Vinny's Reviews

Exploring early funeral doom is fast becoming my favourite way to relax.  It really is testimony to the knowledge of the creator of this clan challenge (The Fallen: Doom Metal - The Early Days) as to how good an introduction to the clan this list of releases is.  Until recently I had only really listened to Bell Witch's Mirror Reaper as my only regular experience of funeral doom.  Understanding where the whole sub-genre that influenced that record comes from is a real treat.  As with my review of Winter's Into Darkness, I find the sheer simplicity of Thergothon's Stream From the Heavens to be remarkable in the sense of the immersive atmosphere that it creates.  Not that Winter's debut was dripping with high production values, but Thergothon's debut sounds like it was recorded in a basement somewhere in their native Finland.

What makes this album more remarkable is that there was only three members who recorded all this.  Sharing vocal, keyboard and guitar duties across all three of them (with drums handled solely by Jori Sjöroos), Stream From the Heavens is a real team effort.  This is not only dripping in atmosphere folks, it is heavy as fuck as well.  It takes the blueprint of Into Darkness and ramps up the weight dramatically.  The funeral atmospheres are serviced brilliantly by the almost black metal vocal style that sits alongside those dreary clean vocals (that also have a fair amount of spoken word alongside them).  These grim and deathly croaks add a real dimension to this record and are perhaps my favourite part of the whole experience.

I guess my only mystery here is why this album is called Stream From the Heavens when this sounds like it comes up from the opposite direction altogether.  Consistently, the record pulls you further and further into the agonisingly slow and dense atmosphere that it creates without making the whole experience feel like it goes on for too long.  At a shade under 41 minutes, this album is a perfectly palatable slab of music that never feels like it outstays its welcome.  It is bizarre how such fetid sounding vocals and crushing riffs can relax me so much but this album replaces any weight on my shoulders with a much different and more interesting weight I guess.

To the best of my knowledge, I have never heard any Hungarian metal regardless of any sub-genre guise. Somehow, over the last nearly three decades, I have never come across Sear Bliss. Whilst I cannot recall having heard even a fleeting few bars of any of Glory and Perdition, somehow it does sound familiar. After one full listen through I was already marking similarities with Summoning where Glory and Perdition used horns and synths to note its presence in the room. The fact that I do not mind a bit of Summoning one bit probably helps me to register and accept the use of electronic and symphonic elements on this month’s feature release even though I am not a massive fan of the symphonic black metal sub-genre overall.

Having said that, I do not find this album to be overly symphonic, despite a near constant feed of orchestral instrumentation. It certainly plays an important supporting role in proceedings but is never allowed to dominate. Instead, those brass instruments create a swell in their delivery, expanding the sound of the album as the intricate keys tantalise with the promise of further wonder to come. Often these elements are played in as simple stabs or flourishes and as such are beautifully paced over the album. In the traditional sense it is the guitars that drive proceedings the most, with their riffs propelling the tracks forward. The charging opening to Two Worlds Collide underlines this input superbly. Also noticeable are the drums as they thump away in just the right space in the background to support the other component parts and keep everything tracked together nicely.  Check out the superb work being done on Dreams Spectre to properly capture the contribution the sticks make to this album.  This balance of the instruments and the atmospheric and symphonic elements is expertly done; using the alien voice on Reverie is a bold move yet it sits well atop of the music without feeling intrusive or downright odd.

Sear Bliss also manage to carry off the inclusion of some interludes on the album, doing this well in the sense that they do not disrupt the flow of the overall record. Normally when I see such compositions dropped into any album, I die a little inside as I just find they often scream “FILLER!” in my experience. The three here (one is the outro I guess) are all around the minute and a half mark and do transition the album nicely.

Whilst not anywhere near as aggressive as I normally like my bm, Sear Bliss do deliver melodic bm well. There is a sense at first that it is put together a bit hap-hazard but as I revisit the album there is a sense of coagulation across all tracks and this makes me think it is more planned than it first appears to be. With repeated listens the blasting pace is most definitely there, and it never feels out of control or rudely cut off by any of the pace or tempo changes. Although not staggeringly so, the epic nature of the writing here belies a band that I at least need to give a little more attention to. I note that Mayhem’s Attila and proffers vocals on two tracks here suggesting that this is a band with a good degree of stature in the underground already. In many ways Sear Bliss are reminiscent of a more aggressive Negura Bunget. This mix of earthy structures interspersed with the astral bursts of rich and lush melodies such as on the track Glory to Perdition reminds me of the Romanians only with a much-reduced level of complexity or extravagance.

Ben seemed to be a tad pensive in announcing this as his feature for the month, but I think this has been an excellent choice and one that certainly rewards with repeated listens. With the cosmological parts set firmly in their place around the core bm elements, Glory and Perdition captures an experience as opposed to just being an album to listen to. In its more atmospheric moments, it reminds me of Darkspace / Paysage D’hiver and in the more traditional moments it can hold its own with any of the bands I mention through out this review. I think the only criticism is that it is not as instantaneous an experience as some might want and the fact that it does need a few listens may put some off. The work is worth the reward though and the album records a healthy four stars which may creep up as I continue to put this on rotation.

It is safe to say that I am a huge Altarage fan. I mean as someone who has heard a lot of death metal in my time it is hard for me to really get overly excited about much of what comes out nowadays in the genre, however Altarage share that rarefied atmosphere with the likes of Gorguts and Ulcerate whereby I am liable to buy pretty much anything they put out without hearing it first.

This methodology served me well with their last effort The Approaching Roar but I was a tad caught out by the predecessor Endinghent when using this admiration of the band to drive my purchase. I broke away from this tradition with Succumb and played a track on a promo CD that came on a cover mount. I didn’t enjoy it one bit in all honesty and couldn’t quite figure out why until I refused to believe that the band had finally dropped a real dud and went and bought the gatefold vinyl anyways. Altarage are masters of performance art, whether that be a conscious effort on their part or not, this is how Succumb plays to me.

Each track is in effect a shift, a progression, a development on theme. The album runs like a play on stage with each track being an act, building constant depth and expansion to the proceedings and therefore the single track on the CD I mentioned gained no traction with me – it was completely alien when taken out of the context of the whole album piece.

This is a very tactile listening experience for me. Seemingly designed for that one sitting listen through for you to fully appreciate the quality of the album. There are no real individual parts to call out as such as despite there often being clear breaks between tracks it all feels interconnected and cohesive to the point of being conceptual almost. Track lengths vary and at first glance the format looks busy and confusing (which is part of the charm for me of listening to a complex release and trying desperately to unravel it) however this structure to the composition of the album track listing is devilishly clever. The build that gets created here is superb and it sets some tracks up to be real eruptions of powerful and cavernous death metal that simply vents at various parts of the album.

On more than one occasion the hairs on my arms stand up and I genuinely must stop what I am doing with the final half of the last track on side two being one such moment that leaps out at me. The permeance of the wall of sound just reaches an absorbing and almost comforting crescendo during some of the most horrifying noise to grace my eardrums.

The guitar tone has an almost bastardised sense of groove to it on occasion and makes real use of the blackened tremolo influences that have been a trait of the band from day one. The vocals sound completely otherworldly throughout. Their extra-terrestrial sound acts as paroxysms of scathing and terrifying lyrical outbursts. I also must point out the understated yet atmospheric importance of the drums. They vary superbly across the record ranging from blast beats to soft cymbal “tishes” to adapt to the pace, tempo and atmospheres of the album.

Succumb is an album that occupies the space around it as it plays, placing the darkest of voids and most cavernous of chasms in the room with the listener as it goes along. One of the standout releases of 2021 so far.

As I alluded to in the forum thread for this release, I had previously attempted to digest Achatius and found it to be a release that I couldn’t quite get my head around upon first attempts to unravel what seemed like a vast and serpentine soundscape. Upon repeated listens however there is a lot more to Achatius that appeals to my current taste in BM than first meets the eye.

A side from bountiful lashings of Darkthrone, with a seasoning of Bathory in those riffs there is the structural integrity of Mortuary Drape to most tracks. Achatius as such plays as a BM record powered by an Italian Prog Rock mentality. The style fits the song content perfectly (it is a story that is being told here after all) yet there is no sacrificing of the raw BM elements that cater for my more extreme tastes.

These song lengths that at first seemed so challenging (the shortest track being just over 11 minutes) are in fact superb chapters of this story made succinct that encourage you to move with the tale as it unfurls. What this does is help focus your attention, I find that I can stop listening after two tracks to digest what has just been presented and then pick up again later in the day the other half and still have that sense of flow to the record.

As well as nods to the classics there are also references to more modern sounds such as Malokarpatan and Master’s Hammer. The traditional/heavy metal credentials stack up well here amongst the other elements. For an album with eclectic artwork, it doesn’t actually come off as sounding the same as the cover art suggests. It is more of a well-balanced affair overall that can still stay true to its BM roots throughout. The blend of genres/styles is quite subtle and as such it is an album that requires much attention to truly get underneath the skin and appreciate the sum of all parts.

There’s chimes and bongs in the background that give an ethereal royalty to proceedings with their echoes drifting long into the ether of the record as it plays. The strength overall of the record though is its balls. To be able to take such an open approach to the delivery of such a strange theme takes guts and for a one-man project to manage to make it such a success is doubly impressive.

This is the work of a soul drenched in sorrow.  Finding in the unimaginable weight of the darkness the creative ability to embrace multiple forms, styles and sounds of music to produce a work that is harrowing, avant-garde, expansive and above all else capable.  Wrest is known for his work with his Leviathan project, rightly getting credit for the darkness he creates under that pseudonym for it's bleak ambience and death-hazy resonance.  Lurker of Chalice was arguably the father of Scar Sighted  and you will certainly pick up the vibes from Leviathan's 2015 release here.

