SHORT REVIEWS Our twentieth edition of Short Reviews for 2023 finds us picking through the third and fourth weeks of May’s new releases, most of them landing on the 19th or 26th. 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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Quick to rise Austin, Texas-based death metal band Frozen Soul have returned with a second full-length album once again using a thick veneer of ‘old school’ death metal influenced aesthetics to present their brand of sci-fi/fantasy themed and metallic hardcore infused groove/death metal. Whereas the first album, ‘Crypt of Ice‘, was heavily dependent on Bolt Thrower-isms for form and function the need to “progress” beyond a pastiche of simple chugging grooves and spikes of melodic narrative finds the band struggling for direction here, ultimately resolving for more… more of everything in various intensified ratio. To create some semblance of variety they’ve worked in guest spots from members of Dying Fetus, Creeping Death and Power Trip and despite adding little to the end result these are rarely interruptive, fitting enough spots. They’ve also made the odd choice of Trivium‘s Matt Heafy as co-producer and this seems to be for the sake of mentoring the band in some manner of increasingly accessible direction and the end result does manage a more considered hand despite the bare bones style of death metallic hardcore they play.

Sounding a bit like a Colin Richardson-juiced version of Bolt Thrower by way of beatdown/metallic hardcore circa 2003 in terms of sound design and their consistently mid-paced plod the way ‘Glacial Domination‘ kicks off is inspired enough as Frozen Soul‘s guitarists tear into rousing opener “Invisible Tormentor” and from there they just kinda… slow down and stick to what they know beyond a few interesting harmonies. The spin is pretty damned thick here between their insistence that they’ll change the very landscape of death metal (?) while also referencing death n’ roll (?!) in truth this album directly iterates upon the first, smartly leaning into their metallic hardcore foundation and of course this is what their fans want: A general software update. While the rhythms won’t add wrinkles to your brains they remain functional and the result is still generic for my taste. As we approach the Amon Amarth bounding quasi-melodeath stride of the title track Frozen Soul have more-or-less revealed their hand, still kinda doing the ‘Perseverance‘-era Hatebreed tinted death metal deal with a bit of mid-80’s horror synth to tie all of the disparate pieces together. Eh, its just alright, the whole thing definitely sounds pro but the full listen is overly long at ~47 minute and the big step-up implied here never quite happens as the second half of the album slugs out. There are a few potent moments which’d stuck in mind: The Obituary-sized rub of “Arsenal of War” and the semi-melodic weave of the title track + “Frozen Soul” generally amount to some of their best work, or, a direction they should definitely follow once they’ve worn out the breakdown thickened bop of their gig.

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Southern rock, stoner rock, alternative rock, grunge… Boston, Massachusetts-based troupe Gozu have put in enough time on the road and gotten their not-so self-serious selves in order to the point that whatever admixture flops out on the table has an audience in the stoney heavy rock attuned ear. While that competence of performance and a generally resonant sense of confidence is their greatest strength live on record this particular release has a bit of a rock-salad approach, almost reading like an ADHD wonderland for 90’s alternative/hard rock by way of a mountain-ready stoner rock/metal gear which speaks to a feeling of either flippancy or uncertainty from my perspective. You’ll get a bit of ‘Dirt‘-era Alice in Chains tinted feeling within opener “Tom Cruise Control” as they ride out strong with big jogging riffs and darker interjections but that’ll only be the first of several pieces which take a ride toward the loosest, most celebratory side of groups like Monster Magnet and such (see: “CLDZ”) through the use of vocal harmonies and bigger riffs. At that early point in the full listen Gozu make a serious case for their gig without necessarily defining it, setting the bar for energy and harmony-enhanced songcraft high. Granted there is a plenty more left on the plate and I’d found it was all too much as the second half of the album began to grind gears and unsuccessfully adapt its tonal reach. The level of polish achieved here nonetheless gives the record some considerable heft, a big dynamic outing and a best face forward which couldn’t remedy the feeling of hitting “Ben Gazzara Loves No One” and “Ash” and finding it all a belabored conversation as the vocalist leaned into a more listless tenor atop heavier, slower rhythms riffs and began to pull me out of it. On repeated full listens the album surely had its singles, its standout kicks and sly moments in terms of songwriting and performance but it’d ultimately hit me with one or two big blips on the radar and a slow fizzle out.

