Reviews: Deicide, Raised By Owls, P.O.D, The Karma Effect (Reviews By Charlie Rogers, Mark Young, Zak Skane & Matt Bladen)

Deicide - Banished By Sin (Reigning Phoenix Music) [Charlie Rogers]

Straight Outta Satan’s Armpit, Florida, Deicide’s 13th album is just under 40mins of straight up high tempo, aggressive death metal. No fannying around with different styles, feels, or atmosphere, the Tampa based Jesus dislikers have a distinct style that consists of blisteringly fast riffs, soaring guitar leads, and punishing blastbeats. 

Deicide have been around for longer than I have, but there seems to be no sign that they’re ready to hang up the death metal chops and start a more laid back project anytime soon. Which is great news, because Banished By Sin is their strongest record since 2006’s The Stench Of Redemption. It may even be their most consistent album, ever.

Brace yourself for this, but every, single, song, is a banger. There’s just no filler on here. It’s 12 equal tracks of absurdly good death, the only difference is which particular jam takes your fancy as your favourite, and after a number of listens I still can’t pick one. Glen’s iconic layered vocals are brilliantly showcased here, with the low barks fat with visceral rage, the high demonic screeches blended perfectly in. There’s a good mix of intelligible and unintelligible lyrics, with care given to punctuate where Mr Benton wants you to hear certain phrases clearly. 

Another highlight is the bass tone, which is usually decent on a Deicide record, but here it’s extra clanky and sitting really prominent in the mix. I love it. Guitars sound excellent too, with the razor sharp riffing getting a proper shine and polish to ensure there’s a distinct edge to the notes. Solo sections utilise a great tone too, giving them a real epic feel. 

Steve Asheim’s a big name in death metal drumming for a reason, his pneumatic footwork and lightning quick tom and cymbal work pull everything together expertly. My one niggle with the record is with the cymbal production - there’s one particular frequency that stands out and is particularly painful, especially in the track Faithless. Might just be my speakers making a big deal of it, but once I started to notice it, I found it really distracting.

All in all, this record is about as "Deicide" as you can get, and I feel that’s a good thing. They’re not chasing fads or trying to reinvent the wheel, just settling in with their sound and turning all the dials to the max. On a related note, it sounds to me like they’re using the same tuning as ever, which really stands out against the crowd in extreme metal given we’re ever plunging into lower and lower tuned guitars and basses. 

Having those riffs played up in a higher register than contemporaries will make you distinct, and your ears will thank you for that variety. Aside from the sharp cymbal pitch, I can’t find faults with this album. It’s everything I want from one of the bands that got me into death metal in the first place, and I’m going to be boogieing along to the riffs on here for a while. 10(Glens)/10

Raised By Owls - Vol 3: The Satirical Verses (Self Released) [Mark Young]

And now for something completely different.

Raised By Owls return with their latest, Vol 3: The Satirical Verses which they describe as being an homage to the music they love whilst giving it a gentle prod and highlighting the silliness present within the genre.

With this in mind, I’m slightly torn as to how to approach the review. With song titles such as Going For A Pint With Corpsegrinder, Strictly Come Danzig and Live, Laugh, Lars plus the cover art it certainly paints it as being irreverent, but the music presented here is anything but. My experience of ‘comedy’ metal is that the music is sometimes secondary to getting a laugh. Luckily here, the approach to the songs are spot on and if you listened to them without knowing the context you wouldn’t know any different. 

To really get in on it, check their videos out, especially the one for Strictly Come Danzig, which skewers him as a preening, hip-thrusting, lap dance performing dark Elvis. In a school hall. Probably. The Dark And Twisted Realm In Which Fred Durst Resides is a riot, five corpse painted red-hatted hooligans running around a local park, not unlike the classic Scandinavian bands back in the day. Although I do not remember them playing head and volley.

Back to the music, and it is royal. There is a level presented here that a lot of ‘serious’ bands won’t get near, and these seem to do it with ease. Comedy Metal Is A Fucking Embarrassment that starts and just flies, it’s rapid-fire drum mayhem and I think once you get hold of the lyric sheet the humour that is there would come through. I haven’t got a lyric sheet so I’m just basing this on the music. 

Going For A Pint... has that muscular, chunky build that was evident on Gorgeous George’s solo release. Like I said this isn’t half-arsed in any way, the music is super focused and heavy AF. Dance Like Barney Greenway is a blast, and The Dark And Twisted Realm In Which Fred Durst Resides has this amazing Scandi vibe running through it. There is some fantastic guitar on this, but don’t take my word for it, check it out.

What is great here is that they maintain a consistent level of quality right through. Each song has its own thing going on, and they manage to ape the genres they are prodding so well. I Honestly Thought OSDM Was A Sex Thing has a Morbid Angel / Dave Vincent thing going on, at least to these ears and delivers on a OSDM feel to it. Final track None Of This Will Matter In The End is chock full of razor-sharp riffing that is furious as it is introspective. The album’s serious track, it still stacks up against the others here and is a fine song to close out with.

I know they suggest that this is largely tongue in cheek, but you shouldn’t let that put you off what is actually a cracking album. The accompanying videos really help in getting the message across, but you don’t need them to enjoy this. Visually, they certainly poke the right areas of what can be a bloated and too-serious genre. Musically, they are not joking. 8/10

P.O.D – Veritas (Mascot Records) [Zak Skane]

The first part of the album brings in some classic 2000s P.O.D energy with the opening track Drop, which hits us in the face with their classic old school attitude but wrapped up in a modern coat of paint with the guitars Marcos Curiel and Traa Daniels still sounding as huge as their classic riffs hits like in Boom and Alive but having these trending octave sounding effects that just gives this hair on chest bottom end assault whilst The Youth Of The Nation era sounding ambient chorused clean guitar sections cast this nostalgic spell. 

Sonny Sandoval still sound as vicious as ever whilst spitting aggressive bars. The subtle takes from Lamb Of God' Randy Blythe adds more aggression to the mix whilst still keeping it to it’s P.O.D delivery. Those fuzzy riffs still continue and walk us into sleazy groove territory with the drums providing some pounding halftime beats and Sonny still keeping up with these aggressively delivered positive lyrics. 

Afraid To Die brings in this yin yang effect of having these dark sounding elements of detuned effected keys to Tatiana Shmayik's (Jinjer) haunting vocal passages, which gives the listeners the assumption that the subject matter takes a darker route but once you listen to the lyrics you can hear themes of unity and choruses about coming to terms with death, really puts the audience in a expectation in a 360. 

Death Right returns with the heavy delivery with out beat accent riffs aggressively catchy lyrics all suited in a short and sweet package. To close off the first half the album, we get the first ballad Breaking, which brings in some formulistic Sirius FM radio friendly style choruses and catchy post chorus guitar lead melodies, whilst the lyrical content starts to based on mortality and how death can effect us.

To open up the second part of the album we get the heart warming tribute to their friend Roo in Lay Me Down (Roos Song) which brings in some Deftones styled huge chord sequences and heavily reverbed choruses and poetically arranged lyrics that ooze heart and soul. The short and sweet I Wont Bow Down brings some sonic boom attack with some naughty 808 cinematic bass drops, groovy half time drum beats and nasty bendy riffs.

The final few tracks on this album is where I feel like they start to soften their edge and start to loose their direction a bit, because This Is My Life (feat. Cove Reber) takes a more a hardcore punk direction with bright sounding guitar riffs that you would hear from a Stick To Your Guns song whilst the choruses sound like they are taken from an old-school offspring song. Same goes with Lies We Tell Ourselves which consist of classic hard rock chord sequences and choruses that are delivered in this generic mourning friendly radio rock show format and This is Our Struggle brings in some Twenty One Pilots styled pre-choruses and some lazy chanting choruses.

Despite the last few tracks on the record, We still got to give credit that after 32 years, P.O.D can still come packing the punches with tracks like Drop, I Got That and Dead Right, whilst their lyrics still ooze passion into songs Lay Me Down. This album packs classic P.O.D delivery with a modern shine. For fans of Limp Bizkit, Ill Nino and Saliva. 7/10

The Karma Effect - The Promised Land (Earache Records) [Matt Bladen]

The Karma Effect have been making waves in the UK rock scene for a while now. Their debut was well received rock n roll, bluesy guitars, hip shaking rhythms, funky organs and some hooky choruses that have been sung in venues around the UK and on festival stages such as Steelhouse. 

So there was always going to be a follow up, a second chance to dance, keep the music alive with the experience of being able to tour, their debut was released before the Pandemic, but re-released after to give them something to tour. These song then have been refined while on the road, where a rock n roll band thrives and they sound like a band in full swing. 

Promised Land (the song) has a gospel tinge of The Answer or The Temperance Movement, the southern swagger of Be My Salvation is bit of Skynyrd or Whiskey Myers, however not to rest on their blues rock background they dabble in some Foreigner-like 80's rocking with Livin' It Up, it's the keyboards that definitely add to this comparison. 

There's also a lot of Aerosmith on The Promised Land, from the driving rock of Nine Lives or the ballad Still Falling For You. The band approached the album with the notion of it being escapism and they managed to capture that well, each song is a retro slice of bygone halcyon nostalgia but given a modern production sound and a passion that comes with being a relatively young band. No forty days in the desert for The Karma Effect, they take you to The Promised Land from the first chord of this second album. 8/10

Reviews: Allen's Hand, Void Era, Kawir, In Utero Cannibalism (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

Allen's Hand - Chicken King (Self Released)

A cult boyband dedicated to the one true Chicken King, Allen's Hand are a bunch of Athenian virtuosos playing a really weird album of music that is full of 90's and early 2000's trappings. 

They formed in 2008 and have released two albums before this one coming back in 2022 they wrote what was to become Chicken King an very, very eclectic record, that is never easy to categorize but manages to cram in tonnes of genres, including metal, rock, jazz and funk. Figurine brings radio friendly American post-grunge balladry, R3D3 putting battering math metal to emo singalongs, Johnny Craig (ex-Dace Gavin Dance) joining in the fun as Poutsatron has djenty riffs and sax.

