Exoneration’s debut full-length unleashes like a siege engine; methodical, brutal, and drenched with purpose. This transatlantic metalcore pairing (Corey Stiles and Arnaud Zijp) have crafted eleven tracks that don’t just rip through genre norms, they bend them into weapons.
The journey begins with The Abyss We Crown dragging you into their world with thunderous rhythm and guttural intent. It's the perfect entry: immediate, dark, and full of undercurrent tension that you don’t notice until it’s already cracked your skull open. Basilisk (featuring Candlebearer) is the standout hit for me, it’s the one I keep going back to. It’s serpentine in its groove, brutal in its breakdowns, and delivers its venom with intelligence. It’s equal parts exorcism chant and manifesto, and it holds the album’s emotional weight in its coils.
Mid-album, instrumental Soul Of A Great Warrior shifts the tone: epic and anthemic, a moment of introspection wrapped in melody that gives you just enough room to breathe and then they shove you back into chaos. Tracks like Martyr and Cope traverse melancholy and momentum with finesse providing melodic roots that sprout blades. This Is Goodbye feels like a farewell carved into bone, while Where Else Should We Go (featuring Hillyn) challenges darkness with communal fury.
The closer, Unfettered, is a final exhale, weighty, resolved, and expansive, as though closing a grim chapter and stepping back into the dust. Dynamic contrast is Exoneration’s power move here: chants shadowed by breakdowns, melodic distortion, shifting tempos from lumber to lacerating. The production is lean and grimy in all the right places. It doesn’t cleanse or soften. If you’re into music that demands your attention and wrestles it into spine-shake, this is your album.
Exoneration command presence without pretence. 9/10
Electric Jaguar Baby - Clair-Obscur (Majestic Mountain Records) [Rich Piva]
The new record from France’s Electric Jaguar Baby, Clair-Obscur, is a mixed bag in multiple ways. Genre-wise, the band is all over the place, sometimes this works great, sometimes not so much, which is the theme to the tracks on the record.
Let’s talk the good first. I love hearing Chris from the amazing Acid Mammoth play and sing on a more upbeat track than his usual work like he does partnering with EJB on the opener, Heroine. My favourite track on the record for sure. Another guest, Patrón, helps make the “QOTSA but playing in a French garage” Bring Me Down shine as another highlight on the Clair-Obscur. Stray From The Path has a heavier and fuzzier Brian Jonestown Massacre feel to it and is cool, if not a minute too long. My Way is more of a garage punk ditty, a weird little track that reminds me of a filthier version of The Jam.
The new record from France’s Electric Jaguar Baby, Clair-Obscur, is a mixed bag in multiple ways. Genre-wise, the band is all over the place, sometimes this works great, sometimes not so much, which is the theme to the tracks on the record.
Let’s talk the good first. I love hearing Chris from the amazing Acid Mammoth play and sing on a more upbeat track than his usual work like he does partnering with EJB on the opener, Heroine. My favourite track on the record for sure. Another guest, Patrón, helps make the “QOTSA but playing in a French garage” Bring Me Down shine as another highlight on the Clair-Obscur. Stray From The Path has a heavier and fuzzier Brian Jonestown Massacre feel to it and is cool, if not a minute too long. My Way is more of a garage punk ditty, a weird little track that reminds me of a filthier version of The Jam.
Goin Thru the Blu Part II has a Josh Homme vocal delivery around a very garage/DIY track that is also about 90 seconds too long. It gets a bit shouty in the middle which really shows the punk side of the band. Speaking of DIY, the title track is a short ripper that sounds like a proto punk band recording on a boom box. Too long is a theme here. For example, Anything is a slog, and not in the good way. This is the prevailing feedback on the back half of the record. At 48 minutes long, a ten-minute overall edit would have done wonders for this listening experience. Just don’t touch the fuzzed up Winterholidays VS Fuzzroutine because that one is perfect.
The new Electric Jaguar Baby is definitely more good than bad and mostly enjoyable, but some editing may have made Clair-Obscur even better, but it is worth your time for sure. 7/10
Shadows – Miseria (Self-Released) [Spike]
Miseria doesn’t just crawl, it drags you through a coffin of despair and then stands on your chest. Shadows, a German/Swedish blackened death metal collective, have sculpted a debut that’s both punishing and eerily melodic, like a storm trapped in ice. Nine tracks of existential dread and razor-sharp riffs, compact in form but expansive in atmosphere.
The record opens with As Above So Below, a frigid blast of creaking chords and suffocated rage which is immediate enough to snap your attention, then peel it apart. Lamia follows, dripping myth and murder; its serpentine riffs coil gradually, tightening until there’s no escape. Next up, Delivered From Sin is a gravely sermon, sleeted over with crushing breakdowns and a solo that bleeds like liturgy.
