SHORT REVIEWS Our second set of June 2022 releases finds us outside of the usual Summer glut, a lot of delayed vinyl releases landing where they normally wouldn’t, random reissues, various well past digital release records which have no hope of selling, and a shit-ton of records getting their spot in the sun before the rest of the year starts to kick in. Way more to follow on our third set next week. Lots to look forward to in July, too. I’ve done my best to grab ahold of the most interesting stuff I come across while still presenting some decent variety here, but it boils down to what sticks or just happens to be worth writing about. If you find something you dig in the lot of ’em, go tell the band on social media and support them with a purchase. The arts require your support and/or own contributions. If you’d like your music reviewed send promos to: grizzlybutts@hotmail.com

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Info:
ARTIST:	SERGEANT THUNDERHOOF
TITLE:	This Sceptered Veil
LABEL(S):	Pale Wizard Records
RELEASE DATE:	June 3rd, 2022

Boosted by an overflowing Kickstarter campaign alongside ‘ready set support from their (vocalist’s) label Bath, England-based heavy rock quartet Sergeant Thunderhoof must’ve felt some serious pressure to deliver their biggest, best album to date in their big-deal third double LP ‘This Sceptered Veil‘. In terms of notably accessible psychedelic doom-tinged heavy blues rock of the arguably pretty modern variety they’ve certainly delivered a soulful yet entirely glossy result without any (musical) nostalgia to pull in those whom aren’t in the know with their discography thus far… I say this because I’d not been at all familiar with their gig until this album dropped on me about a week past release. Anyhow, the style here is progressive rock and psychedelic doom influenced in terms of long and involved pieces which are patiently reveals through theatric performances. The crux of the band’s appeal is their slightly impressionistic touch upon bluesy stoner rock/metal expression, not exactly morbid doom metal or whatever but certainly the sort of music that drops from old pros rather than green saps and squarely on the modern but not mainstream rock spectrum.

You’ll not a find much of a corner to cower in if you’re looking to escape the ebullient, (again) soulful vocals of Daniel Flitcroft which are studio-juiced to a crystalline degree to emphasize his ability to carry a tune with plenty of well-sustained highs hit throughout each typically longform piece of this ~69 minute record. He’s got the right inflection for the subject matter here, which touches upon local (southwestern England) folklore and history in the way a season of Doctor Who might’ve sans any alien love interests as far as I can tell and starring their own titular Sergeant Thunderhoof. These folks are at their best within the longer, slowly developed songs by my gauge, having particularly enjoyed the two part “Avon & Avalon” piece(s) that close the album alongside the charged “Foreigner” and opener “You’ve Stolen the Words”. The ride they take is the reason to show up for this record and the excess which Sergeant Thunderhoof serve is felt rather than dealt along the way. The 4-6 minute stoner rock/metal pieces are just fine otherwise, some a bit too ‘Y2K alt-metal’ for my taste (“Absolute Blue”) while the whole of the record more or less balances this effect out. Fans of the proggier side of Wo Fat, The Sword, and their buddies Howling Giant will be in for it. It has been a “just alright” ride on my part, probably because I’d needed to check into their past three records.

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Info:
ARTIST:	ESOCTRILIHUM
TITLE:	Consecration of the Spiritus Flesh
LABEL(S):	I, Voidhanger Records
RELEASE DATE:	June 17th, 2022

Cutting the length of this umpteenth venture in a row down to about ~40 minutes and focusing on abrasive tones and blisteringly sped violence up front turns out to level the playing field a bit here as this French solo artist releases a quite respectable yet somewhat musically average set of songs, at least if we consider his own standard set thus far. Most of ‘Consecration of the Spiritus Flesh‘ reads a bit like Blut Aus Nord and Abigor at their most chaotic and mechanical, not exactly resorting to gabber beats, dissoblack, or techno-black for excess but simply cranking the programmed drums to 666 and attacking it with a pastiche of guitar overdubs, various howls, and some brutal directionality when called for. This all works out just fine but songs like “Therth” and “Sydtg” reinforce the idea that the melodic and psych-folkish side of Esoctrilihum is where the lasting goods are and that the brutality of this record only serves to obscure a lack of ideas in that department, from my point of view of course. Don’t get me wrong, though, I think the overall experiment here works as a momentarily shockingly over the top venture which emits a truly painful, ear-killing din at every turn but it feels as if the man of a thousand ideas has focused on just one “OK” idea too intently. ‘Eternity Of Shaog‘ remains my favorite release from the artist, so figure your own interest from there.

