So many artists seem like they are trying to reach back to eras past, from some of the fuzz-heavy bands looking to reignite the sounds of the late 70s to the current collection of groups trying to do the 1980s proud. I also understand there is some sort of nu-metal revival afoot? Is that a real thing?

Another era that is paid plenty of homage is the nasty wave of black metal that burst from the Scandinavian region in the early and mid 1990s. You can throw a rock out of your car window and strike someone from a band trying to repeat that sound, and more often than not, those artists aren’t worthy of carrying around the bullet belts of those who preceded them. So when I got the advance promo for the debut album from Murg, and the words in the press released promised a trip back to that unmerciful time, I was skeptical. I’ve heard that all before, and I almost never come away satisfied. But what this band does on their thunderous debut offering “Varg & Björn” is revive hopes that, yes, those raging fires of old can burn again, and if the music is in the right hands, it can sound downright glorious.

Murg is made up of a mysterious duo from Sweden who, as far as I can tell and research, do not have any known ties to any other bands (nor do they have any online presence). They conjure thoughts of early Enslaved, Gorgoroth, Mayhem, Immortal and bands of that nature, and their fiery and passionate delivery easily can get you caught up and going on a ride into hellfires. The record is a concept piece about what they view as the “uselessness of humankind” and the constant lack of co-existence with other elements on this planet. They must be eating up and sadly spitting out the many folks in my home country’s government and their total disregard for nature and the planet. Because money. But the way things are going, nature will be judge, jury, and executioner, and by the time we realize what we’ve done, our fates will be sealed.

“Vindarna luktar rök” starts the record ominously, as fires crackles, insects buzz, and a short blast of carnage bleeds right into “Nejderna brinner,” which has some spectacular riffing that starts the proceedings. The guitar tones feel nostalgic in a way, with spacious sections offering a chance to dream and melodic glory meeting up with metallic carnage, providing a proper burst of energy. “Grannen är din fiende” launches into a burst, with fast and punishing playing, shrieks and growls that go for the throat, and many colors raining down and adding tecture to this horror. The pace later calms some, feeling more like a rock song, but then noise rings out, winds whip, and maniacal cries carry the track into the dark. “Massvandring & blodbad” has a relatively clean intro that feels cold and eerie, with voices crying out and the band finding a calculated tempo. They chug along, with harsh vocals telling the tales, the music feeling riveting and adventurous, and nature once again pushing its weight and exacting its influence.

“Den starkes rätt” just ignites, with heavy riffing leading the way like a bulldozer, the sounds simmering in their own boiling juices, and the vocals sounding menacing and tortured. A chill later hits the air musically, as the track causes your skin to chill over before the band punishes you in the track’s final minute. “Farsoternas afton” begins with buzzing noises penetrating heavily, and the music feels like it could be emanating from a dark basement in the center of winter. The track subsides a bit and goes frosty, before the track drives again heavily, the riffs take over the situation again, and the back end gets bloody and vicious, leading right into the title cut. There, the sounds are torn from the earth, with the band galloping heavily, the vocals going from guttural grunts to piercing screams, and the whole thing utterly rumbling over you. The record then ends with the 8:07 “Ett slut, ingen början,” where melodic charging rushes from the gates, sheets of sound cascade downward, and searing leads burn a path. The vocals sound chant-like at times, like they’re lulling you into hypnosis, and after a few minutes of chaos, acoustics arrives and take the song to its emotional, tear-soaked conclusion.

Every visit I’ve had with Murg has been a great one, and the music and messages they deliver on “Varg & Björn” are both thunderously furious and worthy of our undivided attention. But humans are stubborn creatures who never learn and only pay mind to what advances our own agendas, consequences to others be damned. With that in mind, this record could be the literal soundtrack to our destruction, as we slowly but certainly choke ourselves to death.

To buy the album, go here: http://www.nordvis.com/store/

For more on the label, go here: http://www.nordvis.com/

Tearing the week open like a crusted-over wound probably isn’t everyone’s favorite choice to get going, but sometimes it’s just has be done. It’s going to hurt like hell for the first couple seconds, but once those bruised nerve endings cool down, you’ll be happy you did it. Now, let’s let that thing air out so it can start to heal.

I say all of this because we’re diving right into the face of brutality with Nepente’s vicious new EP “I Will Get Your Soul.” I like this thing for a number of reasons, but here are two that really stand out for me. First, these Colombian maulers go right for your throat with no attention paid to be clean and neat. Their mission is blood, and they will do what they can to draw it as soon as possible. The second isn’t all that consequential from a musical standpoint, but it’s the cover art. Yeah, it’s not the sleekest thing in the world, but that’s what I love about it. The thing reminds me of bands I’d hear locally on the nearby college radio station in the afternoon, because groups like that would have similar style covers and a brutal, pummeling sound that would scare off the mainstream kids. It makes me feel a little nostalgic.

