It’s taken me a while to gather my composure after another listen through Volumes Of Vomit. Featuring guest appearances from some of extreme metal’s most grotesque vocalists, Party Cannon’s signature blend of brain damaging riffs, inhuman mouth noises, punishing drums, and peak sample choice are enough to warrant at the very least, a sit down.
Opening the album is a brief distorted sample, some ambient guitar screeching, before the band grab the back of your head and shove you face first into the heavy. Massive grooves punctuated by frantic technical flourishes. Chris’s unavoidable bass tone clanking away at the foundations, like a Kaiju strumming a suspension bridge, perfectly complementing Martin’s Gatling Gun drums. Stony’s incomprehensible grunts add a sinister layer of filth across the already stinking music to form a formidable wall of sound. All brought together by Mike’s razor sharp rhythm guitaring, and Craig’s menacing leads.
Impending Doom were and Deathcore act that formed in the 2005 when they first released their demo The Sin Of Doom And Godless Men the band have released five full length releases, but the band wanted to return to their roots by releasing a five track E.P Hellbent. This belter of a five track starts off its opening song with some Nu-metal swagger coming with this Wah chocked riff, whist the singer instantly works his ear worms as soon as the listener puts their headphones on. He whispers the chorus line about "how he feels that the noose is getting tighter" which reminds me of Drowning Pool's Bodies. It builds up that suspense to the bludgeoning beatdown/deathcore crossover riffs that this track follows. The sound these lads from Scotland make is nothing short of monstrous. Paired with their already unbelievable heaviness, they bring in some scene big guns through Waking The Cadaver’s Don Campan, Exhumed’s Ross Sewage, and Cerebral Incubation’s Andrew LoMastro. While fans of slam and some of the more ridiculous parts of deathcore might be able to pick apart the nuances, and recognise these big hitters, I couldn’t distinguish their contributions from Stony’s ghoulish utterances. Good thing, bad thing? I don’t know at this point - at the very least it shows that he’s gurgling with the best in the business. There’s a fair bit of inner variation within each song, with the tempo shifting up and down the gears as faster, blastier sections laden with frantic guitar picking give way to spine destroying slam riffs, where the tempo bottoms out and the urge to do press-ups becomes almost overwhelming.
However, the variation between songs is lacking, with many songs having a similar overall feel. If this is what you want from an album, then I can’t say it’s a downside, but for slam casuals it’ll take you multiple listens to hear the differences between each song, aside from the opening/closing sample. Luckily, the production has been expertly put together, balancing clarity with a layer of death metal grime that sounds laser calibrated. There’s never a point where I feel like anything is lost, which is great to hear from a band with so much going on within the riffs. Another special mention to the bass here, as Chris’s bass playing is well out in the forefront, and is spectacular. It would be a crime to bury that tone.
Overall, Volumes Of Vomit is an intense ride, not for the faint of heart, and certainly not for people who want to hear the lyrics. Highlight of the album for me is the outro to I Believe In Dani Filth, which has one of the filthiest riff sections I’ve ever heard. It’s also the best music video I’ve seen in a long time, so go check that out too. If you fancy a potential spine injury, and some near guaranteed IQ loss, stick this in your ears. 8/10
Impending Doom - Hellbent (MNRK Heavy) [Zak Skane]
New World Horror continues the brutality with some classic deathcore groove that switches between meaty riffs and groovy drums beats coated with snarling vocals. Culture Death and Hellbent brings in the brutal triplet chugging riffs with layers of atmospheric dissonance leads to keep up some spooky vibes. The closing track I Must End brings the album to a climatic end, by beginning the song with some relentless blast beats before coming back to some serious groovy guitar riffs and some old school Slipknot swagger.
With the lyrical content based on insecurities and self destruction leaves this bands EP on a melancholic note. I really enjoyed this five track release from the three piece deathcore act. Joseph Calleriro and Will Putney did a great job with the production on this album…but then again when you see Will’s name on the liner notes you’re guaranteed it’ll be a good production. The riffs sound crushing with the vocals captured to the best of their range, whilst being on par with the matching machine gun precision.