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Finnish experimental black metal project Hail Conjurer return with LP number seven and this time around the maestro is channeling Asmodeus, Hedone, Akka et al. in this pensive midsummer stroll through daemonic romanticism, or, I suppose eroticism which does not lose the noisome realism of his craft but gains a differently sombre trait in motion. Still a crawling, rasping beast capable of barbaric acts there is a delicacy to the undertones of these movements which are most obviously felt on opener “Scarlet Gate” but also in the shambling, tragedian doom n’ blast of “Two Stars”. Still gifted with a knack for the sandpapered grate of ancient black-psychedelia and a sense of ritual in hand the Dionysian madness of the project is not lost but this is perhaps one of the most tempered, thematic and deeply considered releases from the artist to date and as such I’d found myself listening on repeat even more than the already brilliant, praise-worthy ‘Earth Penetration‘. Despite this focus we do get a sort of explosive collapse in the final act of closer “Lustful Gods”, so, don’t go in expecting anything polished or commercial. I’d also offer some praise for the value of Hail Conjurer‘s creations as they become increasingly impressive in their audio-visual themes/curation, in this case bringing an electric color palette to an occult boudoir session which only enhances the still very “black metal” feeling of the record. Swords, cocks, haloes, and fishnet all feed into the emergent passion driven nature of the beast.

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This self-titled debut mLP from Gråande, a new project from Swedish musician Nachtzeit (Lustre) doesn’t step drastically outside of his signature sensibilities in the sense that it is deeply atmospheric and given melodic voice per will o’ wisp level synths yet it finds differentiation in tone as ‘Gråande‘ intends ominous ambiance, a dark corridor ahead which is explored slowly, peeking around cold stone columns for what lies ahead. The project also includes vocalist/lyricist Nichil who has collaborated with Nachtzeit on at least one other project in the past. The full listen reads a bit like an intentional combination of ambient black/dungeon synth and droning atmospheric black metal, picking up a bit of speed in each composition but never shocking loose of the trance that each of the two longer-form pieces create. “Evighetens Kvarn” is the more insistent of the two songs with “Sjöar Ovan” being a gentler introduction to their idea, banking on its engrossing lilt more than anything else. Ultimately I’d found both parts essential in combination though when I’d left the full listen on repeat I’d found myself anticipating and readying myself to get back to the “Evighetens Kvarn”, not that I’d favored it more but that there is some pleasure to be found in breaking through to the more kicking side of things. The ratio of droning negative space to action could be tweaked slightly but the effect was brilliantly immersive nonetheless.

https://lustre.bandcamp.com/album/gr-ande

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London-based post-industrial/experimental rock quartet Jaaw notably features the instantly recognizable Andy Cairns of still-active Therapy? alongside co-vocalist and visionary Wayne Adams (Petbrick, Bear Bites Horse Studio) who are joined by members of KLÄMP and Squarepusher for this captivating, experimental and generally on-a-tangent debut full-length ‘Supercluster‘. It isn’t that anything goes here so much as they’ll try anything at least once, if it ends up working it goes to tape. It means most of this record avoids sitting in one place too long as the possibilities stretch from unearthly Jesu-esque post-metal, 90’s styled obscurant industrial rock dread, death metallic punk, elektro-dissonant noise rock and Lightning Bolt style break-beaten Bjork covers. That eclectic sense doesn’t come with pretension so much as it feels exuberant, energetically delivering a big fuss, a remarkably colorful stew of sounds which’ve been curated by Adams to some brilliant degree. In some ways I see the “whatever sticks” ethos of Petbrick here in this approach but in this case it means a relevant glom of post-industrial music’s broadened definition. Standouts: “Reality Crash”, “Total Protonic Reversal”, “Hellbent on Happiness”.