The heavier side of the album very much towards the back end of it, musically they play progressively, off-kilter rhythms, odd time signatures and bring broad soundscapes. Handicaprio is very similar to Brandon Urie pop driven quirkiness mixed with angsty lyrics that tell of our unnamed hero having to leave his love as she's 25. 

Playing Fair puts Barenaked Ladies with Del Amitri, Thermochemistry is described as a "sexy pop metal hit" and I couldn't have said it better myself. Deep Space is atmospheric tappy wonderment as Delabongo is Dirty Loops like virtuoso funk featuring Skyler Acord on slinky bass. The Chicken King will be appeased with this wide ranging tribute to him and all of his works. 9/10

Void Era - Guilt (Self Released)

Forming in 2018, Athens band Void Era, started out on as a alt rock/blues based band founded by Elia Tsara (guitars/vocals) and John Levojohn (bass) they added Kostas Tsaras (drums) and recorded an EP that paid homage to that fertile 90's period of rock music with as they brought the sounds of grunge, alternative, garage rock and all things moody. 

On their full length debut they bring in Theofanis Mavropanos on guitars to add some drama to the brooding fuzz of Feels The Same. They've taken a heavier and more eclectic route with this record bubbling organs kicking off Sign before some punk riffs ignite the record well. Town Crier is a track with classic metal solos and grunge riffs, Feels The Same adds the acoustic guitar of AIC for wooziness. 

They have a major fascination with introspection, their music is varied, with smoky blues and angular alt rock the basis but they build on these foundations with a wide selection of instrumentation and Elia’s unique vocals. As I listened to the album I heard a lot of similarities to the more ‘artistic’ side of 90’s rock with some Screaming Trees, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins and Jane’s Addiction to name just a few. 

However there’s also some of the chuggy, hypnotic riffs from the likes of Soundgarden too, A Shape In The Sand, taking a few influences from Teenage Kicks. Guilt is an album out of time, inspired by the coolest bands of the 90’s it’s Gen X music for the current generation. 7/10

Kawir - Kydoimos (Soulseller Records)

Kydoimos is the ninth(!) album from Greek black metal act Kawir. Coming from that fertile highly influential 90’s scene, they explore Greek mythology and mystery in their work, this one influenced by one of Greek sprits of war, in particular the bedlam of battle. Using the Illiad as lyrical reference musically the album captures the ominous overarching sense of dread but also the exhilaration of battle. Through second wave black metal that is brutal but takes atmospheric breaks (Centauromachy and Hecatonchires) in the frenzy too. 

Sitting in the middle of this extreme metal maelstrom is a trio of songs that deal with Achilles and the Trojan war explicitly but this is also the major lyrical background to the whole album. Unlike say Rotting Christ or Varathron who have developed more into blackened/death metal acts, Kawir keeps it cvlt with frenetic tremolo picking and kick drumming that is unholy, the cinematic touches there to make sure the story is told at the right scope, without betraying their pagan black metal beginnings. 

For me it’s the trio of songs about Achilles and the title track that do the best work for Kawir. A sound that has been established for a long time but is still refined with every release. 7/10

In Utero Cannibalism – Dehumanise (Sleazsy Rider Records)

I can just hear m’colleague GC complain about this album from Greek death metal band In Utero Cannibalism (the name doesn’t give away the genre at all!) He would have complained that the 4 minute opening track Human Terror Disease was too long. 

A slow burn clean guitar intro that does some scene setting but doesn’t quite prepare you for the next 17(!) songs. It’s almost doom, but they revert to type with Organised Perversion, going forward with br00tal death metal that unfortunately does absolutely nothing for me. Thankfully all the songs are around 2 minutes but the production is muddy, making Dehumanise sound like its underwater, and there’s a weird bass sound that’s far to clean and fuzzy for the album. 

I realise that the band is one guy but it sounds like a one man project. Very D.I.Y but in a “recorded in my bedroom” way. You might like it but I found myself only managing one listen. 5/10

Reviews: Meden Agan, Dødsferd, Full House Brew Crew, Dogtag Remains (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

Meden Agan - My Name Is Katherine (Sleaszy Rider Records)

The fourth album from Athenian symphonic metal band Meden Agan is a concept album based on singer Dimitra Panariti's novel of the same name. Released at the same time as the album it deals with the titular character of Katherine who battles inner demons in 1950's Greece, around this a love story adventure and horror and the musical accompaniment to the whole book is this new record their first since 2018.

Meden Agan's music puts together Gothic, symphonic and progressive metal Panariti's vocals are the main element of the bands appeal as her range is broad and impressive. She's a vocal coach so she can soar operatically but on Confident and Sickness can also bring growls and roars too.

This change between clean and harsh styles works well with Meden Agan's heavy style of music which has some virtuoso playing from guitarist Diman Koutsogiannopoulos and keyboardist Tolis Mikroulis, linking well they both get chances to show off with solo sections, but as Diman riffs and peels off some Petrucci solos.

It's Tolis that brings the orchestral swells to tracks such as Victorious which also has drummer Dimitris Palimeris unleashing hell, bassist Pantelis Sakkas the newest member of the band adding the chugging rhythms to the very power metal sounding Beyond Any Suspicion all of it culminates with the rampaging Transition just as it starts with the blitz that is Moth.

In fact the speed is much more pronounced at the beginning of the record than at the end. Not that it much matters as My Name Is Katherine is a cinematic album that will keep you entertained for nearly 50 minutes, I don't know if they'll stay in this literary world but the music that comes from it is damn good. 8/10

Dødsferd - Wrath (FYC Records)

Named after Dødsferd's founder, the 12th record from Greek black metal institution sees them heading back to their roots with abrasive, glacial, furious black metal. Never attempting to be pigeonholed, the band have released atmospheric albums, acoustic albums but with raw, visceral black metal that Wrath has made their mark on the revered Hellenic metal scene.

Wrath then paves the way for the next part of their existence, inspired by political corruption, capitalism, war and ecocide, Wrath fleshes out the raw black metal template with influences with other styles to keep the experimental nature the band have always approached their albums with.

The band here is Wrath on vocals/guitar, Neptunus on bass and N.D on drums but this is Wrath's record, totally written in solitude it's Dødferd and Wrath are one and the same. What's obvious on Wrath is the production is a lot cleaner than on previous albums, with the fury of Restoration Of Justice still retaining that blackend filth sound but just a lot clearer to hear.

From then on we get plenty of tremolo on Decayer Of Sanity, battery on Raging Lust Of Creation and some outright viciousness on Heaven Drops With Human Filth. If you've only heard the last two albums from this band, you'll be surprised by how visceral Dødsferd are as a band. If you think you know the Hellenic underground, then think again as Dødsferd/Wrath are the underground. 8/10

Full House Brew Crew - Rise Of The Underdogs (ROAR! Rock Of Angels Records)

Full House Brew Crew have been pumping out groove metal/metalcore anthems since 2009. Think Pantera meets Machine Head and the like but with the some of the more melodic sounds of bands such as Trivium or Architects due to the addition of synths to this album. They have released two previous albums with ROAR so it makes sense that this third release also comes on the Greek label. 

On Rise Of The Underdogs they have moved away from the stoner/heavy rock sound they began with towards a much heavier groove meets metalcore one. Nearly all of the songs are delivered with a gruff roar though cleans do come in for the melodic choruses on Leaving Home, those synths working well at the dark trip hop 'secret' outro and the oscillating beginning to the battering Fake. They are sprinkled between the low tuned bottom end and biting riffage of When Violence Meets Art and Flaws Of Guilt, then they add to the breakdown loaded Voice Of Doubt which flirts with Nu Metal but does have a great guitar solo to it. 

Giorgios Tzatzakis and Vagelis Karzis are the guitarists, bringing the massive riffs to Nightmare, Karzis' vocals on form here too, though he's got the ideal roar all the way through. Behind them is Spiros Dafalias (bass) and Nikos Friligos (drums), they give the songs their guts, even when they get angsty on Leaving Home which sounds a bit too much like FFDP (shudder) for me. Full House Brew Crew have increased the heaviness, trusted the electronic elements and become a different band than they were before. Whether it will appease long time fans, I don't know, it's bound to win them new ones. 7/10

Dogtag Remains - Forgotten Battlefields (Satanath Records/Australis Records)

Dogtag Remains are a war/battle obsessed OSDM band from Athens. Forgotten Battlefields is their debut album following a name change and a single before. Much like so many death metal bands their songs are all inspired by history, battles and the horrors of war, set to grinding, blistering death metal.

Encirclement gets going with an artillery barrage behind the drumkit, the guttural vocals that are pretty standard and then we get mid section that's slows to a filthy chug. So far so Bolt Thrower and it doesn't let up. But there are some more atmospheric elements to slow the moments of battery, check out the truncated start of The Man Who Never Was before all hell breaks loose and Vaggelis Kavalieratos obliterates his kit.

Thanos Kougioulis (guitar) and Kostas Eleftheriadis (bass) weave the DM riffs between fast and slow Dimitris Pastos' leads adding tremolo picking over the top of the crusty riffs. As Aachen kicks off with a bit of Maiden riff then blows away at full pace and The Glomfjord Plant goes back to crawling sludge.

As a debut album is a ferocious debut of militaristic death metal from the heart of Athens. 7/10

Reviews: My Silent Wake, Back Jack, As The Sun Falls, Nine Moons (Reviews By James Jackson, Paul Scoble, Mark Young & Matt Bladen)

My Silent Wake - Lost In Memories, Lost In Grief (Ardua Music) [James Jackson]

As with all genres and classifications, you envision a certain aesthetic, a certain sound or style that immediately lets you know what you are getting into.

 
The press sheet that comes with My Silent Wake’s latest album, describes the band’s material as Epic/Doom Metal and there are plenty of Doom elements, particularly on the intro to the track Lavender Garden; When You Look Back and The Last Lullaby are great examples of Doom, the latter holding fast to the tradition of lengthy tracks.