As for Nepente, their sound is somewhere between death and black metal, played as punishingly and non-sanitized as possible, making their brutal assaults on your senses the most important thing. The band—vocalist Jose Fernando Ospina, guitarists Pablo Vasquez (who is the primary songwriter), Juan Pablo Buitrago, and Esteban Daza, bassist Wilmar Correa, and drummer Mauricio Aristizabal—have been at it for 12 years, releasing their first EP “Ascension” in 2005 and offering their debut full-length effort “Atonements” three years later. The band’s last release was 2012’s “Suffering Is the Seed,” and now this EP arrives to let you know the band is alive, well, and hungry, and that these four songs mark the road back for Nepente.

The record opens with the title cut, as acoustic strains arrive and echo in the background before the song is absolutely torn open. The pace is heavy and ridiculously fast, with the drums being beaten into dust and the vocals sounding like they’re delivered on the wings of the world’s worst sore throat. Behind all the muck is soaring melody, which is a recurring element that gives the EP more color, and they end this thing with strong soloing and gutty thrashing. “Show Me That You Are Suffering” is as maniacal and mashing as its title indicates, with melodic guitars blistering over top, outright savagery making up the lower end, and the vocals once again sounding throaty and mean. The back end is rather catchy actually, with the speed and thrash elements going for broke and the growling lurching like a wounded monster to the finish line.

“Gray Land” follows the same punishing path as the other two songs, ramping up the thrash components and unleashing crunchy bursts of fire. The vocals are fierce, with Ospina going back and forth from guttural growls to manic shrieks, while the rest of the band backs that up with misery-inducing mashing, more electrifying guitar work, and a strong, pulverizing closing that’ll have your blood racing right to the finish. Closer “Last Rites” is a pretty fun one, with the guitars whipping up a break-neck riff that powers this thing and the drums completely clubbing you. Melody again rears its end, adding new textures to this declaration of all-out war, and the vocals sound channeled and angry as hell, with Ospina in complete commands as he repeatedly howls, “Last rites!” The music simmers in spots, with fluid guitar work arriving and bringing mind-melting soloing, while the finish crashes and burns in the best possible way, leaving your whole body scraped and bleeding.

While it may be a holdover EP before Nepente drum up a new full-length, “I Will Get Your Soul” deserves your utmost respect and attention, especially if you like your metal seriously rough around the edges and delivered like lightning. This crew sounds like they’re mobilizing for something big, getting the troops lined up so they can unleash their weapons and massacre anything and anyone that stands in front of them. If you happen to be in their line of fire, you might want to find cover, because I doubt Nepente will be showing you or anyone an ounce of mercy.

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

To buy the album, go here: http://cimmerianshaderecs.storenvy.com/

For more on the label, go here: http://cimmerianshaderecordings.com/

We’re taking a bit of a different path today, the day when we present the record from the week that got most play and created personal enjoyment in my brain the past seven days. Almost always that’s a newly released full-length album that gets the feature, but there’s no hard and fast rule it has to be that way.

So this week’s pick actually is something that was released last year but is being reintroduced via the magic of vinyl. If you missed out on Predatory Light’s debut demo “MMXIV,” released a little more than a year ago, then you’re in luck. That initial independent issue was on cassette, but now it gets a bigger, more fitting presentation on its new version made especially for your turntable. The band’s mixture of noise-buried doom and roughed-up black metal should appeal to fans of band such as Ash Borer (who also claim a member of this band), Fell Voices, Weakling, and Dispirit, and the two tracks included here will make you feel like you’re miles deep in the mine, with soot coating your lungs and making every breath a struggle. It’s a really awesome birth into the world for this New Mexico-based band (it was followed by a second demo “Death Essence” months later), and their future is infernal and promising.

As for the band itself, they’re made up of players who hide behind a modicum of mystery, with LS, KM (of Ash Borer) and TW making up the band for this particular recording. They’re a thunderous bunch, aiming to bury your the weight of their sound and not paying particularly close attention to making things palatable for the unwashed or clean and glimmering for anyone. It’s ugly, punishing, and painful, and they will bury you under the weight of an ice-capped mountain.

“Changing Skins” starts off clean, almost as if giving off a cold mist, before it lurches forward and stymies with its mystifying melodies. The vocals are raw and sound pained, with the song erupting around all of this, and the band hitting a new, more violent gear. Some of the sounds are smeary and feel like they’re being splattered all over, with the drums bashed heavily and the guitar work causing the room to spin. The track reaches a patch of calm, but it’s a mere layover as the band hits full speed again and brings the song to a glorious, yet blistering, finish.

“Spiritual Flesh” runs 10:32 and is the longer of the two songs, also opening with some serenity that helps set the stage for the inevitable collapse. When that arrives, strings are scraped, the band hits a doom-infested, slow driving groove designed to haunt more than hurt, and the tempo takes on a calculating pace. At about the halfway mark, the savagery hits, as the band launches full speed ahead, the riffs arrive like lighting and rip you apart, and the vocals hit a deep, guttural level, as if they’re being scraped from the colon. The tone becomes fever dreamy again, with the band seemingly interested in hypnotism, but that later dissolves. The tempo chugs hard, the guitar spew pure blackness, and melodies and violence sweep up everything like a funnel cloud and send them hurling toward the most hellish section of space.

