Acid Mammoth - Supersonic Megafauna Collision (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Matt Bladen]
Pleistocene era doom metal from Athens' less than wooly tusked creatures. Formed in 2015 Acid Mammoth are a doom band who have been delivering heavy riffs for nearly 10 years now, each album an ear splitting mix of Electric Wizard, Cathedral and of course Sabbath, woozy psychedelia meets building destroying distortion, a lingering fuzz in the vocals and elongated run times.Since signing to Heavy Psych Sounds they have released three previous albums and spilt, and on this fourth album Supersonic Megafauna Collision they don't seem to be losing any of their creative drive. In opposition to the more downbeat previous album recorded during COVID, this one is a celebration of being able to get out on the road again and play their music, locking in tighter than ever before to crush skulls.
Haunted Memories shows hints of keys and synth led orchestration adding depth to the spoken word verse sections. Acolytes Of Doom follows and vocally it has to be the most interesting song so far, clean vocals are layered upon Death Metal styled growls, the tempo is a bit more uplifting compared to that which has come before it but that tone of melancholy is still very much in the fore.
The Path To Immortality and Ephialtes close the album, the former begins with a very stripped down intro, dreamy keys weave their way around the drums before the guitars pick up the melody and bring the vocals with it; the latter as expressive in it’s melodies and doom like atmosphere as the rest of the album.
It’s been awhile since I’ve reviewed an album that has held my interest as much as this has, the influence of bands I hold dear not withstanding, this is a really promising album; those that like their music at breakneck speed won’t enjoy the woeful performance here but for anyone, like myself, who takes pleasure from dark brooding melodies and riffs that carry all the weight of a family funeral then this is definitely one to try. 8/10
Chris Babalis Jr calls it a "celebration of fuzz" but unveils itself as a darker and heavier record than any of their others. Chris Jr and Chris Sr lock into the grooves from the beginning, distorted to all hell, as if emerging from a thick fog of primeval smoke, while Dimosthenis Varikos' thundering bass rattles the rocks of the valley loose so Marios Louvaris' drumming can smash them to pieces. It's knuckle dragging doom that gives some moments of melody.
As the first chord is hit you know this is Acid Mammoth stampeding again with more doom, though with Garden Of Bones, they bring a bit more melody from acoustics, the occult B-Movie samples used on the crushing Atomic Sharman as we cross the astral planes in our planet caravan on One With The Void. Providing a woozy break before the black hole continues to expand on the final track collapsing all light inside it.
On their fourth album Supersonic Megafauna Collision, the Acid Mammoth return with more trampling Athenian doom. 9/10
Suicide Season - Life, But In Reverse (Alone Records) [James Jackson]
Of the many bands that are cited as influences for Suicide Season, a Doom Metal duo based in the UK; two immediately stood out. My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost are acts I’ve followed for the best part of thirty years, so naturally I’m keen to give this album a listen and find out what my favourite bands have inspired.
Harrowing Torment opens with a reverb driven picked guitar melody, it takes that melody and adds further instrumentation, a slow but powerful rhythm guided by the drums, that melody grittier through a now distorted guitar sound. The Return To The Earth is as darks as its title suggests, as in Death we return to the Earth, its easy to describe the composition as melodic and sorrowful and it’s easy to see how influential the likes of My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost have been.
Of the many bands that are cited as influences for Suicide Season, a Doom Metal duo based in the UK; two immediately stood out. My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost are acts I’ve followed for the best part of thirty years, so naturally I’m keen to give this album a listen and find out what my favourite bands have inspired.
Harrowing Torment opens with a reverb driven picked guitar melody, it takes that melody and adds further instrumentation, a slow but powerful rhythm guided by the drums, that melody grittier through a now distorted guitar sound. The Return To The Earth is as darks as its title suggests, as in Death we return to the Earth, its easy to describe the composition as melodic and sorrowful and it’s easy to see how influential the likes of My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost have been.