No Time is another great example of Doom in all its splendour, it opens with drawn out chords, a semi whispered vocal and the sound of a church organ; it’s a solemn track and my initial expectations of the album are certainly fulfilled. The songs named are personal highlights in a really strong album, the rest are as good, showcasing the band’s talents honed over their ten year plus career; there’s a blend of clean and growled vocals throughout, a style I find particularly effective.

 
It’s not all Doomy riffs and solemn church organs however, there are moments of more upbeat tempos, adding weight to the mix, simultaneously contrasting and complimenting the slower pieces.
Definitely an album and band that I will be looking into a bit more. 8/10

Back Jack – Back Jack (RidingEasy Records) [Paul Scoble]

Back Jack were a short lived rock band from the early Seventies. I don’t have much information about the band other than what is on the Bandcamp page for this album issued for the first time by Riding Easy Records. So, the band existed from early 1971, they used the name Trellis until early in 1974, when they changed the name to Back Jack. 

The band carried on as Back Jack until late 1974 when they split up, existing under that name just long enough to record an album. The line-up that recorded this album was Mike Collier on guitar and lead vocals, Kim McKinney on bass and backing vocals, and Hans Myers on drums. The album also has a Guest artist in Gary Reed who played piano. 

That is all the information I can give you on this band, but the good people at RidingEasy Records think this is worth a release, were they right? Is this album worthy of RidingEasy Records, and your time?

The album features 13 songs which mainly fit into a Blues Rock / Hard Rock template, the band have a talent for memorable choruses, great guitar solos and Mike Collier has a very good voice. Obviously, the album has lots of straight up rockers, Bridge Waters Dynamite and As You Were are the most aggressive, with a definite Hard Rock sound, they are both purposeful and dynamic pieces of Rock music. 

Reefer Madness, Gearhead, Assault And Battery and She’s Been Down So Long are all softer Rock songs with more of a Blues Rock feel. Reefer Madness has a slight Southern Rock feel, Assault And Battery is a good song but does have slightly naff lyrics in the chorus (Assault and Battery…….. With Electric Guitar), and She’s Been Down So Long has a great dramatic chorus.

The album has a couple of big power ballads as well as the stomping rock tracks. Satisfied Man and Tomorrow are both great power ballads, big, emotive songs that have a real epic quality to them, they are also the two longest tracks on the album. Both tracks feel more powerful and a lot less cheesy than a lot of power ballads done in the eighties. 

The aptly named California and Over And Over have a slightly more sun drenched sense to them, as they have a real So-Cal Pop / Rock feel to them. Up-tempo, clean riffs and lots of melody. Over And Over does have a harder and Rockier section in the middle of the song, but it quickly reverts to a So-Cal feel that is full of sunshine.

 
The albums final two tracks have a different sense to the rest of the album. Second to last track Phonic Voyage is Prog Rock instrumental with some nice piano work from Gary Reed, and Silver Star is a short but very beautiful ballad with just vocals and piano.

 
Back Jack is a great album that should have made much more noise had it been released. The early Seventies was a time when albums were mainly promoted by live shows, if the band split shortly after the album was recorded then they would not have been able to promote it.

It’s a shame this album was never released, but that is why labels like RidingEasy Records are looking out for forgotten gems like Back Jack, I for one am very grateful they found they original tapes as this is an extremely enjoyable album that deserves to be heard. So, to answer my question from the beginning of the review; Yes it was worth everyone’s time! 8/10

As The Sun Falls - Kaamos (Theogonia Records) [Mark Young]

Just in time for the nice weather, As The Sun Falls drop their latest, Kaamos bringing with it an atmospheric blast of Finnish melodic death metal. They have certainly been prolific, with a mixture of EP’s and this which is their second full-length release since 2020. What strikes here is that they effectively bridge between the heavy requirements that this music has to provide and the quiet, more introspective needs without each jarring with the other. Pressing play, the album ebbs and flows so well, from the intro track Indrøø, slowly building with waves crashing onto a shore as the music swells behind. 

I’ve gone on record as saying that instrumental introductions are practically done to death but here it’s a worthwhile start. The atmosphere giving way into the frantic opening bars of Among The Stars. Instead of keeping that tempo right through, instead they go for a more measured approach that brings that sense of melody hinted at within Indrøø. When it does go, it really goes but keeps that clarity. The vocals are impressive, a full-throated roar and this is a great statement of intent from them. Black Lakes keeps that good work going, with some quality riffing driven by the immediate drumming of Paul Rytkönen. 

There is something in how they are building the guitar parts so even in the lighter parts they still hit hard. In terms of opening songs, and the level of impact these are strong, setting the scene and the quality of build that continues through the album. Speaking of quality, The Wanderer with its gentle opening chords is an 8-minute stormer. Those opening moments are almost rudely stomped on by some razor-sharp heavy work. It doesn’t forget the brief that yes bring the melody but don’t forget that It needs to hit hard.

Later tracks are also impressive, keeping that quality there whilst staying true to that Finnish sound. What you find is that the runtime soon passes, as each song unfolds, they share a common musical theme and approach that doesn’t fall away. However, as good as they are for me there isn’t a Holy Crap moment of sheer brilliance. Through Sorrow And Grief uses the considerable vocal talents of Gogo Melone to counterpoint the roar of Joni Hakulinen and is a hypnotic track, possibly my favourite here. 

The closing duo of The Great Cold sees them let the handbrake off a little. The Great Cold hits the ground running, that injection of pace giving it a welcome boost. There is still room for the melodic touches, and you wonder if they could have dropped more with that aggressive intent to it. We close with Kaamos using mournful strings that set up the arrangement to follow. The instrumental piece is decent enough, but after that blast that was The Great Cold, it comes as a missed opportunity to really close out with all guns blazing. 

This is a good album, with a consistent quality level that they don’t fall below. For me, I would have like to have heard more aggression and having that closing track as an instrumental meant that it ended on a flat note. Fans of the genre will like this a lot, and I think it’s a worthy 7/10

Nine Moons – Caracaras (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]

From the East of England Nine Moons are actually just two men; drummer Kenyon Albon and guitarist/vocalist Stuart Masters. They play Monday swirling psych rock driven by the thumping percussion and fuzzy Baritone guitars that always give extra engine room grunt. This six tracker steers a course through 60' & 70's acid rock, effects laden vocals and searing riffs that let their freak flag fly, while at times they shift 30 years later into the grunge and desert rock era of the 90's. 

Buzzing with energy track such as Smokehouse, bring their retro vibe to life, exploring psychedelia while The Crawl flickers with strutting garage rock. Bands such as The Black Keys, Kyuss and The Grateful Dead are all influences while more modern acts such as The Graveltones, our own Pyrogaric and Gyro are contemporaries. On top of the fuzz there's some oud that takes Hunters Moon towards a Middle Eastern aesthetic while Haunted Vista warps them into snotty alt rock. 

Following up their debut, Nine Moons lock into some well worn grooves but proudly wear their influences on their Paisley. 7/10

Reviews: FM, Black Pyramid, Pirate Queen, Doubtsower (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

FM - Old Habits Die Hard (Frontiers Music Srl)

40 years at the forefront of British AOR, FM can be considered legends of the game. Still led by Steve Overland, his smoother than silk vocals and fluid clean guitar lines, they have listened through their most popular albums, have attempted to recreate the 'best' elements of these albums to properly celebrate the band. It hasn't been all plain sailing however keyboard player Jem Davis was diagnosed with cancer, but has since had the all clear and former guitarist Chris Overland, co-founding member of the band passed away suddenly so this delayed the record as Steve grieved for his brother.

Self producing the record over the course of a year, Old Habits Die Hard, then is more than just a title it's a mantra for the band in general. It's too late to change their spots as it were, so with this album they are capturing what the essence of FM is throughout the years. We wind back to the 80's with opener Out Of The Blue, keyboardist Davis' the writer of the track inspired by Toto and Foreigner and that percussive synth sound, as they bring those blues beginnings on Don't Need Another Heartache, strutting guitars and drums as Steve croons.

It's on No Easy Way Out that we get to 'classic' FM as Lost adds some harder edged rocking with Black Water bubbling like some dark blues paired with Queen, Merv Goldsworthy's slithering bass, Pete Jupp's drumming broad and creeping as it makes it's way into a killer solo from Jim Kirkpatrick. This is the moodiest track on the record as the breezy California and Blue Sky Mind, bring back the upbeat poppy choruses the latter a cathartic track for Davis. These old habits definitely die hard for FM, it's a run through 40 years of British melodic rock from these veterans. 8/10

Black Pyramid - The Paths Of Time Are Vast (Totem Cat Records)

Signing to Totem Cat records, The Paths Of Time Are Vast is the first album from Black Pyramid since 2013 and they crash back into the doomsphere with more transcendental psychedelic sludge that will appease any long time fans of the band, but also win over potential new fans. 

Just eight songs most of them are elongated riff packed crushers, Crypt On The Borderlands having a suitable doom chug for any fans that want to get their head banging, but these are augmented by shorter interlude pieces where they expand their spatial horizons to give evidence on the psychedelic style of their genre tag. 

The billowing bass of Andy Kivela is the touchstone for all the colossal heaviness that has been born out of this being the longest tenured version of Black Pyramid, so they are an accomplished, matured, in-sync unit. Solidified as a trio, jamming together to create these stories of: "a voyage beyond the realms of birth and death."

With Kivela laying down the interstellar grooves that rattle you more than a Saturn V rocket lifting off, Eric Beaudry highlights himself as the expressive, percussive power behind the pulverising doom of Take Us To The Threshold, but also the grounding when things go further into the outer realms of space rock. With the engine room full of talent and propulsion it's Andy Beresky's guitar playing that is beautifully realised. 

