(Wil Cifer reviews the new split by Louisiana’s Barghest and California’s Teeth.)
This is a split that captures two different shades of metal. They are both dark.
The first side of this cassette release showcases Baton Rogue’s Barghest, who are just as feral as in their earlier releases, but this time around the buzz-saw of rapid fire guitar you face is smoothed out by the more cavernous production, giving them the needed ambience for me to fully digest their sonic venom. Continue reading »
(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by Neurosis.)
The pioneers of sludge metal are back, and ironically by some of today’s standards Neurosis are no longer a metal band. This is not to say the album is not heavy. Heavy just comes in different colors.
It doesn’t take long for the band to make use of this dynamic, as it happens midway into the first song “Bending Light” when the gruff vocals kick in. They spend the first half of the song wandering around a dark and trippy landscape. This is fine with me. Neurosis had gone too far in Pink Floyd’s direction back on Honor Found in Decay, almost to the point that I thought certain portions sounded like they were from Obscured By Clouds. I am glad to hear more sonic menace infiltrated back into their sound.
I can accept that this is not going to be Souls at Zero or Through Sliver and Blood. If that is what you are looking for going into this, it’s time to face the fact they have moved on from there. The direction this album finds them on is darker and feels to me more true to who they are as a band. Continue reading »
(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by Seattle’s Lesbian, which is out now on the Translation Loss label and features striking cover art by Dan Seagrave.)
Before reviewing this album I went back and listened to Lesbian’s album Stratospheria Cubensis for a little perspective. Six years ago when that album came out, they were still pretty committed to not neatly fitting within any sub-genre of metal, and now they have continued to defy those boundaries even more.
Former members of The Accüsed formed this band back in 2007 and have now evolved their brand of proggy death metal into something even more darkly bizarre. Their new album finds the vocals becoming even more varied, blending sung vocals and growls. This is done in a very tasteful way that might win over some of you who think this approach is dated. In some ways it makes me think of what might have happened if Acid Bath had collided with Cynic. Continue reading »
It is time to put to rest any of the grumbling you might have heard in regard to the new Inquisition. Some people were more than likely already in a bad mood after hearing the new Metallica or only had a marginal intrest in Inquisition to begin with. The truth is, their new album sounds just like them, right when Dagon lets the chords ring out with such eerie dissonance.
They are not out to win over any new fans. This is not to say they are just dialing it in, as drummer Incubus brings some sinister grooves and really lays into his high hat. In the car my wife complained the crash was a little tinny, but I didn’t hear that, and overall the mix has the dense sound that I want from them. Continue reading »
(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by London’s Morrow.)
By not seeking to live off of post-apocalyptic distortion alone this London-based sludge band captures an atmosphere almost as mournful as a doom band.
Past affiliations have led to characterizations of Morrow as a crust super-group. Crust seems to be a hot buzzword when it comes to underground metal these days. The only time I hear this crusty side of the band is when they speed up with more punk energy toward the end of the first song, “Fathom”. They take their time getting started, as it’s 4 minutes in before the drums lay the ground-work to the melancholy. The cello on this song really adds more emotion. Continue reading »
(Wil Cifer brings us this review of the new album by Germany’s ColdWorld.)
Finally after 8 years, Germany’s ColdWorld has released a new album, Autumn. This world might be more of a slight chill than a cold one, as the sound has certainly changed. With this album, everything is bigger, so the compromise is even up to some of the starkness created by the more lo-fi ambiance of this project’s earlier work. I love depressive black metal; if you have read my other reviews then you know I like it as dark as a band can give it to me. So after hearing the changes, which have made this more of an atmospheric black metal album than a depressive black metal album, I had to pry my stubborn old mind open even further.
The mood has changed; something hopeful lies within the chords propelling the scowling vocals. Things become even more refined when clean vocals appear in the first song, creating a more Porcupine Tree sound. Female vocals are even layered within “Void”. Synths set the stage for “Woods of Emptiness”. There is an emotive pulse to the guitar, but to my ears it’s not what I call dark; instead it paints the song in a hazy, dream-like gray. Continue reading »
(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by Nails.)
Over the years trends in metal come and go, leading up into 2016 when grindcore and powerviolence seemed poised to break through into the metal mainstream. What Weekend Nachos failed to deliver is now jackhammered into your face by this trio from California, who possess a guitar tone as nasty as the instrument can achieve while still being able to create riffs capable of holding together actual songs. For the purpose of this review, the word “song” is used to refer to sharp bursts of rage.
Grindcore has never been my forte, as the genre’s range of dynamic expression sonically feels like coloring with only the red crayon of anger. While this might limit what many bands do, Nails are savants at coloring with this crayon so well that your only choice is to hold on for the jolting ride. Continue reading »
(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by Youth Code from L.A.)
After the Alaric review, you might have guessed I am more drawn to heavy in all of its forms than being limited only to ingesting it as metal. You might be familiar with my work at Cvlt Nation; if so, my weird taste will make perfect sense.
This album has a great deal of metal influence lurking beneath the electronic beats. Youth Code is aggressive in a way that industrial music has not been in some time. Industrial music has lost a great deal of its menace over the years. It became enmeshed in EDM, with even the legends of the genre such as Skinny Puppy succumbing to coating their songs in a plastic sheen after The Greater Wrong of the Right. Youth Code has come to put the teeth back into industrial.
These kids are not just hipsters playing dress-up. They are the real deal. This aggression doesn’t require sampling riffs from ’90s thrash metal either; it is fueled into the buzz of their synths. Continue reading »
(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by Oakland-based Alaric.)
In my assessment of what makes a band heavy, darkness is an integral component of the equation. Dialing in the gain and tuning lower are easy first steps toward this woeful abyss, but it really takes the ability to convey life experience stained by addiction, mental illness, and deep loss to capture convincing sonic shades.
This band from Oakland is more than convincing when it comes to diving into the shadows. They caught my ear when the whole hipster death rock revival came into my consciousness, though these guys are much rougher around their serrated edges than other bands that rode in on that wagon. Now five years later they have made a very welcome return with End of Mirrors thanks to Neurot Recordings.
All the things that have worked for these guys in the past are in place as they plow into the post-apocalyptic wasteland their music conjures. Their bassist provides varied levels of gloom-ridden melodies that are trod upon by the guitarist, a member of the sludge band Noothgrush. Some of the hypnotizing grooves here take multiple listens to fully sink in. Continue reading »
(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by Britain’s Bossk.)
Dream metal serves as a better sub-genre to file this British band’s debut full-length under, rather than dismissing them as post-rock or sludge gaze. Too often post-rock/metal has meant music influenced by Piper At the Gates of Dawn. Before God Speed You! Black Emperor raised their skinny fists, Voivod had already tested those Roger waters on “Nothingface. Instead of trying to re-invent the Floydian wheel, Bossk is giving it a new spin. They bang out a brand of bong-fueled aggression easily agitated into something more overtly metal. Like many of their mellower peers, an incredible guitar tone comes with the job description; it has just taken a decade to make sure it’s dialed in right on this album. Continue reading »