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Info:
ARTIST:	ATRAMENTUM
TITLE:	Through Fire, Everything is Renewed
LABEL(S):	Invictus Productions
RELEASE DATE:	June 17th, 2022

Back in 2017 U.K./Egypt based Satanic orthodox black metal project Atramentum had promised that their debut ‘Aischrolatry‘ was indicative of intent but not their intended production and performance values, in this sense we can treat it as a bit of demonstration in the form of a pretty solid all around hourlong debut. With the maestro Frater XI having stated his influences (Deathspell Omega, Aosoth, Malign, Ofermod) of the Swedish and French variety up front the intent of his work being tribute provides context enough for what to expect from this more professionally presented second full-length. The major medium here is yet rooted in dissonant black metal guitar work, gnarled phrases and plentiful rhythmic play centered around the almost free-form shred from drummer Jehannum (ex-Imha Tarikat). The interplay between the two isn’t always in precision sync and this makes for something irreconcilably human about their touch, a bit possessed as the full listen drones on within its volcanic 6-7 minute per vignette (or, ritual) format. Some thoughts are wondrously complete as they resolve in unexpected ways (“III”) and others use iteration and repetition in seeking a path set nowhere in particular (“VI”) but the general sensation created by the full listen is one that intensifies in its religious fervor as it progresses, hitting the point of revelation on the plateau of “VIII”. I dunno if the band have hit upon their masterpiece yet, this record is still figuring out how all of the pieces fit together mechanically speaking and the dissonant edge of he guitar work doesn’t serve the songcraft in any clever way, but conviction and some inventive craft go a long way towards making ‘Through Fire, Everything is Renewed‘ a fine enough black metal album.

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Info:
ARTIST:	HILNING
TITLE:	Råtijinn [CD version]
LABEL(S):	Suicide Records
RELEASE DATE:	June 17th, 2022

Originally self-released digitally back in February of this year this fine pagan black metal full-length debut comes from Aldriendir (Afgrund, Besvärjelsen, etc.), a fairly well known musician from the very small town of Nås, Sweden. The major inspiration for this record seems to stem from isolation’s push into greater appreciation for the wilderness that surrounds the artist, a rural area with a river running through it, though the fellow isn’t new to extreme metal by any stretch. Rather than getting the usual “Black metal seems a bit easy, lets try it” record you might expect from an established artist during their downtime this fellow showcases some strong insight into atmospheric/pagan black metal sound design and some strong use of harmonized guitar arrangements (“Finnmarkens Sista Rebell”), ending up with a sound that is distant, introspective and thoughtful rather than raw and naïve, despite a few ventures into synth that do feel a bit nostalgic (“Ukko”). With consideration for the whole of the album intending to be evocative of a certain Swedish landskap there are a few moments which do drift into a sort of Lustre sort of cushioned vibe whereas most of the album soldiers on in an understated yet fast-paced sort of way, the sort of bustle you’d expect from paganistic black metal with an organic, Nordic folken edge. Though I’d not been entirely won over to start, songs like “Spårlöst Försvunnen” have a simple sort of catchiness to their experiment which’d had me returning for a few repeat listens beyond first contact. This project certainly calls for iteration and exploration beyond, if not for its meditative qualities for the great potential of the various modes and ideas being touched upon throughout the journey, all of which could be exploded into bigger or even more subtle venture. Also the album cover is kinda fuckin’ weird and I’d appreciated that.

https://suiciderecordsswe.bandcamp.com/album/r-tijinn

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Info:
ARTIST:	BOTGORELSEN
TITLE:	Att Kuva det Upproriska Köttet
LABEL(S):	Onism Productions
RELEASE DATE:	June 21st, 2022