With fluid The Doors like psychedelia on Astral Suicide, all of the talent culminating in the three part title track suite which is one of the best things the band have turned their hand too. Spiralling between existential weirdness and deafening earthly doom. I could say The Paths Of Time Are Vast is a masterpiece and I damn well will. 9/10

Pirate Queen - Ghosts (Despotz Records)

Behind all the mystique and storyline that surrounds Ghosts by Pirate Queen, they are a symphonic metal band that brings LARP into their live shows, dressing up in armour etc to reflect their own characters. Their live shows I can imagine are sort of like a band playing in the middle of a video game. I could go into the lore around this band but that will take ages so I'll concentrate on the music. Ghosts gets going with galloping high speed opener Pirates From The Sea, it's foot to the floor power metal and from there we touch most of the facets of symphonic/power metal. 

From the epic questing of In Search Of Eldorado, there's some massive the orchestral swells in Santa Lucia and classic metal chug of Open Fire, all given the soaring soprano vocals that only symphonic metal can give. I'll be honest, despite the new visual elements and some very expensive tie ins with prop makers and costumers, Pirate Queen are an atypical symphonic metal that's entertaining but adds nothing that new. 6/10

Doubtsower - Nothing Reduced To Everything (UBAii / Unbidden Audio)

Matt Strangis is a bit of a wizard when it comes to music, as well as being the bass player in current line up of Pantheïst, he also performs under the guise of Kyam as an experimental electronic music producer. As well of both of these he has his Doubtsower project, taking doom metal and twisting it into strange new shapes. Extremely D.I.Y this doesn't mean amateur by any means, Strangis recorded everything, wrote everything, produced everything and gave it to Greg Chandler of Esoteric for mastering. 

It's his third album and he wanted to make it more experimental, adding additional layers on top of the doom template. In the information attached the varying genres include blackened doom, post-metal, stoner, and electronic experimentation. Trampled Ideals Sold Cut Price for instance has some post-metal clean guitar chords, indistinct croaking vocals and a jungle breakbeat, Liars, Cheats, All continues the downbeat atmosphere with abrasive noise that shifts into acoustics, the the title track is probably the only song you consider traditional doom, slow moving crushing doom metal which keeps it pretty similar to Strangis' other band.

The level of musicianship is extremely impressive, the breadth of genres covered also will take you on fantastic journey's in sound. If the more experimental side of doom captures your imagination then Doubtsower needs to be on your radar. 8/10

A View From The Back Of The Room: Roadburn Festival 2024 (Live Review By Dan Bradley)

Roadburn Festival, Tilburg, The Netherlands, 18-21.04.2024

https://roadburn.com/

This year Roadburn celebrates 25 years of “redefining heaviness” and championing the cutting-edge of underground heavy music. It started out as a zine by Walter Hoeijmakers, whose generous and open-minded approach to new music and its grassroots communities is still the beating heart of the festival. Since 1999, Roadburn has grown from a small sporadic event to a four-day multimedia experience woven into the fabric of Tilburg city that includes live music held anywhere from 3000-cap main stages to intimate jazz clubs, pop-up DIY stages and a skate park, and a typical programme might contain full-album playthroughs, art exhibitions, talks and Q&A sessions with artists, and specially commissioned collaborations – not to mention the much-coveted secret shows.

I’d first heard about Roadburn in 2019 after a French friend recommended a tattoo artist who was “into the same dark, weird heavy music as you” and went to the festival every year. I’d planned to go in 2020, but then the pandemic upended my entire life, and triggered a discovery of neurodivergence after an umpteenth bout of work-related burnout. Roadburn playlists were the soundtrack to this difficult period of self-discovery, but with the cost-of-living crisis rolling on and on, an overseas jolly to see my favourite bands always felt like a foolish indulgence. Instead, over the past five years, I’ve closely followed the festival’s Spotify playlist, watched highlights on YouTube, continuing to discover my new favourite bands and trying to catch them live whenever they came through Cardiff, Bristol or London.

In February this year, with no sign of life in the UK improving for working-class people any decade soon, I decided, fuck it, grabbed a four-day ticket, last-minute flights and a pitch at the campsite. I knew less names on the line-up than previous years, but also trusted Roadburn to put on a programme I’d love.

WEDNESDAY

Travel from Cardiff to Tilburg was a doddle. Dutch trains are reliable and inexpensive, and English is commonly used and spoken, so the trip from Amsterdam airport down to Tilburg was very straightforward. The weather was cold and dreary, but I was too excited to mind.

Before I’d even got off the train at Tilburg, I was greeted by some friendly metalheads who asked if I was also going to Roadburn. After a nice chat, they pointed me towards the campsite (10mins walk from the central station) while they set off into Tilburg to buy some drugs (weed is legal, but the festival still offers guidance on etiquette and legal considerations on the website). The guys confidently assured me that Roadburn was “the best festival in the world”.

Some heavy rain the night before had forced a rearranging of the campsite layout, but the ground was fine for pitching, and everyone I met was helpful and friendly, and the site facilities (toilets, hot showers, drinking water taps, charging station under a large tent) were all clean and well-maintained. The campsite also had a communal campfire, an OFFROAD stage for live music, food stalls, a coffee van, pizza oven and a massive supermarket only five-minutes’ walk away, so you can get any food, drink and toiletries you need at reasonable prices.

Before the main festival started on Thursday, there was a Spark pre-party with three bands to entertain all those who’d turned up early. I was pretty wiped out from a day of travel, but went along to the Next Stage to catch the first band, Riot City (8).

There couldn’t have been a more fun band to start the week. The venue was packed and buzzing, and after a few minutes of The Terminator theme, we heard the shriek of an eagle. The band strode out with long hair, tight jeans, classic band cutoff tees and 80s NWOBHM attitude to spare. Their sound was very familiar – chugging guitars, melodic shredding, soaring falsetto vocals and one foot always firmly planted on a monitor, horns to the sky – but it was all played with such love, self-awareness and infectious energy, the crowd were bopping around after only a song or two. This set had me grinning, not only from the high-octane set, but how appreciative the crowd were from the first power chord. It boded well for the rest of the week.

Sadly, I was wrecked after a day of travel, so I headed to bed soon after their set, quickly lulled to sleep by a frog chorus in a nearby pond.

THURSDAY

I slept well, and was surprised how quiet and respectful the other campgoers had been during the night, even those returning late from a night of partying; proof that heavy metal festival campsites don’t have to be feral mud pits.

After a great hot shower, and some coffee and iconic banana cake from a vendor, I went to check out the art exhibition in NS16, a studio space hosting part of the free OFFROAD programme. The exhibition contained unsettling sculptures of fleshy biomachines by artist Fedrik Vaesson, reminiscent of props from a Cronenberg body-horror, while the walls were covered in moving and vulnerable self-portraits and photo essays from David Fitt, who was also selected for the 2024 website and poster designs. The fact that Roadburn offers a quiet, reflective space away from the crowds and heavy music, and champions up-and-coming visual artists alongside the musicians playing on the stages, is one of the things that really set the festival apart for me.

I next got my festival wristband from the exchange, located two-minutes’ walk from the Spoorzone, which contains several music venues, food stalls, lockers, toilets, merch tables, vinyl stalls and plenty of places to sit, grab a drink and rest. I was on a tight budget, so decided against getting any merch or music, but there was an impressive selection on offer, and lockers nearby costing a few euros per day if you wanted to stash things while you hit the mosh pit.

By lunch time, I’d started to feel lonely and overstimulated – such moment are inevitable if you solo travel to a festival, after all – but Roadburn do everything they can to make it easy to make friends. I headed over to the 013 basement bar for the meet-up for solo travellers and first timers (10). A few dozen of us all got stick on name tags, grabbed our complimentary free drink, and set to mingling. People were exceptionally friendly, and there was also a lovely welcome speech from Walter, Becky Laverty (Booker, Publicity & Communications) and a solo first timer from the previous year. I was lucky to click with some guys from Manchester, swapped numbers, and we ended up coordinating much of the week together.

The first major show we saw was Body Void (9), performing their 2023 album ‘Atrocity Machine’ in full. This album had seen the trio move away from a sludgy riff-driven sound to include a lot more synth and noise elements, so this tour saw Jacob Lee (Elder Devil) taking over guitar duties while singer/guitarist Willow focused on vocals and noise. Compared to their brutal set I’d seen in Bristol the week before, the light show, and the sound quality of the mix here was on another level. It was still loud and crushing, but the balance of components was so much crisper. Across the week, what impressed me was how the bigger venues captured all the fine-grained detail of these heavy bands’ sound, something that I’ve found gets muddied in smaller local venues.

Next, we crossed town to the Engine Room to see the first of UBOA’s (8) much anticipated three sets across the weekend. As 2024’s Artist in Residence, the Australian musician Xandra Metcalfe was invited to play three UBOA sets: an obliterating Meltdown set on the Thursday, a full playthrough of her 2019 album The Origin Of My Depression’ on the Saturday, and a restorative Calm Down show on the Sunday night. Her recorded work creates challenging soundscapes from whispered and screamed vocals, synths, guitar, drone and harsh noise to tackle themes of rage, sorrow, PTSD, neurodivergence, and ultimately catharsis. 

The Meltdown set was a real onslaught of harsh noise, screams and strobed lights, and I had to close my eyes at several points. The Body Void set was harsh and heavy, but this was like striding eyes-wide into a hailstorm, and the emotional and sensory intensity was almost too much. I found myself getting emotional during the rare lulls in the barrage of sound, which would be a recurring theme during the week. Stepping straight out into the sunlight and crowds was more than my fried brain could handle, and so I had to stand to one side of the hall with my hands shielding my eyes and my earplugs left in for quite a while before able to move onto the next show. Absolutely shaken.

After we’d recovered from that, we went to get a good spot to see Chelsea Wolfe (9), who would be playing the Main Stage. The venue has an excellent staggered layout that means there was plenty of space upstairs on the balcony to sit down before the show. I’d really enjoyed her run of albums and collaborations from Pain Is Beauty (2013) onwards, restlessly combining experiments in dark folk, gothic Americana and doom metal with her ethereal vocals, but admit I was less invested in the most recent electronica-influenced release, She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She (2024). 