I haven't heard many albums that in the midst of such organically generated fear and menace manage to still soothe and calm the soul at the same time.  For all the perilous gloom Wrest creates here he blends perfectly elements of post-everything (I am not kidding) whilst adding doom like atmospherics and songwriting to the album at the same time.  He concocts structures made out of pure desolation, emptying the contents of a damaged and fragile soul into a stark and arid desert of human misery.

In just less than an hour you will find yourself afraid, fearful of what lurks in every shadow of your own mind as this record twists and contorts itself around your very own psyche. Yet you will also find solace here.  It is a dark dressing for the gaping wounds on all our characters, a soundtrack to all of our nightmares that rationalises and makes tangible their form.  It is the nefarious voice in all of us that fears our ability to be anything other than pale shadows on this mortal coil. 

I will confess to have been on the fence with The Great Old Ones for some time. I do not recall ever sitting down and giving anything of theirs to date a critical listen before spending a few hours with Kadath though, so I am unsure where this standoffishness came from. Picking up on some of the references to latter day, more progressive Enslaved did have something to do with it, I think. I am not progressive metal’s biggest fan, and so the prospect of having to follow such a trail (or trial as I often find progressive metal to be) did not bode well. However, on reflection, having listened through to the record multiple times, the progressive elements are a lot more subtle than I first feared. They represent a well balanced and unintrusive character in proceedings. Even at its most obvious the progression is not complex or jarring and so I find it more than palatable.

The fact is that I enjoy Kadath a lot more than I was expecting to. I have gotten into the habit of getting in bed at a reasonable hour and taking some bedtime listening with me. Kadath was my bedtime listen last night, and I completed a further run through this morning before work. These two more critical listens, done without the distractions of screens or work, proved to be key in my development of understanding the record better. For a start, it struck me that the three guitars are used intelligently and are not allowed to overwhelm tracks. In fact, they fill up space that would otherwise go unused, in the sense that if two of them are maintain the often-powerful rhythm of many tracks then melodies and atmospherics are done by the third guitar in the background, on the periphery of the main drivers of tracks or in the upper stratosphere of some of the more expansive moments on songs. Cleverly, they do this without creating any distractions. All three instruments fit together so well.

I hear little, if not any, synths or keys on the album either. Considering the nature of the music, this is surprising. The fact that I can be entertained by a fifteen-minute instrumental track, that I would normally hate, is testimony to how good the band are at creating atmosphere and tension using just strings and percussion. The only disappointment around the instrumental is the track prior to it. ‘The Gathering’ must hold some purpose from a narrative perspective as it does little else other than act as an intro for the instrumental. I just find this an odd arrangement choice.

Going back to that earlier Enslaved comparison. If I benchmark Heimdal against Kadath, then it is the latter that I hold in much higher regard. The comparison is most definitely relevant and justified but the French outfit here are far more entertaining and stronger sounding (which I grant is largely down to the third guitar). ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ has an almost epic heavy metal feel to the opening of the song and chaotic riffs of ‘Those from Ulthar’ are backed by wonderful percussion and those grim vocals superbly. This is top three material in the black metal release of the year so far and may supplant Grima for second spot with further listens. I should have perhaps taken more notice of TGOO before now.

I am making a few black metal discoveries of late. Some of them known to me as artists already, others - like Skaldr – being completely new to me. Hailing from Virginia, at first glance it looks like the band is made up of a trio of former live musicians who worked with the band Asagraum around 2022. However, vocalist/bassist Carey Vaughn was in the legendary Sacramentum on bass duties as late as 2023. Harry and Brent who cover guitar duties, seem to have settled on Skaldr as being their main project now touring duties with Asagraum are done with. On Saṃsṛ, the band show their experience well, producing a fine slab of melodic, folk-tinged bm in the process.

Mixed and mastered by none other than Dan Swanö himself, this record has a certain pedigree about it. Whilst it does get a little cumbersome in arrangement in places (opening track ‘The Sum of All Loss’ feels a bit rushed in places), overall, there is more than enough satisfaction here for my North clan tendencies. Walking that fine line between melodic yet not entirely accessible black metal, this is a record that shows strong elements of control and restraint to me. Although I cannot find the full instrument listing for the record, there is more being deployed here than just guitars, bass, drums and ghastly vocals. I hear a bayan at least once and I also suspect there is a banjo in the mix here somewhere on occasion.

That aside, the core bm elements are great. Lush tremolos and progressive bass lines take their place alongside galloping and charging tempos, led by blastbeats galore. Even the acoustic interlude, Liminal is well-placed on the track listing to give a brief respite before the final two tracks on the album get introduced. Album closer, and by far the standout track here, ‘The Cinder, the Flame, the Sun’ is a beast of a closing track that shows how effective well-written melodic black metal can be at over the seven-and-a-half-minute mark, and how it can retain that excitement for the full duration of the song. Saṃsṛ is an exciting record overall though, well-paced and yet it manages this without sacrificing intensity.

If like me, you found the whole Batushka thing a tad exhausting, you probably run the risk of not bothering with their records. Patriarkh are the Bartłomiej Krysiuk version of what once was his version of Batushka. I think. Thankfully, the music here is much less confusing than the origins of it. A suitably choral affair, given the religious themes of the group, Prophet Ilja (to give the album its English translation) is a different take on atmospheric black metal most certainly. Mind you there’s enough of the band to provide this variance from the norm.

There are three guitarists listed as being contributors on the record (does not sound like they are all deployed at once). As well as main vocalist Bartłomiej Krysiuk, I count another five (choral and otherwise) contributors. As a result, the album feels like it is growing from track to track. There is little variation to the format in all honesty, but the different vocalist appearances do add some welcome variation. This is not to say that otherwise the album is boring, far from it in fact. It stays true to an atmo-black metal record style and gives a solid acquittal of its credentials in the process.

I feel the pacing helps here, a lot. They know when to slow things down to emphasise the more ethereal elements of their sound or to enhance the harsher vocals in some sections. Equally they can use the softer, spoken word elements to introduce the quick switch to some more familiar black metal intensity. It is a tad predictable in the sense of where the record is going, but it is pulled off with a sense of panache. It turns out that the album is a concept album upon further research, and this explains the format of the album a little better. Prophet Ilja was the leader of a religious sect in the 1930’s and 40’s. His preaching about the coming apocalypse soon started to be questioned amongst some, whilst others were radicalized by them leading to the creation of New Jerusalem in the village of Wierszalin. New Jerusalem was never finished and eventually got eaten up by the forest.

Thankfully, unlike New Jerusalem, this album is a complete package that grows in the entertainment stakes with each passing track. Like Prophet Ilja to some of his followers, I am sold on the message of the album. It is a gentle black metal album that revels in storytelling However gentle it seems, it does retain enough intensity to please the black metal aficionados out there I am sure.

I really need to be listening to more death doom. This is what I had determined to be missing from my happy and altogether positive existence of late. Some bone crushingly heavy death metal, played at slug pace to genuinely make me question if time itself is faltering is exactly what I need as winter starts to throw its death throes and we get double figure temperatures here in England. Luckily enough, The Fallen gods are pleased with me and have offered up the latest release from Spanish band Onirophagus, in the shape of Revelations from the Void.

Instantly recognisable as having more than a nod in the direction of My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost, from the off I can determine that these boys come from good stock. They were unknown to me until this release, but a quick check of the history to them shows they have been around since 2011. With two albums already under their belt, it is fair to assume that album number three should be a pretty solid and mature sounding affair and that is exactly what I get. The cleaner vocal sections (if they can be referred to as that) did catch me off guard initially and I do still prefer the more monolithic version of the vocals (see Landsickness – my standout track) in all honesty. Yet Onirophagus do still present a fantastic sense of spiralling misery across their sound, adding the real sense of oppressive and looming atmosphere to the listening experience as a result.

Each track does sound like a revelation from some fathomless void. The cavernous reverb is there on the drums, successfully adding much power to the sound as those melancholic riffs carve out fissures of absolute despondency. Also in the mix though is this sense of cosmic horror. It is the promise of something truly terrifying. Something way more horrific than Paolo Girardi’s artwork suggests on the cover. After just a couple of listens I found myself immersed in proceedings, eagerly anticipating each track as it pulled me under its turgid tide.

In terms of a consistently pleasing experience, Revelations from the Void ticks all the boxes here. Whilst it is an album from a particularly staid sub-genre, it makes no apology for doing death doom exactly how it should be done and manages to hold my interest from start to finish with tracks that overall, well written and oozing maturity. The closing track that clocks in at nearly sixteen minutes does lose me a little, even with its violin addition that really does separate the track from the previous six. However, after a long gap of not having listened to any death doom for what feels like an age, Onirophagus have rekindled my interest nicely.

I am on around my seventh or eighth listen through of Matter of a Darker Nature as I write this review. With Turkish death metal being somewhat of an unexplored geography for me it has been surprising to see such a healthy influence from Suffocation, even though they are the band with probably the most copied style in all of death metal (well Incantation aside maybe). As I have sat with this album over the past couple of weeks, I have swung between being in awe of the technical mastery that unites effortlessly with the more brutal elements of the sound and wondering if this is just outright Suffocation worship or even plagiarism. If I am honest, I think both reactions have a degree of validity to them. However, whilst this style of death metal is well-known to be plagiarised for years, it does still require a level of technical ability to execute this well.

Wherever your standpoint is, Carnophage certainly have the years of playing under their belts to have honed their art form. Playing as one of the key acts in the Turkish Death Metal movement (TRDM – founded by Cenotaph’s Batu Çetin) for nearly twenty years clearly, they are more than just a Suffocation tribute act. The sound on their third album is monstrous to say the least. From the very start there is a suffocating (pun intended) element to the weight of the riffs and when combined with that stabbing urgency that features through the album, it all soon comes together to suggest a group of musicians who are of a significant level of repute. Onur Özçelik on the drums is unbelievable at times. The successes of Matter of a Darker Nature would be much reduced without his presence I sense.

