This is the debut album from Sermon of Flames, an Irish blackened death metal band.
This is an album that offers the listener twelve portraits of extremity and harsh soundscapes. It contains 39 minutes of horror, so if you can stomach the band’s violent darkness for that long, then this is for you. Continue reading “Sermon of Flames – I Have Seen the Light, and It Was Repulsive (Review)”
Ænigmatum are a US death metal band and this is their second album.
Featuring a member of Azath and Torture Rack, Deconsecrate contains 45 minutes of technical and melodic death metal. The promo blurb states that Deconsecrate is for fans of Eucharist, The Chasm, At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity, Necrophobic, Atrocity, and Opeth, and this provides a decent starting image. Continue reading “Ænigmatum – Deconsecrate (Review)”
Tombstoner are a death metal band from the US and this is their debut album.
Now here’s one I’ve really been looking forward to. 2020’s Descent to Madness was seriously good, and I’ve only grown to love it even more over time. On Victims of Vile Torture, we once again get a feast of old-school death metal, played with a modern edge that incorporates elements of grind, hardcore, groove, and thrash metal. The music combines all of the above elements into a roaringly good collection of tracks. Continue reading “Tombstoner – Victims of Vile Torture (Review)”
This is the debut EP from US blackened death metal band Disimperium.
Billed as a mix of black, death, and grind, and labelled for fans of bands like Knelt Rote, Heresiarch, and Vermin Womb, how could I not check out the inaugural release from Disimperium? At only 12 minutes in duration, it’s like a foul breath of rotting air given twisted aural shape and venomous musical form.
The songs on this EP are feral and grim. Ultra-aggressive, the music pummels and grinds with inhuman intensity and daemonic fury. All three of the tracks are barbaric and savage, revelling in the mayhem they make and the damage they cause.
This collection of darkly brutal tracks is drenched in layers of blackened malignancy and is purely interested in destruction and chaos. It’s as belligerent as it comes, and the songs don’t care who or what gets torn down in their quest for carnage.
The sound is filthy and unfriendly, and therefore perfect for this sort of release. I find the deep, malevolent growls particularly satisfying, but to be honest everything here just reeks of grim nastiness, which is what you want from something like this.
For a first release Malefic Obliteration is well-formed and impressive. If you’re a connoisseur of underground extremity, then this is well worth your time to explore.
This is the debut album from Wanderer, a hardcore band from the US.
Liberation from a Brutalist Existence contains 23 minutes of violent aggression and dark intensity. Smashing together grindcore, crust, sludge, doom, mathcore, punk, and metal into a scathing hardcore assault, Wanderer’s debut album is an exceptional slice of abrasive darkness. Continue reading “Wanderer – Liberation from a Brutalist Existence (Review)”
This is the debut album from Go Ahead and Die, a death/thrash metal band.
Go Ahead and Die treats us to 44 minutes of old-school thrash metal, with some death metal, punk, and grindcore thrown in for good measure. Continue reading “Go Ahead and Die – Go Ahead and Die (Review)”
This is the second album from US death metallers Seputus.
Here we have 48 minutes of psychedelic extreme metal. Combining elements of black metal, death metal, and grindcore into meaty, substantial tracks, this album is not your standard extreme metal album. Continue reading “Seputus – Phantom Indigo (Review)”
This is the second album from US sludge metal band Yautja.
The Lurch is a 46-minute hybrid of ugly sludge metal, vicious grind, and filthy punk. With less grindcore on display than on their previous 2014 album Songs of Descent, The Lurch is still a gnashing, biting thing. This Continue reading “Yautja – The Lurch (Review)”
Deconsecration and Re-Buried are both US death metal bands, and this split is their collective non-demo debut release.
Deconsecration get the ball rolling, with 4 songs in a meaty 18 minutes. Continue reading “Deconsecration/Re-Buried – Split (Review)”
I’ve decided to do something new for 2020 – a second End of Year list. If you’ve missed it, my standard, definitive best of 2020 list can be seen here, and is made up of albums I was lucky enough to get to review. However, this year I want to also highlight some of the many albums that I’ve enjoyed listening to, but for one reason or another never had the chance to review. So, consider this a complementary list of sorts to the main one. Continue reading “Wonderbox Metal End of Year List EXTRA! – Best Non-Reviewed Metal of 2020”
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