Crust – Page 19 – Wonderbox Metal

Zoldier Noiz – Regression Process (Review)

Zoldier Noiz are a French band who play primitive Death/Thrash/Crossover Metal.

This is ugly Death Metal from back alleys and drunken brawls. Ultra-primitive, belligerent Metal that combines the raw underbelly of Punk and Crust into a Crossover whole that melds Thrash to a primordial Death Metal.

The songs are short and violent, but that doesn’t mean the band are without talent; not just anyone can get away with playing this style of music and not have it come off as an uninteresting mess. Zoldier Noiz make up for what they lack in sophistication with raw passion and will.

A speed punk feeling underlies these songs with the band sometimes seemingly rushing to finish as soon as they’ve started. It makes for an energetic listen.

A functional-but-that’s-about-it recording emphasizes the barbaric nature of the band and unintelligibly grunted pseudo-vocals are barked like challenges to all and sundry.

If a band like Motorhead released a primitive Death Metal album, they it would probably sound a lot like Zoldier Noiz.

Helmsplitter – Enraptured by Suffering (Review)

Helmsplitter are from the US and play a filthy blend of Black and Death Metal.

Boasting a powerful sound the band waste no time in attacking everything around them with fierce blasting and razor sharp Blackened riffs.

The band’s songs combine many different aspects of Metal; predominantly Black and Death, but also elements of Sludge, Thrash and Crust. This means that we end up with a very dark, dank album that has the darkness of Black Metal, the brutality of Death Metal and the songsmithing of classic Metal.

There are catches and hooks aplenty in these songs, all delivered wrapped in barbed wire and with snarling vocals. The band know how to write an enjoyable song and vary tempos, styles and delivery to suit their nefarious needs.

There are stand-out moments in pretty much every song. Some examples; Panzram is the shortest song on the album and has blasting and belligerence written into its DNA; Aura of Suicide has a Hellishly good groove-based Darkthrone-esque riff that’s enough to blow away all-comers; The Ground Bleeds Sorrow piledrives along before splitting off into rumbling psudo-Southern groove; the list could esily be expanded to all 11 tracks here.

44 minutes of quality, well-written Metal; enraptured by Helmsplitter.

Dead In The Dirt – The Blind Hole (Review)

Dead In The Dirt play Grindcore and do it from the US.

The band throw out highly aggressive Grind with short songs and even shorter tempers.

With a solid sound that’s so sharp you could do someone an injury, the songs blast out of the speakers covered in bile and thoughts of execution.

I do so love this kind of Grind! Heavy and fast at the same time; taking the blueprint and class of a band like Nasum and mixing it with bits of Sludge, Crust, Brutal Truth and Converge.

Take any selection of songs on the album and you’ll find a fair degree of variety. Sometimes it sounds like Eyehategod mixed with Deathgrind, (Strength Through Restraint), next it sounds like Uphill Battle if they totally gave in to their Grind influences, (Idiot Bliss), and then it sounds like a Hardcore Crust Brutal Truth, (You Bury Me).

Amazingly the band manage to perfect the balancing of frenetic, ultra-intense speed with heaviness and brutality in a way that most bands fumble, but Dead In The Dirt manage to make seem easy and the most natural thing in the world.

Better Grind you won’t hear in a while.

Nux Vomica – Nux Vomica (Review)

Nux Vomica are from the US and play Sludge/Doom.

The songs are long and the guitars are heavy and raging, for the most part at least.

There is a healthy Crust influence to the Metallic Sludge that the band play, which gives them an extra vitality to their sound. The recording is clear and warm with a solid sound that lets everything come through the speakers just right.

The vocalist is savagery incarnate and seemingly a very angry man. He screams bloody hatred over the electrifying Metallic storm that is raging around him.

Nux Vomica certainly have anger and hatred in spades, but they also have the ability to play more restrained and considered sections, which makes the dynamics of the songs so much better than if they were just pure aggression.

This has the anger and brutality of Metallic Hardcore/Crust tempered with the epic soundscapes of the Post-Metal elite. The result is a tour de force of exciting music that should appeal to any Extreme Metal fan.

This is superlative stuff.

All Pigs Must Die – Nothing Violates This Nature (Review)

All Pigs Must Die are from the US and play ultra-violent Hardcore Metal.

The band mix the aggression of Converge, the crust of Discharge and the Metal of Entombed into one searing package of extremity and violence.

This is a brutal rampage though a filth-fuelled rage-dump and catharsis through ferocity. The songs strain against the fabric of civilised society, holding the promise of anarchy and release but remaining coherent enough to channel all of the fury into a collection of tracks that are not only heavy musically but also with destructive potential.

