise, destroying with mechanical death, smothering with total hell. The playing slowly mauls as the roars scathe, brutally pounding you into oblivion. “Pathogenesis” seethes in bustling noise, tearing open and letting the blood pool, laying waste to mind and body. The storm halts momentarily, and then the noise caves in, electrical jabs pushing through and eating away at you, the playing slowly melting. The devastation continues to ramp up as the howls pierce, calculated battery bloodies faces, and the final gust loosens teeth. “Entity” enters with corrosive howls and heavy battering, hellish horrors taking over your psyche. The playing swirls and guts, the sounds enveloping you, things calming down as dialog from “Westworld” warbles, the floodgates opening again. Wild calls and concussive jolts unite as cosmic wooshes push through, slowly churning and bleeding into closer “Nanodeath.” Guitars cut and then go gazey, the roars belt, and carnage unloads, strange synth making things even more perplexing. Guitars melt and spiral, stinging as the corrosion spreads, glazing over mystical synth and noise that ends your experience at the pit of hell.

We’re at the mercy of a world and our societies that seem to have only the worst for us in mind. “Putrid | Obsolete” won’t put an end to that and also isn’t likely to salve your wounds, but it reflects the anxiety and horrors that surround us that Prisoner have put to record. This is abrasive torture, an experience that warps metal and extremity to the band’s whims and buries your face in the worst possible realities that might soon come to pass.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/prisoner804

To buy the album, go here: https://persistentvisionrecords.com/collections/prisoner

For more on the label, go here: https://persistentvisionrecords.com/

Yesterday, we talked about death metal that takes the well-traveled path and sticks to what has made the subgenre such a force for the past three decades. Today, we go in an entirely different direction and talk about how the sound can be warped and stretched to fit a bizarre, ambitious vision, and how that makes this art form so fluid and exciting.

English oddities Slimelord have no real use for convention, and while what they do is decidedly death metal, it’s envisioned and translated in such a way that keeps your head cocked at an angle. And that’s certainly by choice. On debut album “Chytridiomycosis Relinquished,” the band— vocalist Andrew Ashworth, guitarist/vocalist Alexander Bradley, guitarist Krystian Zamojski, bassist John Riley, drummer Ryan Sheperson—takes on fantastical elements, history, and other levels of reality and smooshes it into a death metal formula that’s anything but by the books and stands out as weird, exciting, and choked with blood and bile.

“The Beckoning Bell” starts with the guitars gassing up, growls hissing, and the bass trampling, setting up the perfect storm. The leads lather and take off as the playing sinks deep into sludge, battering as the growls hiss and the heat increases before everything sweeps off into space. “Gut-Brain Axis” enters amid thick humidity, and then the guitars explode, trippy heat making breathing more difficult, your head swimming deep in the murk. Growls crumble as the psychedelic pressure squeezes temples, echoes bouncing off the walls, haunting sounds coming back and reverberating. Chunky mashing strikes, howls lurch, and the final waves are blistering and ugly. “Splayed Mudscape” boils as the pace slurs, beastly punishment coming for your head, the dizzying pace making the room spin. The playing picks up and bubbles anew, adding intense disorientation as the leads ache, exiting into a glowing haze.

“Batrachomorpha Resurrections Chamber” slowly dawns as moody melodies spread, and the growls slither while the guitars slide into a haze. The tempo pulls and warps, the guitars catch fire, and a thickening fog settles over, dissolving into acid. “The Hissing Moor” is disarming and foreboding, horns calling out, the guitars digging in and intensifying a zany pace. Howls crush as the battering sparks frenetic jolts, melting into savage weirdness, slipping into a swarm of sound. “Tidal Slaughtermarsh” is a total assault, the growls wrenching as the playing makes it feel like you’re losing mental control. The energy soaks in madness, playing games with your mind, the leads blasting and loosening bones. The smoke tramples as the chugging pulls you under, jetting off into the night. Instrumental closer “Heroic Demise” is steamy and doomy, the heat penetrating as the bass encircles you like prey. The guitars char and glimmer, punching as the drums blast, the playing blisters, and everything fades deep into the universe.

“Chytridiomycosis Relinquished” is a bizarre dose of death metal that twists your brain wiring and leaves you bodily and mentally devastated. Slimelord is the latest in a crop of bands pushing death metal into stranger corners, making this sub-genre more exciting and unpredictable. This dark, doomy, deranged debut is a blast to experience and is something exciting to revisit regularly as it offers something a little different each time.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/horriblebog/

To buy the album, go here: https://www.20buckspin.com/collections/slimelord

For more on the label, go here: https://www.20buckspin.com/

There’s something valuable about reliability in that you have a good idea of that you’re going to get when you crack open a band’s new record. Yeah, bands that go by the motions can come by this quality in ways where their music has diminishing returns. But artists with fire in their veins, ones that fucking want it, use reliability in a way to continue hammering the bloody path they’re on with precision.

