Birmingham, UK band Margarita Witch Cult had one of the surprise debuts of 2023; their universally loved (at least in certain circles) self-titled record was a 30-minute blast of catchy and evil proto goodness. The success of their first album could prove as a challenge for record number two, but MWC answer the call with Strung Out In Hell, which still maintains their great understanding of melody, ability to create earworms, and killer proto metal stylings but brings some other cool elements to the table to show both the ability to double down on their strengths while expanding the listener’s experience.
Opening with a nice and evil proto riff and some nice stoner chunkiness, Crawl To Your Coffin continues with where MWC left off in 2023, and that is fine by me. It could be because I am reading a book on the subject, but I hear some serious 70s Alice Cooper vibes in these nine songs. Heavier, but it is there for sure. I still love Scott Abbott’s unique vocals which really differentiates the trio from the bunches of other bands playing this style. Scream Bloody Murder is the perfect example of their sexy proto murder metal that makes this band what it is. Speaking of evil, the mid-tempo shock rock of Conqueror Worm keeps us on the same killer path, with a cool “chorus” and killer guitar and bass synergy that the trio also excels at. Throw in some keys and you get even extra awesomeness.
Don’t ever forget that MWC can rip it up, evidence being the under three-minute Witches Candle. Love the guitar work on this one. Track five is where some controversy will start, but once you give it a shot, their cover of the Billy Idol classic and universally known hit White Wedding will make sense in the grand scheme of things, especially how they slow down the tempo, add the cool, layered vocals, and doom it up perfectly, making it a very MWC version of a classic. Mars Rover is one of their more complex songs and one of the most Black Sabbath-like songs that MWC have done, and they nail it.
Where we go off the normal MWC path that they have so well established is with Dig Your Way Out, which sounds more like 90s noise/hardcore band Unsane than anything else, and boy am I here for it. The heaviest song the trio has done so far by a lot. Those who don’t love brass in their heavy rock may scoff at seeing credits for trumpet and baritone sax on The Fool, but if you like Alice Cooper you will have no choice but to love this song. Who Put Bella In The Wych Elm is one of my favourite song titles of the year and is a creepy, slow, and the longest song MWC has done so far, and it works, especially with he filthy doom riff kicks in the song drags you right to hell.
We do not need to compare the first two Margarita Witch Cult records, we only need to say they are both awesome. Strung Out In Hell keeps the (now) trademarked MWC sound and gives you everything you love about the band while also expanding and even experimenting a bit with these nine new tracks. A killer sophomore record after one of the best debuts in recent history. 9/10
Entrails - Grip Of Ancient Evil (Hammerheart Records) [GC]
As a flag waving death metal fan it always sort of worries me if a band have released 8 albums and I haven’t ever heard a single second of music by them, this is where I am with Entrails, sure I have heard the name before but never felt the urge to check them out, but then you cant listen to every band ever I suppose?! Anyway, moving on, this is their 9th album Grip Of Ancient Evil.
It starts with an intro Grip Of Ancient Evil which doesn’t really do much and sounds like something a bard from the 18th century might write and kind of feels pointless. Untreatable Decay is better and has the Swedish death metal sound and throws in lots of wailing leads and melodic flourishes and at first I’m not really sure about the way vocals fit with everything else but my main issue is the mix the drums sound flat and empty and the whole song lack force and power because of it and unfortunately this continues into Skin ‘Em All musically its all done very well and has what you would expect from a Swedish death metal band but without the correct mix it just lacks the force you need for it to really be rammed home in a way that it makes a lasting mark!
We do not need to compare the first two Margarita Witch Cult records, we only need to say they are both awesome. Strung Out In Hell keeps the (now) trademarked MWC sound and gives you everything you love about the band while also expanding and even experimenting a bit with these nine new tracks. A killer sophomore record after one of the best debuts in recent history. 9/10
Entrails - Grip Of Ancient Evil (Hammerheart Records) [GC]
As a flag waving death metal fan it always sort of worries me if a band have released 8 albums and I haven’t ever heard a single second of music by them, this is where I am with Entrails, sure I have heard the name before but never felt the urge to check them out, but then you cant listen to every band ever I suppose?! Anyway, moving on, this is their 9th album Grip Of Ancient Evil.
