Mastiff – Plague (Review)

Mastiff - PlagueMastiff are a hardcore/sludge metal band from the UK and this is their second album.

Mastiff play the kind of pitch-black ugliness that I really like. Mixing styles and genres into an extreme metal mass of festering hatred and misery, Plague contains elements of doom, sludge, hardcore, and grindcore, all hatefully mixed together and vomited onto the listener with scorn and bile. Continue reading “Mastiff – Plague (Review)”

Sågverk – Like Royalty (Review)

Sågverk - Like RoyaltySågverk are a Finnish blackened crust band and this is their second album.

This is the follow up to the belligerent Sahataan ne Kaikki from 2015. Like Royalty finds Sågverk in fine form. They have managed to take what made their debut album so enjoyable and refine and develop it further into the very satisfying 38 minutes of music that they have given us here. Continue reading “Sågverk – Like Royalty (Review)”

Dead Retinas – Divine (Review)

Dead Retinas - DivineDead Retinas are a hardcore band from the UK and this is their latest EP.

Here we have 10 minutes of energetic and charismatic hardcore. This is sharp, scathing music that knows a good riff when it sees it and is backed up by punishing beats and a sense of songwriting that’s compelling and moreish. Continue reading “Dead Retinas – Divine (Review)”

Funeral Chic – Superstition (Review)

Funeral Chic - SuperstitionThis is the second album from US blackened hardcore band Funeral Chic.

Fourteen tracks of violent, foul, ugly blackened hardcore? Yes please! How could I resist? Continue reading “Funeral Chic – Superstition (Review)”

Cult Leader – A Patient Man (Review)

Cult Leader - A Patient ManCult Leader are a progressive hardcore/crust band from the US and this is their second album.

A Patient Man gives us 48 minutes of dense, chaotic violence and intensity, but also much more than this. Continue reading “Cult Leader – A Patient Man (Review)”

Attan – End of (Review)

AttanAttan are from Norway and play Hardcore/Post-Hardcore. This is their debut album.

To say that there has been a weight of expectation riding on this is an understatement, for me at least. Why? Because I absolutely love Attan’s 2015 debut EP From Nothing. After then seeing the band live at the following year’s Damnation Festival, and even Continue reading “Attan – End of (Review)”

KEN Mode – Loved (Review)

KEN ModeKEN Mode are a noise rock/hardcore band from Canada and this is their seventh album.

Loved is 35 minutes of violent mood and vicious emotion. Primarily mixing together metal, hardcore, and noise rock, the album also contains elements of extremity that come from black and death metal backgrounds, as well as moments of industrial and experimental forays. Saxophone is used relatively frequently. Continue reading “KEN Mode – Loved (Review)”

Mantar – The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze (Review)

MantarThis is the third album from Mantar, a German black metal band.

I’m a latecomer to Mantar’s work, but I can tell you that if you’re looking for filthy, ugly blackened metallic punk that’s still catchy as fuck, then they stand head and shoulders above most of their peers. Continue reading “Mantar – The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze (Review)”