However, as a band, they sound like a tight unit overall. Pace changes seem to be done as shifts as opposed to jarring hairpin turns. Even in the more frenetic moments everyone seems to be in line with everyone else. No one instrument or performance dominates proceedings yet at the same time all the component parts can establish themselves notably. They remind me of Blood Red Throne in places whilst also echoing elements of Defeated Sanity also.

What places the cherry on the cake for the record is the measured songwriting that leads to a succinct run time of just over thirty-two minutes. This makes for a real palatable experience for me since my experience of some technical brutal death metal albums is that they are either quite lengthy or all tracks fall into a three-minute maximum time limit and are over before I can blink. With only one song kissing the five-minute mark, it appears that Carnophage know how to showcase their skills without overstaying their welcome or falling into formulaic territory.

I did hear Chytridiomycosis Relinquished when it first came out back in March of this year and immediately it fell off rotation as it was obvious to me that this was not an album that would reward with repeated listens. This is mostly due to it being more than just a death/doom record (which it mostly certainly still is at its core). The more expansive elements of the album tended to not register upon first listen, either as a sub-conscious effort on behalf of my brain to not accommodate them (it already being programmed to expect looming riffs and ghastly guttural offerings only) or out of sheer lack of time to sit and focus properly on the merits of Slimelord’s debut full length offering. With the onset of illness this past few weeks I have found time to revisit Chytridiomycosis Relinquished; sticking with my theory that back-to-back plays does not help engagement with this record. As a result, the appreciation I have for this record has grown with each subsequent listen.

At a base level, this is some perfectly well executed death/doom. The slow, agonising sections that link together a track like Gut-Brain Axis are essential listening for fans of the sub-genre. They brilliantly map the relationship between the gut health and brain health of a truly terrifying sounding creature. Where this album starts to impress beyond the confines of its core sub-genre traits are with the sonics that surround the guitar work though. Creating atmosphere is clearly one of Slimelord’s better qualities and between Alexander Bradley and Krystian Zamojski they use their combined string prowess to really lift the whole sound out of that familiar death/doom dirge. When combined with some of the off-kilter time signatures (Splayed Mudscape, as an example), I soon found myself mightily impressed with what the duo could achieve.

This should come as little surprise really, especially for anyone who is familiar with Bradley’s work with Cryptic Shift. With Bradley on guitar, John Riley on bass, and Ryan Sheperson on drums, the Cryptic Shift fellas all give a fine acquittal of themselves. Although unheard of beyond Slimelord, vocalist Andy Ashworth gives a solid performance, his style being perfectly cavernous and grim. The real treat here tough is the strength of the song writing and its consistency across the track listing. With such a high level of craftmanship on the instruments, this does give opportunity to write some material to stretch those legs and Chytridiomycosis Relinquished carves some vast soundscapes from what initially looks like a fathomless cesspit of filth. The brilliant The Hissing Moor is one such example of this. This track is sonically rampant with leads darting across the swampy foundations like unexpected fireflies, whilst elsewhere the riffs constantly drill into murky depths that accompany the vocals superbly.

As a cohesive unit, Slimelord are virtually unstoppable. As I work through the tracks and see some of them clocking in at over eight minutes, any hints of dread that I may have had over the album becoming bloated just dissipate as track after track just continues to deliver. The real key to this album for me though is (bizarrely) mot listening to it with any degree of regularity. That’s when the hints of dread start to trigger a little more and for all the brilliance I acknowledge across the album, I still stick to my methodology of infrequent visits to get the best out of Chytridiomycosis Relinquished.

All the necrotic, medieval lore of black metal has always been captured superbly in the music of Hulder for me. Marz, having established herself as an artist way back in 2016 with her blackened/heavy metal outfit, Bleeder, has continued to release consistent black metal offerings with Hulder. This consistency is maintained again on Verses in Oath I am pleased to report. Icy cold yet fat enough with tales of the occult that gives sufficient warmth to endure the forty-minute duration of the record, Verses in Oath applies little in the way of polish to proceedings yet does not undermine quality whilst doing so.

This is a well-written black metal album. Even taking to one side the clear Emperor-style synths, the grim yet majestical tropes of Satyricon and the cold fury of early Immortal, there is plenty of other elements to sink your ears into. Deploying choral arrangements, animal noises and an operatic interlude even, Verses in Oath haunts the listener instead of opting for the more constant, frenzied attack of so many other peers. This is an album that has thought behind it, a nefarious intention though it may be, I for one welcome it with open arms.

This is not to say that the record lacks punch. It is still a visceral sounding record, with scathing if not all that remarkable riffing, beastly if not all that audible drums and when coupled with that sort of guttural rasp that Marz has this can all come together with some real intensity. I think this is why the atmospheric elements work so well on the record as they temper the more aggressive elements brilliantly. Again though, the songs are paced well enough, allowing punctuation points for melody and rhythm to seep through.

The haunting interlude of Lamentation, placed at the centre of the album, sounds like it is being played through an old radio from a parallel universe almost. Its operatic vocals piercing the fabric of time itself, harking back to a more classic and less burdensome time perhaps. Immediately rolling into the soft choir work on An Offering gives the album a real palate cleanse at the midway point, before the track is cut off in its prime, as if hit by some black magic to ignite the icy cold start of Cast into the Well of Remembrance.

There are many, fog-dense morning walks I would like to take whilst being accompanied by this record. Just sat here gazing across the foggy field opposite my house, this album has proven to be a perfect early afternoon accompaniment and has already worked a high place on the list of best albums of 2024 also.

I was already across this release as we headed into November and so seeing it added to the feature roster lined it up nicely for review.  As those folky rich melodies sent my brain into a near trace-like state, I did start to question my credentials as a nail coated wristband wearing black metal fan.  But then I remembered my enjoyment of Mare Cognitum and Darkspace and convinced myself that my icy soul was no nearer to being thawed as I first feared.  The inclusion of such a heavy amount of synths is perhaps the most challenging part of Vortex of the Worlds yet at the same time it would not work as well as an album without them.  They do sound incredibly artificial and are without doubt the main culprit in steering the album away from the more extreme boundaries of black metal, but I find at the same time they are relatively easy to make peace with given their obvious contribution to such a rich and luscious soundscape.

When taken out of consideration for a moment, the synths are far from the only positive element of the instrumentation.  The tremolo riffing is excellent (Transcendence) both in isolation and also in accompaniment to everything else. When paired with vocals, they ground the album in the more familiar and safe territory of atmo-black. The programmed drums do not go unnoticed, but are hardly a problem either as I do not believe that Labyrinthus Stellarum wrote Vortex of the Worlds with any desire to focus on percussion. The lack of bass is the only real issue I have as it does makes things sound unnecessarily sterile and gives those synths an almost smothering edge at times.  There is a rumbling "something" in the background but I would suggest it is just the intentional density added in the production to mask the lack of bass.

My instinct suggests that Labyrinthus Stellarum will move too far away from a core black metal sound in subsequent releases to this one.  For now, Vortex of the Worlds is a sensible gateway into that vortex that I sense will soon lose some of its appeal in the coming records.  I am more than happy to celebrate the successes of this record though and acknowledge its bravery in sticking to its ideals and values.  It retains a unique edge without dropping into a Summoning level of repetition and genuinely has some exciting and intense moments that standout.  The songwriting suggests that particular methodology is sound enough as the crescendos mid-track are effective and create some of the strongest moments in the record.  The album has grown on me with repeated listens but I can sense that looming distance is coming still.

Since getting tired of the traditional heavy metal sounds of The Guardians clan and flipping over to The Fallen I have not listened to a heavy metal album for some two years or so now. The genre that brought me into this thirty-five-year journey to the very extremity of death, black, thrash, etc, etc has become very neglected in recent years. There have not even been any real pangs of nostalgia to go back to my roots so to speak, so I came to Savage Oath out of pure curiosity, I guess. Once my initial fears of this being some power metal opus that was going to be pissing gloss everywhere were allayed, I soon found myself settling into the catchy and rhythmical tunes that make up Divine Battle.

A quick scan of the internet showed me that Phil Ross (one time of Manilla Road) is one of the members of the group, handling the very audible yet not overbearing bass duties here. Brendan Radigan handles vocals who I am aware of from his time with Pagan Altar and Sumerlands (the latter of whom I find far too watered down for my metal tastes) and reminds me of a less weird Mark Shelton in a way. His croons are “sneery” most certainly, but he holds a tune better at least. As a unit, Savage Oath give a professional performance with Leeland Campana of Visigoth fame handling guitar duties and the unknown Austin Wheeler occupying the drum stool. The production job is clear without being polished, the instrumentation carrying an earthy edge across the record. The drums seem a little stifled at times in the grander scheme of things, however this is my only real quibble here.

Things touch on the epic during Blood for the King as the song enters a choral section around the five-minute mark, the guitar and vocals soaring for a few seconds, heralding promise that does not quite land if I am honest but the intent is most certainly there. If I am honest, the album probably needs a couple more moments like this (and for them to be carried through) as although I enjoy most of Divine Battle there is still a sense of it coming up a little short somehow, like an aspect of the delivery is missed or misdirected. For all its driving rhythm and consistency there are not any real moments that grab you by the throat. Instead, there is almost a sense of contentment at the band sitting in the groove that they carve for themselves.

I had big problems with Nile's last album. Vile Necrotic Rites lived up to the "vile" aspect of its title perfectly for me. Frenzied songwriting, a virtual album-spanning lack of structure and an overall sense of confusion to the many layers that were applied to the tracks all culminated in a very frustrating experience for me. As a result, I kind of disregarded The Underworld Awaits Us All upon hearing it was in the pipeline for release this year. If what was waiting in the underworld was anything that resembled 2019s offering, then I was not up for that at all. It was the inclusion of the track Chapter for Not Being Hung Upside Down on a Stake in the Underworld and Made to Eat Feces by the Four Apes (catchy title) on a workout playlist I found that turned my head.