It starts with an intro Grip Of Ancient Evil which doesn’t really do much and sounds like something a bard from the 18th century might write and kind of feels pointless. Untreatable Decay is better and has the Swedish death metal sound and throws in lots of wailing leads and melodic flourishes and at first I’m not really sure about the way vocals fit with everything else but my main issue is the mix the drums sound flat and empty and the whole song lack force and power because of it and unfortunately this continues into Skin ‘Em All musically its all done very well and has what you would expect from a Swedish death metal band but without the correct mix it just lacks the force you need for it to really be rammed home in a way that it makes a lasting mark!
On Conquering The Unknown the vocals and drums completely dominate and it feels like they drown out the guitars, it’s a fight for them to be heard properly so once again it just feels like there is something missing and its not until there are no vocals that you fully hear what is actually going on which isn’t ideal!? Hunt In The Shadows actually sounds like more of a black metal track and it sort of works because with 90’s style black metal you expected a dirt mix that would not outshine the music, giving the band a certain mystique, however I’m pretty sure this is not what is being aimed for here but the tempo and feel do make it stand out a bit better than anything else so far.
Fed To The Dead actually gets me from the very go as its got a bit of groove and rhythm that claws its way to the surface above all the issues sonically it just pushes through and finally sort of clicks maybe I’m just used to what I’m hearing or maybe it’s really just a good track with about more about it than previous offerings! on Wings Of Death it seems the earlier sound demons have been defeated and everything works in perfect harmony with nothing over powering anything else and everything sounding crisp and sharp, it finally has the impact you really want! Graveyard Rising finds Entrails slowing things down, it’s not like funeral doom or anything but it’s a doomier sound, which once again ramps everything up as you can actually hear what is happening from each individual musician and when given the room to stretch and breathe the sound is actually enjoyable.
Inner Demon then keeps the doomier sound going and for me it doesn’t really work as well, there are just a couple of things that get me most, the song is about 2 minutes too long and that ties into the next point its just a bit boring, if you are going to try this sort of thing please make it worth listening too because about hallway I find myself just drifting and not really paying attention, thankfully Insane Death does pick things back up with a rousing hit of 90’s tinged melodic death metal that this album could have probably done with a bit more of in all honesty as it really shows what can be done if you just keep it simple! Consumed By Insects then blasts into sight and is probably the best track on the album, it’s full of blastbeats, buzzsaw riffing and the sort of earworm rhythm that will be stuck in your head for a while to come and it’s a bit annoying that it’s taken until the last track to get something this good!!
My main take from Grip Of Ancient Evil is there is clearly talent here, bands don’t release 8 albums if they haven’t got talent, in parts it shone through but there were also too many parts that didn’t really work and as I mentioned once or twice the mix in some places was just all over the place. In all honesty on this showing, I would not be overly keen to go back and listen to this album again or dip into Entrails back catalogue it was an ok listen but that’s about as far as it goes for me! 6/10
Mouth Of Madness – Event Horizon (Darkness Shall Rise Productions) [Spike]
After more than a decade of silence, Germany’s enigmatic duo Mouth Of Madness return with Event Horizon, an album that sprawls across nine tracks of cold, occult-tinged ambience and blackened death metal. The record is anchored by three ambient passages Transhimalaja Parts I–III composed by Frank Fiedler of Popol Vuh, which provide eerie calm between the heavier assaults, like ritual breathwork before the plunge.
My main take from Grip Of Ancient Evil is there is clearly talent here, bands don’t release 8 albums if they haven’t got talent, in parts it shone through but there were also too many parts that didn’t really work and as I mentioned once or twice the mix in some places was just all over the place. In all honesty on this showing, I would not be overly keen to go back and listen to this album again or dip into Entrails back catalogue it was an ok listen but that’s about as far as it goes for me! 6/10
Mouth Of Madness – Event Horizon (Darkness Shall Rise Productions) [Spike]
After more than a decade of silence, Germany’s enigmatic duo Mouth Of Madness return with Event Horizon, an album that sprawls across nine tracks of cold, occult-tinged ambience and blackened death metal. The record is anchored by three ambient passages Transhimalaja Parts I–III composed by Frank Fiedler of Popol Vuh, which provide eerie calm between the heavier assaults, like ritual breathwork before the plunge.