Though they’d formed as an entity in 2015 Botgörelsen first left the nuclear woods by the sea in
Oskarshamn (southeastern Sweden) circa 2019 for a digital single/demo song and began bloodying their hands in craft of this debut full-length soon after. It’d been self-released digitally in May of 2021 and now finds its way to CD and Cassette by way of U.K.-based black metal artisans Onism Productions this month. The pitch for this album comes by way of its more distinct paganistic black metal traits in combination with more ‘modern’ depressive and post-black elements and this certainly makes sense beneath a lens of general atmospheric black metal point-of-view, each piece has its own tangent based off of a clear interest in the more lush, despondent side of modern black metal which fans of groups like Iskandr and stuff like Fell Voices will appreciate. The tone of the experience is yet consistent and droning, never quite as depraved or serious-faced as it must intend to be beyond the larger exhaustion of closer “Skänklåt till solen”. A fine enough gem with an adventurous spirit and strong grasp of atmospheric commotion. Though I’d like to see what they could do with something shorter, more consistently driven to a central point of impact, the drift of it all is enjoyable.

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Info:
ARTIST:	SORCERY
TITLE:	Stunt Rock [Reissue]
LABEL(S):	RidingEasy Records
RELEASE DATE:	June 17, 2022

The whole Sorcery saga is fit for the big screen and eh, I guess what I mean is that no matter what this band did from 1975-1987 they were aiming to be immortalized in both wax, the boob tube and the silver screen, having gotten their major break as key feature for the sort of hip-shot “Stunt man meets theatric rock band, wild shit fires off” film Stunt Rock (1978) featuring infamous Australian stuntman Grant Page and well, not much of a plot beyond countless stunts, big concerts and a bit of a love interest developing between a journalist and Page. The band also featured on the horror film Rocktober Blood (1984) and their third (?) album was the soundtrack to that film as well, so, the precedence had been set with nowhere to really go from that point beyond a “serious” recording career but I’d imagine they were caught between worlds and generations as an LA band without a hair metal transition to make in the mid-80’s.

Though they were never portrayed as a Spinal Tap level goof, Sorcery tend to be remembered as a sort of made for the movies heavy rock band, though their debut record was timely enough as a catchy high fantasy themed record from an arena show thinkin’, big show kinda band. Long story short, these songs hold up pretty well and they’ve been issued a few times over the years but they’re due for a re-up and RidingEasy are here for it. The movie might be a sort of “B movie” big dumb fun kind of thing, and it has held up well due to special interest/nostalgic home video releases in hindsight but it’d be fair to say that ‘Stunt Rock‘ the album still deserves another around of applause, especially if you’re into that late 70’s era of Kiss, Alice Cooper, and even nearby Priest if we except the buzzsaw of ‘Killing Machine‘ at that point. Anyhow, their songcraft deserves a go if you’ve never heard it before and I guarantee any fan of classic 70’s rock will appreciate Sorcery as more than a creature feature spectacle or, typical characterization of rock n’ roll excess.

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Info:
ARTIST:	MERCYLESS HAMMER
TITLE:	Demo MMXXII [Cassette]
LABEL(S):	Bent Window Records
RELEASE DATE:	June 10th, 2022

Mercyless Hammer is a thrash metal project out of Stockholm, Sweden whom I believe were a duo for this particular recording, a four song ~12 minute first demo which had been released digitally back in April of this year and now makes it to its proper cassette format. The riffs are there well enough, vocalist/guitarist Blasphemous Hellfire has a nice custom lookin’ Kelly (X?) in his hand on the promo photo, and I’m all about that the Teutonic-but-revisionist style of mid-to-fast paced punkish speed metal aggression of these songs. The drum performances are completely on point here and the bass guitar tone is well placed with a properly physical presence in the fracas but the vocals haven’t found their conviction just yet. It is a demo after all but the bite at the words wasn’t quite there for me, beyond that the major praise to give here is that all of the moving parts absolutely function as intended, conjuring the right sort of post-‘Hell Awaits‘ blackened thrash metal storm you’d expect looking at the cover and the only thing lacking from my point of view is a savage attack. “Vision Immolation” hits it hardest here and makes up for the odd diction of the first two songs with a slightly more rabid attack, so I know they’re on their way to it either way. The riffs on “Bestial Termination” suggest this isn’t going to be a dull-ass Midnight wanna crew when it comes together and I’m looking forward to that, or wherever they take it next.

