After the cinematic intro that consists of low droning sound effects of crows, the bands open track Caved In smashes us in the face and takes us back to the past with some old school fear factory styled chucking that are machine manufactured tight to the kick drums. From the opening track the band brings in this old school mid 2000s crossover sound that reminds me of UK acts such as Stamping Ground and Romeo Must Die. The guitars have this un-boosted but punchy tone, the drums have this raw production to them whilst the harsh vocals have this classic British hardcore rasp to them whilst still keeping each phrase clear.
Dragged Across Concrete bring in this blackened Thrash metal sound with it’s balls to the wall double kick driven skank beats whist dark voiced riffs are thrown at us with fast pace which is then followed by some extreme metal elements of blast beats and melodic death metal guitar passages. The vocalist goes from their British hardcore grunt to going into melodic death metal territory with their high fried vocals that take reminisces of the Black Dahlia Murder Trevor's delivery.
Instant Gratification still continues the extreme metal brutality from it’s opening drum fill that slams us straight into some classic blast beats that accompanies the black metal sounding melodies before they go back into their meat and potatoes breakdown deliveries. The track also features some ruthless trade offs from the hard-core barking to throat tearing frys. To close off the first part of the album, Waste From Birth brings in some revengeful lyrics provided by Alexander Freyr. The band goes into some straight forward metallic hardcore formulas with the drums stripping it down to punchy donk beats whilst it keeps the punky style simplistic with frantic chord changes and down picked riffs.
To open up the second part of the album Scarfaced Blues brings back the black metal fury with it’s frantic drumming, buzz saw like tremolo riffs and satanic frys. Doctrine continues this black metal inspired assault along with some blues driven solos. 20th Century Doom takes the tempos down a notch to bring some classic beatdown riffs that contain these Malevolence inspired blues chops whilst still creating these black metal atmospheres.
The closing track Only Dead Fish Follow finishes the album on a high note with some balls to the wall energy, the drummer opening up with some high speed polyrhythmic beats, the guitars following the arrangements of their intense crossover of black and extreme metal technicality along with the pounding grooves with hardcore and metalcore attitude which wrist breaking down picked riffs that transcend into swirling tremolo picked melodies.
The vocalist is closing the album with some intense vocal delivery, really channelling these ravenously vengeful lyrics to the end of the song giving off some relentless energy and sending a personal message to the person that these lyrics were based on. Even though this band hails from Iceland, they have really harnessed the British crossover sound that has populated the UK music scene down to a tee.
The production has this good balance raw but listenable quality, which allows the genuine hatred that this band to flow out without it sounding to polished. The DIY sounding guitar tone gives off dark un-boosted sound but just adds more punch to each chug, whist the drums having un-edited feel that add more groove whilst the vocals this raw aggression to very delivery.
For fans of Stamping Ground, Romeo Must Die and Malevolence. 9/10
Ufomammut - Hidden (Neurot Recordings/Supernatural Cat Records) [Rich Piva]
Ufomammut is back, and if there was ever a time that I wanted to just write a one word review it would be for the Italian band’s tenth album, Hidden. That one word would be: Heavy. Hidden is so damn heavy I feel like the bottom is going to drop out of all six songs at any time during the 44 minute run time. Hidden is not heavy in the death metal drop D sense of the word. It is just huge, gigantic, and feels like the six songs are constantly crushing you, only to tease you that you are not done for as they layer in some psych and even some vocal harmonies to give you some hope where there really is none.
I mean talk about crushing, check out the first track, Crookhead, a hold over from last year’s EP of the same name. I think when I reviewed that I mentioned those songs were not extras or throw aways and were awesome on their own, which is validated by the band kicking of the new full length with this killer track. There is so much going on musically you will need to listen at least a dozen times to even get a glimpse into this crazy musical genius.
Kismet is also rip with awesome heaviness, the bass shaking the foundations and the riffs pummelling, partnered perfectly with more of a hardcore like scream for nine minutes that feels like four. Man, do I love we the pace slows towards the end and we get some psych all over the place. Ufomammut as doom/death metal is the where the shortest track on Hidden, Spidher, goes, and proves these guys can do whatever the hell they want and still sound awesome. These riffs just crunch.
Mausoleum is one of the two tracks over ten minutes, and like Crookhead, it flies by. Not because of the pace, but because of how interesting and complex a listen it is, especially given it is just three people making these sounds. Holy crap is this song amazing (not my finest literary statement, but exactly how I am feeling as I write this). This track reminds me of something from Ministry’s Filth Pig, and coming from me this is a major complement, but add some of the signature Ufomammut heavy psych too. The final two tracks, Leeched and Soulost, are of the shorter variety for the band, the former with that heavy driving groove also leveraging those Ministry vibes I mentioned and the latter chills it out a lot, leaning more on the synths and is a heavy psych slow burn if there ever was one.
