Space sludge madness is back!!
Having reviewed Death Control last year and giving it a healthy 8/10, I was very happy indeed when the boss dropped this into my folder. With Astralis, Azell have gone down the concept route with an accompanying novella where each chapter corresponds with a song from the album and is described by them as a throwback to the pulp novels of years gone by.
With transparency in mind, I haven’t read the novella (yet) because I wanted to hear the songs and see if they can tell a story in a cohesive manner and stand on their own two feet. I wanted to listen and ultimately make a decision based on the songs alone. What I can say is that if were down with Death Control then you will be down with this. This time round they have refined their sound without moving too far from what made me love them in the first place. Those super-dense riffs are still here, generated by a guitar sound that could split solid rock aided and abetted by Courtney Napier’s vocals that are just savage.
From The Womb Of Oblivion kicks our journey off, with that dense sound coming like thunder. Its speed is set to crawl and yet they manage to inject a level of pace to it so it never flounders. Its so heavy yet you never lose any detail. The double team of Courtney’s and David’s vocals provide that feeling of speed within it, carrying the song forward while they fill the space around it with ethereal melodic lines.
Have to say this may have been one of the most meh? records I have heard all year, it never really lifted my interest levels high enough and for the most part sounded the same for vast amounts of time, which is fine I suppose but also very underwhelming to listen to barring a few good riffs here and there it was all just very vey middle of the road. From Welkin To Tundra is not for me really and I won’t slag it off totally but if you like thrash and black metal then maybe its for you? 5/10
Moundrag - Deux (Spinda Records/Stolen Body Records) [Rich Piva]
“We are Moundrag. We are Brothers. We have no guitar. And we play Hard Progressive Heavy Psych.” The above is the Bandcamp bio for this French duo. Cool? Maybe. There are some things I dig on Moundrag’s aptly titled second record. I am not sure I would go so far as to call them “Hard” or “Heavy” in any capacity. Except for maybe what Camille Goellaën Duvivier does with the Hammond he is playing and the drum work of Colin Goellaen Duvivier, who lives up to his “Mad Drum” nickname. What this really sounds like to me is Deep Purple playing ABBA songs.
The duo certainly makes a lot of sound for two people, and there is a lot of stuff going on here, but this may lean a bit too poppy for me, and I love pop stuff. The Hammond work is amazing, and these guys are super talented, but sometimes this sounds like carnival music and not heavy prog as advertised. Limbo is so over the top and cinematic it is a bit much. Black Flames is probably my favourite track, and somehow sounds like Blue Oyster Cult, which of course I enjoy, while Take Me To The Stars has some Yes vibes, but those are really the only two songs I connect with.
Moundrag is a lot, maybe too much for me. The brothers are insanely talented, the Hammond and drum work is amazing, but I am just not into the songs as they are. Deux has some moments, but overall, outside the brothers’ talent, this one is a pass for me. 5/10
From The Womb Of Oblivion kicks our journey off, with that dense sound coming like thunder. Its speed is set to crawl and yet they manage to inject a level of pace to it so it never flounders. Its so heavy yet you never lose any detail. The double team of Courtney’s and David’s vocals provide that feeling of speed within it, carrying the song forward while they fill the space around it with ethereal melodic lines.
It’s like saying hello to an old friend, instantly recognisable and fun to be around. With that base template set in place, they deploy crushing banger after banger. I’m not suggesting that this is a case of rinse and repeat, far from it. What I’m suggesting is that they basically set out to squash you in each case in the most efficient manner whilst keeping that high watermark established on From The Womb…in place.
When Darkness Unfolds is a top example of an arrangement that nearly stops, seemingly on the edge of falling over just to be rescued at the last moment. Its that vocal delivery that does the work, but don’t think that they don’t have the right riffs in place because they do. Each set they bring delivers in anchoring the song within that sludge genre but they are never dull because of the way the supporting music around them is built.
Trying to pick individual songs out for praise is difficult, each one is better than the one before. If I had to mention one, its The Crumbling Façade, primarily to a subtle shift that they drop in and changes the way the song unfurls. It moves along until it collapses in on itself, only to rebuild and start once more, with a top melody line playing out. Its these little touches that make the difference from a very good album to a truly essential one.
