SHORT REVIEWS Our fourteenth edition of Short Reviews for 2023 finds us selecting our first batch of new releases for April and I’d say there are at least a few great things coming up in the next week. I’ve done my best to showcase the most interesting works that I come across while still presenting some decent variety here but choices boil down to what sticks, what inspires or what is worth writing about. These are more easygoing than longform reviews, so relax and think for yourself — If you find something you dig go tell the band on social media and support them with a purchase! If you’d like your music reviewed, read the FAQ and send promos to: grizzlybutts@hotmail.com

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The Crooked Whispers began as a “satanic psychedelic doom” trio which originally included members of Argentinian stoner metal/rock groups Luciferica and LáGoon alongside Chad Davis (Hour of 13) and you may recall their popular debut LP ‘Satanic Melodies‘ from back in 2020, which I’d not heard until Regain Records reissued it a bit later on. Davis has since left the band and now Federico Ramos of Avernal takes his place for this second full-length. The obvious reference to make when approaching this record is of course Burning Witch if only for the sake of the witching rasp of the vocals and slower paced traditional doom metal rub of their riffs, though to be clear this is not a sludge record per se. The hackles-up cackle of the vocals will be a lot for most folks to handle even if the proper dirge n’ riff of the guitar work is a righteous focus throughout but anyone prone to something a bit different and looking for a thrill beyond the norm should find something to like on ‘Funeral Blues‘. There is just enough of a strange edge to the experience that it manages to be memorable with a sort of acquired taste situation going on. Definitely the type of record I’d enjoyed more in bursts rather than left on repeat but there are a few exceptional songs on here which more than live up to the promise of their debut. Highlights: “Pleasant Death”, “Stay in Hell”, “When Nothing is Left”.

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Pop culture might’ve drained the early-to-mid 70’s heavy rock zeitgeist of its protesting heart and blues-driven soul unto a commercial-grade set of anthems for an aging generation in denial, ha, but there are yet a few rare instances of nostalgic/retro songwriting which still connects with reality in a very ‘classic’ way. On this fourth full-length Brooklyn, New York-based trio The Golden Grass re-establish themselves with a greatest riffs sort of approach to the drive of bluesy southern rock guitar’s endless ride, a lightly distressed shake of 70’s glam, and even a nudge of proto-metal kicking about in their gig. No, it isn’t Molly Hatchet playing New York Dolls songs thought they could probably pull that off, nor do they manage to make full on yacht rock of this record as was the case with LP number three, but instead think along the lines of the more anthemic side of The Allman Brothers Band, Budgie at their loosest pre-80’s stance and throw in the ease of Mountain and you’re somewhere in the right range. That’ll all be obvious enough and from my point of view none of it’d be all that interesting if the guitar work wasn’t well above average and the lyrics weren’t as clever as they are. No doubt it’ll sound dumb as hell on my part but, The Golden Grass actually “rock” in a practical sense, the movement of this music is undeniably there and that sets ’em a league ahead of so many farmed-up stylistic studies on the classics which rely on nostalgia more than they do songwriting. In this case these folks are tits deep in their craft and it shows, this’ll be the album to recall as the one where they’d find their greater unease and harnessed it into memorable songs. Highlights: “Howlin”, “A Peculiar Situation”, “Island In Your Head”.

Atemporal is a solo project from Vancouver, British Colombia-based musician Sebastian Montesi who is best known for his work with Auroch, Mitochondrion and more recently Egregore. Here we’re treated to an impure and decidedly naked example of his mind for composition without any particular borders implied. ‘Thorn Genesis‘ reads as an implication of several very grand ideas formed into too-succinct illustration, there is some sense that this is the truncated and honed result of sessions which only just breach the surface with their most regal, or dissonant, trait before arriving at a “point” or just a point of breaking. There should be some immediate sense of disjointed, occasionally polyrhythmic, and ‘avant-garde’ elements which are glaring within the demo-level anti-design of the album’s sound which finds the hammering of what I assume are programmed or electronic drums feeling like a very loud placeholder. The hollowed out ringing of ~2-3 main guitar tracks often paint the same canvas in unison, making for an abstract black/death metal experience with layers braced with bestial/grinding breaks (“Draped in Abyssal Fire”) as often as there is an austere heavy metal grace leading the way.

Much of this album initially appears chaotic but it is often the unusual chord choices which too heartily feed this impression, much in the same way Ghoulgotha used broken voices for phrasing a few key parts of this album stray into the skronking, cryptid realm without much warning and I enjoyed this aspect of their sound the most. If presented anonymously I’d probably have viewed this record as some outsider savant magickry more readily, here I’ve hesitated to indulge too deeply of this debut showcase if only because they’ve done so little to tame the drum mechanism. There’ll be no denying the greatness of the ~16.5 minute closer “Backward Down the Thorny Path”, though, and this should be the most effective way to immerse, invest in the harsh yet beauteous reach of the album and begin to appreciate some of the more abrupt and dangling 3-4 minute pieces elsewhere.

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Taking a deep breath and savoring the atmosphere of despair and collapse Zwolle, Netherlands-based solo black metal project Ossaert continues to impress with this latest mLP, a pair of majestic atmospheric black metal songs alongside a pair of dungeon synth/ambient pieces. While their style is very much related to the brilliant atmospheric leanings of their countrymen you’ll hear at least some distant French black metal influences in some of their first two records, this one feels like it continues to move towards something akin to Iskandr on these two very dramatic pieces. As was the case on each previous recording drummer W. (Freja, Laster, et al.) stands out here albeit abiding by the more solemn tone of opener/standout “De Lichtkrans en de Waan”. I’m not certain if these are leftover pieces from past sessions but this release generally feels like a transitional thought, a breakthrough or overflowing momentum divided by what I’d consider Castlevania-esque organ gloom. If those “Ritueel” dungeon synth pieces weren’t so effective I might’ve skipped off of this record much quicker but they become all the more substantial when ‘Offerdier‘ is left on repeat, substantial enough to recommend to the already invested Ossaert fan, or anyone who’d missed the boat up ’til this point.