If you have yet to encounter Predatory Light, now is the perfect opportunity for you to change that. This debut demo certainly was exciting a year ago when it first trickled out, and it retains all of the power, fury, and chaos. They merely hint on this piece at the massive intensity welled up inside of them, and it’ll be awesome to watch that come to fruition in the years to come.

For more on the band go here: http://predatorylight.bandcamp.com/

To buy the album, go here: http://pesanta.bigcartel.com/

For more on the label, go here: http://www.f-consortium.com/

There is no one way to play black metal, and people who act like there’s a formula that must be followed must have lost their sense of freedom and rebellion a long time ago. At least to me, the most interesting black metal bands are the ones that try new things, take different paths, and bend traditional sounds to meet their own fire.

One such band is Vancouver, Canada’s Kafirun, a savage yet thought-provoking group that certainly is black metal at its core, but they do so much more than just follow patterns. Their transmissions are dark and dreary, they can send chills up your spine with their ominous ways, and they certainly have mapped their own unique code into black metal’s constantly evolving DNA. Making thunderous noise on their debut EP “Death Worship” that dropped just last year after this hellacious band formed. From there, they continued to build on their chaotic sound and kept pushing forward their vision, which we get to hear in fully realized form on their crushing new EP “Glorification of Holy Death.” It’s five tracks of black metal that is delivered anything but by the numbers and that will haunt your every move when you indulge in this thing.

The band itself is made up of four mysteriously named individuals, and finding out any more about these shadows beyond what they’ve let leak out is pointless. But that kind of adds more intrigue to the fury that Kafirun create on this record, and the band—vocalist Luzifaust, guitarist Hanephi, drummer Corpus Vile, and bassist Hypnocrotizer—keeps your mind wondering, your blood surging, and your sense of terror on high as they weave their murky tales. If you’re a fan of bands such as Blut Aus Nord, Deathspell Omega, Funeral Mist, Thantifaxath, and others of that ilk, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with this still relatively new band.

Things get off to a strange start on “Wings of Malevolence,” as clean guitars trickle and create an odd environment, as things head into spacious atmosphere and snaking melodies. The vocals swim in the chaos, changing up from growls to shrieks to detached wails, while the band creates a swirling vortex of madness behind all of that, hammering in the punishment. “Salvation Through Sin” has colorful storming at the start, like stars and fire raining down from the sky, only to have the vocals turn gruff and the track take a dip into a trance. The singing then dissolves into droning murmurs, while the band churns ahead and lets all the elements boil over as everything comes to an abrupt finish.

“Destruction of the Divine Self” chugs and thrashes at the start, getting vicious and violent, with the tempo burning brightly. The vocals are delivered as harsh shrieks, with the melodies sounding chock full of mournful sentiment, and then things taking a turn for the strange. Again. The vocals transform into a buzzing underneath the canopy of terror, and the final moments ignite an oil drum of black riffs. “Chaos Magnum Opus” tears open from the start, with the band pummeling you heavily, and haunting melodies making their way into the mixture. The bulk of this song is aggressive and mashing, but there always are unexpected twists and turns that pop up along the way before the song ends suddenly. Closer “Open Veins” has an air-infused start, as the band drags you into the stratosphere, where you feel yourself losing control of your health. The vocals sound like fuzz and droning, like they’re gurgling in the back of Luzifaust’s throat, before the singing turns into pained, tortured wailing. There’s no way to be unaffected by that, and when the music makes more changes and even permits slicks of brightness into the picture, it’s always leading to another suffocation, which they perpetrate as the track and this thrilling collection come to a thunderous conclusion.

Kafirun are not on the tip of people’s tongues quite yet, and with just a year or so under their bloody belts, they have plenty of time to get there. More music like what’s contained on “Glorification of Holy Death” is sure to open more hungry ears and to help them worm their way into the earthier sections of the metal underground. The fact that they do things a little differently will help the stand out as well as find devotees who want their black metal a little more warped than usual.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kafirun/162223553976809

To buy the album, go here: https://kafirun.bandcamp.com/album/glorification-of-holy-death

Weirdness and experimentation are two traits that should be more common in music. Can you imagine if an actual daring band or artist was permitted to have mainstream exposure and change the way the populace hears and accepts music? I know. Let’s keep our dreams a little more reasonable and attainable, why don’t we?

That line of thinking has been in my head as I’ve been visiting repeatedly with “Fantasy Empire,” the new record from noise duo Lightning Bolt, their first effort in six years. It’s so ridiculously fun and infectious from first listen on, and to hear these two guys just going for it and totally selling their art emotionally is such a joy to witness. The music that the band—drummer/vocalist Brian Chippendale and bassist Brian Gibson—create sounds like something that could emanate from a dance floor in outer space. And the people taking in those sounds could draw from a large number of people, from those who love noise rock to those who embrace doom and black metal to people who just want to rave out and let the music take them to a new destination. These guys achieve that on this record, and it’s one of the most satisfying efforts of their entire catalog.