Mid-album, Nadir (No Consent) and Spring Sleepwalker swirl in contrasting tones: one oppressive and accusatory, the other sludgy in atmosphere and dripping in melancholic decay. Then there’s A Seance, which reminds you this album is as comfortable in ritual as it is in rage. It is ghostly at its core, yet brutal in execution.
Mässa XCIV carves the darkest corner of the record, a death mass drenched in cold acceptance, its melody standing against the void. Cycles crushes with mechanical precision, riffs looping like a nightmare you can’t wake from. And closer Unnamed Sorrow is less a track, more a dirge, sweeping, silent, and guttural statement of closure.
Shadows’ production stays grimy but defined. You hear every tremolo stroke, every snare hit, every guttural echo, but things don’t collapse into muddled abstraction. The riffs slice through the abyss cleanly, the atmosphere remains oppressive yet stable. This album doesn’t soothe, you don’t listen to Miseria to feel better. You lean in because it’s badly, beautifully disturbing. This hooks you in and those watches as you sink further with each passing minute. 8/10
The Big Rip - Olympus Mons (Self Released) [Rich Piva]
On their new EP, Porsgrunn, Norway’s The Big Rip play cool, atmospheric stoner doom with some nice chunky riffs and great vocals. The production is nice and clean but not overtly so. The four songs are all strong, bringing hope we will get a full length from them soon.
As for those four songs, first up, Behold, This Mountain is a killer, gigantic track; some epic stoner doom with great vocals and a bunch of cool riffs. The second track, KAKTUS, rocks, and has some groove to it as well, with some great bass work and a Kyuss feel. These guys must have spent a ton of time in the Norwegian desert given the way this one sounds. Cool stuff for sure.
The new Electric Jaguar Baby is definitely more good than bad and mostly enjoyable, but some editing may have made Clair-Obscur even better, but it is worth your time for sure. 7/10
Shadows – Miseria (Self-Released) [Spike]
Miseria doesn’t just crawl, it drags you through a coffin of despair and then stands on your chest. Shadows, a German/Swedish blackened death metal collective, have sculpted a debut that’s both punishing and eerily melodic, like a storm trapped in ice. Nine tracks of existential dread and razor-sharp riffs, compact in form but expansive in atmosphere.
The record opens with As Above So Below, a frigid blast of creaking chords and suffocated rage which is immediate enough to snap your attention, then peel it apart. Lamia follows, dripping myth and murder; its serpentine riffs coil gradually, tightening until there’s no escape. Next up, Delivered From Sin is a gravely sermon, sleeted over with crushing breakdowns and a solo that bleeds like liturgy.
Mid-album, Nadir (No Consent) and Spring Sleepwalker swirl in contrasting tones: one oppressive and accusatory, the other sludgy in atmosphere and dripping in melancholic decay. Then there’s A Seance, which reminds you this album is as comfortable in ritual as it is in rage. It is ghostly at its core, yet brutal in execution.
Mässa XCIV carves the darkest corner of the record, a death mass drenched in cold acceptance, its melody standing against the void. Cycles crushes with mechanical precision, riffs looping like a nightmare you can’t wake from. And closer Unnamed Sorrow is less a track, more a dirge, sweeping, silent, and guttural statement of closure.
Shadows’ production stays grimy but defined. You hear every tremolo stroke, every snare hit, every guttural echo, but things don’t collapse into muddled abstraction. The riffs slice through the abyss cleanly, the atmosphere remains oppressive yet stable. This album doesn’t soothe, you don’t listen to Miseria to feel better. You lean in because it’s badly, beautifully disturbing. This hooks you in and those watches as you sink further with each passing minute. 8/10
The Big Rip - Olympus Mons (Self Released) [Rich Piva]
On their new EP, Porsgrunn, Norway’s The Big Rip play cool, atmospheric stoner doom with some nice chunky riffs and great vocals. The production is nice and clean but not overtly so. The four songs are all strong, bringing hope we will get a full length from them soon.
As for those four songs, first up, Behold, This Mountain is a killer, gigantic track; some epic stoner doom with great vocals and a bunch of cool riffs. The second track, KAKTUS, rocks, and has some groove to it as well, with some great bass work and a Kyuss feel. These guys must have spent a ton of time in the Norwegian desert given the way this one sounds. Cool stuff for sure.
Kraken Mare has a more grunge meets Tool feel, and shows that The Big Rip can do the loud quiet loud thing quite well. The closer, Olympus Mons, works more as a middle of the record interlude than a closer, but it is a nice two minute chill stoner instrumental that shows these guys know how to play.
This is a fun little EP of stoner doom goodness that leaves you wanting more. There are exciting things happening in the deserts of Norway, with The Big Rip helping to pave that path with Olympus Mons. 7/10
This is a fun little EP of stoner doom goodness that leaves you wanting more. There are exciting things happening in the deserts of Norway, with The Big Rip helping to pave that path with Olympus Mons. 7/10
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