Even though the nu-metal influences and the eerie ambient sounds made the bands sound interesting, I wished that they added some more interesting elements to make their sound more unique. 7/10.
Big Scenic Nowhere - The Long Morrow (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Rich P]
The idea of Big Scenic Nowhere has always been an excellent one. Combining the talents of desert rock legends Gary Arce of Yawning Man and Bob Balch of Fu Manchu fame with other special guests that wander the fuzzy landscape that their primary bands have ruled over for decades seemed like a recipe that could not fail. However, their full length and two EPs really did not do anything to live up to the huge expectations that such a pairing would bring. This all changes with the release of their latest album, The Long Marrow.
Big Scenic Nowhere - The Long Morrow (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Rich P]
The idea of Big Scenic Nowhere has always been an excellent one. Combining the talents of desert rock legends Gary Arce of Yawning Man and Bob Balch of Fu Manchu fame with other special guests that wander the fuzzy landscape that their primary bands have ruled over for decades seemed like a recipe that could not fail. However, their full length and two EPs really did not do anything to live up to the huge expectations that such a pairing would bring. This all changes with the release of their latest album, The Long Marrow.
The five tracks on The Long Marrow are all outstanding, with Defector (Of Future Days) kicking off setting the tone for the amazing guitar work that you get through the album BSN goes a bit more straight-ahead fuzzy rock with the first four tracks, which is a perfect set up for the title track closer. The closing title track is simply breathtaking. It is hard for me to think of a 20 minute plus track that seemed to fly by like The Long Marrow does. The guitar work including a couple absolutely ripping solos, are something to behold. The back-and-forth guitar work around the ten-minute mark brings back the days of the guitar hero that we miss often with this genre.
The instrumentation through the album is top notch, but the guest appearances by Reeves Gabrels (The Cure, David Bowie) and Per Wiberg (Opeth, Spiritual Beggars) take this to the next level, which is saying something. Even after the sixteen-minute mark when you think we a wrapping up back comes the guitar hero antics to bring us to an end that never once seemed to long or bloated. Just amazing stuff and a track that will be on all my 2022 playlists, 20-minute run time be damned. This is the first “must listen” album of 2022. Don’t be intimidated by the long closer; it flies by and will be totally worth it. If you are even remotely down with the stoner/fuzz/psych/prog stuff The Long Marrow is mandatory listening. 9/10
Necrophagous - In Chaos Ascend (Transcending Obscurity) [Richard Oliver]
In Chaos Ascend is the debut release from Swedish death metal band Necrophagous who are a three piece made up of Tommy Carlsson on bass and vocals (Visceral Bleeding. ex-Entrails), Jocke Svensson on guitars (ex-Entrails) and Martin Michaelsson on drums (ex-Entrails). It’s safe to say these guys know their death metal and have forged a debut album that sits comfortably in a space between old school and contemporary death metal with riffs aplenty, sick amounts of groove, a pummelling rhythm section and ferocious roars.
Necrophagous - In Chaos Ascend (Transcending Obscurity) [Richard Oliver]
In Chaos Ascend is the debut release from Swedish death metal band Necrophagous who are a three piece made up of Tommy Carlsson on bass and vocals (Visceral Bleeding. ex-Entrails), Jocke Svensson on guitars (ex-Entrails) and Martin Michaelsson on drums (ex-Entrails). It’s safe to say these guys know their death metal and have forged a debut album that sits comfortably in a space between old school and contemporary death metal with riffs aplenty, sick amounts of groove, a pummelling rhythm section and ferocious roars.
It is far more influenced by the American death metal sound than the Swedish sound with the band counting bands such as Morbid Angel, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse and Dying Fetus as influences. The influence from these bands can clearly be heard in songs such as At Dawn Thee Immolate, The Vile Embalmed, Horns Of Seven and the extremely catchy title track. That being said the album suffers at times in its very straightforward approach being very meat and potatoes death metal and some of these songs lack staying power.
When this album hits well it hits damn hard as in the aforementioned songs. Necrophagous have a solid debut album with In Chaos Ascend. Whilst not he most dynamic sounding death metal album this is an album that should you find yourself in the mood for some straightforward death metal carnage then this album will definitely help scratch that itch. 7/10
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