To attain the sounds they create on “Fantasy Empire,” their sixth full-length, Lightning Bolt tried some new things. Trying to capture a sound more indicative of their in-the-crowd live performances, the duo made further use of live loops and recorded the instruments in complete separation to maximize the power and energy. They also used hi-fi recording equipment for the first time, and worked hard to ensure they were getting just the sounds they wanted from their instruments. Some of the tracks on this new record might even be familiar to those who have witnessed the duo live before, and they have been in their repertoire, and the new ones should hit just as hard. It’s such a damn satisfying record, with the energy just bursting, and I have found myself listening over and over again in a single setting, letting the sounds affect my mood and thinking in a positive way.

“The Metal East” is your opener, with the bass charging, the sounds purposely washed out as if to make one giant smeared color, and the vocals barked out over the din, letting things get fiery and fun. The song is strangely catchy, especially when following along the nearly indecipherable singing, and the extra coats of noise it gets really push the track on its way. “Over the River and Through the Woods” is not their take on the holiday traditional, but it does give you a nice bit of mashing in which to sink your teeth. The riffs hammer, the drums are whipped, and the whole thing has a mechanical feel, like robots are commanding your attention. You might find this song really messes with your head, and by the time it’s over, you’re subservient to their will. “Horsepower” chugs ahead hard, with the tempo clubbing and swinging, and the fellows hitting a heavy groove that could have you on your feet one minute, at someone’s throat the next. “King of My World” has vocals that border on deranged, with the drums leading the way and the melodies coated in fuzz. The back end is pretty warped, with the music knocking you for a loop, leaving you seeing stars.

“Mythmaster” has drumming that sounds tribal and spiritual, leading you toward a trance. But then the song bursts into a jolt of speed, with the bass galloping and the melodies teetering toward corrosion. They return to hypnotic waters later, with their playing leaving you a dizzy mess. “Runaway Train” gives off fumes right away from the heavily burning riffs, and then the guys settle into a cool groove where they achieve a level of peace. But it’s short lived, as the music bubbles up and penetrates like a tooth drill, and they continually maul and stomp hard all the way to the finish line. “Dream Genie” is a short, but needed, interlude, built on cosmic dreaminess and hints of chaos, leading into “Dream Genie,” which picks up the closest hammer and begins swinging away. This is the most outright metallic thing on the record, with the guys stomping away, the noise crushing you hard, and the fuzz and buzz seemingly taunting you. “Snow White (and the 7 Dwarves Fans)” closes the record and is the longest cut on here at 11:21. The duo takes its time to let the noises and levels build properly, luring you into the maze before they let loose the really dangerous stuff. The bulk of this one is a psyched-out jam, with the quivery vocals reminding a bit of David Byrne’s delivery, and as the song reaches its ending, the pace convulses hard, noise spits, and everything around you is left shaking, crumbling, and folding in on itself in the band’s wake.

Whether it’s your first experience with Lightning Bolt or if you’ve been along for their entire ride, you’re bound to be moved and electrified by this new record. These guys sound as channeled, punishing, and on fire as ever before, and I can only imagine what this new material will do to further liven up these guys’ live show. “Fantasy Empire” is a portrait of a band at the top of its game, never content with what they’ve done in the past and always looking for that new level. No doubt they found it on this record and probably will again on their next.

For more on the band, go here: http://laserbeast.com/

To buy the album, go here: http://www.thrilljockey.com/catalog/

For more on the label, go here: http://www.thrilljockey.com/splash.html

Photo by Invisible Hour

The ability to make someone feel absolutely miserable is an art form not everyone is able to conquer. The ones that do can it can take that dark magic and spread it all over the universe, distributing their brand of fury and depression for everyone to experience.

Brand new Seattle death grinders Theories already have that thing down pat on their debut album “Regression,” their vicious, gnarly record that’s found an unlikely home on Metal Blade. That’s not a shot at Metal Blade, by the way. It’s just that bands of this ilk generally end up at other noteworthy places such as Relapse, so it’s cool to see the metal behemoth of a label giving these guys a proper thrust into the world. And having such a big label behind their debut should do wonders for Theories, because they are as vicious and explosive as they come. Now more people will be exposed to their thunderous vitriol that could give you a massive headache (uh … in a good way) once you’re done with this 10-track monster.

The components that make up Theories have made their marks elsewhere with other devastating outfits including Samothrace, Book of Black Earth, and Skarp, and you can hear elements of all of those groups mixed into this poisonous concoction. Comprising the lineup are vocalist Rick Powell, guitarist Lee McGlothlen, bassist Kush Karimi, and drummer Joe Axler, who combined their destructive forces to make for a fiery, not-to-miss debut record. The songs are on the shorter end, but the guys make the best of their time here, spilling tons of chaos and madness into these cuts and, yes, making sure you feel as miserable and agitated as possible along the way.