Thankfully, we have a return to a more structured and measured style of songwriting, resulting in a potent death metal attack that although still not the most memorable affair is clearly an improvement from what came last time around. Based on the eleven tracks showcased here, what awaits us in the underworld is pretty much everything you would expect from a Nile record. Urgent riffs, Far Eastern musical ramblings and grand stories of the Ancient World. With the usual amount of theatre that we have all come to expect from Karl and co, Nile’s tenth studio offering feels like a return to form, even if it does not quite fully hit the mark overall.

The album is still a little too grandiose at eleven tracks in length even though the track lengths are varied and the inclusion of operatic vocals on some tracks does not really add any depth to them. As a result, the album does sound a little too big for its boots in some places. Similarly, the attempts at cleaner (never quite totally clean) vocals come off as lacking a bit. Plaudits for attempting some variety, despite the delivery being somewhat off. Technically as masterful as ever, this album will not disappoint the die-hard fans of the band. For the rest of us, it is just another Nile record though.

With industrial metal being one of the least listened to sub-genres for me, this month’s feature release risked passing me by like most others often do. Two things drew me to Revelator in the end. Firstly, the strange looking album artwork. Secondly, Daniel’s high praise for the band (borne out in his excellent review). Now, clearly, I have no reference point for Revelator in terms of a comparison to other The Amenta releases and as such, I can judge it solely on its merits as a standalone release. After several listens, I am not totally sold on it still but that is not to say that this about to open into a negative review, more that I have a lot learn still about this record.

Since my first listen through to the album, I have been unable to get Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise by Emperor out of my head. The cleaner vocals remind me so much of that record that I had to play it again to make sure I was not making it up. Stylistically, two different sub-genres, yet (having listened through the Emperor album in piecing this review together), some definite comparators beyond even the vocals. Revelator is an explosive album. One of those that is seemingly written with eruptions of power that blast through more tempered sections. Add this sense of density in terms of the layers to each record and my early comparison holds some firm standings.

Given I have an odd affiliation with that Emperor album, I have found that my enjoyment of Revelator has grown very easily. The progressive elements to the Australians 2021 release help the record play as almost a macabre celebration of metal music when you get the occasional bit of death metal thrown in for good measure and even some ambient work to boot. I do need more time with the more post-metal moments and do find the flow of the album interrupted by this.

However, The Amenta are clearly talented guys and the musicianship here is top notch. This is not very industrial sounding to me (saying that as an already declared irregular listener to this sub-genre) and has a lot more depth to it than I first expected, clearly therefore having been written by some mature artists. I find it theatrical and challenging at the same time as being a record that can appeal to my more primitive metal needs very easily. It is a solid discovery that has helped me rediscover an old favourite also.

With Ulcerate being one of only a handful of bands who can genuinely excite me anymore with their music, I avoided any teasers on the internet for Cutting the Throat of God, waiting instead until the vinyl and t-shirt combo I had placed on pre-order many weeks ago finally landed in my grubby little mitts. The trick had worked for the last two records by the kings of dissonant death metal and despite my nervous that Ulcerate were long overdue a bad release (a golden run that goes as far back as Everything is Fire) I stuck with the process this time around also.

Once again, Ulcerate have delivered. I can think of no higher praise to heap on this record other to say that once it starts, I never want it to stop. As someone who is rarely moved emotionally by music nowadays, I find Cutting the Throat of God to be a welcome sensory wrench and a deeply stirring and fervent emotional experience at the same time. The expansive complexity is there as I have come to expect (although for me it sounds a little more dialled back overall – more on that later), yet the sense that there is a titanic shift within my very being ongoing is far more disorientating than the technical aptitude of the musicians and their songwriting.

Being able to captivate me from the off with the intro to your opening track is a rare achievement indeed, yet To Flow Through Ashen Hearts does this effortlessly. It is menacing and carries the upmost sense of threat that I have heard in a long time. Reminiscent of how Vermis started off way back in 2013, Ulcerate really prove that they know how to open a record. Of course, that is not the end of the experience by any means and having started as they mean to go on, they simply drop into cruise mode and deliver one of the most accomplished death metal albums I have ever heard and by far the best album Ulcerate have ever done.

Referencing Vermis made me recognise that although it has gotten better over the many records that have dropped since then, the vocal mix on their latest opus is absolutely bang on. On Vermis the vocals were mostly lost, an afterthought almost. Here, building on the improvements made on previous offerings since then, they are perfectly enacted against the instrumentation without detracting from their overall impact. Structure wise, I have to say I sense this record to be Ulcerate’s most accessible release to date. The fade and explode benchmarks are still here as well as that contagion virus of death metal tremolo riffs that punctuate the dense atmospheres with added brevity; almost sanguine melodies invest even more to really stretch the listening experience. But fundamentally the listener is pushing at an open door here when trying to access the gifts of Cutting the Throat of God. Ulcerate temper any technical mastery without ever leaving any doubt as to just how much effort has gone into composing such structures. Yet this is not arcane or esoteric music. It has flow, ebb and swell in bucket loads. However, it is a traceable record, with clear tracks. The Dawn Is Hollow may seem to perish as opposed to end, but Further Opening the Wounds does exactly what it says on the tin and starts something anew immediately.

If Gorguts are planning on releasing anything this year, then I would personally wait because this masterpiece is going to be hard to top in dissonant death metal circles. Album of the year right here folks.

As CC releases go, Tomb of the Mutilated sits somewhere just ahead of the first two records they released for me as it was my first experience of the band overall.  I had not bothered with them until well after their heyday (well, with the amount of records they shift still you could argue that they still are in their heyday, I suppose), neglecting even to have any interest in the Ace Ventura appearance that everybody went fucking nuts over for some reason.  As such I came to them late and long after any shock value that would make any impact on my increasingly desensitised brain.  I have always felt that TotM is one of their finest efforts in all honesty.  Latter day highlights such as Kill seem to get praise alongside their first two records also.  However, coming to the record with nothing else to compare it to left me with a positive impression that lasts long beyond any pure nostaligic sentiment.

Whilst not the most varied or indeed inventive death metal album; and withstanding the fact that some performances (ahem, the drumming, ahem) leave a bit to be desired, TotM is still a very consistent record that forges ahead without having much need to be tipping the death metal kitbag upside down to get absolutely everything included.  It is almost best described as being chewing gum for the ears, and whilst it is not background music like any release for Amon Amarth consistently qualifies to be for me, it does not require an enormous amount of effort to enjoy.  As such, it is one of the most immediate death metal albums on my CD shelves.

Those mining riffs and monstrous vocals combine to swarm the listener, yet at the same time there is space allowed for breath in some of the more rythymical sections of the record which create memorability no end.  This is not endless chugging chaos and blasting intensity.  Albeit that none of them are all that particularly comforting or even vaguely safe spaces, CC do carve out niches of more accessible areas for the listener that hinted at some solid songwriting and compositional awareness bubbling beneath the surface.  The most mature track (and for me the best on the record) is album closer Beyond the Cemetery, a track that progresses from its blitzkrieg opening into a well-paced piece of death metal.

It might be uncouth in its mannerisms but I prefer to think of it as being unapologetic instead.  Its lack of layers it what underlines its appeal for me, and whilst I accept it does nothing to justify a full marks rating, it thoroughly deserves the four stars I am awarding it.

When it comes to stoner metal, Sleep are virtually mandatory a listen, right?  As I continue to spread my wings in The Fallen clan I am fnally getting around to a band that seem to get universal praise amongst peers.  It seems you simply cannot class yourself as a fan of doom/stoner metal without acknowledging the importance of Sleep.  I am not here to upset that apple cart either.  Based on this album at least, I like what I am hearing enough to commit to a review, and I will start off by saying that Sleep are a lot of fun to my ears.  Playing as an almost uber-organic jam session, I soon find myself not really caring about track listings or even individual songs, just enjoying the album overall instead.

Coming to the band via Om and the album Pilgrimage, wich I find to be a much more serious yet still thoroughly enjoyable release, Sleep are more like the cool Uncle who let's you have a sneaky can of ale round his house when you are fourteen as opposed to the more focussed family member that is Om.  I would go as far as to say that Sleep's Holy Mountain is even a sloppy record in places with the percussion going off on its own merry way on occasion.  However, this does not come as an unexpected thing in all honesty.  This is truly one of the most free-sounding records I have ever heard, that spontaneous feel to the record coupled with the relaxed atmosphere make for a very natural performance.  I dispute that this is only for people high on drugs (although I do have a strong English Breakfast Tea in my hand currently which is as potent as I get nowadays) but it is hard to not conjure that stereotype when listening to music like this.  The fact is that the music transcends the stereotype with pretty much minimal effort.

The casual playing and the previously mentioned cumbersome trajectory it takes just adds to the enamour I have with the album in all honesty.  Tracks such as Dragonaut, The Druid and the brilliant Inside the Sun are what Sleep are all about.  Zero fucks to give metal for folks who went shopping for fucks to give but the stores were all sold out.  You can throw Black Sabbath worship references all you want, and you'd be right, although I doubt it al that intentional.  However, you can also put on any Electric Wizard or Cathedral record and align Sleep with those modern doom references with just as much ease.  Shave off the instrumental tracks and the album comes up by half a mark on the scores too.

The life choice that I made to listen to extreme metal for pretty much all of my teenage through adult life has been a decision that has rewarded me well in the main.  I have discovered some truly astonishing bands and albums that have stayed with me to this day.  Some of them took multiple visits before the beam of light finally struck me and I fully understood what was in front of me.  Others were more immediate, hitting me in the face from the off and some of them (only a small number admittedly) are still socking me in the cakehole to this day.  However, as I get older (I am pushing 50 after all), tastes change.  Whilst, recent releases from Exhorder and Judas Priest reminded me just why I love the more high octane elements of metal, I do increasingly need something to soothe my stressed and anxious head.  Quite by accident, I stumbled across OM via a playlist and was instantly drawn into the therapeutic qualities of the Californian trio.

