Refusal are a Finnish death metal band and this is their second album.
Here we have 32 minutes of old-school death metal mixed with elements of grind and hardcore. It’s nasty, savage, and packs a mean punch. Entombed and Napalm Death are your reference points here, along with bands like Rotten Sound, Crawl, and Lik. Continue reading “Refusal – Epitome of Void (Review)”
Let’s cast our eyes over some of my favourite metal releases from August 2018… Continue reading “Monthly Overview – the Best of August 2018”
This is the debut album from Swedish death metallers Crawl.
Four things made me quite excited to hear this album, even before I really knew too much about it. The first is that it’s coming out on the always reliable Transcending Obscurity Records, (who have been especially Continue reading “Crawl – Rituals (Review)”
Just Before Dawn are an international death metal band and this is their third album.
Having enjoyed both The Aftermath and The Dead and Those About to Die, a new Just Before Dawn release is always welcome.
To give you a very good idea of who has been involved with this album, I’m just going to reproduce a bit of the promo blurb below – Continue reading “Just Before Dawn – Tides of Blood (Review)”
Crawl play blackened doom, and Leviathan play black metal. Both are solo artists from the US and have got together to birth this hideous, reeking mass of unpleasantness.
This split lasts 24 minutes, with each artist contributing a single track lasting 12 minutes exactly. Continue reading “Crawl/Leviathan – Split (Review)”
This is the debut album by US Sludge band Crawl.
Crawl have come to stink up the place with their dirty brand of Sludge.
This is Southern-tinged Sludge Metal with a healthy swagger and a groove that won’t quit. Heaviness is a given, of course; you can’t play Sludge any other way. Crawl build on this core of heaviness with enough attitude and confidence to knock over the hardiest drunk.
Crawl have a meaty sound that’s bound to satisfy all of your dark cravings. It brings out the best, (worst), in the band and they sound both professional and murky at the same time.
The vocals are as unhinged and venomous as you would expect. Sounding highly acidic, they rip themselves out of the swampy music to violently scar anyone unlucky enough to be caught in their way.
These songs are infectious and instantly appealing if you have a love of all things filthy and downtrodden. The inclusion of some longer tracks gives the band an interesting edge over some similar bands and only adds to their appeal.
Unusually for a band of this ilk, there is a bit of light included here and there. Some songs have a few passages that can almost be described as hopeful. It’s a slight Post-Metal edge to their Sludge that adds another layer to their already impressive sound; the extended intro to Pilldust is a perfect example of this.
This is a firm winner for fans of Eyehategod, Fistula, Servants of the Mist, Corecom, Primitive Man, Dopethrone, etc.
One to get your grubby mitts on for sure.
Wonderbox Metal 