Since their infernal birth in 2011, Skeletal Remains have been pumping out tried-and-true death metal that pays homage to the roots but belongs in the here and now. Their savage fifth album “Fragments of the Ageless” is upon us, and it’s a nine-track, 43-minute destroyer that drinks deeply from their well of violently played death metal that doesn’t have a lot of surprises but really doesn’t need them. The band—vocalist/guitarist Chris Monroy, guitarist Mike De La O, bassist Brian Rush, drummer Pierce Williams—smashes on all cylinders, dragging you through the thorns and over cragged rocks that slice up your flesh and leave a trail of your blood behind.

“Relentless Appetite” opens blistering with the growls crushing, the playing punishing as it turns the screws. The soloing goes off as everything glimmers alongside it, volcanic ash choking your lungs, with everything coming to a devastating end. “Cybernetic Harvest” crunches and decimates, the leads tangle, and the ash piles up to the sun. The battering force moves forward, the howls damaging nerve endings, the meaty pace opening wounds and pouring blood. “To Conquer the Devout” blazes with blistering growls, savagery and speed combining to make the pressure impossible to handle. The fires rage as the bass thickens and powers the engine, the drums gut, and dual guitars unite to spread deathly glory, scorching to the end. “Forever in Sufferance” has a tricky open that gets your brain wiring smoking, growls smash, and a tornadic tear goes right for the throat. The bass trudges as the mean and gruff howls leave bruising, the playing accelerates suddenly, and the ferocity tears its way through your ribcage.

“Verminous Embodiment” stomps through the mud as the growls menace, monstrous shrieks rushing in later to make everything uglier. Leads squeal as the muddiness increases, nasty and relentless playing robbing your lungs of breath. “Ceremony of Impiety” is an instrumental piece built with mystical synth and keys raining down, giving off a fantasy realm feel before we move into “Void of Despair” that immediately takes off your head. Leads tangle as the pace batters hard, the growls tormenting with animalistic fury. Strange noises ruminate as the guitars open up and crush with iron jaws, increasing the vicious assault that ends in shrapnel. “Unmerciful” is the longest track here at 7:10, and the guitars churn as raspy howls punish your muscles. Parts of the journey are mucky and scathing, the guitars exploring space, the darkness growing thicker. The menace then reignites as the tempo drills into the ground, the soloing boils over, and a thrashy attack follows, sweeping everything underneath its massive shadow. Closer “…Evocation (The Rebirth)” brings eeriness that meets up with guitars breathing fire, the bass buzzing, and things going onto colder terrain. A sci-fi edge continues the strangeness as deadly mashing stretches muscle, guitars lather, and the final blade sinks into the earth.

Skeletal Remains continue to build on their solid death metal foundation with “Fragments of the Ageless,” a record that should continue to add to their audience that wants dependability and brutality in the same package. This band keeps sharpening their tools and cranking out ferocity that can be put up against any of their peers. As long as they stay on this path, Skeletal Remains are bound to continue as one of the most trustworthy and devastating death metal bands in the entire category.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/SkeletalRemainsDeathMetal

To buy the album, go here: https://centurymedia.store/collections/skeletal-remains

For more on the label, go here: https://www.centurymedia.com/

Hopefully we’re not breaking news to you here, but at some point, the world is going to come to an end. For humanity, we might be closer than what’s comfortable. But there’s no escaping this planet is temporary, and even if the sun’s eventual death might be 5 billion years away or so, things are going to end, and the earth will be a permanent graveyard.

New York doom instrumental power Clouds Taste Satanic have been on a torrid creative pace over the past decade, almost like they’re trying to squeeze in as much devastation as possible before the end times. On their ninth album “79 A.E.” the band—guitarists Steve Scavuzzo and Brian Bauhs, bassist Rob Halstead, drummer Greg Acampora—creates a soundtrack for Armageddon in the form of a two-track, 43-minute opus that takes you on a journey into the ultimate destruction, visiting fire pits, quaking earth, and even the  depths of space along the way. It’s a smoking, psyche-fueled experience, one that you can use to imagine how things will conclude in cataclysmic order, events that luckily only exist in your own head. At least for now.