“Burnt Concrete” is the first burst of hell from this band, as a vicious, sludgy stream of mucky grind pours forth like cement about to harden. The track crushes without mercy, with the vocals lurching and bruising and the drums being completely decimated. “Cycle of Decay” is smeared with soot and mauls hard. The pace picks up, as they push forward with surprising force, and some melodic guitar lines burn underneath the chaos, allowing the mud to glimmer. “Shame” has punishing riffs, vocals that trample you hard, and a strong, smashing tempo, where it feels like the music is splitting your guts open and spraying them everywhere. “Abortive Crescent” has a breathless pace as it begins its assault from the word go, and the package of thrashy noise and aggressive battery raises the threat level and keeps its focus on killing until it finally bleeds out. “Bathing in Pig’s Blood” is as crazed and smearing as its title indicates, with the band rewarding your attention with menacing death and vocals that sound like they may have left Powell hoarse and raw when he was finished.

“First World’s Last Breath” unleashes pummeling drums, a thrashy and toxic guitar display, and vocals that reach into the deeper end for visions of complete annihilation. The horrors here are evident and they stick to your side long after the cut subsides. “Swimming in Mud,” despite its title, is one of the more adventurous, mind-altering of all of the songs included here. The guitars bend and sway, leaving a slurry feeling, and the vocals are massive and feel like they’re delivering a lifetime’s worth of pain. “Revenge/Rewild” rips apart immediately, with the guitars tearing a gaping hole in your chest and the other elements feeding off the carnage. The vocals, by the way, sound like they’re spat out in disgust, like Powell is trying to relieve himself of the worst thing he’s ever tasted. “Hell in Her Eyes” is the longest of the group at 4:59, and it starts in a bed of chilling guitars and eerie transmissions before they take a turn headlong into total devastation. The band adds some different colors on this track, like streaks of orange and purple across a dusk sky, while melody cuts through the smoke at the end, giving the track a thrilling finish. Closer “Landfill” then takes everything back into a raging fire, with hard riffs, vocals that are gruff and unforgiving, and a mangling last burst of terror that gets in some final gut punches.

If you are looking for something that’s good and angry and bound to leave you feeling miserable and irritated when all is said and done, Theories could be your band. “Regression” is a fine debut for the band, a record you should give a serious shot, especially if you want something to align with your own blackness and inner turmoil. This band will reward you time and time again, even if they also leave you with skinned knees on the verge of infection.

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

To buy the album, go here: http://www.indiemerch.com/metalbladerecords

For more on the label, go here: http://www.metalblade.com/us/

It’s hard to argue with a record that has a title that tells you everything you need to know about the music before you even experience it. Like, the first time your virgin ears ever encountered Venom’s “Black Metal,” didn’t you already have a pretty good idea of what was contained on said album?

In that same line of thinking, the debut from Unrest also tells you right away what you anticipate when you take on the music. “Grindcore” might not seem to be the most creative of titles, but damn it if it doesn’t work. That’s exactly what the record contains: grindcore. It’s as honest as you can get when it comes to titling your art, and the bashing you’ll experience on this 26-minute, 12-track album will leave you feeling battered, bloodied, and bruised. This is nuts-and-bolts grindcore, without any weird flourishes, odd colors, or additives. It’s lean, menacing, and should scratch every one of your itches for pure, unadulterated violence.

As for the characters who make up Unrest, they’ll be familiar to you, and we’ve covered every one of them before on this site. On drum and vocals is Chris Grigg, who also fronts the awesome black metal force Woe and plays in Infiltrator. On guitars and vocals is Steve Jansson, who is a member of tremendous trad doom band Crypt Sermon as well as the aforementioned Infiltrator and Trenchrot. Rounding out the trio is bassist Brooks Wilson, who is Crypt Sermon’s vocalist and also plays with Trenchrot. So there you have it: a strong lineup of players who have proved their power elsewhere and are now unloading the fury on you with this killer union.

The record tears open with “We’re Calling You Out,” a song that sounds just like its title, with the guys blowing down your doors and massacring you with a crazed pace, throat-mangling growls, and pure punishment. Then it’s on to “You Take,” with its thrashy assault, shrieked vocals, and vicious riffs that chug along at a dangerous pace. “Inaction” is a masher from the start, with Jannson and Grigg trading off vocals lines and sounding downright accusatory. The band lights shit on fire here, finding yet another level of madness and completely bulldozing everything in their way. “Quit” has gurgly, death-style vocals, break-neck speed, and more lightning-fast guitars that could jar your neck and make your face bleed. “Protest Culture” is a short blast, coming at you with arms swinging in windmill fashion, leaving you no place to avoid the attack. “Faith Is a Hearse” opens with a doomier setting, as the guitars bleed a little slower, but then it kicks up dust and goes full throttle, trying to take you out in one death shot.

