Leprethere are a death metal/mathcore band from Belarus and this is their debut album.
Tarnished Passion delivers a 34-minute smack to the face. Leprethere play a form of hybrid death metal/mathcore that’s dissonant and harsh, yet not without nuance or depth.
This is Baring Teeth’s second album. They are from the US and they play Progressive/Technical Death Metal.
With a cover that gives nothing away, I was intrigued to find out what lay within…
Baring Teeth play dense, complicated music that mixes technicality and progressive forays to create an unusual beast of an album.
This is an interesting and unusual listen. Like a Jazz-Metal fusion of Uphill Battle, Converge, Crowpath, Gorguts and Pyrrhon.
Angular riffs and complex drumming make for impenetrable songs that take time to reveal their hidden treasures. The bass has a good presence and role to play too.
The songs meander along the highway of distorted frenzy. Sometimes restrained and relaxed, in no hurry to get to their destination; sometimes frenetic and unhinged, desperate to get somewhere, anywhere; sometimes the calm before the storm takes over; sometimes the controlled chaos of true genius.
Frequently; all of the above at the same time, and then some.
The vocals sound like they’re struggling to be heard behind the wall of noise that the band make. They’re perfectly serviceable but it’s the chaotic music that provides the real focal point here. Human noises are simply an addition to the trauma of the rest of the band’s cacophony.
Definitely an acquired taste this one, but definitely one worth persevering with.
Warfuck are from France and this is their second album. They play Grindcore.
Over the last few years France has proven to be adept at producing quality Extreme Metal bands and Warfuck are no exception.
I have enjoyed their previous work and Neantification is just as pleasingly unhinged and rabid as the rest of their output. More so perhaps.
Warfuck play furious Grindcore with insectile screams and pinpoint precision guitars sharp enough to puncture flesh. The riffs are frequently angular, atypical and mark the band out as different from the larger part of the Grindcore herd.
There is a touch of the old noisecore scene about these tracks. Warfuck’s songs bleed out from a chaotic Hardcore base and the band channel this twisted spirit into something immense and dangerous.
In some ways they come across as the Grindcore cousins of a band like Uphill Battle, (who were already pretty extreme in their own right), and have similar levels of intensity.
Short songs, short album. This release may cater towards people with a short attention span but there’s enough content here to keep even the hungriest Extreme Metal fan satiated.
Why sell youself short by listening to only the latest Deathgrind clones? Get Neantification and remind yourself how interesting, exciting and devastating real Grindcore can be.
Top marks.
Brutal Blues are a Grindcore band from Norway and this is their first release.
The band play ferociously aggressive Grind that feels unhinged and dangerous. The music seems refined to the point of Mathcore and the musical assault is relentless.
The vocals are demented and inhuman, sounding as if someone is strangling a murderous clown in someone else’s nightmare and the howls and screams are bleeding through into your consciousness.
Coming across like a more maniacal mix of Discordance Axis and Association Area with a hint of early The Dillinger Escape Plan; Brutal Blues provide a hypnotically mental 15 minutes of inventive, interesting and effective Grind.
I haven’t heard anyone really play this style of music that became quite popular in the early 2000’s for quite a while. I’m reminded of bands like Botch, Luddite Clone, Uphill Battle, etc. only more extreme. It’s a welcome reminder of something I was heavily into at one point, always seeking out the latest band at the time, and I’m very happy to see that the style is alive and well in the hands of Brutal Blues.
A blast from the past and a warning shot to the future.
Dead In The Dirt play Grindcore and do it from the US.
The band throw out highly aggressive Grind with short songs and even shorter tempers.
With a solid sound that’s so sharp you could do someone an injury, the songs blast out of the speakers covered in bile and thoughts of execution.
I do so love this kind of Grind! Heavy and fast at the same time; taking the blueprint and class of a band like Nasum and mixing it with bits of Sludge, Crust, Brutal Truth and Converge.
Take any selection of songs on the album and you’ll find a fair degree of variety. Sometimes it sounds like Eyehategod mixed with Deathgrind, (Strength Through Restraint), next it sounds like Uphill Battle if they totally gave in to their Grind influences, (Idiot Bliss), and then it sounds like a Hardcore Crust Brutal Truth, (You Bury Me).
Amazingly the band manage to perfect the balancing of frenetic, ultra-intense speed with heaviness and brutality in a way that most bands fumble, but Dead In The Dirt manage to make seem easy and the most natural thing in the world.
Better Grind you won’t hear in a while.
Pyrrhon are an unusual Hardcore-influenced Technical Death Metal band from the US and this is their second album.
They kickstart proceedings with an entry track that would do Converge or Cephalic Carnage proud. The Oracle of Nassau explodes out of the speakers all frenzy and bile, and for 1:25 it proceeds to annihilate everything. In complete contrast the next song White Flag starts off slow and menacing, and lasts for a much longer 9:42.
The vocals are screamed static attacks or brutal guttural growls, depending on the mood of the singer.
The music is technical, involved and very intricate. The instruments twist and turn and play all manner of elusive riffs; the listener is submerged in a lake of discordant dissonance that somehow manages to satisfy in spite of the multiple disparate elements being unleashed.
This is the clever thing though, as each instrument by itself is exploring its own path but everything gels together for the benefit of the wider picture in ways that you wouldn’t expect. The songs manage to be exploratory and experimental while remaining coherent and delivering a completed whole.
Angular riffs, wilful bass, schizophrenic drums and daemonic vocals collide to create a challenging and ultimately involving listen. The songs owe about as much to the violent Hardcore background of bands such as Converge, Botch and The Dillinger Escape Plan as they do to Technical Death Metal.
Pyrrhon strike me as having a combination of sounds from bands as diverse as all of the previously mentioned ones, as well as having elements of bands like Uphill Battle, Gorguts and Today Is The Day.
If you’re looking for a new band to obsess over who are not your average band then say hello to Pyrrhon. This album is a must.
Wonderbox Metal 