PYROMANCER: “DEMO MMXV”

 Reviews  2 Responses »
Nov 022015
 

Pyromancer-Demo MMXV

 

(Our old friend Black Shuck provides this guest review of the excellent new demo by Kentucky’s Pyromancer.)

Greetings, denizens of the infernal region. Popping in here once again to put the spotlight on another underground band worth getting to know.

Pyromancer are a two-man black/death metal band from Lexington, Kentucky, consisting of Master of Graveyard Torment on drums and Conquerer Horus on guitars. The band have no bass player, and switch off on vocal duties, with Torment performing the high shrieks while Horus does gutturals. Their first demo tape, Demo MMXV, has been released via Grim Winds Records.

The demo takes the grim, lo-fi atmosphere of second-wave Norwegian black metal bands and combines it with the aggressive bestiality of bands like Archgoat. When Master of Graveyard Torment is shrieking over Conquerer Horus’ tremolo riffs the band sounds very traditionally black metal indeed. However, thanks to Torment’s relentless drumming, the music is fierce and fast rather than gloomy, and when Horus takes a turn on the mic, deep, distinctly un-Norwegian growling fills the air. Continue reading »

FETUS GRINDER

 Album Reviews  16 Responses »
Jan 042012
 

 

(NCS reader Black Shuck provides this guest post about an eviscerating Canadian band.)

DEAD BABIES. On a related note, let’s talk about a band called Fetus Grinder.

Fetus Grinder are a death metal trio from Vancouver, British Columbia, and as the name might imply, they are firmly entrenched in the “let’s be as gory and offensive as possible” school of death metal. This initially made me think of Cannibal Corpse, but between the gore and the music they actually remind me a lot more of Carcass’s third album (Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious, that in-between period they had before they went melodeath, but after they stopped playing pure grindcore). The music is upbeat and groovy, rather than the downtuned blastfest one might expect from their name and song titles (although I’ll discuss their speed in a minute).

Speaking of guitar tuning, I don’t know which one they’re using, but it seems higher than you usually find in death metal, and that combined with their riffing style helps give the music an oddly peppy feel. This is a good thing. I could be wrong about the tuning, I don’t have the best ear for such things. But it sounds good nonetheless.

Also, listening to Fetus Grinder marks the first time I have ever thought, “Damn, microwaving a cat is catchy.” So there’s that. (“Microwaving a Cat” is my favorite song off their new album, and has been officially classified by the Double Secret Congressional Committee of Metal as “catchy as all fuck”)

Fetus Grinder have just released their second album, Rather Unpleasant, which you can download for free at bandcamp (http://fetusgrinder.bandcamp.com/). Their first album, Terror in the Women’s Clinic, is also available on bandcamp for a pay-what-you-want deal (1 CAD minimum). What struck me about Fetus Grinder, and inspired me to write this post, was the incredible amount of musical growth in the two-year period between those two albums. Continue reading »