“Anything to Shock” is a ripper from the beginning, with raspy growls, guitars that actually allow some melody into the room, and a spectacular and meaty groove that drives the song to its conclusion. “Nothing (That’s All You Have to Give)” sounds like an insult from the start, and they pay that off with crunchy thrashing, vocals wailed over a thick and ominous bassline, and then some tremendous charging when it hits the home stretch. Awesome cut. “Identity in the Internet Age” burns wildly, with a punk rock feel to the verses, catchy carnage along the way, and guitars that light up and blind you with its flames as it speeds up to ridiculous rates. “Consumption” is another thrashy one that shakes up your insides and could force the contents of your stomach onto the floor. “False Brotherhood” has a nice dose of black metal-style riffing, more vocal interplay, and a catchy, hammering ending. Closer “Drown” is the longest cut at 3:13, and it has some pretty interesting guitar work, different textures, but still gruff, mangling playing that provides the final blasts in this total grind barrage.

Unrest are grindcore. There’s no more concise way to say that, and their aptly titled debut record should fill up your insides with devastating goodness. This is a flattening, totally fulfilling serving that will leave your body bruised, your thirst for bloodshed completely satisfied, and your hearing permanently compromised. What more do you need to know than that?

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

To buy the album, go here: http://www.unspeakableaxerecords.com/purchase/

For more on the label, go here: http://www.unspeakableaxerecords.com/

Metal and heavy rock can come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and sounds. It would be dull if it all followed the exact same path, and this world would be nearly as exciting as it is if everyone constantly went for the jugular, with no attention paid to variety. Part of what makes metal and extreme music so rewarding is because it is so expansive.

That’s why the presence of a band such as Pyramids is so interesting to dissect. Not exactly metal, not really rock, this band has made some of the most imaginative, complex sounds of the past few years. They’re not a slave to any sound, and they likely could find favor among those who like black metal and doom, as well as folks who are just as inclined to pay homage to the Cure, Radiohead, and My Bloody Valentine. You can’t pinpoint their sound or trap it in a corner, because it will grow, climb up the walls, morph into an entirely new creature, and come back at you completely transformed. Now, seven long years since their last and self-titled full-length record enveloped the world, they return with their gushing, sky-borne, spacey new album “A Northern Meadow” that’s long overdue and very much welcome. As expected, it pushed matters even further than ever before and can totally infect you just minutes into its run time. It’s not a platter of bloody brutality by any means, but it’s dark, morose in corners, sometimes threatening and chilling, and always arresting. It’s a fantastic piece of work.

Pyramids’ shadowy lineup is comprised of R. Loren, M. Dean, M. Craig, and D. Willaim, and on this record, they are joined by notable guests such as Vindsval of Blut Aus Nord; Colin Marston of Krallice, Gorguts, Dysrhythmia, and more; and musician/composer William Fowler Collins, who has released music on labels including SIGE, Utech, Handmade Birds, and plenty of others. It may have been a long time since we got that last record, but it’s been worth the wait. And they haven’t been totally absent or anything, as they released a remix album, as well as a collaborative music with Nadja and split efforts with Mamiffer and Horseback. But “A Northern Meadow” takes things ever further. It’s a daydreamy, otherworldly album that gets more and more involved with each listen, and I’ve more than once let my promo version of the album restart over and over again, with me totally losing track of where I am.

“In Perfect Stillness, I’ve Only Found Sorrow” gives you a deep drink of reality right from the start, as guitars sweep in, the falsetto-rich vocals grab onto you and hold on tightly, with the entire thing having a foggy dream effect that could leave you feeling intoxicated. There are weird electronic smears on the back end, and a mesmerizing fog that leads you out and toward “The Earth Melts Into Red Gashes Like the Mouth of Whales” that has bent, slurry melodies and dark riffs that emerge from the corners. A noise sheen washes over everything, with various sounds merging, creating their own unique color combinations, and splitting apart again, while the track’s body begins to soar and encircle the atmosphere. “The Substance of Grief Is Not Imaginary” has strange alien vocals effects that sound delivered in a spacious underground tunnel, while the guitars get grittier and the vocals sweep in like a mist looking to inebriate you. The song has a morbid, sinister feel as it reaches its conclusion, leaving the sense of threat and isolation to keep hold of everything. “Indigo Birds” follows, as it opens into a deep guitar gaze, with the line, “We slice the sun,” floating on top of the murk. There is great wooshing and beds of synth that spill texture all over the scene, as the whirry vocals and numb sentiments take over every cell of your body.

“I Have Four Sons, All Named for Men We Lost to War” is one of the heaviest, grimiest selections on the record, and it’s here where Vindsval and his bizarre sense of melody and composition have their greatest effect. A doomy, churning riff rips into the mix, and some elements give off the same dark essence as the last few Blut Aus Nord albums. It’s like two forces smashing together and creating a cataclysmic effect, making it one of the record’s most engaging tracks. “I Am So Sorry, Goodbye” has a mournful, dissonant start, with sounds echoing out and hanging in the air, and strange, warped passages that could leave your head cloudy. The song keeps building odd layers on top of itself, with melody and fuzz joining together at the end and closing this chapter. “My Father, Tall as Goliath” has reverberating vocals that bounce off the walls, with the guitars churning and going dark again and the words pleading, “Swallow us away.” The robotic vocals returns again to give the message a mechanical feel, and the elements gurgle underneath the surface and finally submit. Closer “Consilience” has the shortest title but it’s the longest passage at 9:23. Black guitar lines slither from the cracks in the walls, with the vocals soaring and your blood bubbling from the heat. The track also has a sleep-inducing quality, lulling you into calm as sounds float, keys create a bed of serenity, and the record disappears into the sky.