Haunted Memories shows hints of keys and synth led orchestration adding depth to the spoken word verse sections. Acolytes Of Doom follows and vocally it has to be the most interesting song so far, clean vocals are layered upon Death Metal styled growls, the tempo is a bit more uplifting compared to that which has come before it but that tone of melancholy is still very much in the fore.
The Path To Immortality and Ephialtes close the album, the former begins with a very stripped down intro, dreamy keys weave their way around the drums before the guitars pick up the melody and bring the vocals with it; the latter as expressive in it’s melodies and doom like atmosphere as the rest of the album.
It’s been awhile since I’ve reviewed an album that has held my interest as much as this has, the influence of bands I hold dear not withstanding, this is a really promising album; those that like their music at breakneck speed won’t enjoy the woeful performance here but for anyone, like myself, who takes pleasure from dark brooding melodies and riffs that carry all the weight of a family funeral then this is definitely one to try. 8/10
Witch Vomit - Funeral Sanctum (20 Buck Spin) [GC]
When you see a band is on 20 Buck Spin, you are usually guaranteed that its going to be a decent record and today I have Funeral Sanctum which is the 3rd album from US death metallers Witch Vomit.
After my usual skim through intro track Dying Embers, the first track proper Endless Fall is a sharp and relentless blackened death metal attack full of razor sharp and precise guitars that although having a very un-death metal sounding clean and crisp edge they don’t take away any of the nastiness that is on show, this follows directly into Blood Of Abomination which is an unrelenting, vicious attack of death metal brutality.
When you see a band is on 20 Buck Spin, you are usually guaranteed that its going to be a decent record and today I have Funeral Sanctum which is the 3rd album from US death metallers Witch Vomit.
After my usual skim through intro track Dying Embers, the first track proper Endless Fall is a sharp and relentless blackened death metal attack full of razor sharp and precise guitars that although having a very un-death metal sounding clean and crisp edge they don’t take away any of the nastiness that is on show, this follows directly into Blood Of Abomination which is an unrelenting, vicious attack of death metal brutality.
Then we get Serpentine Shadows that goes to directly to the other end of the spectrum and is full of doomy atmosphere and slow lurching guitar and drum work for the most part and after the relentlessness of the openers, it’s a bit of an instant gear change but they do throw in the necessary sped up parts that flesh the song out and give it a nice variety of styles.
Decaying Angelic Flesh goes back to the direct and savage approach but again is slowed down in pace but not in a way that makes the song lose any edge and it does of course mix in some more expected sped up sections midway it all again mixes nicely to create subtlety and brutality in a sublime mix. Black Wings Of Desolation takes us past the halfway point and here we have more of the excellently done blackened death metal with the buzzsaw guitars and frantic drums all covered with the thick and grimy vocals and from start to finish this is whirlwind of death metal beauty and has some atmospheric solos added in that sound majestic before exiting on a cascading wave of more blackened death metal.
Dominion Of A Darkened Realm unleashes a whole new level of darkness and is just a wonderfully executed piece of work, it manages to hark back to the 90’s glory days of death metal with its thick sound and slowed pace but also has the mix of new school mixed in beautifully, Endarkened Spirit then just goes all out with a 1 minute blast of relentlessness but its once again measured to the point of perfection and doesn’t just get lost in the mix.
Abject Silence is a 2-minute interlude of some nice guitars that are good to listen to but I’m not really sure what it achieves in the whole mix of the album because the tone and feel are totally different to everything else and it when leads into title track Funeral Sanctum it doesn’t make sense as this track is the final nail in our coffin and proceeds to brutalize and pummel us with the varied mix of the more slowed down old school and the more groove lead modern and of course its all done with such a consummate ease that you cant help but just applaud what you have just heard and also be a little sad that it’s all over already!