Pilgrimage is like a balm for my soul.  Full of repetition and consistently familiar structure from track-to-track, its effect was instantaneous,  Whether I am working, driving, cleaning, hiking or just sat still, with Pilgrimage playing I am at peace.  Truly at peace, as in zoned out of this shitshow we know as reality and somewhere else (sub-consciously at least, especially if I am driving).  The Hindu mantra that is the band's name, is a perfect fit for this trance-inducing style of stoner metal.  A fine example of how you can make heavy music without guitars (just a sick as fuck bass is all that you need folks), the four tracks here make for a satisfying thirty-two minutes.  The rhythms are simple yet so warming without being hippy-esque that you can't help but take comfort from their soothing textures.

If you're thinking this is a yawn fest then you're wrong.  Pilgrimage actually grows in intensity as the tracks roll by.  Granted we never flip into full on sludge-paced metal.  There's not even a threat of such violence intimated at any point here.  However, this is an album that thinks out of the box and relies on the subtlety of transitions in almost sneaking proportions. After the calming opener of the title track you soon find yourself several minutes into the album, wondering where the drums came in after being lulled into a barely lucid state by that bass.  This is one of the few albums in my lifetime that have provided a tactile experience.  I can touch and taste every note here, inhaling its incense-laced smoke as I go headlong falling into this record over and over again.

Convinced that I am still happier when I only have a small selection of quality albums to listen through at any given time as opposed to trying to capture every release available by my favourites, I have of late taken to basing much of my listening habits around the physical copies of albums that I have. Proudly sat amongst my vinyl collection is the much discussed fifth album by Norway’s finest, Darkthrone. Panzerfaust is an alienating and challenging affair to some who prefer a more polished approach to their music, yet for those that prefer things as extreme as they can be, it is perhaps a much more enjoyable affair.

I have read some reviews that suggest that Nocturno Culto was blind drunk when he recorded the vocals for this album. Others suggest that the album is the victim of a terrible mixing job. There are even those that seem to view Panzerfaust as the ultimate show of black metal ever committed to tape. Whilst there may be some truth in the first of the above claims (I have no idea obviously), I have more agreement with how the second statement could be deemed to be true and I outright dispute the third statement. This is a great metal album. Outright black metal, it is not.

My reviews of latter day Darkthrone releases have seen me speculate on how Fenriz and Ted’s recent output is a “thousand football fields away from their black metal days”. Whilst Panzerfaust does not quite stretch to a similar distance away from the ‘Unholy Trilogy’ of albums it is a release that explores a broader scope of music influences. With a punk attitude and at times a doom-laden limb or two disrupting proceedings, this is an album that perhaps first showcased the duo’s ability to look outside of the cvlt box they had a huge hand in creating in the first place. Soulside Journey had shown them to me more than capable musicians, but Panzerfaust was a different shaped ball than we were used to seeing them play with.

Inebriated or not, the vocals Ted lays down here are obtrusive to say the least. They have been described as “sabotaging” the riffs and drums by some and I do agree they are too far forwards in the mix at the expense of other instruments. However, in terms of getting their message across, they are an absolute success. Yet, despite their prominence in the mix, I take more away from the riffs on this album than I do anything else. The clumsy yet still contagiously doomy riff of The Hordes of Nebulah is with me for life, likewise the raging black metal charge of Hans siste vinter is permanently fixed in my memory banks for the remainder of my time on this mortal coil.

The sloppiness levels on Panzerfaust do seem a tad more uncontrolled than on later releases and this does diminish the experience of getting back-to-back quality tracks on either side of the vinyl. It is an album that revels more in the individual success of bits of tracks as opposed to breeding a handful of classics. Despite it clearly having its faults, Panzerfaust shows perhaps the most irreverence than we hear on many of the other albums in the discography combined. It might be more punk orientated irreverence than all out black metal misanthropic hatred but it still works and it is still Darkthrone.

The flames that engulf the horse and its surroundings on the cover of Miserere Luminis’ second full-length, hold a heightened resonance right now as various parts of the world start to set ablaze as global temperatures continue to rise. If that seems kind of a deep reflection to open the album review with then I can only add the context that Ordalie is very much a deep experience and one that certainly holds a level of hopelessness alongside some equally frequent moments of uplifting and engaging black metal.

Having missed the Canadians and their self-titled release some fourteen years ago I was drawn to Ordalie initially because of that striking artwork. However, once I got to the inner layers of the musical content then things started to get more interesting. The expansive opening track, Noir fauve sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the album. The sadness inherent in the track is veiled in the ethereal beauty of the atmospheric passages that are interspersed amongst the darkness of the more aggressive vocals and riff-driven fury of the more progressive parts. At over thirteen minutes long, it is a bold opening statement and one that stands up well in the main. The regular changes of pace do become a tad overwhelming after a while though and I do think the track would hold up slightly better if there was a little more focus in one direction for a while longer.

As the album progresses, I am increasingly reminded of Gaerea, most certainly in terms of the vocal delivery and in the melodic angst of the music that when in full flow sounds like it is bashing up against the more delicate textures of the music – as if not wanting to break them or ride roughshod over them. As such it creates an odd balance of the rough and the smooth. The guitars ring with an almost warming chime during the latter parts of Le sang des rêves whilst those vocals continue to grate away at the air around them.

This sense of being propelled by the rhythm of the record whilst being caressed by the applied melodies and atmospheres I found to be quite unsettling at first. However, I soon settled into this slightly esoteric pattern with repeated listens and feel like the album becomes more accessible with each listen. Ordalie does not need to dredge the depths of extremity to get its message across and nor does it need to rely on excessive shrouding of atmospherics to simply make its mark. Instead, it creates a clever maelstrom of the required component parts to deliver what is ultimately a clean and concise sounding record overall.

There are times when I want the bass to take more of a centre stage yes, but I cannot ignore that there is a presence imbued from it, nonetheless. The guitar and vocals very much steal the show on Ordalie but they do not shoulder-barge the rest of the instrumentation aside in doing so. There is always a sense of calmness and cohesion, like the bass and drums are more than happy to explore their role with subtlety and restraint to let the other two elements shine. The penultimate track being an instrumental piece acts as a palate cleanser going into the tumultuous album closer, De venin et d'os. Building with keys and sax we are soon back in the darker and more aggressive space that I have by now become accustomed to.

I sense a CD purchase in the offing…

Greece is not the first country I would associate the stoner metal sound with but Acid Mammoth most certainly know their beans.  Here be Sabbath vibes aplenty with the occult tendencies of Electric Wizard  never too far away also it seems.  With a varied track length ranging from the four-and-a-half minute all the way up to beyond the nine-minute mark, Under Acid Hoof feels longer than just thirty-five minutes in length.  However, I find this variety makes the release easier to digest as opposed to other releases that just go with long track after long track.

The album does suffer from some vocals that try to be a little more melodic than the vocalist is capable of delivering at times, and it is in these moments when the album creaks a little and sounds like it lacks professionalism.  Riffs wise, I find very little to argue with though.  Jack the Riffer might be a ridiculously named song but it certainly lives up to the title over seven-and-a-half minutes of monstrous riffage.  The closing, title track takes this one step further even and brings the album to a fine closing point that leaves me with a sense that the band have shown their ability to produce some solid stoner metal without letting things meander on too long.  Yes, I could do without the vocals at times and yes I pick up very little from the drums (I mean are they even there at times?) but overall Under Acid Hoof has been a good intro into Acid Mammoth. 

Following my review of Old Star I soon found myself pressing on into the Darkthrone "latter day" discography.  Having found very little wrong with the 2019 release I found my focus switched to the latest new release (at the time of writing) from the legendary Norwegians.  I am aware that Eternal Hails is sandwiched in between the two releases I have now written a review for, and I have heard that through a few times also.  However, it is yet to make as an immediate impact as Astral Fortress did after just a couple of spins.  Once again the paired-back, non-black metal style of metal that embraces doom and heavy metal wins the day.

With the increasing sense that the number of fucks Fenriz and Nocturno Culto have left to give reduces with every passing year, Astral Fortress is a structure built with an almost nonchalant level of attention.  The walls are not necessarily flush against one another and the floor is almost certainly not level either, but it is just still so fucking homely to listen to the record that you do not care if the roof has a couple of holes in it where polished production values and a high quality of technical capability got kicked out of the building.  The guys are not trying to impress anybody necessarily, yet they organically manage to make an album that presses a sense of nostalgia on the listener without becoming oppressive as a "retro" record.

Those soothing synths on Stalagmite Necklace are trance-inducing, such is their level of dreamy and hazy magic.  Who fucking cares if NC's vocals are cumbersome when there's a Mellotron to keep you company along the way?  Fenriz's drumming is consistent throughout without ever straying anywhere near the realm of technical or overtly showy.  There is a power in simplicity and this has never been better exemplified than the performance of the man on the stool behind the skins.  Above all else though, it is the mournful and melancholic wail of the guitars on tracks such as The Sea Beneath the Seas of the Sea (great track title) that steal the dank limelight on Astral Fortress.  Indeed, for a perfect example of "no frills" metal, we need look no further than Darkthrone's twentieth full length release.

By now a thousand football fields away from their black metal days, Darkthrone have almost undertaken a complete reinvention of themselves in terms of their sound and style.  However, the true success of their modern day output that I have heard to date is that it does still retain that sense of irreverence for their art form that only black metal can ever truly teach.  Whilst it may be so far away stylistically from black metal, the cult is very much still alive.

The tragedy that encompasses the content of this album is an impossible level of suffering for me to understand, both for Aleah Stanbridge herself and also Juha Raivio.  The album makes a strong case for helping me to at least try to fathom the anguish and desolation that the horrible loss of someone you are really close to and the ongoing grief.  Indeed, part of the success of Moonflowers is that it does not simply dwell in acoustic ballads draped in gothic shrouds.  The album takes time to explore a variety of genres and styles whilst still staying true to it melancholic and melodic gothic/doom tropes, as the band seek various pastures from which to showcase the tumultuous emotion at the centre of the record.

