Endorphins Lost are from the US and play grindcore. This is their second album.
My first encounter with Endorphins Lost was on their split with Osk, and I enjoyed their brief, violent take on crust/hardcore-infused grind. Their songs on that split only lasted four minutes, so it’s great to be able to find out what the band can do with 21 minutes of material. Continue reading “Endorphins Lost – Seclusions (Review)”
Gnarwolf are a US hardcore band and this is their latest EP, a split with Covina.
I enjoyed 2017’s II, so am pleased to hear some new work from Gnarwolf. We only have seven minutes of material here, divided into three songs, but it sure hits the spot. Continue reading “Gnarwolf – GnarVina – Split (Review)”
Herod are a progressive sludge band from Switzerland and this is their second album.
Here we have 43 minutes of post-metal that takes a progressive sludge approach to its material. Continue reading “Herod – Sombre Dessein (Review)”
Endon are a Japanese experimental post-hardcore band and this is their third album.
Holy crap, what the Hell is this? I looove it when you stumble blindly upon something as unexpectedly individual as this, especially when it’s done so well. Done poorly, this would be unlistenable nonsense, (and I’m sure there are some that would regard this as such), but Endon have a talent, it seems, for producing unusual, non-easy Continue reading “Endon – Boy Meets Girl (Review)”
Ithaca are a metallic hardcore band from the UK and this is their debut album.
I’ll be honest, whenever I see a band described as metallic hardcore my eyes kind of glaze over as a first response. However, the promo blurb for this one intrigued me, I must confess, so I’ll reproduce it here – “Formed out of a mutual love of metallic hardcore but despair at its lack of ambition, Ithaca draw influence from everything from Southern doom to 90’s math rock as well as the untethered savagery of early Poison The Well and melodious battery of Oathbreaker.” Couple this with Continue reading “Ithaca – The Language of Injury (Review)”
Mastiff 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)”
Hekata are a Russian death metal band and this is their debut album.
Hekata play a virulent mix of death metal, black metal, hardcore, crust, and grind. It’s quite the mix, and essentially results in songs that merge these influences into blackened slabs of Scandinavian-influenced deathcrustcore. Or something. You get the idea, I’m sure. Continue reading “Hekata – Ruin (Review)”
Neorhythm are a groove metal band from Finland and this is their latest EP.
This EP contains 5 tracks and 18 minutes of material. There are three new songs, and two covers, (Disturbed and Mudvayne). Continue reading “Neorhythm – Meteoric Thoughts (Review)”
Having considered it long and hard, I’ve decided that any form of introductory paragraph with any real substance would simply detract from the list below. As such, all I’ll say is that 2018, like every year, has given us some top quality metal releases. So have a look at my top picks for 2018, and hopefully you’ll find a new band to obsess over…
Continue reading “Wonderbox Metal End of Year List – Best Metal of 2018”
Sågverk 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)”
Wonderbox Metal 