SHORT REVIEWS… collects upcoming releases from the forthcoming month and pursues each one in a paragraph (or two) format. An exercise in inclusivity, this’ll largely speak to records that were able to “sell” me on a second or third look beyond previews. The major goal here is to aid readers/listeners in making their own informed decisions and to discover releases I would otherwise likely not cover, or, have time to cover. Please note that a I’ve left out the “Best of the Month” worthy items because I plan to do full-sized longform reviews for them. Weekly reviews will persist otherwise. If you’d like your upcoming October release to be considered for review please submit all materials by October 1st: grizzlybutts@hotmail.com

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ARTIST:	WALDGEFLÜSTER
TITLE:	Dahoam
TYPE:	LP
RELEASE DATE:	September 24th
LABEL(S):	AOP Records
BUY/STREAM:	Bandcamp

Because I am so prone to step back in time and reflect upon an artist’s entire discography I’ve often found it inescapably unnerving to step from a celebration of the origin, or a remastered/re-recorded point of impetus for a project, and then quickly dive into what is meant to be distinctly modern and brand new music. Old skin is too often shed reluctantly in the extreme metal headspace for the sake of identity over artistic revelation. When tasked with snapping out of the glow of nostalgia and unto the present tense of the artist the disconnect is jarring at the very least. In the case of German quintet Waldgeflüster, whom have long produced an inherently sentimental, intimate and contemplative form of naturalist post-black metal music, their gig has steadfastly clutched an exposed heathen heart with yet reads as their strongest continuity. Moving from the actually very good re-recordings of ‘Stimmen im Wind’ in 2020 to this dramatic opus ‘Dahoam‘ lands with similar mood and mindset yet the transition cannot help but feel like a deep plunge between modus. Not a huge point to make on my part, but nonetheless an important step to take into what I’d consider Waldgeflüster at their most sentimental, accessible and melancholic.

The ‘Dahoam’ experience is a bit like an evening full of slow dances and deep conversations, it all feels entirely adult contemporary in terms of mature, introspective and highly “musical” post-rock influenced black metal ease; A folkish cinematic experience akin to a slice of life independent film with a few odd angles, an uncomfortably close-set presence, and themes which explore a sense of place which expands from the home, society, and most importantly within nature. The use of environmental sound recordings and a fair amount of whispered speech amounts to audio sandpaper (or just bad ASMR) for my own taste but it does provide a liminal advance through the arcing concept or, subjects explored within the lyrics and imagery. As a fan of bands like Panopticon who has admittedly lost touch with that sort of music to some degree, I received this album almost as a generation beyond that project’s mid-2010’s records but obviously having gone in a post-black/dark metal route; Fitting if only in the sense that they’re label-mates with bands like Harakiri For the Sky, and I believe at least one member guests on vocals here. Although my first and most honest reaction was to slam the skip button beyond any whispering and maudlin moments, fighting past the auto-cringe reaction eventually paid off within an immersive, modern and easy-listening post-black metal event.

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ARTIST:	POP. 1280
TITLE:	Museum on the Horizon
TYPE:	LP
RELEASE DATE:	September 24th
LABEL(S):	Profound Lore Records
BUY/STREAM:	Bandcamp

Though we have a sublime salad of worldwide perspectives on post-punk to pick from this September there is no denying Brooklyn, New York-based trio Pop. 1280 are the “it“, the sensory experience to glom onto this month which finds ’em inhabiting their own field of biting sentience on this fifth full-length. Dubbing themselves “electronic punk” yet dipping several well manicured toes into a brilliant blend of industrial, no wave, and post-punk beyond the fairly sparse but well-received ‘Way Station’ (2019), it’ll be hard to see past this record in terms of their greater discography from this point on, ‘Museum on the Horizon‘ feels like the best possible merger between their experimentation with electro-formed rock and eminent signature brain-snatching lyricism. Acerbic and affected with a bit extra snarl to start, they’ve kicked into this one with striding, decidedly nostalgic industrial/electro-rock tones shrugging off a hint of late 80’s Wax Trax! industrial cringe tonality and side-stepping all remnants of their past Swans-esque severity in favor of danceable industrial. I suppose this takes me closer to early 90’s Vancouver B.C. EDM/industrial rock crossover personally but Pop. 1280 do ultimately remain in the realm of post-punk via the vocalist’s acumen and far less minimal landscape to bop around within. Subversive mirrors upon the complacent self crossing wires with tuneful electro post-punk apathy amounts to disaffected body music as a whole, although I would say there is no sense of defeat within ‘Museum on the Horizon’ as the trio deliver a surreal bout of ‘irony into action’ rather than a club-drugged descent into pure misery.

