Legendary floaty nebulous ambient band Biosphere returns with a new album due out January 21, 2022. Following previous efforts, the soundtrack-influenced background sound with evocative themes the listener must meet halfway remains, and the sample track almost trails off rather than conclude definitively.
No CommentsVomit Spell – Vomit Spell (2021)
Unleashing a spirited interpretation of the older, darker variant of grindcore found in acts such as Blood, early Carcass, Terrorizer, and Repulsion, Vomit Spell propel their debut album with thrashcore riffs at the frantic speeds of early grindcore with interpolations of melodies clearly inspired by both the death metal and black metal approaches to melody.
No CommentsTags: Grindcore, vomit spell
So That’s How Grindcore Ends
Everything must run its arc, and for grindcore that arc apparently ends in being commercialized just like everything else. Rendered in plastic, served up on styrofoam, simplified to obsequious edginess, and yours for the low, low price of $19.99, the new Napalm Death Scum “Reaction Figure” glows in the dark just like your FBI agent.
34 CommentsTags: Grindcore, merch, napalm death, toys
How to Listen to Music
Some months ago, a good friend asked for advice on pipe smoking. It was clear at that moment that no top-level guide existed, mainly because most got stuck in a muddle of gear and preferences, but few mentioned the core of the practice: technique.
17 CommentsTags: listening, music, stochastic resonance
Halloween
It is somewhat difficult to fail to enjoy the theory behind this holiday, even if — like everything in the hands of a human social group, committee, cult, clique, echo chamber, hug box, or hive-mind — it has been turned into an excuse for carnies to sell garbage to apathetic narcissistic morons.
13 CommentsTags: commercialism, eugenics, halloween
Evil Damn – Necronomicon (2021)
Following the lead of South American bands like Mortem and Krisiun, Evil Damn charge ahead with fast riffs from the early days of death metal before the genre fully separated from speed metal, but keep the influence on speed rather than choppy riffs, making an energetic and seamless listening experience.
1 CommentTags: death metal, evil damn
Consecration – Reanimated (2021)
Most things that slide across the desk, you wonder why they got made, why a label supports them, and why anyone has invested in something so obviously mediocre. Then you realize: they are all just doing their jobs, producing work churn, and no one cares about quality.
1 CommentTags: consecration, Doom Metal
Katavasia – Invoking the Spirit of Doom (2021)
The problem with black metal is that it tried to evolve, not realizing that it was the ultimate evolution and had to go within, making more complex melodies and keeping its droning ambient mood-shifting textural structure. Katavasia attempts to return to black metal with heavy metal roots like Varathron, from which it borrowed personnel.
3 CommentsTags: Black Metal, katavasia
Sadist Reveal Upcoming Album Firescorched
Progressive death metal band Sadist, who brought an early fusion of 1970s prog with 1990s technical death metal, intend to revisit their origins with Firescorched, their ninth album, due out in 2022.
5 CommentsTags: death metal, Progressive Death Metal, sadist
Deber – Aspire to Affliction (2021)
This band wears its influences on its sleeve — Evoken, Worship, Skepticism, and Colosseum — but at its core, this is something more like EyeHateGod, a riff look that breaks into an inner sanctum of something like rage, emulating a cry from the betrayed generation that carved out the rudiments of underground metal.
No CommentsTags: deber, Doom Metal