Pretty much every minute of this record was brilliant and the bits that I didn’t really rate were only 3 minutes in length and in the grand scheme of things, you can just forget those bits and just focus on the rest of this fantastic but also frustratingly short piece of brilliance but why make things unnecessarily long just for the sake of it? Witch Vomit have crafted an album that once you listen to it and its finished you will want to go back to again and again. 8/10
Thor – Ride The Iron Horse (Deadline Music) [Paul Hutchings]
Like a punch-drunk boxer, Canadian singer Thor (Jon Miki Thor) apparently doesn’t know when to give up. His extensive discography continues to grow, and since my last review of Alliance for MoM in 2021, where he scored a career high 2/10, the man has managed to sneak out another release in Queen Of The Spiders, which I thankfully failed to listen to.
Good news though for his German fans, who seem to dig the basest style of heavy metal, the legendary foe of hot water bottles is back with his latest release, the steaming dump that is Ride The Iron Horse.
Once again, it’s the vocals and dreadful lyrics that really stink this release to high heaven, for the musicianship that lurks underneath the musclebound warblings is reasonable. But you can’t avoid the utter shite that is poured out from the opening title track, through the absolutely horrific Peace By Piece, a song which apparently is meant to be a profound perspective on world peace, and the final track, Bring it On, which at least has a decent riff.
But seriously, and yes, I know it’s a sin to open a sentence with ‘but’, who buys this stuff. The man is celebrating 50 years in the music business. How this is possible is beyond me and for a label to continue to offer the man precious recording time seems bizarre.
I’ve rated his previous four albums from 1-2/10 and Ride The Iron Horse stands proudly amongst the worst. There are few redeeming features, and my confusion here is only heightened by the release of several unreleased recordings from Thor’s early years. A demo of Thunder On The Tundra from 1979 demonstrates that this is a project that should have been strangled at birth.
If Odin was real, he’s have struck down this bizarre character by now. One can only admire the longevity of an artist who really offers nothing to the Metal world. Now, in his early 70s, surely the time is right for Thor to hang up his boots and hammer. 2/10
Pretty much every minute of this record was brilliant and the bits that I didn’t really rate were only 3 minutes in length and in the grand scheme of things, you can just forget those bits and just focus on the rest of this fantastic but also frustratingly short piece of brilliance but why make things unnecessarily long just for the sake of it? Witch Vomit have crafted an album that once you listen to it and its finished you will want to go back to again and again. 8/10
Thor – Ride The Iron Horse (Deadline Music) [Paul Hutchings]
Like a punch-drunk boxer, Canadian singer Thor (Jon Miki Thor) apparently doesn’t know when to give up. His extensive discography continues to grow, and since my last review of Alliance for MoM in 2021, where he scored a career high 2/10, the man has managed to sneak out another release in Queen Of The Spiders, which I thankfully failed to listen to.
Good news though for his German fans, who seem to dig the basest style of heavy metal, the legendary foe of hot water bottles is back with his latest release, the steaming dump that is Ride The Iron Horse.
Once again, it’s the vocals and dreadful lyrics that really stink this release to high heaven, for the musicianship that lurks underneath the musclebound warblings is reasonable. But you can’t avoid the utter shite that is poured out from the opening title track, through the absolutely horrific Peace By Piece, a song which apparently is meant to be a profound perspective on world peace, and the final track, Bring it On, which at least has a decent riff.
But seriously, and yes, I know it’s a sin to open a sentence with ‘but’, who buys this stuff. The man is celebrating 50 years in the music business. How this is possible is beyond me and for a label to continue to offer the man precious recording time seems bizarre.
I’ve rated his previous four albums from 1-2/10 and Ride The Iron Horse stands proudly amongst the worst. There are few redeeming features, and my confusion here is only heightened by the release of several unreleased recordings from Thor’s early years. A demo of Thunder On The Tundra from 1979 demonstrates that this is a project that should have been strangled at birth.
If Odin was real, he’s have struck down this bizarre character by now. One can only admire the longevity of an artist who really offers nothing to the Metal world. Now, in his early 70s, surely the time is right for Thor to hang up his boots and hammer. 2/10
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