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ARTIST:	VELO MISERE
TITLE:	Monomanía del Inexorable Vacío
TYPE:	LP
RELEASE DATE:	September 15th
LABEL(S):	Lunar Apparitions, Altare
BUY/STREAM:	Bandcamp

If you have not yet fully immersed yourself in the current Portuguese and Spanish black metal elite of today then you are assuredly missing out on some of the more driven, serious and expressive black metal the world over. Of course I intend to make that argument with this debut full-length from Madrid-based quintet Velo Misere whom include amongst their ranks key members of Aversio Humanitatis, Primigenium and what I’d consider a lesser-known rhythmic precursor Eterna Penumbra. If you are familiar with those associations they sprawl between a very modern form of black metal and a most ancient form and this is the appropriate placement for ‘Monomanía del Inexorable Vacío’, an album which is decidedly modern in its fluid and depressive extremism but also distant and raw to such a degree that it feels like an crusty old late 90’s semi-melodic black metal tape at times. The word that comes to mind is “majesty” I suppose, a beautiful yet slightly insane dark artisanship which bears modern fluidity of forms and grotesque classicism at once, something like Celestial Grave or Asgrauw but perhaps not all that similar to either in terms of actual tone or arrangement. The full listen is going to hold fastest with long-standing black traditionalists who’ve found some tangential interest in atmospheric and melodic standouts of the last two decades, ‘Monomanía del Inexorable Vacío’ doesn’t dabble in trends or anything distasteful and instead finds its major distinction in expression itself between a strong balance of guitar violence and melodicism driving the ship as well as a vocalist who goes satisfyingly over the top with some painful and crazed results.

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ARTIST:	ETERITUS
TITLE:	Rotten Transition
TYPE:	LP
RELEASE DATE:	September 24th
LABEL(S):	Godz ov War Productions
BUY/STREAM:	Bandcamp

This north-central Polish death metal band essentially re-staffed entirely beyond drummer Nitro in 2018/2019 after having released two albums which were heavily influenced by Grave, Gorefest and Unleashed or, the sort of 90’s European death metal staples which aged fairly well into the late 90’s and took on some element of groove metal over time. This sound had tuned towards something a bit more modern on ‘Order of Death’ (2018) and this likely prompted the need for change since, so, the change experienced here is not unprecedented but it is fair to say this is a more ‘relaxed’ sort of vibe. ‘Rotten Transition’ seems to directly address this in its title, now incorporating some dark metal/melodic death elements into their tank-like death metal sound. Think a bit closer to Arroganz and further from the early 90’s standards with plenty of interesting pace changes and songwriting that stands out as something new from the band. For my own taste some of the riffs are either too simple or locking into their slower grooves too often but the experience is never trite. The recording itself is their best overall production/sound design, a solid mix that provides plenty of breathing room for the rhythm section. This is still a half-step away from the norm, though, I think they could push much harder into a melodic death angle which we get hints of throughout the full listen and still keep the thunder of their grooves intact. If you’d felt like the previous album was a big step in the right direction ‘Rotten Transition’ serves a bigger, bolder step in that realm.

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ARTIST:	MAXSHH
TITLE:	Bonus Flowers
TYPE:	LP
RELEASE DATE:	September 24th
LABEL(S):	Exploding In Sound Records
BUY/STREAM:	Bandcamp

Though I was hoping to ease this transition into full-ranged, experimental indie folk-pop acoustica with a few less uh, “genre entry” metal albums nearby, no apologies eh as we pull up to this open aired headspace and embrace the composed, poetic jam put forth by Maxshh, a solo project from Max Goldstein whom you might know from mathy indie/art-punks Tundrastomper. We can hear a fair dose of precedence for the material here in the artists other projects via restless varietal sounds, seemingly randomized roots for choices of tone and instrumentation and next to no clear thread binding the full experience. On this largely ‘acoustic’ record Goldstein maintains an aura of a joyous, art-obsessed poet largely interested in free-handing his songcraft. This means even the quiet intimacy of the acoustic-only pieces on ‘Bonus Flowers’ finds the fellow having a bit too much fun. If we could hone in on the major points of interest here within the 13 song / ~50 minute format I’d say the electro-acoustic jam of “Maple Leaf Etc” keys us into the borderless vibe (but steadied mood) of the full listen and “Thanks For the Crabapples” is an island-easy high impact first impression to make alongside “Nature I Guess”, but the album as a whole doesn’t really click for me outside of those pieces beyond the cockeyed “Achilles Second Stand”, which I found myself going back for a few more times. Maxshh‘s kaleidoscopic oeuvre is somehow rarely at odds with their introverted performances otherwise, landing ‘Bonus Flowers’ as an engaging yet unsteady listen. If the strong use of harmonized vocal and left-of-center rhythmic choices were more roundly capitalized here as the strength and feature of the songcraft within the greater experimental exuberance on display could land with some exponential impact. As is, this is a ‘silent waters run deep’ sort of experience where a bigger personality arises than is expected.

