ANNIHILATE THIS WEEK hits every Weekend (Saturday or Sunday) covering important new releases whilst grouping short reviews for albums, EPs and demos selected from the current week’s best. These albums were overlooked for a more detailed review for any number of reasons, I’m either low on time or the music itself doesn’t warrant depth of inquiry or require too-serious engagement. I do my best to cover as much of everything I receive in some form regardless of genre or representation so don’t hesitate to send anything and everything my way: grizzlybutts@hotmail.com
The nineteenth week of 2021 is highlighted by various configurations of black metal aesthetics with folk, post-punk, dark ambient, and death metal, plenty of experimental hardcore music, blues rock, power metal, and I guess if you live a bit closer to my headspace the good stuff is death/doom, black metal, and few heavy psych hits. Plenty of variety but I figure I need to cultivate a bit more experimental music into my own gig to keep from drying out on the same ‘ole. If you’re not into the selection this time around, relax! This’ll be back every 7 days with five more new releases from different styles, genres, etc.
The Album of the Week for my own taste is surprisingly Jess and the Ancient Ones‘ return with ‘Vertigo‘, Jasmin Saarela‘s ‘solo’ project Jess by the Lake brought me back into the fold and I’ve been looking forward to this one. If you’re into occult rock/heavy psych rock that’d be the one. In terms of metal I will have nothing but praise for Anatomia‘s ‘Corporeal Torment‘ and Majestic Downfall‘s ‘Aorta‘ as two prime works of death/doom metal from entirely different perspectives, both great records. If you’re looking for serious black/death and furious speed Thanatomass‘ ‘Black Vitriol & Iron Fire‘ is a goddamned fire-sword of energy, bestial but always readable. Progressive black metal mind-warp Esoctrilihum‘s ‘Dy’th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath‘ is a lot to take in and I’m just breaching my notes for sense this weekend, all thoughts are positively rambling. I’ll also be reviewing Slithering Decay‘s ‘Aeons Untold‘ for no other reason than it being rock solid HM-2 gutting death metal, tough as fuck and extreme every moment it plays.
Thank you! I am eternally grateful for the support of readers and appreciate friendly and positive interactions. Think my opinions are trash and that I suck? Want to totally tell me off, bro? Click away and let’s all live more sensible lives full of meaningful interactions. Onto the reviews:
| ARTIST: | ROBOTS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD |
| TITLE: | Mystic Goddess |
| RELEASE DATE: | May 21st, 2021 |
| LABEL(S): | Small Stone Recordings |
| BUY/LISTEN: | Bandcamp |
Portland, Oregon based heavy psychedelic rock quintet Robots of the Ancient World stretch their limbs a bit on this second full-length album, loosening their 90’s stoner metal swing to include far more heavy blues breaks into their dynamic. Though the wires are crossed from the start with sole single “Mystic Goddess” giving us post-‘Paranoid’ levels of heavy garage psych songwriting we’re soon seated at an outdoor festival for “Wasteland” and getting high at a skatepark on “Agua Caliente”. It’ll be a slow start for all but the most keyed-in stoner rock/metal folks but the full listen should hold its grip on folks who’d grown up obsessed with Nebula, Fu Manchu and everything gone sideways since. The morbid, paranoid and mystic lyrical subjects these guys tend to cover are still a strong source of entertainment though I think the vocalist could tighten up his rants a bit, dominating “MK Ultra Violence” and “Wasteland” with a lyric sheet a mile long when each piece might’ve benefitted from letting the ear -feel it- a bit more. An easy recommendation to folks who want a hint of twisted freakery in their heavy psych n’ blues rock.
| ARTIST: | LORD OF PAGATHORN |
| TITLE: | Age of Curse |
| RELEASE DATE: | May 21st, 2021 |
| LABEL(S): | Woodcut Records |
| BUY/LISTEN: | Bandcamp |
Lord of Pagathorn is a name only Finnish black metal obsessives might know and even then probably for their triumphant revival in 2010, sixteen years beyond a couple of rehearsal room demos. Classic second wave Finnish black metal from the early 90’s that was still informed by the thrashing side of the first wave is the main reason to engage with their discography, though the use of keyboards and atmospheric black metal movements occasionally moves us to the mid-90’s, easing on the heavy metal attack for the sake of droning, anti-rocking moments which I enjoy quite a bit. The main fellow here, Corpselord, shows some clear love for Mercyful Fate in his guitar work here perhaps most notably on “Over Throned”. If we pull back to their popular comeback demo ‘Msilihporcen’ from 2010 all of these traditional heavy metal elements, repurposed into early second wave curses, were extant eleven years ago. The progression from that demo onward has seen slow but valuable marks of change, perfecting but not strangling the life from each form. Eerie keyboards, heavy metal riffs, and rasping horror odes… I enjoyed this one quite a bit for the guitar work and the rabid spirit they convey.