For the most part it works.  I am going to go on record as saying that my least favourite aspect to the album are Mikko Kotamäki vocal's.  However, the instrumentation is absolutely sublime in all of its shadowy textures and ethereal melodicism.  I cannot help but be absolutely enchanted by those guitar leads and those chunky, simplistic and yet so effective riffs. The elements of symphonia are presented so eloquently that it is impossible not to be taken in the dense mournful atmospheres that they create.  Tracks like Woven Into Sorrow and All Hallows' Grieve are absolute masterpieces of constantly shifting form and growing elements, some of which I miss after even a few listens through and continue to identify on later listens even now.

I do however get the sense that Mikko is tested beyond his capabilities on more than one occasion.  This is not necessarily a challenge of his range (no Halford heroics needed here folks), more that I find his vocals at times lack conviction.  This is especially true of the death metal vocals he deploys which border on contrived for me.  Were it not for the obvious brilliance going on virtually everywhere else on the album then this could become an issue that would certainly pull down the rating of the record by a couple of stars.  Thankfully the combination of the musicianship and the guest appearances (in particular Cammie Gilbert form Oceans of Slumber on All Hallows' Grieve) offer more than sufficient compensation here.

Moonflowers is my first venture into the music of Swallow the Sun and despite my vocal gripes there is more than enough here to snare my interest in the wider discography of the group.

Another one of my MA Radio playlist discoveries, Fvnerals latest album has been on repeatedly in my house for pretty much all of April.  I am partial to a bit of dark ambient you see and Fvnerals (like Wolveserpent) have found a suitable balance between immersive cold ambience and densely suffocating doom that just ticks plenty of boxes for me.  I have spent much time just letting the album wash over me whilst doing pretty much nothing else.  It is an album that serves a dual purpose in the sense that I can have it on as background music or utilise its depth for a more connected and personal experience.

The haunting vocals of Tiffany Ström are perfect alongside the gazey atmospheres and doom soaked passages.  Seemingly at home in any scenario that her and fellow band member Syd Scarlet can concoct between them, Tiffany's vocal chords offer a cold and ethereal attraction that although is devoid of positivity or optimism is still utterly addictive.  Add in to the mix some feedback seeping guitars and cavernous percussion and Fvnerals soon start to create dense layers of murky and absorbing music.  Even when the focus is more on the instrumentation (as with the powerful Rite) it is hard not to engage with the efforts here.

Although impressive enough, I still do not believe there is enough here for top marks as there is still a tendency as you swim through Let the Earth Be Silent to find yourself treading water in the same channels for significant periods of time, with only a sudden wave of unexpected vocal direction to sweep you into new tidal paths.  That having been said, this is still a monolithic undertaking that strikes enough of a chord with me to get itself a healthy four star rating.

I had previously heard The Hecatomb back when it was released. It was another one of those releases that was getting lots of underground praise back when I bothered to try and keep track of new material. Whilst I had played it a couple of times before I recalled none of it going into this revisit which makes me think I most certainly did not give it the attention it deserved at the time.

Aside from being monolithically cavernous, The Hecatomb is perhaps one of the most desolate and bleakly devastating records I have ever heard. Listen to how those drums are deliberately suppressed in the mix to still allow them to have rumbling and at times thunderous impact and then note how the rest of the instrumentation still does not occupy much of front and centre at all. This album is all about the atmosphere. This is not just a bit of atmosphere either, this is the kind of atmosphere that coats the walls of the room as you listen, clogs your throat if you breath in too much of it and clouds your vision if you stand too close.

The riffs here mine the absolute shit of everything around them, spiralling the listener in their dark serpentine majesty, bristling your skin with their dank scales. Hecatomb means an extensive loss of life, historically seen through a great public sacrifice. The ancient Greeks and Romans would sacrifice 100 cattle to the Gods as a “hecatomb”. Based on these nine tracks, I cannot think of any better soundtrack to such events.

Ritualistic in the most solemn manner possible this is an album that delivers exactly what it sets out to do in the first place. Agonisingly heavy and anguish laden from start to finish, The Hecatomb is an extraordinary record. My only grumble being that the first of the three interludes is completely forgettable in the grander scheme of things and for me adds nothing to the record. On the flipside, aside from being the album highlight, final track Charnel Winds is perhaps one of the best closing tracks I have ever heard. It is one of the most immersive pieces of death doom I can recall hearing, period.

Inspired by the recent discussions here on the Metal Academy forums around Dismember and Like An Ever Flowing Stream, I realised that I had not taken time to review that record or indeed the highly lauded debut by fellow Swedish death metal legends, Entombed. With both albums coming out within twelve months of each other (Entombed’s being the first) I can remember a lot of noise around both of them to be honest. Back in the old Terrorizer forum days, Left Hand Path was always described as being “5 fists”, the ultimate accolade we regulars would give a record on that forum. It was dished out as the rating without any consideration to it being anything less, there was just no questioning the quality and importance of the Entombed debut as far as us Tez forumites were concerned.

Landing before even Carnage’s Dark Recollections, Entombed’s debut has the humble accolade of being known as the first true Swedish death metal release and one that kickstarted the whole scene. As such, no words I can use some thirty years after its release can detract from the fact that this album was hugely important (still is arguably). That buzzsaw guitar tone was the unique identifier that made the album standout from more or less everything else at the time. However, I would argue that on reflection this is not the album highlight or me. That award goes to the superb vocal performance of the late Lars-Göran Petrov.

Petrov’s throaty vocals are the clear standout for me as they are not overdone (unlike the buzzsaw guitar). They possess a hardcore gruffness with a guttural edge that is not as dramatic as John Tardy or Chris Barnes, yet was still perfectly suitable to the more melodic elements of the debut album. The explosive drums of Nicke Andersson are the second success of Left Hand Path. Not technically superb, but still such a complete performance, nonetheless. Now, the buzzsaw guitar is not lost to me obviously. As much as I stand by my statement that there is too much of it, it is impossible to not be hooked by the catchy riffing on the likes of Supposed to Rot and Bitter Loss. It is just that I find that this sound of riffing is suited much better alongside other elements in the sound so that the riffs really do standout. Whilst not quite background noise, they do fade quickly when you look at the whole album.

Structurally, Left Hand Path suffers from repetition track to track. It gets too much credit for founding a sound/style instead of doing anything all that remarkable with it. There is the odd, spoken word passage or shouted line into a cavernous echo that does little if anything to add any real menace to proceedings. Barring the sonic work of Alex Hellid, there is little technically all that impressive here. Whilst this review may have read a lot differently some twenty or thirty years ago, it is not an album that has aged all that well when placed in front of a metalhead of some thirty-five years at least. Important but not essential.

A band often talked about in hushed tones, Subrosa occupied a rarefied atmosphere in the world of doom. I have not heard anywhere near enough of them to place them in the same high regard as I have often heard them described, yet it is clear from the few listens that I have been giving to More Constant Than the Gods that these guys had a real knack for writing some obscure yet inherently wonderful music.

My first parallel with Subrosa must be Messa just on the levels of sheer majesty of sound alone. Their ability to combine, but not necessarily blend or at times mix elements of drone with pangs of psychedelia and stoner doom is key to the success of Subrosa’s penultimate full length release. Not making any extra special effort to let all these elements sit perfectly in unity alongside each other, the structure of songs have a Neurosis-like discomfort to them. Just listen to that ugly blues guitar on Affliction and tell me it does not make you itch, even just a bit.

At the same time, as well as this removal of the listener from their comfort zone, the album offers up some surreal beauty in almost every track. Violins, cellos, flutes, clarinets and pianos combine with the more familiar guitars, drums and bass to offer a spectrum of tactile layers to those wise enough to allow the full experience of More Constant Than the Gods to fully embrace them. Those alternative, disharmonic and at times sluggish vocals were an initial issue for me, but in all honesty I could not see any other style fitting anywhere near as well after multiple listens.

There is more here than just some crushingly heavy riffs and mournful atmospheres. There is some genuine anguish shared here that is heavier than any of the mighty riffs the band can muster. You have many layers to pick away at here dear listener and this is an album that takes time to get to know. The rewards for the time spent are nothing short of amazing though. More Constant Than the Gods will make you work for it’s treasures though. This is one shipwreck that you will need to take more than one dive on to truly appreciate its barren husk.

My initial exploration of the early funeral doom albums is coming to an end with Skepticism's debut album from 1995.  This near-hour length experience is possibly my favoured to date and I am writing this review have just done a 90 minute walk through the cold and grey countryside near my house and it was the perfect grim accompaniment to my heavy footfalls.  With repeated listens over the last few weeks of this album and the other funeral doom releases in this challenge I have come to finally understand the connection I am so easily able to make with this kind of music that appeals to me so much the more I discover of it. 

Stormcrowfleet is a weighty offering.  It never tries to present itself as being anything else, right from the off its dismal keys and crushing riffs hide none of its monolithic nature.  Those slow and deliberate drums alongside those deep, guttural vocals only add to the tortuous pace of the album.  I have already on previous funeral doom releases how important repetition is and of course we have that in abundance here again.  The fact is that. end to end, Stormcrowfleet is utterly deathly.  It creeps at the pace of the ages of time itself, showing now urgency to end its futile progression.  In a world where I (like all of us) have my fair share of burdens and weight to carry on my shoulders, albums such as this are a welcome distraction.

The best visualisation of this is a deep silo, chute or vertical tunnel with a huge weight being slowly pushed down it on vast hydraulics.  This weight (in this instance Stormcrowfleet) creates pressure that pushes the weight of my woes and worries up and away as a greater mass that needs to occupy the space they constantly reside in. This dispersal of the day to day banality of life is so welcome that I find albums such as this quite cathartic.  There is a moment of such a subtle yet emotionally devastating explosion at about two-and-a-half-minutes into By Silent Wings that it genuinely stops me dead in my tracks every time I hear it. 