So yeah, the new Ufomammut is heavy. Really heavy. Really heavy and complex, and one of the coolest listens of 2024. Go check this out and be ready to be blown away. By the heavy. There is nothing Hidden about this record, but there is also everything Hidden, given you will hear something new each time you listen. 9/10
Trails Of Anguish - Scathed Gaping Misery (Hessian Firm) [Joe Guatieri]
Trails Of Anguish are a Canadian Black Metal band that formed in 2000. They only existed for a very short period of time releasing two EPs in 2001 and 2003 respectively before going radio silent until 2022. In this review I take a look at Scathed Gaping Misery, a compilation which combines those long out-of-print EPs with two new tracks.
Trail Of Anguish’s debut EP, Relentless Abhorrence Of Misery’s Grievances contains 6 tracks which are all covered in a blanket of raw product that has a lot of punch. To my surprise, not too much was buried by the recording quality, for example, the drums in the opener Beyond Charismatic Sickness have a lot of clarity to them where everything can be heard. My favourite song of the entire compilation comes in this part with track five, Useless. Something about the atmosphere that it creates feels very empowering, like reaching a destination.
Going from there into tracks seven and eight which make up their 2003 EP, Scarred Momento. Haunting is the real standout for me here with its pummelling drums and guitars that have a lot of grit. At various points during this record and especially here, folk, melodic black, melodic death all appear and it’s clear that Trails Of Anguish’s influences don’t just lie in one place.
Near the death we approach new horizons with track nine, Gaping Misery which marks the band stepping into unknown territory as I would describe it as Black Noise. For my money it’s the most frightening song that the band has to offer, it paints an image of someone shouting at the bottom of a well.
This leads us into the final track here, Rebirth. Six minutes of complete and utter silence are much needed after strange goings on. After a few moments of weirdness with twangy acoustics and patient electric chugging, everything breaks loose with a battle between guitar wall hell and woodwind heaven whilst an orchestra acts as the distressed spectators.
Overall, Scathed Gaping Misery makes for a tour through the nightmare gallery that Trails Of Anguish have created, showing what they did and where they could go but no one knows for sure. It avoids the trappings that so many other compilations by bands fall into, it’s not a greatest hits, it’s a history book with blank pages at the end. 7/10
Djiin – Mirrors (Klonosphere Records) [Paul Hutchings]
A six-song album should initially be an EP one might think. Then you check the length of the songs, and realise that no, album is the right term to be applied. So having established that, let’s turn attention to the latest album by the four-piece from Rennes in France, who have liberally thrown in three songs that total over 30-minutes on Mirrors.
Taking their name from the Arabic word Jinn, meaning to hide or adapt, Djiin are mythical creatures from Islamic folklore who can adapt a myriad of forms and shapes. It may be an apt band name, for the quartet’s psychedelic stoner sound is not constrained to just those two genres. There is something of everything within Mirrors.
Opener Fish is a short, punk-edged bundle of chaos. Singer Chloé Panhaley’s disconcerting delivery is unrestrained, at times feeling almost out of control, whilst behind her the music whirls in a mesmeric pattern that twists and turns. Things get a whole lot more abstract on the title track which follows. A nine-minute meander that flicks from semi-jazz expressionism through to more traditional stoner style, it’s avant garde feel sees Panhaley dip in and out with Joplin/Slick influenced vocals. The time signatures are uncomfortable, nothing here in time or place, whilst the fuzzy bass and dynamic guitar switch from Eastern vibes to modern sounds.
There’s no doubting the influences on display here, everything from Krautrock, progressive, doom, and even early metal like Sabbath is included. In The Aura Of My Own Sadness drifts further into a deep kaleidoscope of trippy exploration, with more twisting movements that haunt and bewitch. It’s a ride unlike any other as the band embark on another explorative departure where you simply hang on as things erupt into a glorious burst of high tempo intensity before slowing into a sedate period of calm.
And then the intensity that is prevalent throughout this intriguing and frankly disturbing release intensifies substantially on Blind, which opens with a sonic challenge as Panhaley combines with bass and drums in a rhythmic staccato that descends into a cacophony of horror and anger. As the song breaks into a frenzy of noise and blinding darkness, one is left both confused yet curious. The ebb and flow neatly summarise the meaning behind the track, that of being blinded by the negative, hatred and depression. It’s certainly not your run of the mill.