The bulk of the show was taken from this newer album, but the complexity of the rhythms and dynamics were really brought to life by the band and Wolfe’s always-astonishing vocals, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting. It was nice to hear some earlier cuts from Hiss Spun too, although the high point was the stripped-back acoustic songs that finished the set. Being in that 3000-capacity venue and feeling a pin-drop intensity between each song was electrifying, and the hauntingly beautiful new track at the show’s close is an exciting sign of things to come.

FRIDAY

The weather this week had been largely cold, drizzly and overcast, with occasional spots of sunshine, but Thursday night it just rained and rained. My tent lost its battle against the elements, and so I woke up with my feet in the shallow end of an impressive tent-puddle. I got up early, just to get out of my sodden tent, grabbed a coffee and checked out a great set of progressive, grungy rock from Tilburg locals ENMA (6) at the campsite OFFROAD stage. Their sound did evoke other bands a bit too often, especially TOOL, but was still a polished and tight performance that got the campsite revved up for the day ahead.

The first official show of the day was the Roadburn debut of “Teeside agitators” Benefits (7), whose furious blend of harsh noise, live drums, and the acerbic spoken-word ranting and screaming of frontman Kingsley Hall perfectly encapsulates life as a product and participant in modern Britain, both in its grinding misery and despair, as well as in anger-fuelled defiance. The band were aggressive, confrontational, and Hall was hypnotic, and the band had the full attention of the Engine Room venue. We would have stayed for more of the set, but found this too harsh a start to the day, so ducked out after about 30 minutes to check out the commissioned piece from Ragana and Drowse (6).

Labelmates from The Flenser, the black metal duo Ragana and Drowse (Kyle Bates) collaborated to create The Ash From Mount Saint Helens, blending sections of soaring drums and guitars, sung and screamed vocals, with more lush, shoegazey sounds in quieter sections. The performance was a bit uncertain, and the two members of Ragana having to swap drum/guitar duties affected the pacing, but the songs themselves were strong, and hit some emotional highs once they got going. The set was quite short, which was a shame, as I could have listened to a lot more of this collaboration.

After two big sets, I wanted to check out a show at Paradox, a small jazz club tucked away from the main strip, as well as have a proper sit down and rest my broken feet. But this set by local electronic trio Drone Assembly (9) was one of the festival surprise highlights, and a good demonstration of how the festival rewards taking chances. By the time the band had started, the venue was absolutely packed. The trio then took us on an improvisational journey using synths, drones, vocoders, pedal-warped guitars, loops, chants, assorted bells, chimes and instruments to create a huge soundscape that ranged from devotional chants to soaring guitar-led sections to pounding EDM. 

The 45-minute set flew by, and the standing ovation and rapturous applause that followed was well-deserved. The band seemed overwhelmed by the number of people who turned up, and how appreciative they were; this is something that Roadburn seems to foster, and why artists are perhaps so keen to play here. A band may accept playing their heavy niche of music to a few dozen people on a rainy Tuesday most of the year, but then at Roadburn those handfuls of people from each town and city across the world come together to fill venues in their hundreds or thousands, so you can see why it means so much for bands to play here.

Next, we got right to the front for Liverpool producer Forest Swords (8), who played an absolute belter in the Next Stage venue. Forest Swords makes me think of a danceable Burial, using dislocated samples and dense, grainy ambient textures to capture the bleak rain-soaked landscapes of post-industrial UK towns but never losing that ear for a melancholy hook and danceable beats. I’d loved his latest release, ‘Bolted’, and this performance more than lived up to my expectations.

I watched about 25 minutes of the Health (7) set on the main stage and enjoyed their blend of synth-driven metal. They put on a great live show, with lots of drama in the music played out in their light show. But a friend had heard about a secret Agriculture show at the skate park, and he was desperate to be there early. Just as well, as we when we got to the park an hour early, just as Couch Slut were coming out of their secret show, the queue was already starting to form.

The Agriculture (10) set that followed was one of my festival highlights. We managed to get right to the front of the stage in the skate park, so we could feel the full force of their euphoric and crushing blend of black-gaze. The band’s whole gestalt is a mischievous subversion of black metal tropes and cliches alongside a heartfelt faith in the ecstatic power of music to transcend the everyday. And it’s a joy to see a band having so much fun on stage. 

In the second half of the set, they also had support from UBOA, who added improvised harsh noise and screams, although she was tucked away behind cabs, so I’m not sure how many people knew she was there. I went in not really knowing who Agriculture were, but came out a fan. This, to me, is one of the unique draws of Roadburn: seeing cutting-edge acts with the excellent production quality of big budget shows but with the intimacy of a local DIY show. You can watch a band crush a show in front of a thousand people, then chat to them in the line for food, as the boundary between musician and festival goer is so porous – perhaps because everyone here is a music fan first and foremost.

Nothing was going to top the Agriculture/UBOA set, so I had an early night to make sure I had enough energy for all the things I’d circled in biro for the next day.

SATURDAY

While writing my notes in downtime and strolls between shows on the first few days, I’d started to sketch out an earnest arc for this review. It would chart my interwoven path to Roadburn and a later-life discovery of my own neurodivergence, sparked by discussions a few years ago with a tattoo artist and Roadburn regular who was processing an official autism diagnosis in her mid-30s. The life-changing music I’d then discovered through the constellation of Roadburn artists had consoled me through a difficult few years of grief and acceptance around this discovery, and this would culminate in watching UBOA’s playthrough of The Origin Of My Depression, which deals with her own sense of feeling “broken” for being autistic, ADHD and trans. I’d already gotten emotional during her Meltdown set, so fully expected a cathartic experience at the album playthrough on Saturday night, no doubt bawling my eyes out.

And then I ate a dodgy supermarket salad on Saturday morning, and quickly succumbed to diabolical food poisoning.

Instead of getting to see anticipated sets from UBOA, Agriculture, Couch Slut and Torpor – not to mention Khanate’s first live performance in 19 years following their surprise album drop in 2023 – I shivered in my sleeping bag all day, nauseous and feverish, unable to keep down any food or drink, praying for the sweet release of death.

I give food poisoning a ‘1’ as, at the very least, it gave my battered feet a day off.

SUNDAY 

I didn’t “wake up” on Sunday morning as I’d never really gone to sleep the night before, but the fever had passed off, and I accepted that I had to get up at some point. I dragged myself to the showers around 7am, and hobbled a few loops around the campsite trying to get some fresh air and push down the nausea.

The only food truck open at this point was the small coffee stall. They kindly asked someone to go find me a paracetamol, and, perhaps seeing the state of me, gave me a hot ginger tea and slice of banana cake for free. I slumped down on a sofa under the large tent nearby, and spent the next half an hour eating the cake, several crumbs at a time.

The walk to the main stage in town was arduous but it was better to be moving than shivering in my tent.

And I’m so glad I did; the first piece I was able to catch was the astonishing commissioned piece Lux Tenera – A Rite To Joy held on the main stage. For a new commissioned piece with an enormous jazz and pop orchestra, the Main Stage was nevertheless packed out, which tells you all you need to know about the trust and open-mindedness of Roadburn audiences. This hour-long piece was a collaboration between Die Wilde Jagd (8), the music project of producer and songwriter Sebastian Lee Philipp and the Metropole Orkest. 

My review is hampered by the fact that I was sat outside with my head in my hands for most of it, but the diversity and dynamic range and power of this piece was hair-raising, from highs driven by pounding taikos and soaring strings, to quiet ballad sections. The quality of sound in the venue, when I ventured inside, was superb. There was even someone playing a carnyx, a tall Iron Age celtic trumpet with the head of an animal, which had been flown over from Scotland for the occasion. Just magical. The piece ended to rapturous applause, and I felt energized to tackle a few more shows.

Hilary Woods (7) was one of the acts that I’d been determined to check out, after discovering her dark and beautiful 2023 release, Acts Of Light. The album builds haunting dirges and drones from field recordings taken from Woods’ nomadic journeys through Ireland and Spain, stringed instruments, electronics, samples and live choirs, into something truly unsettling, challenging and affecting. This show covered the dark sounds of the recent album, enriched by Oliver Turvey on violin, and the dimly lit venue and muted performance allowed the audience to take their own journey through the drones and soundscapes. 

I want to say I loved it, and was transported by the hour, but where I was stood at the back of the balcony, the sound was unfortunately boomy and muddy. I struggled to pick out the textures and detail that had made the album such a wonderful listen. Nevertheless, when I heard the bassy droning strings of Where The Bough Has Broken – my favourite track from the album – I experienced a huge wave of emotion and felt grateful to be there. In spite of the subpar sound, I hope to catch her live again in different circumstances.

I grabbed a hot ginger tea and muffin at the food trucks outside the main stage, and wondered whether to call it a day. I was still feeling very unpleasant.

But then I got a text to say that Torpor (10) would be playing a secret show at the skate park, and, food poisoning or not, I had to be there. I met up with a mate an hour before the show, so we could ensure we got in; we’d seen from the Agriculture show that queue etiquette could crumble quite easily so we didn’t want to lose out (though in fairness to Roadburn, they now had metal barriers up to ensure a bit more order).

I’d seen Torpor at the Crofters Rights in Bristol the previous week, opening for Eye Flys and Body Void, and was really impressed. But this skate park show was something else.

We were both unsure about being in the mosh pit for this show, as the small audience space with ramps on all sides is a recipe for a tumble, so we stood at the back overlooking the park. Compared to the pristine and professional sound and light shows of the main venues, the skatepark is baldly lit, echoey and cold, but the atmosphere couldn’t be more perfect. 

The ground shakes with the bass, and seeing hundreds of people across the space moshing, leaning over metal railings, sat against walls, stood swaying in their own worlds – the secret skatepark shows capture the excitement and DIY spirit of the scattered local scenes that Roadburn curates its programme from, and reminds you of all the basement shows and DIY spaces where you’ve seen bands like Torpor get their start and build their following.

Their sound was huge, filthy and all-consuming, taking large slabs of sludge from their 2023 offering Abscission. The band filled the cavernous venue when dragging the audience through its slower heavier cuts, then swept everyone away on the faster songs. During the quieter sections, the band also capitalized on the intimacy of the space by standing on the raised wall in front of the crowd, with Lauren Mason (bass) reciting the spoken word section of Interior Gestures, while drummer Simon Mason took to the same podium for the screamed sections in Carbon.