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ARTIST:	RISE TO THE SKY
TITLE:	Per Aspera Ad Astra
TYPE:	LP
RELEASE DATE:	September 3rd
LABEL(S):	GS Productions
BUY/STREAM:	Bandcamp

This is actually the third album I’ve received from Chilean atmospheric/melodic death/doom metal solo act Rise to the Sky this year, including a late submission of ‘Death Will Not Keep Us Apart’ (2020) early in the year as well as two more full-lengths released in 2021, this being the most recent one of the two. ‘Per Aspera Ad Astra’ is the overall fourth full-length from the project which comes by way of musician Sergio G., active under this name since 2019. If you didn’t know, now you do, eh. Up to this point he has found a reasonable and easily iterated upon formula for this form of ‘dark metal’ which involves an extra-slow reveal of modern melodic death metal progression set to uplift. Records in this style are rarely achieve a personal touch and arrive in some abundance each year and I would generally say there is nothing particularly notable or ‘signature’ about Rise to the Sky‘s sound, style or performances just yet. So, having found a reasonable palette to work with on his own, the artist has done an acceptable job translating his intent into professional enough full-lengths up to this point and this latest record is no exception. We could generally look to Clouds, October Tide, and Officium Triste for the general ideal here but still noting that these bands have their own distinct sense of movement. Though it seems the inspiration for this one is quite personal and the artist admirably wears his heart on his sleeve within the emotional subject therein (the death of his father, and musing upon what our loved ones leave behind) the music itself is still somewhat generic for my own taste. The acoustic arrangements, keyboard-driven elements, and clean vocals on songs like “Bleeding Heart” are a nice step-up in terms of bells-and-whistles and sombre atmosphere but this only serves to add a layer of pretty lace to the classics. It is a completely acceptable and professional melodic death/doom metal album “for fans of” but the artist has congested my windpipe with several hours of this same sound within a short period of time and this is simply passable work to fill the air with.

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ARTIST:	COSMIC BURIAL
TITLE:	…To the Past
TYPE:	LP
RELEASE DATE:	September 30th
LABEL(S):	Purity Through Fire
BUY/STREAM:	Bandcamp

This is the second full-length from stargazing instrumental post-black artist Cosmic Burial, an surprisingly sentimental voice from German black metal musician V.V. whom you should know from Valosta Varjoon and Nachtig at this point if you follow Purity Through Fire‘s strong stream of regular releases. The format here is fairly simple and predictably composed with a minimum of 2-3 guitars voicing post-rock influenced guitar music not unlike Unreqvited, Skyforest, and the lighter fare from that pathway which is of course literally just cinematically orchestrated depressive rock music and not really “metal” in the slightest. My interest in this form of music is generally limited to semblances of Austere and a few other similar artists that broke through in the early 2000’s and only when it breaks into strong melodic statements rather than uplifting tremolo-riff shimmering porn. ‘…To the Past’ almost gets there in terms of complete melodic statements, sticking with sub-genre normative statements and an expected tone of optimistic ‘prettiness’ throughout. I’d like to see even more of the synth/keyboards used on “Alpha Carinae” or, anything to break up the directive streams of guitar work on the ~10 minute stretches of each piece. Soaring for such an extended period of time eventually makes a nutjob like me want to crash and burn in an awful blaze of glory, and that’d been the missing part of the experience here for my own taste.