And for me, this is an essential album to have in one’s collection. Hostage To The Machine takes those little additions and ramps it up, the sonic spectrum filling out to near breaking point. Given that my normal go-to in terms of heavy music is generally fast, aggressive and filled with all kinds of whammy bar abuse (Yes, Slayer amongst others) yet I find the same effect from this (and others such as The Great Old Ones, King Bastard and Old Horn Tooth) providing the same hit.
And for me, this is an essential album to have in one’s collection. Hostage To The Machine takes those little additions and ramps it up, the sonic spectrum filling out to near breaking point. Given that my normal go-to in terms of heavy music is generally fast, aggressive and filled with all kinds of whammy bar abuse (Yes, Slayer amongst others) yet I find the same effect from this (and others such as The Great Old Ones, King Bastard and Old Horn Tooth) providing the same hit.
I can put it down to the way that they pull each song together, finely balancing aggression and darkened material but in that slower manner. That’s not to say there aren’t moments of speed: step up Invasion Of Self. Coming from nowhere it hits the ground running, showing that they could go faster if they wanted. In some respects, it's acting as a breakpoint, teeing up the final act.
With speeds returning to crushing only, Threads Of Connection grinds its way along before The End Is Inevitable starts up with a labyrinthine arrangement that twists and turns, burrowing through the skull before it falls away. Depending on how you listen to music, via earbuds, earphones or speakers
Time Slows To Nothing will fill those spaces for you. Its massive, and then they drop a sax into the mix and we are in Blade Runner territory, or at least the sci-fi films I grew up on that twinned constant rain, darkness and woodwind instruments. I know that I normally complain about instrumentals, but for Azell I’m parking that complaint. Time Slows is probably the only way they could have finished this album and I doff my hat to them.
In a nutshell, Azell have leapt onto my AOTY list and its one of my top ten releases for the year. 10/10
Argesk – Moonlight Pyromancy (Matriarch Records) [Spike]
There’s a confident theatricality to what Argesk do on Moonlight Pyromancy, not the cheap kind that gestures at drama, but the patient, weathered kind that lets melody and menace settle in together. This record lives in big gestures: sweeping arrangements, gothic flourishes, and moments where a single riff opens into a field of atmosphere. It’s black metal with a strong melodic spine and a clear sense of story.
The album opens with Invocation (Intro), a short piece that sets mood rather than motion. It’s a useful breath before Servant Of Fire storms in with drums and tremolo guitars combining to create momentum, while the vocal delivery cuts with a keen edge. Accursed Victory follows and widens the scope: longer phrasing, more room for melody, and a sense that the band are comfortable letting songs breathe and expand rather than racing to make a point.
Black Castle Waltz is one of the record’s signature moments. This is a gothic-tinged piece that balances orchestral sweep and grim riffing. It returns later as a reprise, which works here as a structural anchor: the track’s motif threads through the album and anchors the darker episodes. Wreathing Serpent is slither and thunder; slow-moving menace wrapped in a venomous lead line that keeps returning like a threat. Tempest shifts the air again, unleashing a stormy, urgent track that tightens the screws and reminds you the band can do both sweep and surge.
When the title track Moonlight Pyromancy arrives it feels like the centrepiece, bringing together the album’s threads, melody, theatricality, and genuine black metal bite. It’s both haunting and furious, and the vocal interplay and layered guitars give it texture without ever losing forward motion. The reprise of Black Castle Waltz later in the running order gives a sense of circularity, as if the album is both procession and ritual.
What impresses is the sense of control. Argesk don’t pad for length; where songs expand, they have reason to. Production supports that: the guitars have bite, but there’s room for the synths and the lower end to add weight; the drums are present without being overproduced; the vocals sit where they should, exposed when needed, blended when the melody asks for it. There are moments that nod to the theatrical end of the symphonic black tradition, but these never feel like affectation, they feel earned.
If you’ve followed Argesk from earlier releases, Moonlight Pyromancy is the band consolidating a larger, more confident sound. If this is your first encounter, expect grand riffing, moody atmospheres, and songs that prefer method to mania. It’s music meant to be felt as much as parsed.
