Reviews: Godless, Like Moths To Flames, Bailer, Pissing Razors (Reviews By Matt Bladen & Zak Skane)

Godless – States Of Chaos (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]

The Indian metal scene was frequently referred to as being one of the most fertile when the UK’s biggest metal magazine were deep into their Global Metal Alliance phase. The amount of extreme and heavy metal bands coming out of India is astounding, obviously we’ve covered a few of them here, the most frequent being Demonstealer and Demonic Resurrection, but there are plenty of bands that miss out for one reason or another. Godless, don’t miss out, they can’t, this debut album is a relatively short, blast of full bore intensity that beats you around the face from the first few seconds are doesn’t stop until the final moment. 

From Hyderbad, States Of Chaos may be their debut record but the five members are all veterans of their countries metal scene. They have come together to play some thrash inspired death metal that frantically evokes bands such as Vader, Cannibal Corpse and Slayer, their music build on face melting riffs, dive bomb leads and an artillery barrage more powerful than the Russians had in the Crimean War. On tracks such as Cormorant and Post-Cryogenic, the spectre of Slayer looms large, the songs are both lightning speed thrashers, with those stop/explode Hanneman lead breaks/solos but they touch on the thrashier end of death metal throughout with the grunted vocals from Kaushal LS and double kick demolishing the main reason for the death metal comparisons. 

Lyrically the band deal with “psychological trepidation and terror and phantasmagorias of dreamscapes” while Orbits Of Decay “is a harsh reminder that life is insignificant”, the lyrics are channelled through the unwavering violence of Godless’ music, making for an intense record that may as soon break your neck as it will entertain. These 8 tracks fly past in a maelstrom of ear-piercing riffs from Ravi Nidamarthy and Molz Mustafa with the rhythm section of Abbas Razvi (bass) and Aniketh Yadav (drums) bringing precision and punishment, the only change is Vishesh Singh who takes the kit for Fluxion. Primed and ready to blast out of their subcontinent, Godless may become the flag bearers for their whole scene. 8/10

Like Moths To Flames – Pure Like Porcelain (UNFD) [Zak Skane]

Following on from the bands 2020 album No Eternity In Gold the band wanted to go back down to releasing their music to the EP format. Revisiting the EP format has refuelled the band and made them more energetic and inspired than ever before, resulting in Pure Like Porcelain. From the opening track Ameliorate you’re introduced with a Tool-esque sounding guitar intro before your chuggy breakdowns that slap you in the face. Chris Roetter sounds fiery as ever singing about topics like self isolation and mental health. Views From Halfway Down varies the dynamics with the eerie clean guitars and the raspy sung verses to the chuggy pitch squealing choruses. 

The Preservation Of Hate brings in all the heavy with Zach and Jeremy providing all gnarly chunky guitars parts and synclinal leads. Gnashing Teeth take the band to a more technical route from the string skipping and interval jumping guitars to the tom-tom groove infused drum beats. Finally Do Not Resuscitate ends the EP on a bombastic climax, Chris Rotter providing the most soaring chorus on the whole album as well some tasty riffage to compete with it. This band have fully embraced the idea of an EP keeping it sort and to the point, whilst ensuring that the listener is entertained throughout. The band sounds just as fiery as they did 10 years ago. 8/10

Pissing Razors – Eulogy Death March (Razor Records) [Zak Skane]

Pissing Razors are an American groove-based heavy metal band that was formed in El Paso, Texas in the early 1990s as a means to counter the boom in standard pop-culture mainstream music at the time. The initial focus of the project was to create a cross-platform of elements to bridge 'Punk' ideals and messages with the hardcore musical aspects of high energy underground 'Metal' that listeners could still groove to and connect with. When the opening track In Spite Of My Scars hit I am greeted with a chugging pattern that’s played over a traditional blast beat which I found quite interesting because these kind of guitar patterns are always accompanied with matching double kick patterns, but this band has put an interesting twist to it which I quite respect. This track continues to gift us with some good guitar drum related grooved throughout. 

The groovy momentum continues with songs like Results Of Virtue which start with it’s intro which songs give off old school Fear Factory and Meshuggah vibes when the song kicks in those influences keep in tacked with those staggered chugging pattern and extended chord based chorus that that will please any Destroy Erase Improve and Demanufacture era fan. Eulogy Death March comes in with some meaty riffage that will please any Decapitated fan mixed in with some psychedelic sounding choruses that will please any Mastodon fan. The other highlights on this album are Left For Dead that will please any Down and Pantera fan and Sharpened The World will get crowds of people jumping at their shows. 

The only song that is concerning is Chemical To Burn which sounds too close to The Used's Pretty Handsome Awkward. Overall this is a great groove packed album, the production quality on this album sounds genuine the drums don’t sound like they have any sample replacements on them, the guitars and bass sound solid and vocals sound genuine. This album doesn’t reinvent the wheel but the band wears its influences on its sleeve with style. 8/10.

Bailer - Disposable Youth (Blood Blast Distribution) [Matt Bladen]

Crammed full of belligerence and antagonism, Disposable Youth is a record that distills fury and frustration. A audio experimentation in nihilism and manic depression, it continues with Bailer's knack of working through their feelings, live in the studio. This Irish foursome, choose to shun computers and capture their, fury through studio jams, hammering out the record in very old school way. Because of this there is vitality and vigour to this album on tracks such as Scourge and Gateway Drug, their focus on trying to make the record as authentic to their live performance as possible making for an intense experience. 

The band have drawn comparisons to acts such as Gallows and Cancer Bats along with Every Time I Die also and as they unleash their hardcore assault on you across 10 tracks, there's a very noticeable comparison that can be made to these bands. Grim and grey in their worldview, Bailer are gaining more traction outside of the Emerald Isle, so it won't be long before you'll be seeing them on a bill near you soon. Just make sure you pack your earplugs and your fighting shoes. 7/10