Yep, that’s occult spelt with two k’s. I know. They’re evil. They must be. And face it, Atrocity need to prove their mettle after producing not one but two shitty albums of pop covers. Those songs were bad enough already without some death metal band with a keyboard and a drummer that’s evidently bored by the songs (watch the video to their cover of ‘The Sun Never Shines On TV’; they could have sat a mannequin behind the kit and nobody would have known) inexplicably prolonging their life. At least Six feet Under choose metal songs to disgrace themselves with. 2010’s After The Storm did little to restore the band to former glories. Okay, so they’re a band with ambition, but it’s been a while since it’s been achieved.Continue reading
Tag Archives: Jason Guest
Eldkraft – Shaman
Billed as “a musical constellation whose primary foundation rests on epic metal while drawing experimental influences from ancestral musical traditions of the North and spiritual guidance of its hermetic crafts”, Sweden’s Eldkraft’s debut Shaman has plenty to offer for those who like their metal big. And I don’t mean just “big”, I mean “big” with a capital “BIG”. To describe this as grand would be a gross understatement. Where to start? Well, the guitar sound is huge, of course. The palm-muted chugs, mammoth riffs, ball-breaking bass, and thundering drums are the size of Godzilla’s gonads during a particularly bad bout of elephantitis. Translated as firepower, Eldkraft’s moniker is probably the most apt name chosen by any band of late. With the kind of fire and brimstone-laced artillery that these guys pack, they look set to make a devastating impact. Or at least they would were it not for J. Sandin’s warbling theatrics clashing with the otherwise fine tracks on offer.Continue reading
Misery Index – Live In Munich
With Live In Munich, Misery Index have bestowed upon us little more than the opportunity to recreate the Misery Index gig experience in our very own homes. So, after setting up an ersatz venue in the biggest room in your house and inviting a bunch of predominantly male death metal maniacs to your place, you can press play and proceed to smash the shit out of your much-loved abode. That is, of course, unless you happen to find yourself standing behind the guy that’s taller than everyone else. Nope? Just me then…Continue reading
Pasadena Napalm Division – Pasadena Napalm Division
Aggressive and adrenaline-fuelled, Pasadena Napalm Division’s first full length is a dud. With D.R.I. functioning as a touring band only, mouth Kurt Brecht along with three of Texan thrashers Dead Horse and Bubba from Verbal Abuse have been bashing away at it since 2008 and written a mind-blowing thirteen tracks in just five years, five of which appeared on an EP released in 2010. Opener ‘100 Beers With A Zombie’ is fun, its simple riffs and comedic lyrics more a chuckle than a belly laugh, the same for ‘Bleached Blonde Despair’ and ‘Cemetery Mass’.Continue reading
Dark Sermon – In Tongues
Here in the UK, it’s snowing. It’s the end of March and it’s snowing. This can only mean one thing: Armageddon. The end of the world is nigh. The persistence of Winter and its domination over Spring marks the inauguration of the great erasure. All that signified difference in the world – or at least the UK – now lies frozen beneath the white blanket of nature in all its destructive indifference. And as beautiful as it is to see the world bleached by nature’s whimsy, there’s always that arresting awareness that extolling uniformity as a virtue is never good. It appears that Tampa’s Dark Sermon are blissfully unaware of this. Continue reading
Toxic Holocaust – From The Ashes Of Nuclear Destruction
Joel Grind is a busy man. So busy in fact that it appears that he has so much material lying around that he feels compelled to release everything he ever recorded ever. It’s not so long ago that Grind released The Yellowgoat Sessions, another solo work where he bashed out eight tracks (bookended by two pointless and irrelevant atmospheric pieces) of muddily produced hyperspeed 80s metal worship that was, like most of his albums, crude and raw and felt like it was unfinished, or at best, rushed. And with a discography longer than the yellow line behind a stampede of diuretic camels, Continue reading