“Collision” opens, the longest of the two tracks by 10 seconds at 21:48, and it’s swirly and mesmerizing at the start, start/stop mashing colliding with your senses, the leads glowing, and the playing bubbling over. Doomy chaos spreads as a strange haze lands, darkening the scene, scanning space before it detonates and is engulfed in flames. Thick bass trudges as the guitars continue to add the heat and also disappear into fog, floating through a rustic weirdness, the sludge thickening as the melodies drive harder. Grimy and mean, the playing moves into warmth, heartfelt expression that makes your blood race, a Floyd-ish psychedelic openness flooding over, blasting off into the stars.

The record ends with “Reclamation” that’s dingy at first, echoes spreading and making your head spin. The playing bleeds and swells, the leads scorching, lathering with intensity that grows thicker. The pace gets tougher and also samples more stardust, battering as the guitars go on a wah-fueled assault, torching flesh before fading into calmer waters. The pressure pulls back a bit as the weirdness increases, mind-bending and psychedelic bleeding making the path get stickier, mesmerizing dreams slipping through your mind. Just then, the temperature rises, bluesy leads draw blood, and everything blazes as hard as ever before, heading toward the heart of the sun.

We all might be too panicked to put on music once Armageddon strikes, but if for some reason you have a clear state of mind, visiting “79 A.E.” for what would be a final time wouldn’t be a bad way to go. Clouds Taste Satanic add cosmic dreaming and hellfire storming for good measure on this record, making sure you feel the burn as you take the journey. This is a riveting, exciting record that makes you feel way better about humanity’s destruction than you may care to admit.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/CloudsTasteSatanic/

To buy the album, go here: https://majesticmountainrecords.bigcartel.com/

For more on the label, go here: https://www.facebook.com/majesticmountainrecords/

Every now and again, we feature bands and music that are not intrinsically tied to heavy metal but might have appeal with listeners of more extreme forms of music. I highly doubt most people who read this site and listen to metal never veer out of their lanes and enjoy other types of music. Anyone who actually does that should try some other things.

We’ve been big fans of Philly throwback rock band Sheer Mag for several years now, and they have enough guitar firepower and punch to appeal to a metal fan. Their third record “Playing Favorites” has arrived, and it shows a different shade to the band—vocalist Tina Halladay, guitarist/drummer Kyle Seely, guitarist Matt Palmer, bassist Hart Seely. Noticeable is the infusion of more melody and textures as well as Halladay doing more singing than wailing, which shows how talented she really is. While they may have evened out some rougher edges, they still pack energy, charismatic vocals, and even some glam punk fury that was splashed all over their first two albums.

The title track opens the record and instantly gives you a heavy dose of what has changed, namely the smoother, poppier nature of their songs. But they haven’t lost their edge, which you can hear as ’70s-style guitars wash over, Halladay’s singing is breezier and confident, and the whole thing feels like the promise of warm weather ahead. “Eat It and Beat It” reignites the riffs, group calls rousing, Halladay singing, “Enjoy your last meal, I hope you worked up an appetite,” as the attitude flows freely. Glammy fire rages as a haze sets in, hand drumming rouses, and everything ends in a cloud of smoke. “All Lined Up” brings a sunburst of guitars, easy and balmy, something that’ll sound even better when the summer returns. The singing glows as the pace swelters, and cool group singing gets into your bloodstream. “Don’t Come Lookin’” starts with acoustics before the electricity gives Allman vibes, the moody guitars lightening spirits, The playing is catchy and fun, the guitars burning, Halladay wailing, “Don’t come looking now that I’ve been unbound.” “I Gotta Go” is slinky and surfy, the guitars teasing, Halladay singing, “By the time you wake up, I’ll be back in your arms, you won’t miss a thing, no.” The playing is both fuzzy and poppy, giving off a tasty classic rock feel that goes down easy.

“Moonstruck” opens with pedal steel and echoed singing, the chorus giving off a 1980s sheen, the guitars splashing sunshine and delving into hazier terrain, once again hinting at warmer days ahead. “Mechanical Garden” features guest Mdou Moctar, and the guitars openly snake, feeling downright sleazy at times, which makes it all the more fun. There is an orchestral gasp, and then the guitars spiral, slinking as your head swims in a psychedelic, cosmic cloud, scorching every step of the way. “Golden Hour” is warm and feels like spring is in the air, again going back to the 1970s vintage, the guitars glowing as the keys add an extra layer of glaze. “Light of the golden hour,” Halladay calls, “my goodbye, I hold your picture as tears come streaming from my eyes, streaming down,” the pain and longing evident. “Tea on the Kettle” is a shorter cut, but strong nonetheless, a Southern rock feel creating the backbone, Halladay singing, “Of all I have to share, I love the way you give to me when there’s nothing to spare.” It’s a bit of a different look for the band, and they make it work with their skill and charisma. “Paper Time” lets the drums drive and the riffs smoke, a simple chorus acting as a rousing backbone, the guitars jarring your spine. The soloing blazes and scorches your flesh, shaking you to your foundation. Closer “When You Get Back” brings slurry guitars and a dusty feel, the playing flowing easily, the harmonized singing raising hair on your flesh. “When you get back I’ll be so full of joy, but now I’m sad and blue, so come back, I need you,” Halladay calls, putting a hopeful end on a record that should transform their profile.