Pyramids are a fantastic, futuristic band that always find a way to do things in their own way, but they always remember to inject bits of their hearts and souls into the music. These eight songs are emotionally involved, wonderfully heart-affecting, and always soar high into the atmosphere, where you can follow the band into other worlds. It might not be the heaviest record from a sound standpoint, but it carries so much substance and imaginative weight, it could crush worlds.

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

To buy the album, go here: https://www.profoundlorerecords.com/products-page/

For more on the label, go here: http://www.profoundlorerecords.com/

Much has been made the past few years about the long-awaited new releases from Carcass and At the Gates, and for good reason. Each have had major impacts on the metal scene the past two decades, and their returns were seen as glorious, monumental events where past warriors come back to claim new triumphs.

But there are other bands resurfacing after long periods on inaction, including Dutch death machine Eternal Solstice. The band hasn’t delivered a new record since 1997’s “Demonic Fertilizer” before they went their separate ways. The group returned a few years ago and contributed to two split releases, and now they’re back with their first new full-length in 18 years, the gruff and punishing “Remnants of Immortality” that sounds as war-torn and brutal as their earlier work. They share some of the same traits as other death bands from their homeland, including Asphyx, Hail of Bullets, and Pestilence, as well as the bomb-blasting Bolt Thrower. This new, nine-track effort is furious and satisfying, and it’s great that this band could find new life, especially aligned with Dark Descent Records.

Eternal Solstice retain two long-time members in guitarist/vocalist Roman Soeterbroek and drummer Misha Hak, and joining them in this incarnation of the band are guitarist Ardy de Jong and bassist Tim Roeper. Even though they’re really just solidifying this lineup, they sound pretty damn formidable, with their assault well-oiled and violent, and with them hitting you as hard as they possibly can. Really, it’s almost as if this band didn’t miss a beat during their disappearance.

The instrumental title track opens the record in ominous fashion, with sirens wailing and war-like sounds grabbing your attention and holding it there. Then “Ritual Prey” explodes with a punchy death gallop, gruff growls, and a further sense that the warfront is mounting. “Striking again, again, again,” Soeterbroek howls, as strong leads burn and drive to the end of this very heavy, to-the-point track. “Walk in Darkness” has a clubbing, chugging open, giving off a Bolt Thrower feel and making you want to take up arms. Again the vocals are monstrous but also lurching, with a pace that crushes and blistering soloing that burns a hole through your soul. “Force Fed Suicide” has an ultra-aggressive start, with the drums pummeled and forcefully shouted growls erupting. The track has death-meets-thrash feel to it, with more electrifying soloing and a pace that rumbles all over the place. “Recipe for Death” starts with a slower, but no less heavy, pace, with furious lurching vocals that eventually turn into harsh grunts. The tempo speeds up markedly and starts stomping hard, eventually meeting up with a trudgy doom section, before it ignites all over again. Tortured wails are splashed behind the chaos, while guitars light up and deliver sleek soloing that powers the song until it fades away.

“Encroaching Horde” has a punishing open that encircles you and then swirls and mashes. The track is riffy and punchy, with catchy melodies intertwined that, fun as they may sound, still are delivered with stomping intent. Stronger guitar work colors this one, and the band just grinds you in its gears as it progresses. “Bleed for Me” has drumming that spills in from the last song, and it blisters and devastates you, throwing punches blindly. The vocals are as gruff and monstrous as anywhere else on this album, with Soeterbroek wailing, “I’ll take your innocence,” as those words are enhanced by the song’s thrashy mashing. “Extinction Debt” is introduced by mournful guitars that spread out their dark wings, but then the whole thing explodes and whips you with a fury. There are fantastic riffs involved, with all elements blasting forcefully and smothering chugging kicking up dirt. Closer “Subconscious Burial Ground” buries you with plastering, punishing, melodic death metal, with a sooty breakdown. The guitars hit a nasty groove, with the vocals refusing to relent and the final moments feeling like final push for total war.

Eternal Solstice’s reformation might not have gotten the in-the-street festivals similar to the aforementioned bands’ returns, but this group’s new album is just as rewarding and even more deadly. This Dutch death force deserves to be celebrated for their long-time commitment to the cause and for remaining as hungry and punishing as they were when they formed more than a quarter of a century ago. They’re hitting as hard as ever before, and the carnage on this new record proves they’re more than capable of increasing their already impressive body count.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eternal-Solstice/384594534885754

To buy the album, go here: http://www.darkdescentrecords.com/store/

For more on the label, go here: http://www.darkdescentrecords.com/

Repellers

I am great at overlooking smaller packages. Just so great at it. For example, we basically cover full-length albums on this site, and for good reason as there are so damn many of them. But there are smaller releases that definitely are worth anyone’s while, so let’s get to a couple of them today.