| ARTIST: | JARUN |
| TITLE: | Rok Spokojnego Słońca |
| RELEASE DATE: | May 21st, 2021 |
| LABEL(S): | Godz ov War Productions |
| BUY/LISTEN: | YouTube |
Progressive, atmospheric and often folkish with an avant-garde twist Jarun is more or less the Polish equivalency to acts such as Thy Catafalque, Negură Bunget and I’d say Klabautamann but perhaps more “black metal” in spirit and less folkish/prog-rocking than those bands have been in recent years. Though I understand that such comparisons are cop outs the pieces are all quite familiar, perhaps in a good way for fans of prog-folk black metal. Calm dual guitar breaks into acoustic pieces, rousing guitar solos, harmonized clean vocals, keyboards that emphasize swells, the translation between 70’s progressive rock numbered articulations and the last twenty years of high market value in this sort of earthen atmospheric black metal is not lost upon Jarun, who would fit well nearby Prophecy Productions and Code666 rosters. This is not to suggest ‘Rok Spokojnego Słońca’ is rote by an means, the band maintain their own brand of surrealistic, ominous atmosphere which demands fast and hair-raising rushes of guitar muscle and haunting vocal work. I only wish they were previewing more of the album because songs like “Widma” and (my favorite) “Bezimienna” towards the middle of the record are thrillingly arranged, something hinted at with the opener in preview but there is much that develops as the album presses on. This will be a sleeper hit for many fans of avant-garde/progressive black metal, especially those who often dip into the strange side of German/Polish avant-garde metal.
| ARTIST: | BORGNE |
| TITLE: | Temps Morts |
| RELEASE DATE: | May 21st, 2021 |
| LABEL(S): | Les Acteurs de L’Ombre |
| BUY/LISTEN: | Bandcamp |
Borgne is a long-active industrial black metal project from prolific Swiss musician Bornyhake whom now achieve their tenth full-length with ‘Temps Morts’. When one thinks of industrial black metal applications the tendency is to either get industrial metal with temperamental strains of black metal guitar work and rasped vocals and in some sense the most typical records from this project do amount to such. The last three records from Borgne have broken this tendency for the sake of developing the various fusions of electronic music sub-genre that interest the artist and then reinserting them into a mildly ‘symphonic’ black metal archetype; The collision of early 90’s industrial muse, sci-fi fantasy ambiance, and a conscious avoidance of groove heavy guitar work is vast and full of interesting moments yet the vocals are uninteresting throughout. The push and pull of songs like “l Écho de mon Mal” push us far beyond late 90’s Samael inspired works but not far enough for my own taste. There is either some kind of drugged genius in the torture of a piece like “I drown my Eyes into the broken Mirror” or an idea that doesn’t necessarily go for it in terms of pulling out a big hook when needed. Even if I don’t think it is an incredible record the graphic design and atmosphere meant I remained engaged for the whole record multiple times, enjoying the non-corrosive yet cold atmosphere, night time in a rusted field of dead industrial parks. I’ve become more interested in modern applications of industrial black metal as a result so, the experience was valuable overall.
| ARTIST: | SILVER TALON |
| TITLE: | Decadence and Decay |
| RELEASE DATE: | May 21st, 2021 |
| LABEL(S): | M-Theory Audio |
| BUY/LISTEN: | Bandcamp |
Portland, Oregon based progressive heavy/power thrashers are almost certainly raised on a steady diet of Nevermore, Communic and their ilk, bands who’ve some love for the legacy of Bay Area thrash metal and the myriad connections made with 90’s power metal alongside the proggy, shredding Wacken-sized acts of the early 2000’s. As a result their debut full-length is a showcase for big, dramatic and modern melodic heavy metal pieces that soak in their theatrical classic heavy metal digs a la ‘Dead Heart in a Dead World’ but maintain a differently modern shred-heavy guitar hero sort of appeal. When their first EP ‘Becoming a Demon’ released I wasn’t sure if there was a commercial angle there but I’d not realized these two guitarists (both ex-Spellcaster) had something much bigger and undeniably melodic in mind. It wouldn’t all work if the vocalist hadn’t stepped up here (see: “Deciever, I Am”, “Resistance 2029”, and “Touch the Void”) as well but, the obviate reason to show up here is the guitar heroics and nostalgia for this type of music. To be fair this isn’t really my kind of shredding power-thrash, I prefer the stuff limited to Priest and Watchtower influence in the late 80’s, and these guys go a bit Queensryche (“Next to the Sun”) for my own taste but I couldn’t put their efforts down. It is rare a band of this ilk can sell such charisma via a blind listen, this should be a testament to both potential realized herein and yet to be harnessed.
