Wizard Rifle – Wizard Rifle (Review)

Wizard Rifle - Wizard RifleWizard Rifle are a US sludge band and this is their third album.

Wizard Rifle are a band that mixes together doom and sludge metal with psychedelic, noise, and progressive rock, creating songs that twist and turn with virile life. A rough approximation of their sound would be a cross between Melvins, Electric Wizard, and Mastodon. Sort of. Continue reading “Wizard Rifle – Wizard Rifle (Review)”

Ledge – All I Hope For (Review)

Ledge - All I Hope ForThis is the second album from Ledge, a one-man sludge metal band from the US.

Playing abrasive sludge metal with some elements of stoner thrown into the mix, All I Hope For is 39 minutes of harsh, hateful heaviness. Continue reading “Ledge – All I Hope For (Review)”

Culted – Vespertina Synaxis: A Prayer for Union & Emptiness (Review)

Culted - Vespertina Synaxis - A Prayer for Union & EmptinessCulted are an international blackened doom band and this is their latest EP.

I really enjoyed 2014’s Oblique to All Paths, and have been waiting for a new Culted release ever since. Well, now it’s here in the shape of this 27-minute EP. Boasting three tracks, Vespertina Synaxis: A Prayer for Union & Emptiness is a sinister exploration of Culted’s world. Continue reading “Culted – Vespertina Synaxis: A Prayer for Union & Emptiness (Review)”

Witch Vomit – Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave (Review)

Witch Vomit - Buried Deep in a Bottomless GraveWitch Vomit are a death metal band from the US and this is their second album.

Now this is the stuff. Featuring members of Torture Rack and Dagger Lust, I’ve long been a fan of the foulness that Witch Vomit unleash into the world. 2016’s A Scream from the Tomb Below and 2017’s Poisoned Blood were both underground gems of fetid old-school death metal, and Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave is no different in this regard. Continue reading “Witch Vomit – Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave (Review)”

Warcrab – Damned in Endless Night (Review)

Warcrab - Damned in Endless NightThis is the third album from UK death/sludge metal band Warcrab.

Scars of Aeons was a very enjoyable mix of sludge and death metal, so when I found out that this new album was on the horizon, I prepared myself accordingly. Damned in Endless Night is a bigger monster than Scars of Aeons was though, with double the tracks and a total duration of 52 minutes. Continue reading “Warcrab – Damned in Endless Night (Review)”

Gurthang – Ascension (Review)

Gurthang - AscensionGurthang are a Polish black metal band and this is their sixth album.

Ascension contains 57 minutes of textured black metal modelled on the second wave, but mixed with some more modern influences and enhanced with doom elements in places. Continue reading “Gurthang – Ascension (Review)”

Abigorum – Exaltatus Mechanism (Review)

Abigorum - Exaltatus MechanismAbigorum are a black/doom metal band from Russia/Germany and this is their debut album.

Exaltatus Mechanism contains 46 minutes of blackened soundscapes filled with bleak, ritualistic occult atmosphere and daemonic presence. Continue reading “Abigorum – Exaltatus Mechanism (Review)”

Kludde – In de Kwelm (Review)

Kludde - In de KwelmKludde are a Belgian black metal band and this is their second album.

Inspired by second wave black metal, this is old-school, raw, and menacing. A death metal influence can be heard in the music, giving it more muscle and thickness than some black metal out there. Pinches of crust’s energetic urgency can be detected too here and there, propelling a particular passage along at a punishing rate. There’s even a doom/sludge influence; this mainly Continue reading “Kludde – In de Kwelm (Review)”

Contaminated/Kutabare – Death Sick/Funeral Erection – Split (Review)

Contaminated - SplitContaminated and Kutabare are both Australian death metal bands and they have teamed up for this split.

This is a split between two bands that sew elements of grindcore into death metal’s rotting corpse. Continue reading “Contaminated/Kutabare – Death Sick/Funeral Erection – Split (Review)”