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Info:
ARTIST:	CONSECRATION
TITLE:	Cinis
LABEL(S):	Redefining Darkness Records
RELEASE DATE:	June 17th, 2022

Norvician quintet Consecration formed just over a decade ago having largely coughed up their own form of gothic/romanticist-adjacent death/doom metal since with the line-up making adjustments here and there over the course. Their roll seems to have steadied and their style has focused a bit since roughly 2018 or so with their second and now third albums achieving a darker, heavier take on the gushy and sorrowful edge of U.K. death/doom metal traditions. The easy comparison to make is perhaps early Mourning Beloveth and the first records from Novembers Doom and Celestial Season, the generation built beyond ‘Lost Paradise’, at least from my perspective. This record is blunt and bellowing to start, lumbering and roaring with a bit of a hiss here and there like a great distempered beast yet the sentimental side of the band ebbs in to intensity around “Embrace of Perpetual Mourning”, an ~11 minute showcase for their own version of the “Peaceville three” idea and, I guess what I’d call an honest performance since we don’t get their work drenched in effects or overdone with a thousand takes as far as I can tell. Some of the leads have a few hanging ends with don’t fully resolve but only because I’d been expecting fully rounded consonance when it did begin to crop up. Otherwise I’d appreciated that they kicked into a few faster, quicker pieces here and there to build up the nerve of the full listen. Though I’d felt the longer pieces were the purposeful focus of the experience and the rest only gilded-up each session, this is probably the best overall work from the band with a consistent throughway to the end. Nothing too out of the ordinary at face value but that’ll hardly matter if they end up getting you to the right destination.

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Info:
ARTIST:	THE SWELL FELLAS
TITLE:	Novaturia
LABEL(S):	Self-Released
RELEASE DATE:	June 17th, 2022

Maryland-borne and now Tennessee-based heavy psychedelic rock trio The Swell Fellas flipped a lot of lids with their celebrated debut ‘The Big Grand Entrance‘ back in early 2020 as a confident yet introspective sort of jam, heady but landing a few Rush-esque moments here and there due to their fairly accessible rock habits going in, their trajectory was sort of on the prog-stoner end of things from my point of view. By some sharp contrast thier latest EP ‘Novaturia‘ is a heavier, more ready to bare it all sort of gig with Mark Rohrer‘s bass performances making the shift from groovy feature on the first album to brutal, heavier fuzz-buster jogs. We’d had some preview of this bigger sound on their previous EP but they’ve gone louder and doubly expressive here on ‘Novaturia‘. I’ve enjoyed this shift in moodiness and found the doomier, stoner-metallic side of the band (which we get the most of on “Wet Cement”) holds up well to repeated listening. If you are a big All Them Witches fan like I am, check these guys out. Only thing I’d ding ’em on is the cover art, yeesh.

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Info:
ARTIST:	DINBETHES
TITLE:	Balans
LABEL(S):	Babylon Doom Cult Records
RELEASE DATE:	June 17th, 2022

Although the inspiration for Dinbethes‘ sound is as transparent as the inspiration for the image they’ve used as the cover art for ‘Balans‘ each arrives with some evocative taste in hand and an inarguably professional, expressive atmospheric black metal record with an inventive touch is our ultimate result. If you’re keen on the mountain-gazing reach of Turia and Tardigradia you’re at least in the right ballpark of folks keen to what this record masterminded by J. (Weerzin, Shagor) is generally leaning into, atmosphere with a bit of muscle put into its riffing with triumphal and/or introspective rhythms which transport rather than transcend. “Geboren” is the song that’ll sell the album from my perspective, something a bit punkish to start, and even a bit death metal at a certain point, but all of it expressing a mystic guile as it peaks into chorale in the last third. If you’re not convinced at that point entirely the ~11 minute title track that closes the album should be able to push this one from “good to great” for most. The listening experience is melodramatic enough that the ~35 minute length of ‘Balans‘ is just right, almost reaching the point of overstimulating their core idea while still presenting a charged, not at all nonchalant experience.