There’s sure to be some people disappointed that Sheer Mag isn’t coming at you fully on fire like on their past records, but this clearly is a band that is sonically maturing and unafraid to push whatever buttons make them move. “Playing Favorites” is a step in a different direction for the band, and it shows they’re capable of more than straight-on bombast and can add different colors and textures to what they do. I’m curious to see how the record is received and if their audience expands, and the music is certain to grow on you the more times you take this adventure along with them.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/SheerMag/

To buy the album, go here: https://thirdmanrecords.com/products/playing-favorites

For more on the label, go here: https://thirdmanrecords.com/

It’s a strange wonder when a band gets darker, uglier, and more sinister right before our eyes and ears. A lot of time, the years and experience take off the edge because things get easier and the band members grow and mature, removing some of the fire from their bellies. It’s an altogether different thing when the opposite happens, and the passage of time acts as a spiritual rot in order for the soul to warp.

Saturnalia Temple have been plying their dark arts for nearly two decades now and four albums, the latest being “Paradigm Call,” which marks another sonic shift for this Swedish trio. They’ve been moving in this direction for some time now, and we see the fiery madness come into better focus on these eight tracks that feel like they’re here to batter you into calculated submission. The band—vocalist/guitarist Tommie Eriksson, bassist Gottfrid Åhman, drummer Pelle Åhman (the latter two formerly played with In Solitude)—pulls you into the shadows, showing a more threatening attitude you can’t hope to shake any time soon.

“Drakon” is a morbid, doom-infested instrumental opener, a dark and numbing piece that sets the stage for what’s to come, most directly “Revel in Dissidence.” A pall hangs over as Eriksson’s gravelly howl pierces the flesh, the playing slowly battering as it enters a murk. The pace trudges as the leads envelope, beastly howls rattle cages, and the tempo changes suddenly before the guitars smoke heavily and disappear into psychedelic heat. The title track starts mashing, howls lurching, the playing bruising bones. The riffs continually repeat as the vocals creak, echoes washing down, the guitars glimmering through a smokescreen. A long instrumental section takes the song home, choking with fog and burying in oblivion. “Among the Ruins” enters in a gnarly stomp, the vocals pouring acid, the punishing pace putting you to the test. Psyche-washed guitars fill your head with madness before the pace batters all over again, snaking as the vocals choke you into blackness, the playing slowly fading behind you.

“Black Smoke” has muscular bass lines pushing, the muck puts your muscles to the test, and the growls snarl, gurgling and jolting your skeletal structure. The guitars erupt as the intensity builds, Eriksson howling, “Everything is burning!” over the smothering chorus, static spitting and buzzing on its way down. “Ascending the Pale” is burly and smeary, the growls snarling as the mud continues to accumulate. The guitars lather as the leads beam, ugly mauling pulverizing bones, the howls stretching as tar bubbles, the pressure mounting before fading. “Empty Chalice” instantly throws punches, vile howls sickening as the doom might thickens. The playing is a meaty stomp as the assault keeps up its momentum, bashing away before fading into the distance. Instrumental closer “Kaivalya” buzzes in your brain before it begins to do bodily harm, the psychedelic storm swelling. The leads heat up as hypnotic fuzz mars your brain, sparking a fiery assault before fading into a molten fury.

“Paradigm Call” is a record that might take a few visits to truly set in, but Saturnalia Temple’s fiery, hypnotic approach to their music makes that effort something worth doing. These songs are drubbing and at times ugly, pushing your psychedelic boundaries and testing your mettle for what your brain can handle. If it doesn’t stick at first, keep trying; this is a different Saturnalia Temple with a renewed fire, and it won’t take long for you to burn deeply alongside them.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/saturnaliatemple

To buy the album, go here: https://shop-listenable.net/en/149_saturnalia-temple

For more on the label, go here: https://www.listenable.eu/