Ancst – Culture of Brutality (Review)

Ancst - Culture of BrutalityThis is the fourth album from Ancst, a shapeshifting German metal band.

You’re never quite sure what you’re going to get from Ancst. Black metal, crust, hardcore, death metal, dark ambient – these are just genres to play with for the band, using and discarding styles and influences at will, depending on the needs of any given release or song. Which brings us to Culture of Brutality, a 35-minute, 20-track album that fuses deathgrind, metalcore, and hardcore into a monster of brutal heaviness. Continue reading “Ancst – Culture of Brutality (Review)”

Apparition – Disgraced Emanations from a Tranquil State (Review)

Apparition - Disgraced Emanations from a Tranquil StateApparition are a death metal band from the US and this is their second album.

Featuring an ex-member of Nails, Apparition play progressive death/doom metal. On Disgraced Emanations from a Tranquil State they deliver 38-minutes of music that hits the spot. Continue reading “Apparition – Disgraced Emanations from a Tranquil State (Review)”

Mastiff – Deprecipice (Review)

Mastiff - DeprecipiceMastiff are a hardcore/sludge metal band from the UK and this is their fourth album.

Both 2019’s Plague and 2021’s Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth were enjoyable slabs of ugly sludgy hardcore heaviness, so it’s great to have a new Mastiff album in our lives. Deprecipice contains 34 minutes of material, and sees Mastiff stepping up their game once more. Continue reading “Mastiff – Deprecipice (Review)”

Yersin – The Scythe Is Remorseless (Review)

Yersin - The Scythe Is RemorselessYersin are from the UK and play crust/metal. This is their second album.

Yersin play a hybrid style that combines grindcore, crust, death metal, black metal, and thrash metal into 25 minutes of sludgy filth and fury. This may be a short album, but it packs a punch. Continue reading “Yersin – The Scythe Is Remorseless (Review)”

Organ Dealer – The Weight of Being (Review)

Organ Dealer - The Weight of BeingThis is the second album from US grindcore band Organ Dealer.

It’s been a very long time since Organ Dealer’s 2015 debut album Visceral Infection, but the quality of that release has stuck with me. So, when The Weight of Being appeared, I was ready for it. Continue reading “Organ Dealer – The Weight of Being (Review)”

Thørn – Inferno (Review)

Thørn - InfernoThis is the debut album from Thørn, a blackened crust band from Italy.

Inferno contains 36 minutes of anger, teeth, and crushing distorted intensity. Thørn’s blackened crusty hardcore is a shockingly good record. Continue reading “Thørn – Inferno (Review)”

Candy – Heaven Is Here (Review)

Candy - Heaven Is HereCandy are a hardcore band from the US and this is their second album.

I do so enjoy music that’s violent and punishing, and Candy’s scathing mix of industrial, metal, and hardcore is exactly that. Across 30 minutes the band demonstrate that they’re very capable in all of these arenas. Continue reading “Candy – Heaven Is Here (Review)”

Getting Stabbed – Atmosphere of Decay (Review)

Getting Stabbed - Atmosphere of DecayGetting Stabbed are a powerviolence band from the US and this is their debut album.

Featuring a member of No Funeral, Getting Stabbed play a vicious mix of grindcore, hardcore, and powerviolence. Fuelled by a punk rage and an outright hostility to everyone and everything, this is nasty stuff. Continue reading “Getting Stabbed – Atmosphere of Decay (Review)”

Mastiff – Plague (Review)

Mastiff - PlagueMastiff 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)”