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Sarvekas is a relatively new southwest Finnish black metal band with a pagan-spiritual aesthetic and a triumphal, darkly melodic approach. The big deal here is probably the combined effect of an enormous production sound and the grandiose, chest-beating force with which they present their galloping constructs all of which strike me as a blend of modern Finn-black melodicism (a constantly moving target, mind you) and some of the insistent push of late 90’s/early 2000’s populist Scandinavian black metal headspace. Though the album as a whole has some admirable variety their comfort zone is clear enough as the blasted-at ruckus shared between “Of Bloodlust & Nightside Sorceries” + “Embers of Pagan Fire” overstates itself to the point that the impatient listener might zone themselves out before the Norse pagan black metal ballast steadies their ride in the second half of the album. Back in December of 2020 I’d felt like these folks were on the verge of something great and even if this debut does feel like the appropriate accomplishment they’ve left the horizon beckoning for even more imposing (or, tuneful) feats but, at the very least there seems to be somewhere to go with this sound and dramatic level of composition. Also I’d found the Roni Arling painting for the cover complimented the tone of the album well with some manner of sacrificial ritual and warrior company depicted in a dark fantasy scene.

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Belgium-based quintet Violent Sin took a bit of extra time to polish up their already raw take on early 80’s speed metal and this seems to have allowed ‘Serpent’s Call‘ to form a mean exterior with venomously spat punkish vocals, crumbling effects and a decidedly circa ’82-’85 sound. Though it would make sense to point to that grey area between NWOBHM influenced speed metal a la early Slayer and Exciter for a general notion I’d point folks towards Nasty Savage‘s debut and the first two records from Hallow’s Eve for a sense of guttural meanness which these folks produce by way of the rasped, almost blackened squawk of the vocals. While this band does serve some considerable spectacle, plenty of attitude and cockish personality in their ‘evil’ speed metal barrage the riffs take some patience to impress with primitive statements and simpler melodies which occasionally develop in less predictable ways. The skanking beats, constantly wailing screams, meandering solos, all of this record speaks to the competitive push that’d been made in crossing the line from 80’s heavy metal into new extremes and it all works well enough even if I’m not sure they’ve made a serious push beyond that grey area just yet, at least not in terms of intelligible heavy metal songcraft. Fans of all things classic heavy/speed metal in the era of thrash metal emergence will nonetheless be thrilled by the raw and ready clash of Violent Sin‘s work.

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It’d be entirely fair to describe the intuited, likely improvised craft of this Red Mass tape as something like chaotic, ritualistic extreme metalpunk but I’m not sure throwing a paisley blanket over such an unhindered monstrosity will make for a good couch. In fact each piece here pulls from a different state of mind, a different rant, and typically takes the hoarse and harrowing route of noise and digital (probably?) effects as well as some practical use of space to create what is arguably best described as psychedelia in spirit and especially in the way that neo-psychedelia uses easier grooves to brace showers of guitar effects as they resolve. If softened to rhythmic bones songs like “L’Air Epais”, “Hell on Earth” and “Fuck Pig” would read more like kraut affected psych and, in a good way. Where I’d found ‘Vol 6: The Evil of Our Collective Mind‘ most interesting was in the most bestial, sucking dope from the carpet sort of pieces (“Public Sacrifice”) which resemble a certain era of industrial music and its toying with motorized hardcore punk rhythms, even getting a bit of an English Dogs style buzz out of “By Blood & Iron” as they plumb the depths, step up the echoing hiss, and ease on the automaton kit. If genetically spliced, ‘roided out, and beaten into shape a bit there might very well be a solid bestial hardcore punk/noise act in one hand and a grotesque psychedelic rock group in the other. As is, this is a hellish and spastic exploration of the fellow’s muscle memory which occasionally finds a striking sort of mess worth fixating on.

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