The applause went on for a very long time, and as we eventually filed out into the chilly Tilburg air, everyone knew that we’d witnessed one of those shows that pass quickly into Roadburn lore.

MONDAY

The next morning, I rose early, feeling better after a half-decent night’s sleep, packed up my tent and made my way straight to the train station for a midday journey home.

While sipping coffee in the station, I kept thinking back to a moment from the night before. The Torpor drummer had gotten up after their crushing set to give his thanks, and admitted that despite not being an emotional guy, he had almost cried in the middle of three different songs. Nothing unusual about a band getting emotional, especially when Torpor’s Roadburn performance has been so anticipated since the pandemic scuppered their last planned visit. But I remembered a friend turning to me during the Health set and admitting they’d also been overcome with emotion out of nowhere. I’d been finding the same thing all week too – it would hit me during the sets, or while looking at art, or just waiting for a coffee at a stand, that I was here at Roadburn, among likeminded people and my favourite artists, experiencing shows that will never happen again.

The Roadburn Facebook group coincidently started a thread that week where dozens of people shared their own such moments, feeling overwhelmed with emotions during the festival, so it is definitely a communal experience. This is not only a credit to Roadburn for the powerful and moving lineups, and the way they facilitate making friends and new connections, but also for creating a progressive, openminded, supportive, queer-friendly space so that people can feel like they can be vulnerable and earnest about their experiences without fear of ridicule. Also, best vegan food selection I’ve ever seen, hands down.

Roadburn is not going to be for everyone. If you can only afford one major festival a year, I understand why people would choose a line-up of names they already know and recognise. And if macho moshpits and boozy all-nighters are your idea of a good time, you’ll probably feel out of step with Roadburn’s older, more esoteric crowd. But if you want to hear unique commissions you’ll never see elsewhere, witness full album playthroughs, secret shows, discover your new favourite artists, and attend a friendly, openminded festival where the boundary between artist and fan is almost non-existent, this is the place to be.

The tickets for 2025 went on sale the very day after the festival ended. I’ll be doing what I can to go again next year.

Reviews: Ten Ton Slug, Ba'al, Bismarck, The Watchers (Reviews By Matt Bladen & Paul Scoble)

Ten Ton Slug - Colossal Oppressor (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]

It's been a long time coming, a few previous releases, a trail of slime right across their native Ireland, the UK and continental Europe, with a show at Maryland Doom festival coming this year, but it culminates with Colossal Oppressor the debut album from Connemara's Ten Ton Slug. 

Conjure up in your mind the sound a ten ton slug would make, I think you'll find it's pretty close to the cavernous, monstrous crawl that this band deliver, if Electric Wizard eased off on the weed and jammed some Eyehategod, Ten Ton Slug and Magore The Unkind could be the result. Similarities as well to tour mates Conan, Bongzilla and CoC, they look towards the slower style of battering death metal too with Bolt Thrower, Obituary and Autopsy the obvious ones.

Having seen them at Bloodstock Festival I can attest to how heavy they are and they are very much able to capture that feeling of your organs shifting a foot to the left with Colossal Oppressor. Ancient Ways alongside Mindless And Blind are the kind of music you want from this band, Sean Sullivan's snarling guitar riffs are linked with Pavol Rosa's burbling bass to steer the riff worship. 

It's not just sludge though on Brutus, they have some grunting death, Karl Willetts of Memoriam/Bolt Thrower adding his brutal and legendary vocals to join Rónán Ó hÁrrachtáin for an unholy duet. The slug has been truly let loose and it is looking to flatten everything that stands in front of it! 8/10

Ba’al – Soft Eyes (Ripcord Records) [Paul Scoble]

Sheffield based five-piece Ba’al have been making music since 2016. The band, made up of Nick Gosling on guitars, Chris Mole also on guitars, Luke Ruttter on drums, Richard Spencer on bass, violin and viola and JP Stamps on vocals. In the 8 years the band have been together they have released two other EP's 2017’s In Gallows By Mass and Reverence in 2019, and one album released in 2020 and called Ellipsism.

Soft Eyes is a three track EP, the first material the band have released with their current line-up, it shows another step along a path that started with Atmospheric Black Metal and has seen the band move towards Post Black Metal and Post metal.

The EP is split into three long songs with a total length of twenty seven minutes. Opening song Ornamental Doll begins with Field Recordings before we are dropped into mid-paced Post Black Metal with harsh vocals, the vocals are harsh for most of the EP with clean vocals used very sparingly, the music is heavy but has some light to how the riffs are written. The middle of the song is soft, gentle and Post Rock in style, this is then slowly built back to driving and purposeful Post Metal, the song comes to an end with soft guitar and samples.

Next comes Yearn To Burn Bright, which has a minimal opening with bass, drums and whispered vocals. The song then drops into a section that feels tumultuous with harsh vocals, and very heavy Sludgy riffs with a nice bit of dissonance for good measure. The track then goes into a Blast Beat with a tremolo picked riff and feels very Black Metal. Yearn To Burn Bright then switches feel completely for a section that feels expansive with keyboard parts, this then has layers added to it until it feels absolutely massive, and then the song ends.

Final track Bamber Bridge has a long slow build up into Post Rock riffs. This then goes into a Post Black Metal section that is driving and purposeful. The song then takes a lighter feel with some post Metal that is very melodic, this then builds in intensity to a tight riff with a great melody lead. The song then drifts off into Post Rock with soft and gentle guitars, for an ending that feels like a resolution.

Soft Eyes is a great EP. It bodes well for the new material that this fresh line-up is going to produce. The material is complex, changing a lot over the course of the twenty seven minutes, but the band handle all of the transitions very well, and the complex nature of the music never feels forced or unnatural. Get ready for the next album, if this EP is anything to go by, its going to be great! 8/10

Bismarck – Vourukasha (Dark Essence Records) [Paul Scoble]

Norway, and Bergen is mainly known musically for Black Metal, but the Scandinavian country has produced some very good Doom bands over the years. One such band is Bismarck, who have been making huge and heavy noises in their hometown of Bergen since 2015. 

In the time they have been together Bismarck have made two albums before Vourukasha; Their debut, Urkraft in 2018, and the follow up, Oneiromancer in 2020. The band is made up of Anders Vaage on bass, Tore Lyngstad on drums, Eirik Goksøyr on guitars, Trygve Svarstad also on guitars and Torstein Nørstegård Tveiten on vocals.

The album kicks off with the track Sky Father, which crashes in with mid-paced and very aggressive Doom. The riffs are monolithically heavy and dense, with huge, bellowing Vocals, this is very heavy and very belligerent, it has a definite Conan feel to it, although the vocals are possibly even more combative than Conan. The song slows down for a very nasty crawl, before a sludgy section comes in to kick us all in the teeth. The song then goes into a Drone section with whispering until the big heavy riff comes back to take the song to its end. 

Next we get Echoes which is again mid-paced and very heavy Doom, this time with a tempo that feels relentless and the riff has a bit of added dissonance. The song then goes into very minimal and stripped-down section before the song builds itself back together to, once again, huge and heavy Doom.

Kigal is an interesting track; it opens with percussion with an eastern feel to it, before bass and clean Guitar come in with some clean and very gentle chanting, the track builds with added vocals until the song fades out. A very distinctive track that stands out. After Kigal comes The Tree Of All Seeds, which is a short, clean guitar instrumental.

Title track Vourukasha, is another super heavy Doom track with a feeling of turmoil. The chorus is slower and heavier than the verse. Near the end the song slows to a crawl before dropping into a minimal Drone, the huge, heavy and slow riff returns to take the song to its end.

Final track Ocean Dweller has a very long and slow drone intro that takes 4 minutes to get to very slow and very heavy Doom with a keyboard drone added to it. This track is all about super slow and incredibly heavy, massive chords crash against each other in a monolithically heavy way. The song then drifts back into a drone for a couple of minutes of fade out.

Vourukasha is a very good, and almost insanely heavy album. It does two or three things very well, but only those two or three things. If you like very heavy Doom and Drone then you will love this, but people after more complexity or variety will have to look elsewhere. The song Kigal really helps give this a bit of much needed alternative to only slow and heavy, without it this album would feel pretty one dimensional. 

The other issue I have with Vourukasha is the length, at 35 minutes it is a little on the short side, and with long droning intros and outros the amount of music just doesn’t feel enough. An extra six-minute song would help make the album feel more satisfying. In many ways that isn’t a criticism, I was enjoying the music, and wanted it to keep going. 7/10

The Watchers - Nyctophilia (Ripple Music) [Matt Bladen]

Formed in 2016, Bay Area band The Watchers were snapped up by Ripple very early in their career. The California based label, releasing two EP’s and a full length from them so far. They’ve played countless high profile gigs in that time and now after they are poised to release their second full length album Nyctophilia, which is being a fan of the dark for those that don’t speak latin. 

The Watchers play brooding, horror influenced classic metal which meets groove and thrash, making them an amalgamation of several California bands, from the Bay Area riffs and speed of Metallica, the L.A muscle of Black Label Society or the SoCal modernity of Avenged Sevenfold, the latter in the vocals which I’m not sold on. In the lower reaches they’re ok but when the record opens with Twilight I Am The Dark, sung almost totally at the top of the range it’s grating. 

Musically too I find The Watchers a bit too safe, they’re playing their strengths but they are deep rooted in the California metal scene and sound as if they have been birthed by it. Now that said they do take a trip to Seattle on Taker and the title track sounds like Zakk playing Never Say Die, it is produced by Max Norman who has twiddled knobs for Ozzy and MegaDave, but mostly The Watchers are a sum of their parts, they feature members from Spiral Arms, White Witch Canyon, Black Gates, Systematic, and Vicious Rumors; a classic metal band with stoner band tendencies. 6/10 

Reviews: Terminal Nation, The Milk Men, Shadowcloak, Beyond The Pale (Reviews By GC, Paul Scoble, Mark Young & Paul Hutchings)

Terminal Nation - Echoes Of The Devils Den (20 Buck Spin) [GC]

It’s been a couple of years since Terminal Nation released their debut album and since then they have been steadily building momentum to become one of the most exciting bands on the scene, they mix elements of hardcore and death metal and are currently on one of the hottest labels around in 20 Buck Spin, so naturally I am all over this one!