The core of Event Horizon lies in the six metallic compositions. Sex And Thanatos spits venom across grinding riffs and snarled vocals, while Year Of The Dog lumbers with a hypnotic, doomy menace. At The Heart Of The Unknown leans into dissonance and abstraction, building layers of tension without ever fully resolving. The centrepiece Fireborn is a jagged, shape-shifting crawl through smoke and shadow, expansive but never indulgent.
Production is cavernous without being murky. The guitars cut, the vocals hiss and moan from the edge of perception, and strange textures drift in from all angles. Middle Eastern melodic lines and tribal rhythms surface in Worms and Masaan, the latter made even more unsettling by a haunting violin intro that cracks open the album’s midsection like a ritual wound.
Mouth Of Madness refuse to fit neatly anywhere. There’s blackened death here, but also drone, doom, psych, and a creeping cinematic quality that brings to mind soundtracks as much as stage dives. Fans of early Tribulation, Chapel Of Disease, or anything straddling the boundary between metal and the metaphysical will find a lot to absorb.
A chilling, multifaceted return. Event Horizon doesn’t just pick up where they left off it digs deeper, darker, and stranger. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait another decade for the next transmission. 8/10
Arcane Tongues - Third Degree Burnout (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]
Formed by singer/songwriter/guitarist Alvaro Alonso, Arcane Tongues are a London based alt rock band and Third Degree Burnout has been years in the making. The storytelling in the lyrics and Alvaro's playing is what this record is hooked on, written and recorded in London but mixed and mastered in Mexico, every facet of Alvaro's struggle with creative burnout is worked through here, the record a way of him getting catharsis doing what he loves.
So he's exorcising demons with this record, using grungy alt rock ala QOTSA and countless Jack White projects, built on tasty guitar hooks that utilise various sounds and styles, from the thump of the title track and Old Hopes Die Last, the triumphal Valencia or the Western-meets-shoegaze of Bring It Back Home. Effects are employed when needed but also he languishes in the beauty of how a guitar sounds by itself, stripped of any technology just six strings and an amp, such as the bluesy Broken Promises of Swaying Souls.
Backing Alvaro is bassist Gustavo Passarella and drummer/percussionist Cal Wyman, who show off their Latin skills on Ego Mechanic but adding to the epic moments of Dry, keeping the rhythms fuzzy on Night On Fire. The one issue I have is with Alvaro as a vocalist, as his voice is not really my thing but it's a minor quibble on what is otherwise a good alt rock record. 7/10
Mouth Of Madness refuse to fit neatly anywhere. There’s blackened death here, but also drone, doom, psych, and a creeping cinematic quality that brings to mind soundtracks as much as stage dives. Fans of early Tribulation, Chapel Of Disease, or anything straddling the boundary between metal and the metaphysical will find a lot to absorb.
A chilling, multifaceted return. Event Horizon doesn’t just pick up where they left off it digs deeper, darker, and stranger. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait another decade for the next transmission. 8/10
Arcane Tongues - Third Degree Burnout (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]
Formed by singer/songwriter/guitarist Alvaro Alonso, Arcane Tongues are a London based alt rock band and Third Degree Burnout has been years in the making. The storytelling in the lyrics and Alvaro's playing is what this record is hooked on, written and recorded in London but mixed and mastered in Mexico, every facet of Alvaro's struggle with creative burnout is worked through here, the record a way of him getting catharsis doing what he loves.
So he's exorcising demons with this record, using grungy alt rock ala QOTSA and countless Jack White projects, built on tasty guitar hooks that utilise various sounds and styles, from the thump of the title track and Old Hopes Die Last, the triumphal Valencia or the Western-meets-shoegaze of Bring It Back Home. Effects are employed when needed but also he languishes in the beauty of how a guitar sounds by itself, stripped of any technology just six strings and an amp, such as the bluesy Broken Promises of Swaying Souls.
Backing Alvaro is bassist Gustavo Passarella and drummer/percussionist Cal Wyman, who show off their Latin skills on Ego Mechanic but adding to the epic moments of Dry, keeping the rhythms fuzzy on Night On Fire. The one issue I have is with Alvaro as a vocalist, as his voice is not really my thing but it's a minor quibble on what is otherwise a good alt rock record. 7/10
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