Tis the season… for Black Metal! To celebrate, Ghost Cult runs the rule over several of this Winter’s coldest releases… Continue reading
Tag Archives: Metal albums
Battalions – Forever Marching Backwards
They say it’s grim up north, and few bands encapsulate that word better than Hull’s Battalions. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill frostbitten, Battles In The North kind of grim, Battalions specialize in a more belligerent, sludgy form of gloom with enough fuzz to match the amount of facial hair on these four loveable reprobates.Continue reading
Languish – Unworthy
Supergroups can typically be a swing and miss in my experience, usually due to too many differing styles being mixed together. This is like when mixing too many colors just leaves you with a murky brown. Having said that, Languish is certainly one of the better sounding collectives that make it work with their Blackened Death Metal meets Grindcore approach. Their sophomore efforts are out now under the title Unworthy via Prosthetic Records, and it is mighty impressive.Continue reading
Cattle Decapitation – Medium Rarities
It almost seems fitting that we now get to delve back into the archives for this latest release from Death/Grind legends Cattle Decapitation. This is a band that has always looked to blend their eco-friendly message with some of the most horrible and gloriously grimy, putrid Death Metal ever committed to tape: they want to you not only listen but feel what they want to say. Continue reading
In The Woods… – Cease The Day
Following their return from hiatus in 2014, much to the delight of a sharp, in-the-know fanbase, Norway’s In The Woods… showed a glorious return to form with 2016’s Pure (Debemur Morti), an album that wasn’t a re-treading of past glories, but an alternate and matured direction for the band that highlighted their esoteric nature. Ever the shape-shifters, latest release Cease The Day (Debemur Morti) sees further subtle alterations, in what is their most commercially ambitious and accessible (within reason) to date.Continue reading
Unearth – Extinction(s)
Not that there’s ever really been a moment of musical drought for Boston’s Unearth, but tracing back to 2014s Watchers of Rule the motive is a recommitment to brutality. On Extinction(s) (Century Media), the New Englanders are playing with more passion and vitriol than most of their younger contemporaries currently filling the Metal and Hardcore ranks.Continue reading
Planet B – Planet B
What a truly intriguing mix of styles this appears on paper! A duo comprised of Punk underground overlord and current Dead Cross member Justin Pearson and hip-hop producer Luke Henshaw, Planet B are bringing so much to the table of their self-titled album (Ipecac Recordings) and are doing do with politically charged lyrics which are looking to rail against “the lack of humanity in the world…….”Continue reading
Bast – Nanoångstrӧm
Four years ago, Bast’s Spectres (Burning World Records) hit the racks and quickly gained a reputation as one of the best British underground debuts of recent times. The world seemed to be the Blackened Sludge trio’s oyster yet, save for a smattering of gigs here and there, they seemed to vanish and earn mythical status in the process.Continue reading
Barbarian Hermit – Solitude and Savagery
Since their inception in 2013, Manchester quintet Barbarian Hermit has focused the vast majority of its Sludge grooves on live audiences around its home city and the rest of the UK. After two years of upheaval which has seen one original member return and two leave, debut album Solitude and Savagery (self-released) sees the band set out toward a brave new horizon.Continue reading