Since their debut album Mirrors back in 2021, Pupil Slicer have been one of the UK underground bands that everybody has been tipping for big things, the follow up Blossom did nothing to slow the hype train and now they are about to unleash their third album Fleshwork into the world, will this be the one that finally gives them that big push in to the mainstream so the wider world can see what they are all about??
As expected, opener Heather is full of chaos and unpredictability, they manage to get a mix of angular guitars that have an almost post-punk backdrop and the jarring nature of the sections and the song switching pace is a really good way of keeping you guessing as to what is coming next, and invariably the answer is usually chaos.
Gordian continues the barrage of noises and crazed shapeshifting tones, the sections here sound so far apart in style but always manage to meld together and work, they are perfectly blended together and create a beautiful and psychotic blur of violence!
On Fleshwork, Pupil Slicer have taken everything that made their first 2 records so good and turned them up and absolutely ran with them, there is something for almost every fan of heavy music, there is savage emotion, brutal heaviness, raw and scathing noise and then so much more. If you like Pupil Slicer, you will already know you will love this album and if this is your introduction to them then you should also love it! To sum it up simply, it’s just a brilliant album. 9/10
Agnostic Front – Echoes In Eternity (Reigning Phoenix Music) [Spike]
Let's not pretend we are reviewing an artefact here. This is not history. This is the sound of Roger Miret and Vinnie Stigma standing on a pile of broken glass, screaming absolute truth into a megaphone. Agnostic Front is the foundation of NYHC, and Echoes In Eternity is their latest reminder that you don't grow old in this scene, you just get harder and faster.
This record is a 15-track barrage that clocks in with the brevity and violence of a switchblade fight. Every track is under three minutes because if you need more time than that to get your point across, you’re wasting oxygen. The production here is massive, like a cinder block hitting a concrete wall. It is clean enough to hear every razor-sharp riff but raw enough to feel the genuine street-born venom.
The themes are a checklist of everything that matters: defiance, political outrage, unity, and crushing the weak. Way Of War explodes as a relentless political chant, calling out corruption with a speed that proves this band is more thrash than punk when they need to be. Then you get the anthem Turn Up The Volume, which is specifically engineered to incite a riot. It's built on a nasty, grooving riff and a simple instruction that you are required to obey.
The album's centerpiece, though, is the unexpected yet completely justified crossover on Matter Of Life & Death, featuring Darryl "DMC" McDaniels of Run-DMC. This collaboration isn't a gimmick; it's a defiant declaration of shared New York DNA, proving that Hardcore and Hip-Hop aggression spring from the same concrete cracks. It's a fiery onslaught of raw vocal hooks and uncompromising lyrical focus.
Even when the record slows down, like in the frantic self-doubt of I Can't Win, the energy remains relentless. Tracks like Sunday Matinee serve as a rallying cry, embracing the brutal energy shared between the band and the crowd. The entire album functions as a tight, cohesive unit, firing off quick, essential bursts like Art Of Silence and Shots Fired that leave scorch marks but don't overstay their welcome.
Agnostic Front never strayed from their path. Echoes In Eternity is proof that after four decades, their sound is not only enduring but remains vital. It’s loud, aggressive, and entirely devoid of compromise. This album doesn't ask for your respect; it takes it. 9/10
Black Sabbitch - Unrest In The West (Ripple Music] [Rich Piva]
The ladies of Black Sabbitch are no ordinary cover band. The group has closed festivals, played to 80,000 people, and headline tour around the world on the regular. This is no gimmick and this is no hobby Sabbath tribute band; Black Sabbitch is the real deal. These are four musicians at the top of their game who have come together based on their love Sabbath and who rip out (almost) every Ozzy era song with tons of passion and their unique spin.
Sacrosanct is a visceral industrial edged beast that rumbles forward on a massive bassline that really gets all over you, the guitars are in the background and allow the vocals to really shine as well in the most horrible way possible!
Innocence is a bit of a weird one, it’s a bit slow paced for the most part and very minimal in sections letting one instrument take the song over and it sort of holds back maybe a little too much in places where I was expecting the unexpected it didn’t really happen, the end section does its best to recover some momentum but that also sort of just falls short for me.