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ARTIST:	THE TROOPS OF DOOM
TITLE:	The Absence of Light
TYPE:	EP
RELEASE DATE:	September 17th
LABEL(S):	Blood Blast
BUY/STREAM:	Website

As often as we’ve seen Sepultura (and their former original members) push back in time to the 80’s output this last decade it has never landed as more than half-hearted nostalgia and a sort of basic fan service. Nothing wrong with that, of course a few of them were innovators well beyond that point. In terms of Jairo “Tormentor” Guedz, who’d left the band during the songwriting process for (my favorite metal album of all time) ‘Schizophrenia’ it wasn’t as if he’d fallen off the face of the earth and he’d certainly not avoided that sort of thrash metal having spent years in the underrated The Mist and eventually working with groove metal acts Overdose and Eminence but The Troops of Doom is his first attempt at recapturing the fire of that early teenaged death-thrasher legacy quite a few decades later. Having proven this crew could pull this stuff off with 2020’s ‘The Rise of Heresy’, this follow up EP acts as strong enough reinforcement that this project is in fact, a good idea. Well, at least five records label agree.

Since this two song (+ another early Sepultura cover) EP brings a strong approximation of that unsacred merger between mid-80’s thrash metal and emergent extreme metal attack in the late 80’s it is safe to say they’ve done it again. The riffs aren’t overly complicated here, never pushing beyond a ‘Ride the Lightning’ meets ‘Morbid Tales’ level of bestial bombast but obviously slick and clean as hell compared to the eldest stuff they’re drawing from. The thrash breakdown in the last third of “The Devil’s Tail” is the standout moment and the (early) Testament cadence (from Jeff Becerra, apparently) of “Act II – The Monarch” makes way for some ‘Chaos A.D.’-esque harmonics and hardcore grooves later on which eh, aren’t fantastic but at least they’ve kept the energy up. In the rush to be fast, hard and ‘old school’ these songs forget to be clever and this really comes to light when their cover of “Antichrist” gets the attack just right for a somewhat deflating “show ’em how” kinda moment. Don’t jump off the boat just yet because they’ve included some demo tracks and this is where we hear the bones of the songs screaming their true selves, indicating that the final result is overproduced… at least for my own taste compared to these demo tracks. Though I understand the need for ultra-polished results for the worldwide market, I’ll end up listening to these raw, stripped down demo tracks a hundred times more than the final product.

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ARTIST:	WOODEN THRONE
TITLE:	Under the Moon They Wander Until Fading Away
TYPE:	LP
RELEASE DATE:	September 30th
LABEL(S):	Purity Through Fire
BUY/STREAM:	Store

Since I am an enduring fan of Mikko Lehto‘s work in October Falls and this appears to be largely a solo or just self-directed project from the fellow I’d definitely gone running to check this debut from Wooden Throne once it’d become available and, unsurprisingly, ‘Under the Moon They Wander Until Fading Away’ does feature his distinct hand upon sorrowful grandeur in this project as well. The suggestion is that the eye of the muse turns from the ancient forest upwards to the celestial bloom of the sky in the night for this project, aiming for sky-filling atmospheric melodrama and an ‘epic’ sense of movement. Thankfully this isn’t code for “post-gaze” or whatever and instead indicates a very deliberate atmospheric black metal pacing and an avoidance of the pedestrian melodic clichés and crescendo abuse we often find within this ethereal headspace. Expect weightily draped synth work, a Lustre-esque sense of pacing, and the piano as an important part of the melodic voicing available here. Everything, well, most everything here builds up to the climax of “Return Into Shadows” as if intending a last hurrah for the spirits of the night before the sun re-emerges and this piece tended to have a revelatory effect in terms of the greater feel of the full listen. If a black metal album must make me feel good, which I’d rather they did not (at all), I do prefer it arrives with immense fanfare of this highest caliber, a grand flood to storm over the panoramic vista illustrated on previous pieces. My only criticism of the full listen is that it needed two of these mountainous moments of sublimity rather than one at the apex. This is probably the album I’d recommend most to atmospheric black metal listeners this month.

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ARTIST:	SHADECROWN
TITLE:	Solitarian
TYPE:	LP
RELEASE DATE:	September 17th
LABEL(S):	Inverse Records
BUY/STREAM:	Store

This third full-length from central Finnish death metal sextet Shadecrown leans heavily on the keyboards for their own brand of up-tempo “symphonic” melodic death metal, balancing the melodic death/doom metal style they’ve lead with in the past with something a bit more uniquely Finnish, er, a “fun” sort of melodramatic atmosphere. ‘Solitarian’ being their third full-length in the last ten years, it does appear to be their boldest stab at an accessible ‘melodic metal’ sound up to this point thanks to a mixture of symphonic groove/progressive metal movement and slower death/doom metal passages. This style is more or less informed by popular acts like Swallow the Sun and perhaps Insomnium but certainly more niche in terms of their preferred choice of keyboard tones and such. The resulting sound is fairly unique but the tone of the album is notably conflicted for my own taste, somewhere between progressive metal glossiness and tragedian melodeath melancholy which never quite landed upon me squarely enough. A decent album but it didn’t make it past the third listen in my hands.