With the epic 13-minute Iron Monsters allowing yet more freeform exploration, I think the advice for Mirrors is that you really need to challenge yourself and take the plunge. It’s not going to be for all, and at times I found it quite difficult, but if your brain wants a complex, jarring, and haunting trial, then this is one to try. 7/10
So yeah, the new Ufomammut is heavy. Really heavy. Really heavy and complex, and one of the coolest listens of 2024. Go check this out and be ready to be blown away. By the heavy. There is nothing Hidden about this record, but there is also everything Hidden, given you will hear something new each time you listen. 9/10
Trails Of Anguish - Scathed Gaping Misery (Hessian Firm) [Joe Guatieri]
Trails Of Anguish are a Canadian Black Metal band that formed in 2000. They only existed for a very short period of time releasing two EPs in 2001 and 2003 respectively before going radio silent until 2022. In this review I take a look at Scathed Gaping Misery, a compilation which combines those long out-of-print EPs with two new tracks.
Trail Of Anguish’s debut EP, Relentless Abhorrence Of Misery’s Grievances contains 6 tracks which are all covered in a blanket of raw product that has a lot of punch. To my surprise, not too much was buried by the recording quality, for example, the drums in the opener Beyond Charismatic Sickness have a lot of clarity to them where everything can be heard. My favourite song of the entire compilation comes in this part with track five, Useless. Something about the atmosphere that it creates feels very empowering, like reaching a destination.
Going from there into tracks seven and eight which make up their 2003 EP, Scarred Momento. Haunting is the real standout for me here with its pummelling drums and guitars that have a lot of grit. At various points during this record and especially here, folk, melodic black, melodic death all appear and it’s clear that Trails Of Anguish’s influences don’t just lie in one place.
Near the death we approach new horizons with track nine, Gaping Misery which marks the band stepping into unknown territory as I would describe it as Black Noise. For my money it’s the most frightening song that the band has to offer, it paints an image of someone shouting at the bottom of a well.
This leads us into the final track here, Rebirth. Six minutes of complete and utter silence are much needed after strange goings on. After a few moments of weirdness with twangy acoustics and patient electric chugging, everything breaks loose with a battle between guitar wall hell and woodwind heaven whilst an orchestra acts as the distressed spectators.
Overall, Scathed Gaping Misery makes for a tour through the nightmare gallery that Trails Of Anguish have created, showing what they did and where they could go but no one knows for sure. It avoids the trappings that so many other compilations by bands fall into, it’s not a greatest hits, it’s a history book with blank pages at the end. 7/10
Djiin – Mirrors (Klonosphere Records) [Paul Hutchings]
A six-song album should initially be an EP one might think. Then you check the length of the songs, and realise that no, album is the right term to be applied. So having established that, let’s turn attention to the latest album by the four-piece from Rennes in France, who have liberally thrown in three songs that total over 30-minutes on Mirrors.
Taking their name from the Arabic word Jinn, meaning to hide or adapt, Djiin are mythical creatures from Islamic folklore who can adapt a myriad of forms and shapes. It may be an apt band name, for the quartet’s psychedelic stoner sound is not constrained to just those two genres. There is something of everything within Mirrors.
Opener Fish is a short, punk-edged bundle of chaos. Singer Chloé Panhaley’s disconcerting delivery is unrestrained, at times feeling almost out of control, whilst behind her the music whirls in a mesmeric pattern that twists and turns. Things get a whole lot more abstract on the title track which follows. A nine-minute meander that flicks from semi-jazz expressionism through to more traditional stoner style, it’s avant garde feel sees Panhaley dip in and out with Joplin/Slick influenced vocals. The time signatures are uncomfortable, nothing here in time or place, whilst the fuzzy bass and dynamic guitar switch from Eastern vibes to modern sounds.
There’s no doubting the influences on display here, everything from Krautrock, progressive, doom, and even early metal like Sabbath is included. In The Aura Of My Own Sadness drifts further into a deep kaleidoscope of trippy exploration, with more twisting movements that haunt and bewitch. It’s a ride unlike any other as the band embark on another explorative departure where you simply hang on as things erupt into a glorious burst of high tempo intensity before slowing into a sedate period of calm.
And then the intensity that is prevalent throughout this intriguing and frankly disturbing release intensifies substantially on Blind, which opens with a sonic challenge as Panhaley combines with bass and drums in a rhythmic staccato that descends into a cacophony of horror and anger. As the song breaks into a frenzy of noise and blinding darkness, one is left both confused yet curious. The ebb and flow neatly summarise the meaning behind the track, that of being blinded by the negative, hatred and depression. It’s certainly not your run of the mill.
With the epic 13-minute Iron Monsters allowing yet more freeform exploration, I think the advice for Mirrors is that you really need to challenge yourself and take the plunge. It’s not going to be for all, and at times I found it quite difficult, but if your brain wants a complex, jarring, and haunting trial, then this is one to try. 7/10
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