Broken Limbs Recordings are a fun label to follow. They don’t put out giant indie releases that gets blogs and magazines in a tizzy. Yet. That day is going to come, because they do a fine job picking bands to release. But they’re there plugging away, putting new music into the metal underground, and always keeping things interesting. Not every one of their releases may resonate with you, but you can’t argue that they keep your eyes open. This is one of the labels that when I get their promos, I make sure to sit down with them and absorb each note, because time and care have been put into each release. These two are no different, one that pairs a site favorite with on that might be soon, and another a band’s new EP that’s bite size but wholly brutal.

Mortals

Up first we have a split from Brooklyn’s awesome Mortals, whose most recent album “Cursed to See the Future” was our eighth favorite record of last year and who have been growing in notoriety. This trio is one you need to see live, with bassist/vocalist Lesley Wolf destroying you with her howls, guitarist Elizabeth Cline slaying you with riffs, and drummer Caryn Havlik punishing you from behind the kit. They are part of this new split effort alongside Repellers, a relatively new band hailing from West Philadelphia that brings the shit heavily with their contributions to the effort. These guys—a trio consisting of bassist/vocalist Rob Petraitis, drummer/vocalist Tony Secreto, and guitarist/vocalist Jon Rifenburg—have a small resume at the moment, but no doubt they will branch out and maul fools for many years to come with their amalgamation of death, crust, thrash, and doom.

Mortals come at you first with a single track that runs nearly nine minutes and continues to display their penchant for stretching their sound. “10 Years of Filth” starts with a film clip packed with screaming before it loads into a tempered assault that leans toward sinewy thrashing. The guitars explore the surroundings, while Wolf’s growls are unleashed and go for the jugular. This has a different feel than a lot of their songs, especially what they unleashed on their last record, and as the track goes on, it finally hits full speed. The vocals lurch, the tempo is menacing, the riffs get gigantic and virulent, as Wolf wails, “This world was created for suffering,” sticking the dagger in one more time for good measure. This band rules.

Repellers’ three tracks are shorter and bloodthirsty and will leave you gasping for air. The viciousness and promise are on display as soon as “Descend” launches. Though the track is calm at first, it doesn’t take long until it rips into heavy blasting, vocals that note “nocturnal creatures stir,” and the band continuing the assault like they’re preparing you to feed to said ghouls. “From Jerico to Ai” doesn’t last long, but it makes the most of its time from the thick bassline that spills forth, the proggy weirdness that runs into a death march, and howls of, “Your next dream shall be your last!” that fully pays off the imminent threat. Closer “False Solace” pokes at blind faith, punches and smacks at you, and unleashes poisonous taunts such as, “No one is coming back, a false solace remains,” as the guys steamroll you for good and leave you a stain on the pavement. Repellers are on our radar for sure, and I’m pretty amped to hear where they go in the future.

For more on Mortals, go here: https://www.facebook.com/mortalstheband

For more on Repellers, go here: https://www.facebook.com/repellers

Ramlord

We also have a new EP from Ramlord, a band we most recently talked about last year due to their split effort with Krieg, and now they’re back with a blistering two-track, self-titled effort that will melt your neck off. Then your head will just be attached to your … chest? Ah, it’s worth it. The two cuts here are hard to explain, and what the band—vocalist/guitarist Jan (also of the great Leather Chalice), bassist Mike, and drummer/vocalist Ben—puts together can fit in all kinds of containers, from black metal, to noise, to hardcore, to punk, to death. No matter what you call it, the music grabs your attention forcefully and holds it against your will.

“The Breached Sanctum” is the first shot, with liquidy guitar work trickling down, feeling alien and spooky, before it rips open into full carnage. The growls are harsh and ominous, with the melodies flooding and bubbling black, and the vocals turning fierce and shrill. The music gets weird and challenging, the song takes a strange twist towards doom, and the song chugs its way to the finish. “The Fog of Neglect” has a punk edge, one that’s messy and filthy and that’s met with vocals that feel scuffed with glass and rusty metal. The track is mean and raw, with intense emotions blowing at you like sparks and fire, and the assault is monstrous and heavy. The last bits of the song meander into mud and sludge, as the band mashes you into the ground, letting you lie there as you bleed out until your expiration. This is a nice mini-effort that hopefully paves the way for their third full-length release.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ramlord/116149375131744

These are a couple of fun, worthwhile releases that will beat your ass but leave you happy that you went through the torment. Three great bands, a couple of smaller releases that you can digest in whole on your ride to and from work, and enough metal to fill whatever hole you have in your motivation tank. These may be smaller packages, but they certainly don’t lack in substance and crushing emotion.

To buy either album, go here: http://brokenlimbsrecordings.com/shop/

For more on the label, go here: http://brokenlimbsrecordings.com/