SHORT REVIEWS Our fortieth (40th) edition of Short Reviews for 2023 finds me grabbing at six notable releases from the general pool of November, cut down to non-black metal stuff (look for N.B.B.M.N. features soon). 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 and casual 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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Boston-based crust influenced post-metal band Morne return for a fifth full-length album and one of their most succinct as these four roughly ~10 minute pieces retain the scratched and smeared lens of intense depressive doom they’ve become known for. An ominous and atmospheric descent ‘Engraved With Pain‘ is dead-serious, shadowy, and almost consciously minimal in what it throws directly at the listener but when the weight of it all hits their approach definitely pays off; While we are used to hearing plenty of atmospheric sludge style in their slow-built and heavily plowed directive this album appears to take deeper swings at industrial metal and post-industrial inspiration, never losing sight of their ex-crust/sludge signature movement but taking a dip into later Godflesh/Jesu feeling atmospheres (see: “Wretched Empire”) and rich, slowly developed textural pieces. “Memories of Stone” was probably the song to really open the door for my own taste, as the title track will feel like an extended intro without closer inspection, but I’d taken the whole of this record as one great chunk of sorrowful muse, a complete and crushing thought.

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Although I know next to nothing about Portland, Oregon-borne psychedelic/space’d rock crew Asteroid Witch I definitely fell face first into their jam up front, probably one of the most welcoming portals of unreal fuzz and float I’ve dropped into lately. “Time Crystal/Mind Prism” is probably the most practical point of gush here but stick around for the last two pieces on their side if you’re up for something more adventurous, buzzing and space rock influenced. Over on Side B we’ve got another PDX group, the more familiar faces in Greenseeker who’ve a similarly jammed, key’d up, and easygoing stoner/psych stretch to their vision. Their two extended pieces here are a bit of a shift beyond ‘The Wish‘ (2022) where they’ve eased back in their chairs, sunken into these songs and taken their time with each tale. Altogether a pretty flawless pairing in terms of the two bands catching a bit of each other’s wave, jamming some but never getting too lost together.

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Northeastern Englanders Plague Rider started out over a decade ago playing an unusual form of prog-death with a tech-thrash edge to its throttle and after releasing a full-length around 2013 they’d sorta drifted off to focus more intently on their spots in notable death metal bands Horrified and Live Burial, releasing quick EPs every few years. Here they return for a second full-length album ten years beyond the last conspiring to venture through this raw and unpredictable chunk of mutated progressive and aggressive death metal. If are a fan of Nothingness and Diskord but also enjoy the vibrant freaking of Atvm definitely soak in this one for a while. “Modern Serf” was probably the most representative track overall, or, the one that’d repeatedly stuck out as something unheard of and I’d appreciated they’ve still some death/thrashing fire in their sound to some degree. Otherwise I’d just a few nitpicks as I didn’t like the album art and wanted a more bass guitar clunk to round things out.

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Alchemy of Flesh is a solo death metal project from Athens, Georgia-based musician Tim Rowland and you might recall his debut full-length album ‘Ageless Abominations‘ (2021) was pretty much endlessly praised and compared with the late 90’s/early 2000’s era of Morbid Angel. Inspired by classic PC games and great death metal no doubt this is my kind of project, that first record was solid if not somewhat obviously a first toe dipped into the lava and this time around the experience is similar in some aspects but better rounded out as a full listen. The drumming is better balanced in terms of impact and presence this time around and this makes a huge difference but not as much as deeper incorporation of what I’d consider Erik Rutan-isms in terms of riffcraft, crawling and shunted grooves (see: “Earth Dragon Totality”) which help to push us through a very dense opening salvo of ~4 minute riff-fests. If you like to sit back and chill out to a huge, mean-assed death metal record without any fuss or modernist intent as much as I do I’m sure you’ll get a similar thrill out of this one. If you’re looking for variety, I don’t know that he’s nailed the full album experience just yet beyond hammering away at an entertaining chunk of riff-driven songs.

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North Dakotan quintet Maul are what I’d consider a “new school” USDM band in the sense that the current ‘underground’ death metal zeitgeist in the United States is now far-separated from the canonical traditions folks have been reviving/revising over the last two and a half decades. Some of the muscle memory of the early 90’s revival in the late 2010’s (and mid-2000’s) might spark a skank beat or moshable riff here and there but these folks aren’t creating death metal out of nostalgia or for the sake of authenticity as far as I can tell and no, that isn’t a bad thing. “Disintegration of the Soul” showcases their easy to approach sound with a few tremolo picked, globbed-at riffs to start, kinda getting us in the death metal mood but we’d just as well reference late 90’s metalcore/metallic hardcore when pecking at those rhythms, brees, and pit-starter beats. Though I didn’t ultimately go nuts for their 2022 debut LP it was definitely a cap on their early development and I believe the longer songs on this tape suggest they’ve found a way to mush the whole beast into experiential songs, each piece feels like a weird and wild ride even if I’m not always enjoying the vibe of the amusement part overall. I’m still kinda tentative on their stuff but interesting to see what they manage on their first LP for 20 Buck Spin, if it carries this style over into something more elaborate I’ll probably be on board.

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Pyrolatrous is a Brooklyn/NYC-based melodic black/death metal quartet today but their debut LP ‘Teneral’ (2017) was primarily the work of Nicholas Palmirotto (Hull) and drummer Lev Weinstein (Krallice, Woe, et al.) and this record notably feels like a quartet performance as its production values feel as if performed in a shared space, realistic yet still immersive in their resound. Though I’d admired the render of this record first and foremost their aggressive, downtrodden black/death metal sound was highlighted by lyrics which appeared personal, of-the-moment and illustrative beyond the usual fantasy drift of the mind. While I’d found a couple of songs had a sort of post-hardcore meets USBM veer to their treatment of deconstructed melody and kind of rocking transitions most of this record hustles past, racing through its rants and creating a dramatism which is not at all romanticist but gritted at the teeth. Brief in its melodic guitar lines but not devoid of sentimentality I’d found the second half of the album, around “The Mire of Dissimulation” and forth, was where the record more-or-less hit its stride and likewise dips into a few of its heavier death metal nods with “Slave of the State” being the piece I’d enjoyed most.

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