It all starts with Echoes Of The Devils Den which creeps up with a dark, slow and menacing build, before some vicious vocals kick in and introduce a hardcore stomp that is then dragged through some slow and low death metal and it all sound suitably vicious and really sets the tone nicely, Written By The Victor is full of beautiful sounding old school death metal influences while also mixing in the more modern feel of hardcore perfectly, the added vocals of Todd Jones from the mighty Nails are a masterstroke as well! 

The Spikes Under The Bridge starts off with a sludgy and crawling riff that then kicks into a perfectly executed hardcore section that will undoubtedly sound immense live as it really pushes the song forward with a savage power and force, No Reform (New Age Slave Patrol) is another gloriously old school death metal song that is fuelled with spite to create another absolute killer track and the closing verse is a thing of absolute venomous beauty! Empire In Decay has another wonderful beginning that is slow, measured and relentlessly heavy before exploding info life with the now familiar and welcome hardcore mix but here it has more grandiosity added in with some epic sounding guitar fills but you are never far from it all descending into full on fury mode. 

Now we get a totally different feel from Embers Of Humanity its almost feels like their Unforgiven in a way, its not really a ‘’ballad’’ as such and it is fully instrumental but it’s a paired back and shows an emotional side of Terminal Nation, before Merchants Of Bloodshed is back to the real business of scathing death metal that is stomping and arrogant but mixed with straight up metal in places before the guest vocals of Killswitch Engage’s Jesse Leach kick in and add another layer of intelligence to show that you cant pin these guys down to one style very easily, Bullet For A Stone is a probably my least favourite track as it just feels a bit too mid-paced compared to everything else, not saying its bad by any means but feels like it just missing something to take it to the next level. 

Dying Alive shakes of any cobwebs and is back to the business of nasty death metal goodness that is another perfect example of how to sound old school and current at the same time, Cemetery Of Imposters is a short, sharp stomp of thunderous drums and chugging hardcore riffs and more nicely placed guest vocals from K Kennedy of Sex Prisoner mixing really well and adding a proper old school hardcore feel to this track. Immolation Of Mother Nature once again goes for the mid pace opening that creates the atmosphere and the explodes into life with more wonderfully executed hardcore fury its all melded together and creates a feeling that you could run through a wall and not be bothered! 

Release The Serpents has the unmistakable vocals of Dwid Hellion from hardcore legends Integrity opening the track and mixed through the whole song and because of this we get one last blast of sludgy hardcore infused death metal with riffs so thick you could spread them on toast, and it’s a beautifully unhinged and savagely heavy way to end the album.

Another week, another perfect 20 Buck Spin record, there were a couple of bits that weren’t exactly 100% to my liking but these tiny, little minus points are nothing and will not make me say that this record was unbelievable, and I think its blatantly obvious that if I give this record anything but a perfect score, I am just kidding myself and you the reader! I am saying this again but if this isn’t high on the album of the year lists then there is no justice in the world!!10/10

The Milk Men – Holy Cow! (Self Released) [Paul Scoble]

Winners of Five British Blues Awards, The Milk Men have made quite an impact since their forming in 2010. The band is made up of Jamie Smy on lead vocals, Adam Norsworthy on guitars, backing vocals, keyboards and percussion, Mike Roberts on drums, and Lloyd Green on bass, and Bennett Holland plays Hammond organ on Don’t Trust My Life. 

In the time they have been together The Milk Men have released four albums and an EP before Holy Cow! The style of blues that The Milk Men play is firmly rooted in Boogie Blues in its various forms (Rock and Roll, Blues Rock, Southern Rock) and any other style they like. Most of the material feels like a mix of late Fifties/early Sixties Boogie Blues, and seventies style Southern Rock, Glam Rock or Hard Rock. In some ways it’s a bit like ZZ Top playing Eddie Cochran covers.

 
The album opens with the song One Man Band an up-tempo piece of Boogie Blues with a great main riff, a fast walking pace that will keep heads nodding and a great guitar solo. It’s a cracking way to start the album, it kick starts everything with a great positive energy. Next comes a tale of drinking and debauchery on a school night. Hungover has a bit of a Southern Rock feel to it, and a great chorus with really good backing vocals.

 
Give A Little Love is funky as anything and is based on a great clean guitar riff. The great, pulsing tempo will make you strut, and again the song boasts a very good guitar solo. Wild Girls has a taut verse, and a bigger, singalong chorus. The song has a great melody lead filling it with tunefulness, and a wonderful ending with great backing vocals and handclaps.

 
Easy Touch is poppy measured Blues Rock, it reminds me of late Fifties/early Sixties Pop music, the double handclaps accentuate the Rock and Roll feel, and makes me think of Leader Of The Pack. As with most of the songs on this album, Easy Touch also features a very melodic guitar solo. 

Next up is Bad News Blues, an absolutely brilliant piece of Boogie Blues that is quite seventies in feel. It is reminiscent of early (first two albums) AC/DC, Dr. Feelgood, and in a couple of places ABBA’s song Does Your Mother Know? It’s a great piece of Rock music with a wonderful chorus that will get into your head. Fill Her Shoes is a great piece of Boogie Woogie Southern Rock. The verse is restrained and tight as anything, the pacing is measured but has an unstoppable and relentless feel, partly due to a great driving bassline.

 
Fool For Loving You is a Fifties Rock and Roll ballad, it’s perfect for slow dancing and would have fitted in a fifties School prom perfectly. It’s the kind of track that Roy Orbison was so good at, as soon as you hear it you are lit by glitter balls. After Fool For Loving You comes Misty Road, a driving up-tempo piece of Blues Rock, it’s got a great boogie riff in the verse and an expansive chorus. The juxtaposition of these two feels works very well.

 
Holy Cow! comes to an end with a big power ballad, Don’t Trust My Life. The song has a distinctive Melody Lead that is repeated, and a very emotive chorus. The song is full of emotion and melody and is a very effective way to end the album.

 
Holy Cow! is a great album of Boogie Blues, Rock and Roll and Seventies Rock. The album is full of great choruses, fantastic riffs, brilliant vocals and across the board great performances. What this album does best is put a huge smile on your face, it is so much fun. If this album doesn’t make you smile, then you are probably already dead (or at least dead inside). 

I’ve enjoyed listening to it hugely and have been listening to it whilst walking to work for the last few weeks and have found it’s a great way to kick start your day in a very positive and fun way; strutting to work is always more fun that simply walking. 9/10

Shadowcloak - Shadowcloak (Self Released) [Mark Young]

The North Carolina natives drop their debut EP, with 5 songs that attempt to add something extra to that sludge/post-metal genre by way of weaving in of subtle textures via some understated synth work.

Don’t worry, they don’t forget to bring the riffs too, Kicking off with Dark Days with a drum intro that reminds me of Woman From Tokyo (Deep Purple, just in case) that evolves and grows as the guitars come in. It’s a simple riff but it does the trick, allowing the song room to breathe. The synths come in as a means of filling their sound prior to them closing the song out, breaking out a restrained solo against a meaty guitar line that doesn’t rely on being super low in order to be heavy.

Night After Night follows up with a storming melody line, replaced by a straight-ahead measure that is built for head banging. The song build isn’t content to stay in one zone, moving from riff to the next with ease. Each section compliments the one before without being a rehash and for me is a great pointer to the tools they have at disposal. For example, it picks up the pace for the final third with a solo that fits the riff behind whilst staying true to the overall theme of the song. It all fits together so well that as each part finishes the next comes in and is a perfect fit to it. 

Leave Me My Name leans into doom-gaze with an elongated opening, soon to be crushed underfoot by the main body of the song, with guitars dropping into discord and riffs that are stretched to suit. One thing that they don’t do is ape the typical sources of influence – Black Sabbath et al, here this is all about having songs that move, that will get you going live which is what Everything Is Gone attempts. 

Injecting urgency into the opening moments gives them a great dynamic to work with as they opt to go with clean singing and guitar to suit. You know that they will bring the heavy so when it does land its instantly effective. It’s one of those songs where it would be a blast to play through because they don’t stay in one part of the neck. I should also mention that there is some cracking drumming going on, ranging in attack from subtle to full on.

Last track, Discomfort/Disorder instantly reminds me of Leviathan, the way the two guitars sit together in their harmony parts. Deploying the discord once more this one motors onward. The middle offers more melodic flourishes, with an ace bridge that comes together with a heavy outro that is quality. Whether they cite Mastodon as an influence, I can certainly hear it in their sound.

This is not a hastily thrown-together collection of ideas, it’s a well-built set of songs that show a wealth of ideas at their disposal. Vocals are suitably extreme sounding, without being over the top and the clean moments add to the atmosphere when they are used (Kudos to Dave Gayler and Adrian Lee Zambrano for the vocals here). They don’t overplay that grit/clean approach used by others and the guitar work is top-class. As I’ve said they have the songs that you want to play yourself because there are no dull moments. 

I hope there is more to come from them, just to see what they do next because this is a great introduction to Shadowcloak. 8/10

Beyond The Pale – Monument In Time (Self Released) [Paul Hutchings]

Recorded as a tribute to their guitarist and band founder Jeroen van Donselaar, it’s difficult to be too critical of this release. The man died from a cardiac arrest halfway through their debut show in 2022 for flips sake! Formed in the latter days of the pandemic, the Dutch outfit regrouped, and Monument In Time was released two years after that fateful day.

Led by the formidable and ferocious vocals of singer Janneke de Rooy, this six-track EP is a fiery affair. The combination of thrash riffage and death metal ethos results in some brutal tracks that should be lapped up by those who fancy an aural onslaught.