Whilst not perfect, the production job here is better than on the debuts by Winter and Thergothon and this gives this album just enough elevation above those two releases to get it top marks out of the three of them.  My best find to date on this journey without a doubt and I am looking forwards to more long walks with this as my soundtrack.

In my book, 1990 was a sterling year for releases.  Just take a look in the Releases section on the site folks and tell me otherwise amigos!  It was one of the key formative years of discovery for me in metal and one that is close to my heart as a result.  Now, although not on any "top" release list of mine for the year, I am already aware of the existence of Winter and their classic debut album Into Darkness having read much love for it and venturing into numerous listens over the years.  The fact is, not having been that into most of the doom metal world and associated sub-genres, I hadn't really paid it that much attention until having to revisit for The Fallen clan challenge I am undertaking.

Having heard it several times in recent weeks I would describe it as a very functional album.  Backhanded compliment though that may be it is most certainly true to my ears at least.  I don't recall an album that marries the sum of its parts so well in all honesty.  Servants of the Warsmen for example is so simplistic yet effective that it actually makes me smile (not the intention of the record - I know!) with its almost arrogant presentation.  At the same time, the album overall is a (deliberately) monotonous affair that uses repetition extensively.  This does not get boring at any point since the idea is to create an atmosphere and inhabit that dank space for the entre 46 minutes of the album run time.

My "functional" comment therefore is aimed as nothing but praise, certainly when we add the context of the timing of this record (there wasn't much of anything like this out there at the time).  To create such an immersive experience with such a stripped back and down-tuned set of parts is truly interesting to me.  It is almost an effortless record to listen to because it does the job it intends to do so well.  As if opening up the album with an instrumental track is not bold enough a move, we get another one in the middle of the album which kicks off the whole tortuously slow second half of the record.

I would describe Winter's one and only full-length as "nonchalant" in delivery, designed to baffle by the sheer weight of the basic arrangements alone.  But the bafflement is dulled by the slow doping your brain gets track after track as Into Darkness washes over you.  One of the most relaxing listening experiences of my Fallen clan journey so far.

When it comes to Darkthrone I have a bit of catching up to do.  I have all the usual albums in my collection from the heyday of the second wave but I would not class myself as a mega fan or indeed rate the band as much as some of my peers appear to.  To be honest, after Panzerfaust I lost interest.  Barring  a brief revival of my attention with Ravishing Grimness I just simply haven't bothered with any Darkthrone album since.  I have sat from afar watching Fenriz go off on his many tangents, releasing albums and EPs in various side projects under a plethora of sub-genres that never seem to get beyond a couple of releases before dying off, never to be heard of again.  It was always his standpoint with Darkthrone back in the day that the band would not be doing any experimenting with their sound and so it makes sense that he would need outlets for his various interests in music.

Recently, I have seen various internet acquaintances frequenting the forums I am involved with comment or discussion around more recent Darkthrone output and this past week I was tempted to sample some more current releases from the band.  There is likely to be more reviews in the coming days and weeks so I will try not to give too much away in my first album review, but what has struck me after listening to a variety of releases from 2007 onwards is how that old viewpoint of Fenriz around keeping Darkthrone as a simple black metal band is now long gone.  Whilst I will not profess to having listened to all of his side projects and experiments to know their exact pigeon hole in the world of metal and beyond, I can say with confidence that the breaking down of the walls I refer to above is much to the benefit of Darkthrone's sound. With the freedom to let their various influences expand across their records I would go as far as to say that they are in fact a better band for it.

Anyway, to focus on Old Star for the last part of this review.  It is clear that their 2019 release is riddled with heavy metal.  All the great sounds that I heard that got me into this fantastic genre of music over 30 years ago is encapsulated in this 38 minute, 6 track album.  I would argue that barring the familiar grim vocals, there is no black metal content on here and that I find Old Star shines (see what I did there?) with more of a nod to doom and heavy metal than it does to black metal.  Infectious tracks like The Hardship of the Scots and Alp Man do not need necro posturing.  There is enough Manilla Road style riffing in here (a feature that grows on subsequent releases) to banish any reference to pretty much anything that Darkthrone put out in the 90s.  Here be bashing drums and open riffs with melodies that chime in your head as they are introduced into tracks.  What really is important though is how entertaining it all is.  This is no-fucks to give metal made by artists who are thriving in their influences and revelling in the legacy of a whole music genre.

Hitting Sabbath,  Bathory, Celtic Frost and countless other reference points, Old Star is a triumph for a band who's prime is still very much here and now.

Rising from the ashes of various bands dating back to the late 90s, Belgian tech-death band Pestifer boast a three album discography of pretty much exactly what you would expect from any performers in this sub-genre of death metal.  We have twangy bass lines, melodic and crisp leads and grim vocals uttered over racing passages.  I will not profess to be a massive fan of technical death metal (unless it is done really well with some avant-garde and progressive elements at least) and so Pestifer do have a slight disadvantage in falling into my hands for Review Draft this month.

Getting the negatives out of the way first.  Where are the drums here?  There appears to a light (thankfully not clicking) tapping noise in the background but I am getting no real sense of inclusion from Philippe Gustin here (his brother plays bass btw).  As a result, Reaching the Void lacks any power overall.  The riffs are too sterile to carry any power and in all honesty the only prominent parts of the album are the vocals and bass.  I do not think that the drums suffer from any issues with their placement in the mix either.  It sounds like they were deliberately recorded to be timid.

Now, although I highlight the riffs as sterile, this is a common sound in tech-death to my ears and actually works as a standalone and memorable section to proceedings.  The lead work though is the main success from the guitars.  It resonates through the tracks it inhibits leaving a clean, intricate and rich experience as it goes.  Although I might not be entirely onboard with all of what Pestifer do, I cannot deny that there is some talent here and this does shine through on a consistent basis.  With a bit more strength behind those drums (just a bit of presence really) then I sense that Reaching the Void would present more of an intriguing listen. 

My choice of ECDER for feature release is based on the fact that after many years of trying to find a Brutal Truth release that I could get on with, I had to go all the way back to their beginning to finally locate their master opus.  Arguably one of death metal/grindcore's best kept secrets, I found the debut release to be for Brutal Truth what Harmony Corruption was for Napalm Death.  Both albums represent the perfect fusion of that grinding chaos and abrasive death metal, done with a thrash metal riff mentality all rolled into one album.  It is all here for me.  The mining death metal riffs, the blitzed structures of the tracks that last mere seconds, and the all out spazzing tsunami of noise that slams over you time and time again.

Brutal Truth do range themselves very nicely on this album.  The variation of tempos and pace are not predictable in any way, shape or form and I often find myself not realising the track has moved into a completely different space until I am a few seconds into the moment.  My point is that this feels like a very organic and natural album that did not need to be forcibly pulled out in to the open.  The experience of the artists comes though both in instrumental aptitude and the social/life awareness that bleeds through in the songwriting.

It is an album that cries out for music videos shot in post-apocalyptic parking lots with burning husks of cars behind the band who just play on relentlessly.  The death metal vocals of Kevin Sharp are reminiscent of Benton in the albums more dark moments yet he possesses the perfect grindcore scowl as well.  Sharp is also credited with handling all "power tool" duties on the album also I note.  Standout performance has to go to Scott Lewis behind the kit though.  He is nothing short of astonishing here and drives a lot of the success of ECDER.

For a debut full-length, ECDER is a real strong statement of intent that never really got realised post-release on future records.  Had the band continued on this hybrid approach then they would have eclipsed the likes of Carcass and Terrorizer in all honesty as this album scratches the dual dm and grindcore itches so well for me.

I recall rating this as being my AOTY for 2018 somewhere on the internet, so when it got thrown up as a suggestion on a playlist recently it gave me good excuse to revisit this, the fifth full-length from these Australians. It is my only experience of the band in all honesty, so I have no benchmark from previous releases to gauge how this sits against the rest of their discography. I also have very brief forays into funeral doom as a sub-genre, limiting myself to the odd spin of Bell Witch every now and again, so I am no expert on the finer points of this style of metal.

The first thing to point out is that is probably one of the cleverest uses of such a crushing and oppressive style for what equates to a very artistic and richly positive experience. To me, throughout the whole dank and gloomy experience, there is an ever-present light (albeit muted for the most part) that shines a pallid beam onto proceedings. Along the way it highlights the ethereal creativity of one of the most expressive albums I have ever heard. This positive slant is perhaps not what regulars of the sub-genre would expect but it works well here to emphasis the beauty that lurks in the equally obvious darkness on The Incubus of Karma. This contrast is one of the albums absolute triumphs.

The other major standout for me is the quality of the compositions on display. Mournful Congregation know how to write captivating material and apply a clarity to their sound that again is unexpected in the style. Their long track lengths sound expansive beyond just the mere passing of time itself. They carve out atmospheres and eco-systems of their own as they swell and swallow the space around them. This is the soundtrack to stars collapsing in on themselves in a universe recreating its very being with bursts of light exploding in the ether as interplanetary collisions occur causing dense clouds of dust that threaten to envelope everything.  These guys can play and you will have to look hard to find many other bands as capable of delivering such an impassioned and rewarding performance as this five-piece can.

Ironically, I find my one criticism to be the very thing that the genre is renowned for. As much as I enjoy the album immensely, it does go on for too long. An hour and twenty minutes is too much for one sitting and so I must split my listen through into two separate runs. In a way this captures the brilliance of the title track showcase its clever use of melodies ahead of the behemoths that make up the final third of the album. However, a twenty-two minute closer is a tad too much of a stretch for me. As crushing as the albums last track is, I do not have the patience to sit and focus on it for the whole duration; if my ears permitted me the luxury of being able to use headphones this may be a different scenario. However, the tolling of the bell after around nine minutes in reminds me that this album will chime in my head for days after this (split) listen and that is the real success of it.

