ALBUM REVIEW: Dirty Shades – Stuck in Motion


Hailing from France the Dirty Shades upholds the country’s legacy of birthing powerful atmospheric rock. Their new album Stuck in Motion (Modulor Music) offers a post-Hardcore punch to the dynamics as their sound swirls around you. They step on the gas at a few points in the opening track “Cannon Fodder” to keep the dynamics varied. Lead singer Anouk Degrande is backed by shouted accents where she allows her voice to wander off the swells of the guitar. The bass line anchors the second track “Mine,” as the ambiance thickens to a palm-muted groove buried in the layers. They build the song up into a heavier punch not unlike how Tool once commanded dynamics during the nineties. Continue reading


EP REVIEW: DVRK – Infinite Reminiscence – Season Of Mist  


In case you didn’t get the memo, I would like to remind you that DVRK is “a powerhouse fusion of Deathcore, Nu Metal, and Bass music elements.” How do I know this? Well, the press release that was sent to me along with debut EP Infinite Reminiscence (Season of Mist) says so. That, and I listened to the EP and was successfully able to arrive at that conclusion. Continue reading


ALBUM REVIEW: Blut Aus Nord – Disharmonium – Nahal


 

Disharmonium – Nahal (Debemur Morti Productions) is the sixteenth full-length release from Blut Aus Nord, the enigmatic French avant-garde black metal band that have now existed for thirty years. Following on from last year’s Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses, this new record also draws inspiration from H.P Lovecraft and is claimed by its accompanying press release to be “womb-like, detail-rich, disturbed and transformative”. 

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ALBUM REVIEW: Exocrine – The Hybrid Sons 


 

Strap yourselves in, folks.

Exocrine, the progressive technical death metal goliaths hailing from France have penned an absolutely earth-shattering colossus that redefines the term “heavy” and wholeheartedly challenged this author to find enough synonyms to accurately depict the sheer destructive chaos The Hybrid Suns (Unique Leader) leaves in its wake. 

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