Liberation For The Damned kicks things off, and the tempo is relentless from there on. There’s little variation in style, thunder house drumming and snarling singing seem to be the pattern for Beyond The Pale. De Rooy has the typical savage delivery, dropping into a deeper growl on Storm en Drift but otherwise maintaining a similar presence elsewhere.

The absence of variety makes Monument In Time something of a chore to listen to. The music is solidly executed, the playing clearly well done, but there’s something a little repetitive about this release. Facts and Figures and the final track Payback Is A Bitch are both effective enough but there’s little here to genuinely excite. 6/10

Reviews: Wheel, Black Tusk, Unearthly Rites, Attic Theory (Reviews By Matt Bladen, Paul Hutchings, Mark Young & Zak Skane)

Wheel - Charismatic Leaders (Inside Out Music) [Matt Bladen]

Often used to refer to those in charge of cults, dictators, demagogues et al We have all witnessed Charismatic Leaders more and more recently. Think of the blonde, mop top from a few years ago or Mr Orange over the water in the USA and you'll be on the right train of thought.

These are the people that use their personality and their rhetoric to breed dissention for their own gain, it is “divide et impera” in practice, orchestrated by inflammatory language behind crocodile smiles and the idea of being something different or needed. It’s these people that Finnish prog metal masters Wheel deal with on their new album, it’s not quite a concept record but one where the things that link these Charismatic Leaders together, ideologically, practically and mentally are explored, decried and exposed for all to see.

Dealing with subject matter that for a lot of listeners is quite close to home and could illicit feelings one way or another, it's no surprise that Charismatic Leaders is an aggressive record, Wheel calling it their 'metal' album. The heaviness is turned up higher than before, James Lascelles' cranking out riffs at a louder volume and more hostility than on any other Wheel releases. Tumultuous grooves on Empire or the Tool-like swirl of Submission and Disciple, bring rhythmic wooziness, low end grunts and stop start riffs that are made bone breaking by the engineering/production of Daniel Bergstrand and Meshuggah man Fredrik Thordendal. They put their crushing audio stamp on this third full length.

James' vocals too are a bit rawer in parts but he still has that brilliant melodic phrasing throughout, so it's more an evolution than a revolution. Wheel adopting textures they have toyed with but now they have fully embraced them, as rock bleeds into metal but stays progressive and innovative. From the Tool parts I mentioned that have always been there, much like the introspective Porcupine Tree-isms, they shift towards Gojira’s emotive technicality and even some repeating Meshuggah battering, without being too heavy for anyone who has heard their previous efforts.

Now a trio on record at least, James is joined by the lead guitar of Jussi Turunen, adding intricate melodies to tracks such as the Saboteur and The Freeze, his leads give lustre to the dense riffage, while the backroom of Santeri Saksala behind the drumkit means that Porcelain and Disciple have a rhythmic thunder to it, but a an adroit approach widens the percussive sound. Wheel add a more metallic shine to their gifted prog rock on this third full length, crowning them as Charismatic Leaders in the prog world. 9/10

Black Tusk - The Way Forward (Season Of Mist) [Paul Hutchings]

Album number seven for Black Tusk, a band we’ve not covered a huge amount here at MoM. My fellow reviewer Paul Scoble gave their 2018 release T.C.B.T. an appropriately sensitive review, whilst I have vague memories of a sledgehammer of a show supporting BLS almost a decade ago at the Academy in Bristol.

The Way Forward is another starting point for Black Tusk and is therefore aptly named. Guitarist/vocalist Andrew Fidler explains the themes. “The big theme of this record is putting your life back together. When everything seems like it’s against you, put your head down and push through. Take those bad things that are happening and use them to help create”. Wise words indeed, and with a revised line-up, there’s no doubting that Black Tusk are once again focused and driven.

Fidler and drummer James May are joined by guitarist Chris “Scary” Adams and bassist Derek Lynch for The Way Forward. The result is one blistering 11-track album that brings two guitars into the band for the first time. With additional leads, harmonies and melodies as a result, the other noticeable thing on The Way Forward is the singing; there’s many more voices as the band expand to a triple-vocal assault. This may sound horrific, but it works well amidst the frantic riffing and high paced opener Out Of Grasp.

As the album progresses, one can see the expanded version of the band getting to grips with everything that is thrown at them. Lynch takes lead vocals on Bushfire, a song for which he also wrote main riffs and lyrical content. It’s fiercely aggressive, with the theme of keeping pushing forward no matter what comes at you.

Full of dark lyrical content, there remains a defiance in Black Tusk throughout. Riffs cascade down like sparks from a catherine wheel, the tempo is fast and furious, and you can tell that a lot of thought has been put into the songs. Navigating through a world in chaos has been a focus for previous Black Tusk songs, and it’s no different here. Breath Of Life is one of those suffocating dark songs, with Adams adding the main riff to complement Filder’s lyrics.

The songs are generally short, the message delivered in bursts that require pauses and an inhalation of calm before the race starts again. The exception is the title song, based on Fidler’s recent divorce and his determination/desire to rebuild and pull himself out of the collapse around him. That he has done so is to his credit, as is the album.

Without a doubt an album that you should listen to if you like raw powerful metal, The Way Forward is another excellent release from a band whose return to the scene should be powerfully welcomed. 9/10

Unearthly Rites - Ecdysis (Prosthetic Records) [Mark Young]

Finland’s Unearthly Rites drop Ecdysis, an absolutely filthy slab of old school death metal filled with some of the darkest sludge. This is their first full-length, following on from a self-titled EP in 2021.

Starting with an industrial tinged introduction, Hellscape is followed by Deep Drilling Earth’s Crust which sounds like it recorded in a cave. It’s a call back to the primitive recordings of the late 80’s/early 90’s with an abrasive vibe and a gnarly guitar tone. The vocals are fit for purpose, ranging from deep, deep growls to high pitch screeching. I’m about 4 minutes in and thinking that this is going to be a test of endurance. 

I think that when bands mention about how brutal their sound is, I would just point to Ecdysis and say, ‘Brutal like these?’. The Master’s Tools continues in the same vein, with riffs that come straight from the swamp – thick, viscous and heavy. Ecdysis steps up the pace, without leaving the sludge behind. There is some wonderful OSDM in here, the trem picking, the screaming and improbable solo that blows in out of nowhere.

Capitalocenic Nightmare is exactly that. It’s a non-stop barrage, even in it’s slow measures it comes across as though it is designed to bring you out in hives. New Venus kicks off with what sounds like an act of violence being committed on the guitar, running into another rumbling riff. Despite the muted production, there is enough there to know that each song doesn’t repeat the one before it. 

What they do well, as New Venus show is that they put those filthy sludge packed riffs together and then knock the bejesus of out of it. It is definitely not dull, and points to them having a singular vision of what extreme music should sound like. Fuck Eco-Fascism again has some quality riffs in there, hitting like a brick in the face as it lumbers from point to point like a drunk Godzilla.

Sacrifice Zones seems to go harder, the vocals more guttural, the tone darker with an ending that spins like a wheel of death. This cacophonous ending tees us up for the final track, Doomed. Doomed goes for that slowed-down attack, ponderous and blacker than night. The song just grinds, and suddenly something clicks. There is a brutal beatdown which is superb and by rights should cause the most lethal circle pit ever. It almost falls apart as the tempo slows to an almost stop, teetering but not falling over.

This is like stepping back in time, vocals you can’t make out, guitar you can just about hear and drums / bass that combine to an earthquake effect. I realise that from my review it could be taken that I’ve approached this like some musical effete. I haven’t, I’m just trying to accurately describe it to you, the reader so that it either attracts or repels you from buying it. What I am saying is that I’ve not heard a band sound like this in ages. 

It is incredibly refreshing to hear music recorded like this, pure and visceral, not super produced to an inch of its life. It's as raw as you can get and for those who dig this approach, you will love it. 7/10

Attic Theory - What We Fear The Most (ThunderGun Records) [Zak Skane]

The Liverpool based band Attic Theory, which consists of vocalist Lewis Wright, guitarists Peter Donnelly, Tim Cunningham and Matt Lawler, bass player Kenny McArthur and Norm Walker on drums have released their highly anticipated debut album, What We Fear The Most. 

This album opens up with Violent Delight which greets us with walls of 2000’s era guitar layers stemming from straight forward dry overdriven tones to dynamically placed flanger effected sections. The vocalist brings this classic grungy rasp that we all know and love when it comes to this style of music, honing in some classic Chris Cornell and Scott Weiland deliveries whist the drums does a good job of locking in this wall 4 layered guitar tones and vocal phrases. 

Tattooed Heart takes back to old school MTV era rock hits by bringing some classic 90’s vibes with it’s Superunknown (Soundgarden) era chorused up cleans and Chris Cornell styled vocal trade offs in relation to the guitars and drums before it ramps up to some retro style hit choruses. 

Through out this 11 track album it also packs up some huge riffs and with tracks like Tapestry and Sweet Parasite with the guitars bringing the classic approach to writing riffs that have this Old Grey Whistle Test worthy catchiness to them but are wrapped in this modern edged silk.

Your Light and A Brand New Burden bring in some classic 2000’s rock formulas that I would put in the same of ilk as bands like Stained and Seether with especially dynamic structures of clean verse passages and then loud dynamic chords. 

What We Fear The Most also brings in some underrated chart worthy ballads especially with the song Narrow Lines, which explores the themes of suicide through it’s heart felt lyrics, walls of melancholy guitar melodies and naturally moving arrangements. This level of song writing and vocal hooks on this track really should be in the running with some of the top bands in the industry. 

Finally the album also packs some good vocal collabs with Kevin Martin on the song Paper Mâché with bring some great additional vocal layers and additional verses to the acoustic ballad The Legacy features Lucy Ellen which she brings in some heavenly harmonies. 

Overall, Attic Theory's What We Fear The Most brings in classic grunge rock vibes in a more modern package. From the huge riff approaches in the songs like Sweet Parasite to the acoustic ballads of The Legacy, this band has got you covered. For fans of Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots and Seether. 8/10