| ARTIST: | SABHANKRA |
| TITLE: | Death to Traitors |
| RELEASE DATE: | May 21st, 2021 |
| LABEL(S): | Saturnal Records |
| BUY/LISTEN: | Bandcamp |
When you’ve come across a Turkish band with an “Egyptian” themed album cover who are tagged as “melodic black/death thrash metal with folk influences” the natural assumption is they’ll sound a bit like Melechesh and though I’d like to fully argue this away it is mostly the right response. Seeing as how they’d formed back in the early 2000’s as a folkish melodic death metal band and soon evolved using ethnic rhythms as a major guide along the way, the more natural comparison in terms of Sabhankra‘s sound is actually Suidakra. This is music of tension and force that mixes in the percussive change-ups of post-90’s thrash/groove to create the illusion of speed in the guitar work, though tremolo picking and black/thrash tinged drum work does much of the job. I love that ‘Death to Traitors’ is so obsessed with speed rather than progressive movement, perhaps my biggest complaint with the evolution of similarly styled bands, they are always in for the assault and never compromise the flow of this hateful, aggressive vision. It creates a beautiful sort of tunnel vision that is perhaps typical for those of us to paid too much attention to the black/death mélange artists of the 2000’s yet they don’t overdo it with filler tracks or honking keyboards. Before this record I really didn’t ‘get’ Sabhankra but this fifth album feels like the one that nails it without messing around, six violent songs that just hammer and wail at a style that does not need to stray from purpose and attack.
| ARTIST: | ACAUSAL INTRUSION |
| TITLE: | Nulitas |
| RELEASE DATE: | May 21st, 2021 |
| LABEL(S): | I, Voidhanger Records |
| BUY/LISTEN: | Bandcamp |
Avant-garde, technical, dissonant, and seemingly improvised death metal skronk-fest Acausal Intrusion present a hellish and formless drain-circling debut here with ‘Nulitas’, grinding into the ear with a early 2000’s brutal death metal snare clangor and muddy squiggling riffs atop. Think of a group like Cosmic Void Ritual, just a complete vacuum of gutter heavy sound and then twist those obtuse vocals and rhythms away from classic 90’s death metal toward post-‘Obscura’ tech-death rot. The shaky resonance of the recording and the distorting quality of the vocals makes for a sort of self-refracting entity, an inhaled echo that is unpleasant and stymied. I haven’t been able to find the headspace where I enjoy or take anything of value from the listening experience or patternation but I appreciate the unique production values and ambitious arrangements.
| ARTIST: | DECOHERENCE |
| TITLE: | System I |
| RELEASE DATE: | May 21st, 2021 |
| LABEL(S): | Sentient Ruin Laboratories |
| BUY/LISTEN: | Bandcamp |
By all means a lot of what inspires Decoherence matches up with my description of Borgne in terms of applying a certain understanding of industrial music (and industrial metal) to black metal but in this case those two elements have completely different timelines and taste in mind. ‘System I’ expands upon this Darkspace and Blut Aus Nord paradigm of industrial black chaos via reverb and punishment and suggests various avenues for both harsh industrial, atmospheric black metal highs, and even some post-punk notions here and there. Most of this consists of shouting and distant vocals from the core, broadly panned and forever echoing dissonant black metal harassment, and electro-blasting drums that find their nuance in the tribal post-industrial evil of 80’s drum machine focused acts. Less interested in groove-able beats than the potential feeling of oppression that came industrial music to start. All of this will make much more sense once you’ve heard their cover of Killing Joke‘s “The Wait” where they are forced to reduce speed and carry the distinctive fullness of the beat to manage some resemblance within progression. From there we can extrapolate how some deconstruction of these elements holds together as a sort of outer spaced atmo-dissonant black metal throb that offers an insane abyssal version of post-punk/industrial influenced music. It sounds like a stretch, but even if that connection is foolish to make on my part this project continues to stun within the unique shaping of each release.
