Cowards – Still (Review)

CowardsCowards are a blackened hardcore band from France and this is their latest EP.

I do so very much enjoy the work of Cowards. Their last album, 2015’s Rise to Infamy, was a tight ball of violent blackened extremity filled with hardcore’s passion and sludge’s ugly heaviness. Still continues this theme, boasting three new tracks and two covers. This is 19 minutes of music guaranteed to stop you in your tracks and then hit you around the head. Continue reading “Cowards – Still (Review)”

Obake – Draugr (Review)

ObakeObake are an Italian experimental sludge metal band and this is their third album.

Obake are an unusual band, as you may have surmised from the oddly unsettling album cover. They essentially take a sludge metal base and use this to launch an experimental foray into avant-garde waters, usually quite defying the listener in their expectations. Continue reading “Obake – Draugr (Review)”

Gränslandet – Solidum (Review)

granslandetGränslandet are a hardcore band from Sweden. This is their debut album.

This is 41 minutes of filthy hardcore that combines d-beat, crust and sludge together into a grime-covered mass of aural pollution.

The band have the kind of production that sounds as if they’ve been dragged out of the swamp, kicking and clawing into the sunlight. Raw, underground and filthy doesn’t quite cover it in many ways. Continue reading “Gränslandet – Solidum (Review)”

Black Tomb – Black Tomb (Review)

Black TombBlack Tomb are a sludge/doom band from the US. This is their debut album.

Black Tomb appear to have congealed out of some dank, dark tar pit with the express purpose of creating bleak, filthy doom metal.

Think of Electric Wizard if they were a Continue reading “Black Tomb – Black Tomb (Review)”

Jagged Mouth – Louring (Review)

Jagged MouthThis is the debut album from Jagged Mouth, a sludge/doom metal band from the US.

With the kind of scathingly high-pitched vocals that can strip skin at 100 paces, Jagged Mouth don’t mess around. This is slow and heavy sludge/doom that doesn’t care for being nice or pleasant in any way. Continue reading “Jagged Mouth – Louring (Review)”

Khemmis – Hunted (Review)

KhemmisThis is the second album from US doom metal band Khemmis.

Khemmis’ debut album, Absolution, was one of my favourite releases of 2015, and has continued to be a firm-favourite of mine ever since first hearing it.

Continuing on with their style of combining traditional doom metal with sludge metal, the songs on Hunted are a tad longer, allowing the band more room to explore and expand on their core style.

The singer puts in a sterling performance once more. Continue reading “Khemmis – Hunted (Review)”

Razor Sharp Death Blizzard – You Will Burn (Review)

Razor Sharp Death BlizzardRazor Sharp Death Blizzard are from the UK and play hardcore.

The UK seems to have such a knack for producing some of the angriest, filthiest, nastiest extreme music out there, and Razor Sharp Death Blizzard are a great addition to the wealth of talent that’s available from the country.

This is 36 minutes of hardcore punk and ugly sludge metal that recalls a good mix of Continue reading “Razor Sharp Death Blizzard – You Will Burn (Review)”

Sea of Bones/Ramlord – Split (Review)

Sea of Bones RamlordSea of Bones and Ramlord are both from the US. Sea of Bones play doom, while Ramlord play hardcore.

Sea of Bones have produced some monolithic, crushing doom/sludge metal in their time, so it’s with great joy that I prepared to listen to their half of this split – a single track named Hopelessness and Decay, lasting just under 11 minutes.

Slow and full of apocalyptic inevitability, the track unfolds at minimal speed, Continue reading “Sea of Bones/Ramlord – Split (Review)”