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.

(more…)

No Comments

Tags: ,

Pharmacist – Carnal Pollution (2021)

What if Carcass had gone in a direction like Napalm Death with its post-Reek of Putrefaction material, instead of getting increasingly lighter? While billed as a goregrind band, Pharmacist comes more from the school of a technical version of later Carcass that integrates the heavy percussive aspects of mid-1990s death metal.

(more…)

1 Comment

Tags: ,

Interview with Jan Kruitwagen of Kaeck (2021)

Already gaining a lead on all other contenders for the most compelling underground metal album of the year, Kaeck has on Het Zwarte Dictaat made the masterpiece of violent rhythm riffs and melodies that much of the underground wishes it could, combining black metal and war metal with doom metal and death metal to create a constantly changing mood within a fluid style. Fortunately, guitarist/composer Jan Kruitwagen had a few moments to give us his take on the band and state of the metal genre.

(more…)

2 Comments

Tags: , , ,

Classic reviews:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z