| ARTIST: | YAUTJA |
| TITLE: | The Lurch |
| RELEASE DATE: | May 21st, 2021 |
| LABEL(S): | Relapse Records |
| BUY/LISTEN: | Bandcamp |
Without any prior knowledge of the heavy crossover between math metal and deathgrind in the late 2000’s it might be hard to place exactly what a band like Yautja are doing here on their long awaited second album. Think of this trio as a line drawn between the menacing crawl of Celeste and the anxietous grinding precision of a band like Watchmaker, each using an admixture of tradition and blurring angularity to find the way forward. What ‘The Lurch’ brings beyond the expected mathy hurk n’ jerk sludgecore Yautja are usually up for is a bit more noise rocking clank, which we first drop into on “Wired Depths”, satisfying the precision gnarl of their muscle memory while emphasizing the potential for a sort of sludge rock side of the band, something to evolve away from the currently somewhat passé status of sludgecore. My favorite piece on the album, “Undesirables” pushes this noise rock influenced sound to an extreme really getting the most out of a booming Electrical Audio + Audiosiege render with lots of room for the rhythm section to breathe and stomp. Where the album kind of hits the weeds for my own taste is in the mid-paced sludgy hardcore songs where everything begins to feel wooden, off-kilter in movement to the point that its shambling doesn’t introduce anything surprising or ‘catchy’ enough for any one song to become a statement beyond the noise rock adjacent pieces. There are some major points of brilliance here but I’d found myself at a loss in reflection, not having more than two songs to really keep ahold of.
| ARTIST: | BLESSINGS |
| TITLE: | Biskopskniven |
| RELEASE DATE: | May 21st, 2021 |
| LABEL(S): | Pelagic Records |
| BUY/LISTEN: | Bandcamp |
Gothenburg, Sweden based quartet Blessings quietly self-released this forward thinking and brilliantly presented record back in 2019 to the tune of about 100 vinyl copies and despite the quality of work it didn’t really get noticed until hell year set in so, we’re getting the big Pelagic Records edition here in 2021 and I’d say it was worth the wait. Think of ‘Biskopskniven’ as an darkest nihilistic and introverted turn beyond noise rock/post-hardcore’s live in studio recording ideal towards spaced and desolate post-metal sized arenas. Contemplative and self-destructive but ambitiously over the top and experimentally placed, these compositions are oddly memorable and appealing much along the lines of the most recent Throat record, engaging in some post-metal and sludge-tuned textures to hit a bit deeper. It doesn’t seem like the type of record I’d typically enjoy yet the post-apocalyptic blender of sub-genre and emotionally distraught feeling of it all is impressive. I dunno if it’ll stick with me in the long run but there is some valuable spectacle and inventive craft within this one.
| ARTIST: | VVICHER |
| TITLE: | Czary i Czarty |
| RELEASE DATE: | May 21st, 2021 |
| LABEL(S): | Godz ov War Productions |
| BUY/LISTEN: | Bandcamp |
The restless and wild pagan neofolk theatre of VVicher rolls in like stumble from a rain-soaked funeral into a drum circle to start but, as we set ourselves around the bonfire and join in the surrealistic ritual calms into a loud, insistent sky-channeled event. The resonance of ‘Cazary i Czarty’ is heavily weighted by its vocal work, often irreverent and expressive to match the revere for famous Polish writer/lyricist Julian Tuwin, founder of the experimental Skamander poetic society and the inspiration for VVicher‘s lyrics which are partially taken from Czary i Czarty polskie by Tuwim. This style of music, if we can loosely define it, is bound to create a sense of involvement and “witness” for individual as these three people alongside various vocalists make each piece sound like a gathering of many more. Nothing much to do with black metal as the black/folk tag suggests but a witching feeling persists if you intend to will it into existence.
CHECK THESE OUT TOO
- GRIDFAILURE ft. MAC GALLEHON – Dismemberment Cabaret [May 21st, Nefarious Industries]
- PERVERSOR – Psicomoro [May 21st, Hell’s Headbangers]
- ICE WAR – Sacred Land [May 18th, Fighter Records]
- VIDEO NASTY – Video Nasty [May 21st, Petrichor]
- DIGITAL NEGATIVE – Digital Negative [May 21st, Hostile 1 Tapes]
- END YOU – Aimless Dread [May 21st, Pax Aeternum]
- RES – Strife of Permanence [May 21, American Decline Records]
- MOTHMAN AND THE THUNDERBIRDS – Into the Hollow [May 21st, Self-Released]
- FINAL GASP – Baptism of Desire [May 18th, Helter Skelter/Regain Records] #
If I missed your favorite album from 2020, whoa too late! If you’ve got 2021 digs to whip out E-mail me or hit me up on Instagram if you want me to review it, I’ll consider it.
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