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‘Live at Roadburn‘ is self-descriptive enough as this album features four pieces from this Italian atmospheric doom metal quartet’s live performance at Roadburn Festival 2022. All four of these songs are from their 2022 full-length ‘Close‘ with some small jammed-on additions found in their translation to a live set, not only extending some of the pieces length but also expanding the live line-up to a total of eight people. Roadburn always go out of their way to curate special artists or bespoke performances but in this case these are very clean and clear soundboard recordings which avoid most all audience noise or interruption. Without the studio layers and whatnot we get these songs at their most basic efficacy and I’d found it worked quite well as a full listen, even if it never quite felt like there were eight people on stage in terms of sound. I’m not sure how novel this recording was for me since I’d loved ‘Close‘ and haven’t lost track of that sound since but these performances do a fine job of representing what Messa are all about.

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German brutal death metal/deathcore quintet Stillbirth are back with an eighth full-length, continuing on with their killing pace which has generally held fast since the early 2000’s. This record finds the band on their previously established path an easier to read, groove driven rant which often feels tailored to a festival sized crowd, big pieces which chug along at a steady rate with a few surprises caked onto each song to keep things lively. While I’d appreciated their slam influenced brevity on ‘Revive the Throne‘ back in 2020 this record seems to aim for a more standard brutal death metal sound a lot of the time, leaving a few songs just kinda filling space. they do eventually pull out a few surprises such as the stoney grooves of “Tribunal of Penance” nearby the end of the record. In terms of a very loud, very aggressive listening experience I had fun with this record but it goes on about ten minutes too long, looking for a place to land. As always, great cover art for this band.

https://stillbirthofficial.bandcamp.com/album/homo-deus

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The idea for this band hit in 2000 when Christ Denied were kicking off a long hiatus and Avulsed were feeling the heat off their much loved second album ‘Stabwound Orgasm‘ wherein members of each band decided to take on a black/death metal side-project the only way they knew how: Brutally and… eventually. Yskelgroth was dead in the water ’til Dave Rotten got in touch with Vicente Payá who’d been off Golgotha for a while and providing second guitar in Holycide around that time alongside drummer Javier Fernández (TodoMal). Well, these folks are all of a certain age where they’d known the language of black metal quite well and by 2010 they had released ‘Unholy Primitive Nihilism‘, a still impressive record which finds a unique marriage between bestial grooves, harried 90’s black metal attack, cavernous atmosphere and a certain level of brutality to the drumming which was not the usual Angelcorpse styled thing per the time and had a lot of interesting spastic flow to its pulse. So, keeping things short, they did it well and then they fucked off for thirteen years and they’ve made another one.

There shouldn’t be any major stakes here for ‘Bleeding of the Hideous‘ to live up to since not many people remember the band’s first album all that well and the focus of their first album was a bit all over the place to begin with. This second album seems to recreate the general modus of the first wherein the three musicians gather to see how their black metal centered ideas work within death metal informed rhythms. The gist of it is that they’re not so focused on brutality and aggression here so much as creating a haunting, classic atmosphere which comes at a mid-to-fast pace. The faster songs caught me a bit more, such as “Spasmic Extinction” and the slightly more melodic “Aeons Empty” The only double-take that’d hit me on the album was “Omnicidal End” where they’d first begin to heavily incorporate keyboards as part of the main progression of the song. None of this belong to any one specific tradition or influence and that’d kept things interesting throughout this relatively short (~33 minutes) record. I like the theatric use of keyboards, the melodic but often Norwegian style black metal riffs, and I’d appreciated that they all sound inspired on this release with plenty of attack set behind each song. Also, the album art is excellent with a bit of Seagrave-esque gnarl to the image.

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The Grifted formed as Mr. Death back in 2007, eventually managing a corporate zombie-themed gig (suits and all) that’d focused on a more modern, cleaned-up version of early Swedish death metal of the chainsawed and punkish death n’ roll variety. After releasing two albums in 2009 and 2011 respectively they’d been relatively quiet until changing the band name in 2020. The big push for the group a decade ago emphasized that these were folks largely from the late 80’s/early 90’s Swedish death metal scenery with ex-members of Treblinka, Tiamat, Expulsion and Septic Grave making up their ranks. It wasn’t that their material meant to live up to that old groat so much as it was a talking point for these folks being long invested in making death metal music of a certain variety. ‘Doomsday & Salvation‘ is only slightly different than past releases where they find a middle ground between the popular stomp of ‘Wolverine Blues‘ and a light touch for the occasional rock influence lead or catchy riff (“Behind Me in Ruins”). At some point I’d almost started to suggest there is a bit of love for Martyrdöd in the guitarists’ mind on certain pieces (“Days of the End”) but that might’ve been my mind wandering too readily in approach of this very straight-shot record and its serpentine mid-paced grooves which are somewhat elaborately stated at times but samey overall. Though it is a very steady, all-pro and well spoken Swedish death metal record I’d found myself falling off this one just beyond the fifth or so listen as only a few of the songs really stood out and called for more.

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