This is a record that walks you through shadowed rooms and leaves you with the impression of something ceremonious and, yes, slightly dangerous. 8/10
GraveRipper - From Welkin To Tundra (Wise Blood Records) [GC]
Black thrash n roll?? What exactly is that you may well ask, and I am also asking that? I am guessing it’s a mix of black metal and rock ‘n roll but not sure how that works or if it even makes sense? Anyway, whatever it is GraveRipper are purveyors of this niche genre and From Wekin to Tundra is their second full length release.
The opening track Welkin, Now Tundra is an instrumental and is a frustrating way to get started as it doesn’t really engage me and the main gist I get is it sounds more black metal than anything else, Bring Upon Pain gives us a much better opportunity to get a firm idea of what we can expect and basically black n roll is just blackened thrash and doesn’t need any other name, but that’s just my opinion I guess? It’s a forceful and speedy track that doesn’t leave any second wasted and is probably on the more bearable side of both black and thrash metal, neither of which I am overly fond of, but this does just about enough to keep me listening.
With speeds returning to crushing only, Threads Of Connection grinds its way along before The End Is Inevitable starts up with a labyrinthine arrangement that twists and turns, burrowing through the skull before it falls away. Depending on how you listen to music, via earbuds, earphones or speakers
Time Slows To Nothing will fill those spaces for you. Its massive, and then they drop a sax into the mix and we are in Blade Runner territory, or at least the sci-fi films I grew up on that twinned constant rain, darkness and woodwind instruments. I know that I normally complain about instrumentals, but for Azell I’m parking that complaint. Time Slows is probably the only way they could have finished this album and I doff my hat to them.
In a nutshell, Azell have leapt onto my AOTY list and its one of my top ten releases for the year. 10/10
Argesk – Moonlight Pyromancy (Matriarch Records) [Spike]
There’s a confident theatricality to what Argesk do on Moonlight Pyromancy, not the cheap kind that gestures at drama, but the patient, weathered kind that lets melody and menace settle in together. This record lives in big gestures: sweeping arrangements, gothic flourishes, and moments where a single riff opens into a field of atmosphere. It’s black metal with a strong melodic spine and a clear sense of story.
The album opens with Invocation (Intro), a short piece that sets mood rather than motion. It’s a useful breath before Servant Of Fire storms in with drums and tremolo guitars combining to create momentum, while the vocal delivery cuts with a keen edge. Accursed Victory follows and widens the scope: longer phrasing, more room for melody, and a sense that the band are comfortable letting songs breathe and expand rather than racing to make a point.
Black Castle Waltz is one of the record’s signature moments. This is a gothic-tinged piece that balances orchestral sweep and grim riffing. It returns later as a reprise, which works here as a structural anchor: the track’s motif threads through the album and anchors the darker episodes. Wreathing Serpent is slither and thunder; slow-moving menace wrapped in a venomous lead line that keeps returning like a threat. Tempest shifts the air again, unleashing a stormy, urgent track that tightens the screws and reminds you the band can do both sweep and surge.
When the title track Moonlight Pyromancy arrives it feels like the centrepiece, bringing together the album’s threads, melody, theatricality, and genuine black metal bite. It’s both haunting and furious, and the vocal interplay and layered guitars give it texture without ever losing forward motion. The reprise of Black Castle Waltz later in the running order gives a sense of circularity, as if the album is both procession and ritual.
What impresses is the sense of control. Argesk don’t pad for length; where songs expand, they have reason to. Production supports that: the guitars have bite, but there’s room for the synths and the lower end to add weight; the drums are present without being overproduced; the vocals sit where they should, exposed when needed, blended when the melody asks for it. There are moments that nod to the theatrical end of the symphonic black tradition, but these never feel like affectation, they feel earned.
If you’ve followed Argesk from earlier releases, Moonlight Pyromancy is the band consolidating a larger, more confident sound. If this is your first encounter, expect grand riffing, moody atmospheres, and songs that prefer method to mania. It’s music meant to be felt as much as parsed.
This is a record that walks you through shadowed rooms and leaves you with the impression of something ceremonious and, yes, slightly dangerous. 8/10
GraveRipper - From Welkin To Tundra (Wise Blood Records) [GC]
Black thrash n roll?? What exactly is that you may well ask, and I am also asking that? I am guessing it’s a mix of black metal and rock ‘n roll but not sure how that works or if it even makes sense? Anyway, whatever it is GraveRipper are purveyors of this niche genre and From Wekin to Tundra is their second full length release.