Black Scrawl is much more like it and starts to really show a lot more of the grindcore influence and that’s always going to win me over, its scathing, angry and most of all heavy as fuck, the way the tangents are thrown in may make it difficult for some to really enjoy but stick with it and you will reap the benefits for sure!
Nomad then just goes for an all-out black metal assault but then just like that we have industrial post punk atmosphere added for another mind melting mix of musical styles that they switch between and one minute your cast in a cloak of unrelenting bass thud and just as quick as your used to that its blasting and savage black metal, wonderfully batshit in every way.
Fleshwork is one of the more straight forward songs on the album and focuses heavily on the industrial side of the sound, which is fine because they heaviness and pure rage they manage to display is nothing short of breath-taking in parts it just lacks a little in the way that it doesn’t really knock you off your feet as much as the rest of the album.
White Noise sounds like you have mixed Joy Division with AFI and then sprinkled some Nine Inch Nails on top, here they have really nailed the more emotional and slightly toned back sound and made it sound epic and driving from start to finish, there is not a weak moment in this track and its destined to be fan favourite for years to come!
Cenote closes the album and really makes the most of the 7:41 it has, in this time we get atmospheric throwback black metal soundscapes colliding with more sludgy post punk sections that all have some wonderful atmosphere and all intertwine expertly and really create a fittingly grand end to the album.
On Fleshwork, Pupil Slicer have taken everything that made their first 2 records so good and turned them up and absolutely ran with them, there is something for almost every fan of heavy music, there is savage emotion, brutal heaviness, raw and scathing noise and then so much more. If you like Pupil Slicer, you will already know you will love this album and if this is your introduction to them then you should also love it! To sum it up simply, it’s just a brilliant album. 9/10
Agnostic Front – Echoes In Eternity (Reigning Phoenix Music) [Spike]
Let's not pretend we are reviewing an artefact here. This is not history. This is the sound of Roger Miret and Vinnie Stigma standing on a pile of broken glass, screaming absolute truth into a megaphone. Agnostic Front is the foundation of NYHC, and Echoes In Eternity is their latest reminder that you don't grow old in this scene, you just get harder and faster.
This record is a 15-track barrage that clocks in with the brevity and violence of a switchblade fight. Every track is under three minutes because if you need more time than that to get your point across, you’re wasting oxygen. The production here is massive, like a cinder block hitting a concrete wall. It is clean enough to hear every razor-sharp riff but raw enough to feel the genuine street-born venom.
The themes are a checklist of everything that matters: defiance, political outrage, unity, and crushing the weak. Way Of War explodes as a relentless political chant, calling out corruption with a speed that proves this band is more thrash than punk when they need to be. Then you get the anthem Turn Up The Volume, which is specifically engineered to incite a riot. It's built on a nasty, grooving riff and a simple instruction that you are required to obey.
The album's centerpiece, though, is the unexpected yet completely justified crossover on Matter Of Life & Death, featuring Darryl "DMC" McDaniels of Run-DMC. This collaboration isn't a gimmick; it's a defiant declaration of shared New York DNA, proving that Hardcore and Hip-Hop aggression spring from the same concrete cracks. It's a fiery onslaught of raw vocal hooks and uncompromising lyrical focus.
Even when the record slows down, like in the frantic self-doubt of I Can't Win, the energy remains relentless. Tracks like Sunday Matinee serve as a rallying cry, embracing the brutal energy shared between the band and the crowd. The entire album functions as a tight, cohesive unit, firing off quick, essential bursts like Art Of Silence and Shots Fired that leave scorch marks but don't overstay their welcome.
Agnostic Front never strayed from their path. Echoes In Eternity is proof that after four decades, their sound is not only enduring but remains vital. It’s loud, aggressive, and entirely devoid of compromise. This album doesn't ask for your respect; it takes it. 9/10
Black Sabbitch - Unrest In The West (Ripple Music] [Rich Piva]
The ladies of Black Sabbitch are no ordinary cover band. The group has closed festivals, played to 80,000 people, and headline tour around the world on the regular. This is no gimmick and this is no hobby Sabbath tribute band; Black Sabbitch is the real deal. These are four musicians at the top of their game who have come together based on their love Sabbath and who rip out (almost) every Ozzy era song with tons of passion and their unique spin.