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ARTIST:	THE ELECTRIC MUD
TITLE:	Black Wool
TYPE:	EP
RELEASE DATE:	September 25th
LABEL(S):	Small Stone Recordings
BUY/STREAM:	Store

Since I’d missed the previous release from Floridian stoner rock band The Electric Mud in 2020 I figured I’d give their latest EP some due attention this month and, well, I’ve no real reaction to ‘Black Wool’ here beyond appreciating a few killer riffs and a decent cover of Corrosion of Conformity‘s infamous single “Albatross”. Now more than ever I’d say these guys come across like an average ‘retro’ heavy blues rock band than anything else whereas ‘Burn the Ships’ had suggested an interesting southern rock tinged stoner rock/metal spectrum. These recordings are presented naked and stripped clean of that live-resonant sound. Nothing wrong with that but the performances, particularly the vocals, are a bit flat and because of this we don’t get much fire behind the eyes ’til the Allman Brothers Band cover at the end of these four songs pulls it out of ’em. Not the best second impression for my own taste but it did get me to go digging for my copy of ‘Deliverance’.

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ARTIST:	INFRARED
TITLE:	From the Black Swamp
TYPE:	EP
RELEASE DATE:	September 30th
LABEL(S):	Inframental Records
BUY/STREAM:	Bandcamp

Ottawa, Ontario classic thrashers Infrared continue to nail peak late 80’s Bay Area thrash metal style since reforming back in 2014. This is the third one they’ve put out and it upholds a specific speed metal sound which draws from classic British heavy metal and lands somewhere in the realm of Heathen, Slayer, and Artillery. They didn’t need to change a thing to pull this one off and instead of messing with too many wild melodic ideas they’ve pretty much just punched out an hour’s worth of riff-focused songs. Still plenty of groove, some interesting guitar tricks, and a generally political lyric focus keep things interesting but most of the listening experience is just about working out a handful of solid riffs per song. Don’t have much more to really dig into beyond that point.

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ARTIST:	NAGASAKI SUNRISE
TITLE:	Distalgia
TYPE:	LP
RELEASE DATE:	September 11th
LABEL(S):	Monolith Records
BUY/STREAM:	Bandcamp

This one kinda blew my mind once I’d actually sat down with it. It is rare that I’ll get a short e-mail with a Bandcamp link and actually follow through, gimme a copy or a code, eh? But in this case anthemic, melodic, and thrashing metalpunk from members of Midnight Priest was just too fuckin’ good a prospect to overlook. Think of it like a power metal band’s idea of what English Dogs were doing on ‘Where Legend Began’ but taken to a fresh extreme — Storming heavy metal delivered with a punch of melodic Japanese crust, plenty of wailing leads and harmonized choruses. Tons of reverb and blazing fast performances set all the thunder behind the imposing vocals, which generally follow the melodic direction of the lead guitars. This is an essential release for my own taste this month and it’ll likely end up on the end of the month list, I just didn’t have time to fit a full review in my schedule since I didn’t get it until the day of release. Will have more to say about this one sooner or later but for now, you need this if you love 80’s hardcore punk/crust and classic heavy metal.

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ARTIST:	INFIDEL REICH
TITLE:	N.W.O. New World Outrage
TYPE:	LP
RELEASE DATE:	September 24th
LABEL(S):	Raw Skull Recordz
BUY/STREAM:	Store

Although it would be kinda funny to just kinda “Ok, boomer” at a politically charged 2021 death/thrash metal record from classic underground musicians, folks you’ll recognize from Acheron and Asphyx among others, because they’ve taken it serious here but hey, this second full-length from Infidel Reich is actually pretty damned violent riff-wise and brings an admirably fiery metalpunk and ‘evil’ thrash inspiration to their death metal music this time around. To my ear they’re a shade closer to Deceased or, at least moreso than anything else that comes to mind due to Vincent Crowley‘s vocals and a good mix of punkish brutal death/thrashers, big heavy metal riffs, and a few slower pieces. Trouble is, that is basically all I’ve got in the tank for this one — A solid record that wants to provoke but doesn’t really say anything all that crazy. Drums are on point with a flat-hammered double-bass sound, guitars are a bit too juiced-up with mids for my taste, they could punch the speed up and away from the hardcorish slow chunked riffs here and there but overall this is a pretty straight forward ripper without any big warts showing. Definitely worth checking out.

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