GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, MARCH 2024

(March 2024 is in the history books, and in this column Gonzo reviews six albums that made it a good month to remember.)

So, I dunno if it’s just me, but 2024 has already been a banger of a year for heavy music after only three months. My best-of-’24 Spotify playlist has over 10 hours of music on it, and that’s just me throwing random shit in there on a fairly haphazard basis.

Later in April, I’m also taking a trip down the road to Red Rocks to see Amon Amarth headline a wild show that includes Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, and Frozen Soul. And by the time this piece goes live, I’ll have already seen Wayfarer perform “American Gothic” in its entirety at the Bluebird in Denver. Look for a review of that one coming up.

Good times await, my friends.

But first, let’s get to some new gems I’ve unearthed from metal’s grimy underbelly over the past 30 days.

 

GRIN, HUSH

Not even 12 months have passed since Grin released their last album. And with 16 songs on Hush, it’s clear that the Berlin duo still had plenty of ideas left in the tank since 2023’s Black Nothingness.

Despite this brand of psyched-out/slightly blackened doom usually lending itself to longer run times, Grin is content to skip the “fuck around” stage and go straight to “find out.” The opening title track pummels your ears as it drags across a different kind of magic-carpet ride, its jagged riffs lurching and recoiling with unpredictable aggression. “Calice” features riffs so thick you’ll need a spoon to sift them around, while the white-hot one-two punch of “Midnight Blue Sorrow” and “Talons” is over way too soon.

It’s hard to find psychedelic sludge that hits like this. The songs never overstay their welcome and contain exactly zero filler throughout. Hush is the kind of album you’ll want to plug in your nicest pair of headphones for, and like a devious djinn wandering the desert, let it take you to whichever alternate dimension you wish.

https://grincult.bandcamp.com/album/hush

 

 

NIRRTI, CYBERPSYCHOSIS

Since I just saw Dune II this week and the subsequent images of giant worms and hooded sand ninjas have been living rent-free in my head ever since (and because we’re still a few weeks away from the new Dvne record), I went on a kick that I can only describe as… Dune metal?

Czechian one-man psychedelic black metal project Nirrti certainly fits the bill with Cyberpsychosis. Through and through, the music here gets increasingly harder to describe the longer you listen to it. I imagine “Asymmetrical Disharmonies” sounds like a song Mike Patton would write if he took acid in a Norwegian forest cabin and tried to conjure Euronymous through some kind of séance, while “The Meaning of Life” is menacing in ways I probably haven’t come to terms with yet.

Unsettling distortion and ominous spoken-word vocals make appearances on Cyberpsychosis in ways that sound vaguely threatening, and even Nirrti himself characterizes the album’s climax as “ending in a mud of filth and disgust.” It’s a gradual effect, but repeat listens to the aforementioned mud of filth and disgust will reveal the album’s blackened heart – and you’ll probably be back for more.

https://nirrti.bandcamp.com/album/cyberpsychosis

 

 

SHOCK WITHDRAWAL, THE DISMAL ADVANCE

Confession time: I rarely listen to much grind these days. Maybe it was the recent tragic passing of Pig Destroyer’s Blake Harrison that made me pop my head back into the genre, or maybe it’s the fact that the new album from LA’s Shock Withdrawal is just that fucking good.

Either way, The Dismal Advance is a virtual checklist of how to write a great grind album:

• 1-minute songs so intense they feel like 10? Check
• The most insane drum kit abuse you’ve ever heard? Check.
• Lyrics and songs about how society is utterly fucked? Check.
• A general distaste for humankind? Also check.

This is the kind of vitriol that puts everyone anywhere close to the pit in mortal peril. With The Dismal Advance, Shock Withdrawal has shown the world they’re the next name to watch in deathgrind, right up there with Misery Index.

https://shockwithdrawal.bandcamp.com/album/the-dismal-advance

 

 

BRAT, SOCIAL GRACE

Look, I’d like to say I don’t get intrigued by whatever “gimmick” a band wants to attach themselves to, but when a band describes their sound as “Barbiegrind Bimboviolence,” you’re goddamned right I’m gonna listen to it.

BRAT is a band that strays sonically far from what many of their swampy peers are known for in New Orleans – slow-ass, miserable sludge that makes you emotionally conflicted. BRAT has more in common with Escuela Grind in the musical DNA, with explosive riffs that punctuate hardcore-inspired breakdowns beneath Liz Selfish’s punch-you-in-the-dick vocals. Rhythmically, the band also knows how to write riffs that could incite a riot. I’m grinning stupidly just imagining the kind of chaos that “Human Offense” will conjure during the band’s set next month at Northwest Terror Fest.

“Hesitation Wound,” “Sugar Bastard,” and the eponymous closing track all scratch so many heavy itches in one album – grind, death metal, hardcore, and bimboviolence, the genre you didn’t know you needed but definitely do.

https://brat504.bandcamp.com/album/social-grace-2

 

 

20 SECONDS FALLING MAN, RESILIENCE

Few things fill me with more joy than discovering new post-metal bands I’m obsessed with, and that’s why I’m happy I stumbled into France’s 20 Seconds Falling Man one spring afternoon.

The first song I heard from Resilience was the title track. At about the 1:10 mark, I stopped whatever I was doing. The beautiful swell of this song – from somber, silent beginnings to Amenra-like ferocity – was truly a magnificent thing to hear. It’s as if Tomas Lindberg lent his pipes to a Cult of Luna song and let Aaron Turner write the riffs. (In other words, a post-metal fan’s orgiastic wet dream.)

Like any good post-metal worth its salt, 20 Seconds Falling Man spares not an inch. This album is as dense as it gets, deftly blending metal’s most chaotic elements and grinding them down into a paste that’s thicker than lava. “Shadow of the Past” is a great example of that, with acid-soaked progressive passages giving way to spastic blast beats that carry serious emotional weight.

“Our Life is Now” pairs tortured hardcore-inspired vocals with something more ethereal, leaving you speechless as it climbs to its triumphant peak. Closer “New Moon” is content to wallow in the melancholic mire it creates before erupting into a finish that’s fit for any great piece of art. Resilience is 2024’s post-metal king so far.

https://20secondsfallingman.bandcamp.com/album/resilience

 

 

KHOLD, DU D​Ø​MMES TIL D​Ø​D

Closing this month out is the only name I was familiar with before writing this column: Norway’s Khold.

It’s easy to liken them to countrymen Darkthrone, with both bands featuring that mid-paced no-bullshit black metal that’s way too easy to love. Khold’s last album Svartsyn exceeded any expectations I had for it two years ago – it was complex but not self-indulgent, catchy as hell, and fucking heavy.

DU D​Ø​MMES TIL D​Ø​D picks up that torch and runs with it. Relentless riffs and infectious choruses lead the way here, with the most prescient example being “Skoggangsmann.” The catchiness of that chorus transcends any language barrier. And speaking of languages, like the rest of their albums, there’s not a word of English to be found anywhere here.

You might not think Norwegian ranks up there with German as the best language for aggressive music, but then you’d be wrong.

Khold can always be relied upon to release a black metal record that’s got zero filler from start to finish, and DU D​Ø​MMES TIL D​Ø​D continues that trend exceedingly well.

https://soulsellerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/du-d-mmes-til-d-d

Like what you hear? Follow my best-of-2024 playlist for selections from everything you’ve just read, and a whole helluva lot more.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7zWqE685GVpuB5M3qRDvog?si=08d80939b43e4d89