(Andy Synn has three more artists/albums from his neck of the woods for you to check out)
Depending on when you read these words – as well as when I get it finished, and when we have space to post it – I’ll either be on my way home from Northwest Terror Fest, or have just about made it back and collapsed on my couch.
And what better way to celebrate my return than with another triptych of terrific recent and upcoming releases from my particular corner of the globe courtesy of Ten Ton Slug (Galway), Urzah (Bristol), and Vulgaris (London)?
TEN TON SLUG – COLOSSAL OPPRESSOR
First off, that slug definitely weighs far more than ten tons… and, secondly, while Ten Ton Slug aren’t quite as heavy as their namesake just yet, they’re still a hefty bunch of rugged riffmongers whose debut album, the excellently-titled Colossal Oppressor, should readily appeal to fans of similarly groove-heavy (and just plain heavy) bands like Crowbar, Acid Bath and Bolt Thrower (to name but a few).
Sure, the album’s pace occasionally gets a little… sluggish… so a few more tempo changes might be a benefit to the band on future releases, but the inherent hookiness and irresistible headbangability of songs like “The Ooze” (with its slithering melodic undercurrent and humongous, bellowing cries of “Subjugation is here!“) and the doom-laden “Ancient Ways” generally make up the album’s relative lack of variety.
It’s not all the same though, by any means, especially when the group ramp up the (already pretty damn high) levels of aggression even more, as they do during the noticeably grimmer and grimier strains of “Brutus” (whose snarling savagery and slow, bone-deep burn recall Goatwhore at their darkest and doomiest) and the punky “Mallacht an tSloda”.
The group also demonstrate an even more ambitious side to their sound with nine-and-a-half minute closer “Mogore the Unkind”, which sees them flexing their musical muscles and stretching their creative talents as the song gets slower, heavier, and uglier the more it goes on… just like the band themselves (and I meant that as a compliment)!
URZAH – THE SCORCHING GAZE
If your first thought when hearing “I, Empyrean”, the opening track on The Scorching Gaze, is “damn, this sounds a lot like Burst“… well, congratulations, you’re not wrong.
But that’s not a bad thing by any means, as while those are definitely some big shoes to fill, Urzah do so with aplomb on their debut album, with tracks like the epic and emotive “Immateria Noir” and the aforementioned “I, Empyrean” (which quickly sets a very high bar with its absolutely massive grooves and cleverly multi-layered vocals) clearly building on the template laid down by albums like Origo and Lazarus Bird.
There’s a lot more to the band than just out-and-out Burst-worship though, that’s for sure, with the incredibly dense and tightly-wound riffage of songs such as “Lacrimare (Misery’s Shadows)” and “Of Decay” pushing the band’s sound further towards the heavier end of the Post-Metal spectrum (Cult of Luna, LLNN, etc), while the heightened aggression of “A Storm Is Ever Approaching” lets the group’s Converge-ish, Hardcore-influenced side shine (and burn) brightly.
And then there’s the more progressive storytelling approach of closing double-header “Thera I: Sea of Flames” and “Thera II: Embers of Descent”, which marries all these elements – the electrifying energy, the cathartic intensity, the sheer sonic weight of it all – with a moodier and more expansive songwriting style which recalls the best of ongoing NCS favourites Dvne (who I’m hoping will take the band on tour with them very soon).
Mark my words, despite a couple of relatively throw-away moments (“Interlude”, “The Aesthetic”) this is still one of the best, and most promising, debuts of the year, and a band you’d do well to keep a very close eye on in the future, if this album is any indication of things!
VULGARIS – SEAT OF THE FIRE
Keeping of bands you should have kept an eye on… back when I first encountered Vulgaris and their debut album, Asundre, in 2021 I made a point to tell you all to watch them very closely over the coming years, as their ambitious/aggressive/atmospheric brand of Sludge, Black, Thrash and straight-up Heavy Metal already held the seed of something special.
Well, now it’s three years later and the band are about to release their second album, Seat of the Fire, which takes everything good about their debut, cuts away what didn’t quite work, and presents us with a renewed, refined and even more focussed (not to mention impressively ferocious) version of the band who are well on their way to being the UK’s own version of Skeletonwitch or Black Anvil.
This increased emphasis on their Black Metal side doesn’t mean they’ve completely abandoned all their other influences by any means – the ominous opening and closing sections of early highlight “Black Gold Baptism”, or the Heavy Metal swagger of “Prometheus Rise”, for example, prove that – but there’s no question that the explosive intensity of “Swarm” (easily the most purely and unapologetically Black Metal thing the group have ever done) and the Black-Thrash brilliance of “Asphyxiation” (which provides a great showcase for the album’s all-round excellent drum-work) are the product of a band with an even clearer vision for their sound.
Very occasionally the band’s reach exceeds their grasp – the use of intros/interludes certainly reflects their ambition to create something more holistic than just a series of singles, but doesn’t always support the album’s flow – but by the time you get to the unrelentingly heavy, unashamedly hooky, title-track you’re unlikely to care about these issues all that much and be ready to spin Seat of the Fire all over again!