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Info:
ARTIST:	MERIHEM
TITLE:	Incendiary Darkness
LABEL(S):	I, Voidhanger Records
RELEASE DATE:	June 17th, 2022

Named for a prince of Hell most often connected to the conjuration of pestilence Merihem is a black metal quintet and side-project formed between members of Oculus, Suffering Hour and Israthoum. These folks clearly know what they are doing and the level of skill applied to these rather slick trips through Qliphoth-directed visions presents an intense and very clear point of view, this sets the stakes high from the get-go with long and involved pieces akin to peak Satanic orthodox black metal of the less dissonant variety. The stream of irate consciousness created here threatens to not take any too-unexpected turns in its initial development of tonality and pace with exquisitely involved opener “Crimson Communion” blazing through its movements ’til vocalist Tiúval begins to explore more of his range and vocal arrangement skills, which set a unique tone for each of the five 7-8 minute songs on offer. If you are a fan of Suffering Hour in particular you’ll find YhA‘s signature all over certain pieces here, such as “Three Times A Legion”, and though this didn’t derive from the greater experience I figure the next step for this band is to deeper blend each of their emphatic persona into one unique stream. They’re almost there with most of these songs with “Actors of Omega” and its Bølzer-esque delirium edging their sound into brilliancy. An impressive debut which deserves iteration and elaboration of forms.

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Info:
ARTIST:	MUSTAN KUUN LAPSET
TITLE:	Suruntuoja [Remaster]
LABEL(S):	Inverse Records
RELEASE DATE:	June 10th, 2022

So, fair enough if the cover of this album won’t ever win you over. Likewise it’d be fair to say that if you don’t know any Finnish, or you wouldn’t bother to translate, it’ll all read as alien text to you but I would nonetheless highly recommend that these mental shackles be cast off so that you might appreciate the melodic black/death metal romanticist majesty that is early Mustan Kuun Lapset. There were many of a certain type and ‘scene’ in late 90’s Finnish melodic metal but there were two outliers (besides unholy Moonsorrow) which I’d always found far more evocative than the most in Black Swan‘s ‘When the Angels of Twilight Dance‘ and Mustan Kuun Lapset‘s ‘Suruntuoja‘. Ok, Thy Serpent and a few others count too but hey, trying to make a point here… Of course the two albums are very different but the reason for their paired mention is to suggest sometimes it ends up being the weirdos we choose out of the glut of a thousand releases which hold up better than a lot of the big-at-the-time classics the masses have deemed essential. This was admittedly an era where the extra fifteen bucks I had that month to buy two used CDs back in 2003 meant I’d listen to both a hundred times over the next several months.

Anyhow these guys were melodic black metal to start with a rabid A Canorous Quintet-esque and melodeath-adjacent warmth with a fair amount of atmospheric keyboard work guiding their sound into the surreal. The icy and dramatic lead guitar driven landscapes they’d create lent themselves well to a twisted, riff-focused and aggressive form of deeply sentimental melodic metal and I’d say ‘Suruntuoja‘ is the first peak in cumulation of what they’d done with their demos and early material. Though there are some major gems in their formative 90’s work this is the hungriest and heaviest output from the band. If you preview it and find it to be, well, just another meloblack record definitely take the time to let it breathe since these guys had plenty of tricks up their sleeve, such as the almost Hellenic black/melodeath charging of “Sodoman ilmestys”. As far as personal favorites “Ennen Unta” and “Seremonia” are where I go most often. There are a host of bonus tracks included here as well with three rehearsal songs from 2000 and two live renditions from 2016. Probably not an essential album for most but a real gem from a band fans of classic melodic black/death metal should at least know.

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