There is 33 minutes of music here, spread across 10 tracks; the perfect amount of time so that the aggression truly flows into you but not so much that it can become stale or wasted potential.

I love music like this. It’s so vital and alive and epitomises why heavy music is so enticing. Do yourself a favour and get this album.

Alehammer – Barmageddon (Review)

Alehammer are from the US and play Crusty Thrash Metal with an alcoholic theme.

The sound they have is one giant fuzzed-up monster of a sound. The heavily distorted guitars almost overwhelm everything else with their filthy, ultra-scuzzy noise.

The singer sounds rabid and the Crusty vocals are bellowed out at the top of his voice; they’re burly, unfriendly and make a hell of a mess.

The sound quality appears to vary depending on how inebriated the band were when they recorded it, with some songs like Fermented Death having a weaker sound but others such as ABV 666 sounding much stronger. Strange.

The songs are simple, belligerent and enjoyable. They have a drunken swagger entirely their own, and a crowbar to smash down anyone who gets between them and the bar.

This is Metal at its most primitive and most primal. Have some beers and let the fists start flying.

Die Choking – Die Choking I (Review)

Grindcore band Die Choking are from the US and this is their first release.

With only 5 tracks in just under 6 minutes this is fast and brutal. Die Choking like their Grind raw and rough, with Punk and Crust elements to the songs. Think of a band like Misery Index only with shorter songs and you’ll get the right idea.

Even with such short tracks the band show that they can play insane blasting just as well as heavy and brutal.

The playing is tight and focused and the sound does the songs justice. The passion and enthusiasm of the band is obvious and this is fresh and above all savage. This is Grindcore to pay attention to.

As an opening salvo into the world of Metal this short EP is an excellent warning shot. Let’s see what they can do with a longer release now.

Isacaarum – Whorecraft (Review)

This is veteran Czech band Isacaarum’s seventh album of filthy Blackened Deathgrind.

Inhabiting the same degraded, run-down pay-by-the-hour hotel as The Meatfückers; Isacaarum are more at the Grind/Death end of the spectrum than the aforementioned band, but no less seedy and porn-obsessed for it.

The 9 songs that span this 30 minutes of depraved Metal never get stuck in a rut. In fact, for the genre this is a surprisingly varied release with even some melodic moments raising their rubber-clad heads at appropriate intervals.

The vocals alternate between higher and lower shrieks/grunts, (in a similar vein to, say, Exhumed), with the deep growls in particular being very well done.

A strong production with a heavy sound accentuates all of the questionable fluids that the band excrete and allows their songs to breathe and enjoy themselves while being mindful of the safety word at all times.

I have enjoyed this album immensely; the band have an ear for a good song and the album doesn’t get stale. This is the first time I’ve encountered Isacaarum and I’m very glad I have. I’ll be visiting them at their seedy hotel more often in the future.

Reproacher – Nothing to Save (Review)

Reproacher are a Metallic Hardcore band from the US. Having enjoyed Reproacher’s previous releases I was looking forward to checking this one out.

I was not disappointed. This is intense, brutal and heavier than a really heavy thing. Reproacher’s assault is one of pressure and deadly intent.

Coming from the Converge-style of Hardcore this is scathing and vitriol-fuelled extremity. Powered by an undercurrent of Sludge and Crust, these tracks seethe violence from every sweaty pore.

Reproacher are no one-trick band though and they add in variety to their bruising onslaught with some interesting and inventive sections and ideas. The predatory crawl of Ballast contrasts nicely with the grinding charge of The Champion is Fucked, for example.

The album rips along through up-tempo and low-tempo tracks, all the while displaying a feel for thick guitar-based atmosphere and a good variety of songwriting.

This is for all worshippers of heaviness. Bring Reproacher into your world.

Agrimonia – Rites of Separation (Review)

Agrimonia play a magnificent and fairly unique mix of Sludge, Post-Metal and Crust all crushed up in a darkened Metal palette ready for the artist to use in the creation of something astounding.

The band are adept at channelling this proverbial artist and therefore know how to expertly build up a song into a complete soundscape full of sights and wonders. At the end of the album each of the sprawling tracks has left an impression like a different country visited. Experience and sense are everything in Agrimonia’s world of visceral sound.

This is intelligent Metal crafted with a loving hand and filled with emotive passages and feeling aplenty. Many of the riffs are alive with pulsating energy and the album almost has its own heartbeat.

The singer has a blood-curdling voice and her vocals add a level of harshness and intensity to the blackened beauty of the music. She puts in a performance to be commended and is the icing on the musical cake.

Rites of Separation is ambitious and bold, and succeeds in creating a masterpiece of shading and involvement. This is an album that everyone should have.