The opening track Welkin, Now Tundra is an instrumental and is a frustrating way to get started as it doesn’t really engage me and the main gist I get is it sounds more black metal than anything else, Bring Upon Pain gives us a much better opportunity to get a firm idea of what we can expect and basically black n roll is just blackened thrash and doesn’t need any other name, but that’s just my opinion I guess? It’s a forceful and speedy track that doesn’t leave any second wasted and is probably on the more bearable side of both black and thrash metal, neither of which I am overly fond of, but this does just about enough to keep me listening.
Hexenhammer leans heavily towards the black metal sound to start but doesn’t use it for very long before its back to the speedy thrash assault thankfully there is some more elements mixed in towards the middle as it was getting slightly predictable but they just about pull it back at the end. When I get to Death’s Cold Embrace it does dawn on me why this sort of thing isn’t for me, I can appreciate that there is musical talent being shown and all that but it just all sounds the same and doesn’t really inspire much apart from, an ok yeah that’s alright reaction and I get about midway through a song and just think how much longer have I got of this.
Sanctioned Slaughter takes us to the midway point with another mid track that does its best to rile you up and get you going but it’s just not working for me, there is a bit more death metal here which does pique the interest levels when I hear this but its not long before its back to business as usual, without the death metal bits this would have been skipped.
Hounds Of Hell is a little better as it sounds like peak thrash and has a punk anger to it and this makes it sound like it has a bit more about it than the rest of the tracks so far and I can say that I enjoyed this track the most on the album, New Gods, New Masters is another decent enough take on blackened thrash and has some force behind it and also has the best overall riff on the album which you just wish there was more of this sound as it has a body and groove that hasn’t been anywhere else so far.
…And Now It’s Dark begins with an old school death metal influence and sound great but then it goes back to the trashy sounds we have been getting for most of the record, when it drops back into the death metal it picks up and is more interesting but alas it never lasts long enough for me. Bullet Laden Crown has the slowest parts since the first track and is very paired back in parts and it just sounds a bit odd they are trying to do something here but I am not sure what it is and I don’t like this song at all. Burning Barren Plains closes on the usual sound, thrash with a bit of black metal sprinkled over it here and there but does also manage to pull one more of those ‘’where has this been all record’’ type of riffs mid-way and once again just makes you wonder what really could have been.
Have to say this may have been one of the most meh? records I have heard all year, it never really lifted my interest levels high enough and for the most part sounded the same for vast amounts of time, which is fine I suppose but also very underwhelming to listen to barring a few good riffs here and there it was all just very vey middle of the road. From Welkin To Tundra is not for me really and I won’t slag it off totally but if you like thrash and black metal then maybe its for you? 5/10
Moundrag - Deux (Spinda Records/Stolen Body Records) [Rich Piva]
“We are Moundrag. We are Brothers. We have no guitar. And we play Hard Progressive Heavy Psych.” The above is the Bandcamp bio for this French duo. Cool? Maybe. There are some things I dig on Moundrag’s aptly titled second record. I am not sure I would go so far as to call them “Hard” or “Heavy” in any capacity. Except for maybe what Camille Goellaën Duvivier does with the Hammond he is playing and the drum work of Colin Goellaen Duvivier, who lives up to his “Mad Drum” nickname. What this really sounds like to me is Deep Purple playing ABBA songs.
The duo certainly makes a lot of sound for two people, and there is a lot of stuff going on here, but this may lean a bit too poppy for me, and I love pop stuff. The Hammond work is amazing, and these guys are super talented, but sometimes this sounds like carnival music and not heavy prog as advertised. Limbo is so over the top and cinematic it is a bit much. Black Flames is probably my favourite track, and somehow sounds like Blue Oyster Cult, which of course I enjoy, while Take Me To The Stars has some Yes vibes, but those are really the only two songs I connect with.
Moundrag is a lot, maybe too much for me. The brothers are insanely talented, the Hammond and drum work is amazing, but I am just not into the songs as they are. Deux has some moments, but overall, outside the brothers’ talent, this one is a pass for me. 5/10
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