The have been doing this for over 13 years, with fans always leaving their sold out shows happy, except for the fact that there was no music to take home with them…until now, as Ripple Music brings us the live-in-the-studio-with-a-crowd first album from Black Sabbitch, Unrest In The West. A collective “finally” can be heard from coast to coast as the record drops this first week of November.
You never know what you will get from a Sabbitch show, but what you won’t get is basic greatest hits set, and Unrest In The West is no exception, with the band picking (for this volume at least) a span of classics from the first six while also giving us one from the criminally underrated and favourite of this reviewer, Never Say Die, the great A Hard Road. You all know the songs, so no need to go over them, but as for the performance, the sound is excellent and really captures the essence of the band in their natural setting.
You never know what you will get from a Sabbitch show, but what you won’t get is basic greatest hits set, and Unrest In The West is no exception, with the band picking (for this volume at least) a span of classics from the first six while also giving us one from the criminally underrated and favourite of this reviewer, Never Say Die, the great A Hard Road. You all know the songs, so no need to go over them, but as for the performance, the sound is excellent and really captures the essence of the band in their natural setting.
Drummer Angie Scarpa started the group, and you can feel her passion as she hammers out these legendary tracks, while perfectly partnering with Melanie Makaiwi on the bass, doing her best work with seriously complex parts originally delivered by one of the best bass players ever to walk the earth. Alice Austin never tries to sing like Ozzy, making the vocals her own and is one of the key reasons this band stands out amongst others who are currently paying tribute.
Emily Burton, from one of my all-time favourite bands, Fireball Ministry, just rips it up, with the source material being the perfect match for her tone and style. Put this all together, and add track selections like Wheel Of Confusion, Into The Void, Children Of The Grave, The Wizard, Hole In The Sky, and A National Acrobat, and you know this is going to rule, and it sure does.
All rejoice, we finally have a physical album from Black Sabbitch, Unrest In The West, and it is the perfect take away from one of their live shows and an excellent representation of what the band is all about. Their shows are usually much longer than the eight tracks here, so let’s all hope additional volumes of this show pop up soon. For now, all hail Black Sabbitch!!! 9/10
My Darkest Hate - Rust And Bones (Massacre Records) [Matt Bladen]
Album number six from German death machine My Darkest Hate. OSDM gets given a modern makeover as these veterans lean more towards the extreme side with Rust And Bones.
Ten tracks of death metal brutality await you as soon as you press play and with the shout of "THIS IS RUST" and the following battery you realised what you're getting yourself into. Machine gun drumming from Mario Henning and guttural roars and snarls from Claudio Enzler bring the nastiness to this grooving opener. The drumming is really good on the record, deft but punishing, the bass from Roberto Palacios adding that sledgehammer bottom end when things break down into a steady chug like on King Of Slaves.
All rejoice, we finally have a physical album from Black Sabbitch, Unrest In The West, and it is the perfect take away from one of their live shows and an excellent representation of what the band is all about. Their shows are usually much longer than the eight tracks here, so let’s all hope additional volumes of this show pop up soon. For now, all hail Black Sabbitch!!! 9/10
My Darkest Hate - Rust And Bones (Massacre Records) [Matt Bladen]
Album number six from German death machine My Darkest Hate. OSDM gets given a modern makeover as these veterans lean more towards the extreme side with Rust And Bones.
Ten tracks of death metal brutality await you as soon as you press play and with the shout of "THIS IS RUST" and the following battery you realised what you're getting yourself into. Machine gun drumming from Mario Henning and guttural roars and snarls from Claudio Enzler bring the nastiness to this grooving opener. The drumming is really good on the record, deft but punishing, the bass from Roberto Palacios adding that sledgehammer bottom end when things break down into a steady chug like on King Of Slaves.
Speaking of chug there's a brutal one on Vengeance My Brother where guitarists Jörg M.Knittel and Jonas Khalil draw from death/doom while Sinister Warfare and He Who Never Sleeps take their influence from the likes of Bolt Thrower, using crushing mid pace over all put speed. Useful then that the latter features ex-Bolt Thrower and current Benediction man Dave Ingram. It's not to say they don't know how to go fast as When The Abyss Opens and Flammenland are both pacey and Flammenland is their first song in their native German (featuring TZ of Pessimist/Muggeseggel.)
Produced alongside Andy Classen, Rust And Bones is death metal that crushes rather than rushes. 7/10
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