For the better part of the past six years, Hull’s Mastiff has been slowly festering in the underbelly of the UK’s underground scene. A handful of demos and 2016’s Wrank set expectations for the band to become mainstays of any grotty pub or club gig you’d care to attend, and Plague (APF Records) continues their trend of spreading as much abject misery as musically possible.Continue reading
It may have taken thirteen years to follow-up their sole release, but with a cast that includes Misery Index, Cattle Decapitation and Scour alumni, the trials of time can be forgiven with Cast The Stone, and new EP release Empyrean Atrophy (Agonia) shows that this band has a lot more worth than simply being a side dabbling for them.Continue reading
Brooklyn, New York, based black metallers Mutilation Rites are a name that have been making somewhat of a buzz in some extreme metal and underground circles. Far from being a necessarily revolutionary band, Mutilation Rites’ sound has been predominantly old school based; being raw, frantic and evil sounding; but they have always felt genuine and backed up with quality.Continue reading
Neil Gaiman once wrote in Sandman: Season of Mists that “hell is something you carry around with you, not somewhere you go” and with Cinereous Incarnate (I, Voidhanger et al), Abstracter aim to ensure that the feeling of your own personal hell is something that stays with you throughout the remainder of the year.Continue reading
A sea change seems to be afoot in the heavy music game. Young bands like Code Orange, Knocked Loose and now Nequient’s approach to the genre is to craft albums that pull from as wide a net of influences as possible and spinning that yarn into functional songs. On Wolves at the Door (Nefarious Industries) Nequient uses d-beat-laden Crust Punk as a framework, and stacks on Thrash, Grindcore, Hardcore, Sludge and Black Metal to create a collage of brutality. Continue reading
For those who hold music as dear to their hearts and their being as much as I’m sure you, the reader do, there is nothing quite like that discovery of a new band, perhaps out of nowhere, that captures so much about what you love in music. That feeling of finding a band in their early stages that stays with you, that smashes it out of the park, perhaps on the first try, and that both excites you so much and that you feel may break out in time to come. Ladies and gentleman; Wolf King may just well be that band for you. Continue reading
Mammoth Grinder is a supergroup of sorts, featuring current and ex-members of bands such as Power Trip, Darkest Hour and Iron Reagan. Let’s just cut to the chase this new record Cosmic Crypt (Relapse), the bands fourth release, is a fast, brutal, no-fucking-nonsense, crusty-edged grind, Death Metal Hardcore Punk rager.Continue reading
Texan purveyors of blackened crust Wildspeaker release their second full length on Prosthetic Records. A notable departure in the tone of 2015’s Survey the Wreckage (self-released) Spreading Adder has a much sludgier feel. Whilst Survey the Wreckage had a brighter and sharper tone, Spreading Adder is much lower and dirtier and the most obvious change is that vocals are more hidden in the mix, which limits their power.Continue reading
You ever hear that old adage about experience? The one that smug superiors like to toss around to mask their insecurities. There’s no substitute for experience, I believe it goes. Yeah, well Vallenfyre totally proved that right on their third full-length effort, Fear Those Who Fear Him (Century Media).Continue reading
Channeling the fierce soul of bands like Anal Cunt, Righteous Pigs, Negative Approach, Tantrum Mantra has come from Los Angeles to destroy you. The side project of Spirit In The Room frontman Dennis R. Sanders, Tantrum Mantra has a new song and video today for their track ‘Guilty Fucker’. You can hear it only at Ghost Cult, below: Continue reading