Hopefully this won’t cause any misunderstood nomenclature-based relationship woes, but I love Lunatic Hooker. It’s almost impossible to believe that such panache and grime can walk hand-in-hand, but in the aptly titled Embrace The Filth they do precisely that. Grandiose metal class. Complete and utter dirt. Continue reading
Kicking off with the true essence of Napalm Death, you know from first contact that Our Father is going to heavily present one thing; classic, European leaning death metal. The aesthetic Verdigris of international anarcho-punk smears the surface of every track, and some supreme tangents of doom break for air, but still, it is a sound which is death to (or perhaps from) its core. Continue reading
Sentinel Apocalypse from Eschaton is just one of those releases that seems utterly perfect at executing the first blow in bare-knuckle, technical death metal. Everything that happens after opener, Obligatory Conviction, is undeniably fantastic, but it is in the first few moments that followers of bands such as Man Must Die, Agonyst, and Meshuggah are likely to be hooked. Continue reading
One-man, black metal band: a phrase that can strike pre-emptive disappointment into the heart of even the most stalwart extreme music aficionado. It can frequently be the case that these projects lack any kind of individuality or panache, aspects which are thankfully becoming more mandatory in the genre. UKEM’s recent signing, Angmaer, is luckily not guilty of this particular sin.
As the bio states, this is very true to the 1990s’ golden age of BM. The character must be incredibly hard for one person to capture this successfully on their own, and in that Towards Darkness’ Paradise is most assuredly a great success. Although it embraces a touch of the clarity brought to later BM releases, it retains an undeniably classic quality. Continue reading
It may only be May, but 2015 has already been awash with fresh thrash offerings, some absolute belters, some a bit flaccid, to be generous. Black Talon now step into the spotlight with their debut long-player, Endless Realities, and something magical is happening. This is genuine street thrash, brought up, full time, in the shadows at the edge of the genre’s history, and splattered with the arterial spray of death metal. If the latter is the input of guitarist Mike Robertson, also of Edinburghian brutes, Cancerous Womb, then it’s well-smoothed around the edges. Continue reading
Remember when you first fell in love with Metallica’s last great album, And Justice For All? What? You didn’t like it? First of all, there’s a chance we can’t be friends, and second, you could well be put off Anihilated’s freshest release, Anti Social Engineering, from the offset. There’s a more diverse character to the long-player, but the riff that primes the album is very reminiscent of that particular moment in the thrash giants’ career, and it echoes on throughout. If ‘the big 4’ had Anthrax switched out for Testament, and were merged into one band, this sound could very well be the result, instrumentally speaking. Continue reading
There are probably quite high expectations for At The Gates to live up to with this, their first album since 1995’s landmark melodic death metal opus, Slaughter Of The Soul. I’m certainly feeling a certain sense of trepidation hitting the play button, but my hopes are high after hearing the preview title track. Continue reading
Despite forming in 2005, this only the third release, and second full-length from tech-death Swedes Soreption. Its predecessor, “Deterioration Of Minds”, released four years earlier in 2010, was somewhat of a behemoth, so this time around they have some significant living up to do. Continue reading
Are you listening? Have I got your attention? Good! Because, this, ladies and gentlemen, is how you make brutal, blackened, extreme death metal for modern listeners! Memorable in character from the first riff, this is a stupendously defiant recording on all fronts. If ever I heard so many consistent blast beats being put to such effective use, I simply don’t remember it. Continue reading
I’m not really sure how it’s happened, but despite the fact that this is the fourth album from The More I See (featuring the guitar stylings of Gizz Butt – The Prodigy, Janus Stark, English Dogs, Sabbat!), it’s the first one I’ve heard. There are only four tracks from the full-length provided here, but the Earache label have uploaded the whole thing as a series of individual videos. Continue reading
