Retortion Terror & Invidiosus Record Split

Grindcore guitar god Takafumi Matsubara (Gridlink and Mortalized) has a new band now, Retortion Terror. They have recorded a split with an American grind band called Invidiosus. Both bands are currently seeking labels to print and distribute the release on CD, cassette, and LP.

(more…)

8 Comments

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sorcier des Glaces – Ritual of the End Cassette Pressing Coming Soon

Sorcier des GlacesRitual of the End, some of The Best Underground Metal of 2014, is coming out soon on compact cassette courtesy of Dread Records. French Canadian black metal maniacs who drive beat up old serial killer vans from the 80s like Buffalo Bill’s should pick it up. Everyone else should listen to Snowland MMXII and hate the human race.

(more…)

No Comments

Tags: , , , , ,

Infamous / Winter Blackness – Symbols of Scarlet Revenge (2017)

Infamous have delivered us yet another split with a weaker but by no means incompetent band. Winter Darkness provide the almost filler this time on Symbols of Scarlet Revenge, playing somewhat generic, riff salad black metal that doesn’t really go anywhere special on this split has promise if they could unite the various parts together in order to express something greater than merely “We actually play black metal, we wrote riffs, they’re not random, and our music is not that so bad that it will make the Death Metal Underground editor press a power drill into his skull.”1 In their defense, Winter Blackness use RAC-like drumming, and songs that conserve sneering tension that sometimes resolves on “Demons of Winter Blackness” and leaves you wishing the band would explode on “Frozen Nocturnal Blood”. A slow burning match that burns out into darkness rather than lighting a fire is not the best way to conclude a record. At least Winter Darkness are way more aggressive than Gratzug’s half of the Infamous / Gratzug split.

(more…)

6 Comments

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hipsters Fetishize Cassettes

Compact cassette music sales rose 140% over last year. Wow, noise, and flutter! How quaint. Hipsters have declared their love for a format that, unlike the vinyl LP, does not even sound particularly good. The most commonplace Dolby noise reduction systems in most cassette decks cause immense loss of high end detail. Most hipsters collecting cassettes can’t even find a player with a properly aligned tape head. Most will probably be using ghetto blasters or Talkboys as they were six in 1992 when Home Alone 2 came out.

(more…)

16 Comments

Tags: , ,

Stormkult Out On Cassette

kaeck stormkult cassette packaging

Kaeck‘s Stormkult, Death Metal Underground’s 2015 Album of the Year, is out on cassette for all the Volvo station wagons, Ford Fiestas, Dodge Neons, and Mystery Machines lacking CD players. The cassette may be purchased at the Bandcamp link below while the original Folter Records CD is still available from many metal distributors.

6 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