As I continue to explore doom metal and I get to revisit previously tested artists and albums I inevitably come across the good, the bad and the ugly.  My patience is tested more than once on The Silent Enigma with its wailing theatrics and at times frankly dull passages.  However, I find it hard to state that I do not enjoy the album overall.  Even given my challenges with it, I cannot ignore that it is well written and commands an almost royal level of respect.  Having heard precisely no Anathema going into this I have nothing to benchmark it against in terms of the discography as a whole and so I get to judge it purely on its own merits, of which their are many.

Vincent's vocals (when not in wailing mode) tread a path of aggressive and emotive expressions that suit the level of aggression behind the riffing and percussion remarkably well.  There is never a sense of conflict with any of the component parts on the album, instead things feel measured and balanced and for the main part this delivers an album that sounds a lot more mature than a sophomore release normally would do, let alone one that had seen a significant line up change from the previous album.  It is in the attempts at the more sincere moments that I find issue with the vocals.  Whilst I understand the need for the drama, I just feel the vocals are a little over the top and get to the point of making me cringe in all honesty.

When they are in full flow, I find I have little to argue with though.  Opening track Restless Oblivion is a perfect example of the content that appeals to me and even the instrumental track that closes the album has a real presence despite me not normally enjoying instrumental tracks as a rule.  Tracks such as Alone are the ones that lose me, as they stray into the realm of meandering despite their obvious promise and instrumental prowess.  I end up wanting to move the song along by the sheer will of my mind which is never a good sign on any record and usually results in me hitting the skip button.  At the same time, the soothing density of the guitar tone on Sunset of Age is an unexpected pleasure following the aforementioned sleep-inducing track that precedes it.

So whilst I referenced the three different possible outputs in the opening line of my review, The Silent Enigma only contains the good and the bad and never actually displays any of the ugly.  Even the bonus track version that my stream threw up to include the orchestral version of the title track and some unreleased track manages to hold the attention through its extras.

Melodic thrash metallers Hexen are one of metal's unsung heroes in my book.  Their ability to deliver interesting, accessible, intricate and yet still inherently beastly thrash metal is unrivalled and it is sad that their recorded output is limited to just two full-lengths.  Hailing from L.A. the band occupied a space in the world of thrash metal that was shared with the likes of Coroner, Heathen and Vektor.  I would argue that the levels of technical wizardry on display in Hexen is not as heavy on the detail as with either Vektor or even Coroner and sharing a similar timeline in terms of forming and releasing demos as Vektor (both formed within a year of each other), Hexen have a unique sound all of their own that draws on the more traditional elements of thrash, allowing for progressive elements to compliment as opposed to rule the trajectory.

The debut release from Hexen is a solid affair, stacked with energy and ability in equal amounts.  Unafraid to explore the full extent of their skills the band drop in a couple of instrumental tracks along the way that prove to be no distraction to the rest of the album.  With a clear focus on society and politics evident in their lyrics and song titles, Hexen plot an intense yet well-measured path across the thirteen tracks on show.  Repka's trademark artwork adorns the album cover and is a perfect summary of what State of Insurgency aims to share with the audience.

Vocally, I found the album initially to be a challenge; most certainly when compared with the more polished instrumental performances of the guitars.  Andre Hartoonian has a narrative style to his vocals that avoids singing being used for the main.  It is not a rap style by any means, but there is similarity in methodology at times in how the vocals drop and stumble over the music as opposed to feel immediately a part of proceedings.  Initially the guitars provided suitable distraction to encourage me to press ahead with the record which was a good decision as I now recognise how well the vocals work in that almost juxtaposed position in the band's sound.  Ronny Dorian and James Lopez are superb on guitars, their melodic leads and technical prowess easily fit into the record as opposed to flooding it and overwhelming the whole piece.  Album highlight Knee Deep in the Dead shows perfectly the riffing capacity of the band; backed by a thunderous percussion section with Warbringer's Carlos Cruz delivering a capable performance as Hartoonian's bass rumbles along under the wav of the higher sounds in the mix brilliantly.  

Another band that I have discovered as I expand my range of knowledge in The PIt, Hexen have been one of my best finds to date and one I would recommend any thrash metal fan checks out.

My taste for rabid thrash metal is well documented here.  Be it death thrash or blackened thrash, I lurve me some nasty shit in my lug-holes.  Put my name down for some Sadus, Devastation, Morbid Saint or Demolition Hammer any day.  That is not to say that it can get away with being flat out shite just played like the first Sodom demo though and I do require some structure still to the frenzied attack (see my thoughts on Sadus' Illusions for proof of my desire for standards).  Regardless of however many bands I list here, I always overlook Num Skull.  Maybe it is because they only released two full-lengths and the debut is light years away from their more death metal orientated offering in 1996.  Or maybe it is because I do not feast on this style of thrash for very long before I get burned out so never quite get passed Epidemic of Violence, Spectrum of Death and Unstoppable Power before I run out of steam and go back to something a little less imposing.

Whatever the reason for me overlooking it, the debut from Num Skull is without question the bands finest hour.  Clocking in at around forty minutes, the album contains some of the most evil and nefarious thrash riffs ever created without sacrificing on catchiness (Off With Your Head  anyone).  Produced so the whole instrument set is clear on their individual contribution you can hear the chop of the riffs, the rumble of the bass, the fury of the drums and the demented scowls of the vocals as they all form a gloriously dark and majestically nefarious experience.  As the album title suggests, Ritually Abused is a nasty piece of work.  Eleven tracks of late-eighties thrash metal that references similarities with all of the aforementioned bands plus Kreator, Possessed and Dark Angel to boot.

It is not perfect end-to end and does suffer from a little bit of repetition (inevitably I would argue) but it maintains intensity well and occasionally does incorporate some speed metal style shrieks into the vocals of the superb Skip McGullam (still active in US death thrashers Luna In Sanguinem if anyone cares) who for the main part has a style that could easily be early Schuldiner by way of comparison.  Lead work tends to be swarming and chaotic in the sonics that they blaze into tracks and the drums often sound like war horses charging into battle.  The bass remains urgent throughout proceedings, charting not exactly its own path but certainly making its presence known.  If like me you continue to overlook this record then you are missing a treat and I really need to move it the front of my rabid thrash metal nights.

The Obsessed seem to get spoken about in hushed tones (at least in my experience) as being this cult band in the world of doom that are often overlooked and/or underrated.  My limited listens to them over the years have not caused me to leap out of my chair with amazement and having discovered something amazing - not that I leap out of my chair much for anything nowadays.  As I continue my curiosity with doom metal as a whole I found myself looking at this release from 1994, their final one before their break up in 1995 according to what I have read although they have released an album in 2017 also as far as I can see.

The Church Within starts strong with album opener To protect and to Serve stomping early authority on proceedings with an unexpectedly upbeat tempo and dare I say hooky riff to bolster the memorability.  From there on in however I find the album to be very inconsistent.  The tracks are for the main part a bit staid and bordering on boring (thirteen tracks is an ambitious number to put out here) and the album relies heavily on flashes of brilliance - usually from the guitars - to do the bulk of the heavy lifting.  Neatz Brigade just meanders for nearly seven minutes without ever getting going proper and somehow Wino's mournful vocals and his gloomy riffs do not always complement one another.  I guess am expecting more of the doom and gloom but A World Apart places for the main at a frenetic pace for just a minute and thirty two seconds and goes absolutely nowhere at all.  It reeks of classic filler.

Listening through I get tones of Soundgarden and I do not mean just once or twice, I mean with a large degree of regularity.  Not a criticism as such (this is a nineties record after all) but an unexpected comparator for me.  It might be that the doom metal here is more stoner influenced and something is off in the recipe that throws in the grunge curveball; some may say it is an inexperienced doom listener hearing things that are not there indeed.  Overall, my experience of the album is disappointing.  Clunky song structures and fluctuating influence and pace make for a very inconsistent experience that although does not come off as disconnected as such it just feels wide of the mark in terms of the expected landing ground I was waiting in.

The social, cultural and political commentary of D.R.I. tends to operate on two levels for me on their final full-length.  The sarcasm still drips from every punk-edged pore of their sound as Kurt Brecht inflicts his gruff vocals on the listener, but at the same time the obvious and genuine anger is reflected in their frenetic pacing and punchy rhythms.  I think it safe to say that we all knew what to expect from the band by this stage and Full Speed Ahead does not disappoint in that regard; it is D.R.I. through and through.  It relies only on the sum of all parts to get its message across without needing to express any extreme outburst in just riffs or vocals alone.  That bouncy, crossover tracks its jolly way through the majority of the album, scoring the derisory commentary with an almost engine like tenacity.

Crossover thrash is basically hard to get wrong of course.  As a sub-genre it is very niche of course, relying on that crude accessibility to garner appeal.  That is not to say that Full Speed Ahead is one dimensional.  Tracks like They Don't Care use variety of pace nicely, opening with a doom-paced riff before becoming a more choppy affair.  As such it is easy to pick high points on the album as opposed to the album just literally going full speed ahead and passing the listener by in some frenzied fashion.  Not all bands who have something to say are able to articulate this beyond predictable intense riffing and furious tempos.  D.R.I 's experience shows on their sixth full-length.  They are able to use their full repertoire of hardcore punk, and crossover thrash metal to great effect and I think their appeal to both more mainstream as well underground audiences is clear.

I know they have suffered criticism from other hardcore punk bands for their success but this album shows the inevitability of their appeal.  I cannot help but feel dialled into this record with each listen, that balance of dark comedy and scathing social angst is mixed really well on here and if you listen repeatedly I find the album sounds angrier with each spin.  No crossover album is liable to get full marks from me but I can safely give four stars to this.