Buckshot Facelift – Ulcer Island (Review)

Buckshot FaceliftBuckshot Facelift are a grindcore band from the US and this is their fourth album.

Here we have over 40 minutes of well-written deathgrind. The band take the brief, energetic bursts of punk and grindcore, and entwine them with the staying power of death metal, making for an album that exists on both worlds. Continue reading “Buckshot Facelift – Ulcer Island (Review)”

Warcrab – Scars of Aeons (Review)

WarcrabWarcrab are a death/sludge band from the UK and this is their second album.

There aren’t too many bands that mix death and sludge metal together, but those that do tend to be pretty notable. The Dead and Tides of Sulfur are two that spring instantly to mind. I can now add Warcrab to this short list too. Continue reading “Warcrab – Scars of Aeons (Review)”

Attalla – Glacial Rule (Review)

AttallaThis is the second album from stoner/sludge band Attalla.

Sometimes you just get a craving for some rocking, riff-focused stoner/sludge metal, and for times like that the new Attalla album Glacial Rule is quite the tonic. Continue reading “Attalla – Glacial Rule (Review)”

Fange – Pourrissoir (Review)

FangeThis is the second album form French sludge metallers Fange.

I enjoyed the group’s debut EP Poisse, so it’s good to catch up with them once more for their second album.

This is pitch-black sludge ugliness, with some noise tendencies. Think Primitive Man, Full of Hell and Continue reading “Fange – Pourrissoir (Review)”

Jagged Vision – Death Is This World (Review)

Jagged VisionThis is the second album from Jagged Vision, a Norwegian metallic hardcore band.

As a starting point for Jagged Vision’s sound, imagine a band like Black Tusk or Doomriders, add in some All Pigs Must Die, and then coat the entire thing in a violent metallic hardcore sheen.

Jagged Vision play a hardcore/sludge/metal mix that borrows from aspects of all styles, allowing the band to firmly cement their own personality. Continue reading “Jagged Vision – Death Is This World (Review)”

Floods – Floods (Review)

FloodsFloods are a US black metal band and this is their debut EP.

Floods play a mix of black, death and sludge metal. Which genre they are actually playing is up for debate, although I’d argue that black metal forms the largest part of their musical equation, so we’ll go with that. Continue reading “Floods – Floods (Review)”

Deadwound – Identity Shapes (Review)

DeadwoundDeadwound are a sludge/hardcore band from the UK. This is their debut EP.

Channelling a lovely line in grim filthiness, Deadwound fuse dark hardcore with sludge metal to produce 22 minutes of riotous ugliness.

The singer Continue reading “Deadwound – Identity Shapes (Review)”

Xibalba – Diablo, Con Amor… Adios. (Review)

XibalbaXibalba are a US metalcore band and this is their latest EP.

I liked 2015’s Tierra y Libertad, and on this new short EP, Xibalba continue the theme of merging death metal, hardcore and sludge metal influences together to create some monstrously heavy metallic music. Continue reading “Xibalba – Diablo, Con Amor… Adios. (Review)”

Sunlight’s Bane – The Blackest Volume: Like All the Earth Was Buried (Review)

Sunlight's BaneThis is the debut album from Sunlight’s Bane, a blackened sludge/grindcore band from the US.

This is nasty, raw and nihilistic music that wants nothing more than to terrify, scar and demoralise the listener. With a mix of Nails, Anaal Nathrakh, Hooded Menace, Aborted, Trap Them, Extreme Noise Terror, Primitive Man, Zao, and many others in their sound, Sunlight’s Bane have concocted an identity that’s very much their own and quite a hard one to accurately classify, if you care about such things. Continue reading “Sunlight’s Bane – The Blackest Volume: Like All the Earth Was Buried (Review)”