This is the second album from Japanese doom band Blacklab.
Taking a jagged, almost experimental approach to doom, Blacklab’s music is a curious fusion of Black Sabbath, Boris, and The Stooges. This is dark, raw, and peppered with hardcore and noise rock influences. Continue reading
This is the debut album from US hardcore band Eye Flys.
Featuring a guitarist of Full of Hell, this is 25 minutes of stocky heaviness and charismatic hostility. Elements of hardcore, punk, sludge, and noise rock collide on Tub of Lard, leading to an enjoyable take on heavy music. Reference points for Continue reading
Cardinals Folly are a Finnish doom metal band and this is their fifth album.
I have a definite soft spot for Cardinals Folly, and I’d recommend the likes of Our Cult Continues! and Deranged Pagan Sons to anyone who enjoys charismatic doom metal with larger-than-life vocals. Defying the Righteous Way is the band’s latest chapter, and it’s damn good one, worthy of inclusion in the Cardinals Folly saga. Continue reading
This is the debut album from one-man Swedish doom metal band Blissful Stream.
It seems like an age since Blissful Stream first appeared in 2016 with Ascending Demons, which impressed with its lo-fi rocky take on doom metal. The next two years saw a release every year, (Devil’s Night to All Souls – Split with Lightsabres, and Dead Religious), and then a quiet 2019. This was apparently due to the artist building up to his fist full length, which we are now lucky enough to have in 2020. Continue reading
This is the second album from US doomsters Year of the Cobra.
I always enjoy Year of the Cobra’s work. Both …in the Shadows Below and Burn Your Dead were characterful displays of doom metal, played with skill and talent. As such, I’m pleased by the band’s return on Ash and Dust; 41 minutes of guitar-free doom anthems. Continue reading
Both hailing from the US, Y-Incision and Treasonist each play variants of grindcore.
Y-Incision open the split with 10 minutes of material – 6 songs, one of which is a Treasonist cover. Continue reading
This is the debut album from UK death metal band Strigoi.
Brought to us from the guitarist of Paradise Lost, rising out of the ashes of his Vallenfyre project, he’s joined on Srigoi by members of both bands, (one of which is also an ex-member of Extreme Noise Terror), giving us 44 minutes of engaging and individual death metal. Continue reading
Lord Mantis are from the US and play Blackened Sludge Metal. This is their fourth album.
2014’s Death Mask was a tortured nightmare of evil sludge, pretty much as foul as the style gets. Five years later the band have returned, infecting the world with 44 minutes of new material that’s as virulent and as nasty as ever. Continue reading
This is the debut release from Thicko, a UK hardcore band.
From the capable hands of Paul Catten and Paul Kenney, (Fukpig, Kroh), The Beginning Is Nigh contains a scant 9 minutes of bludgeoning. Continue reading
Coilguns are a hardcore band from Switzerland and this is their third album.
It doesn’t seem that long ago since 2018’s Millennials burst onto the scene, and I suppose it wasn’t, really. However, already Coilguns, (boasting ex-members of The Ocean) are back with a new 41 minutes of unusual hardcore punk, (as well as some rather striking album art). Continue reading
