death metal / crust

Death metal with a very very strong infusion of hardcore and crust makes for a very tasty meal on this debut album by Belgian band Work of the Flesh.

After they quit Belgian metal-legend Bütcher, Jolle and Beuk wanted to form a new band to engage in and thus formed Works of the Flesh, where they were joined by Tim (from Izah and Musth), Stevie (from Suhrim and Marginal) and Niels (Black Swarm). So in some ways, this is a Belgian metal super-group that is together since 2019.

Their debut 12” (with an etching on the B-Side) will be released this spring after the album has been digitally released in November. The tracks had been recorded in 2020 in between lockdown periods in Brussels’ Trix studios by Frank Rotthier. And he has done an amazing job, keeping the reigns tight on this high-energy mustang that still clocks in after eight songs and merely 19 minutes! No track breaks the three-minute-barrier and indirectly that says a lot about the record.

The guys definitely do not hold back with anything. You are searching for some breath? Take it before listening to this record. The listener is pushed hard, punched thoroughly and thrown around with ultimate force. However, one has to admit that there could be no other choice musically when you look at the subjects of the songs which range from consumerism, religion and social hypocrisy to the uncontrollable dominance of social media, fascism and the constant feeling of not being good enough. They criticize the usage of the media in fascist regimes trying to induce so much fear and hatred in the oppressed that those finally give in and attack other groups, and if something has been shown in ‘Classes for Fascists 101’ then this idea. The idea of society having lost control is shown throughout the eight tracks and in the last song (“Go Feed The Maggos”) the “zombies” attack and only a few “human remains in a pit of swarming worms”, nothing more than “worthless human life”.  And basically, following the harsh reality spat at us by Tim, one has to admit that there is some truth in all of that. Society has thrown away our purpose and has given in to gods they can’t control, which by now have turned us into zombies without real human interaction in the non-digital world.

Musically, one has to assess that these eight tracks are perfect the way they are – rough, unforgiving, raw, direct and hard. Interesting is the hardcore-like bass of Jolle used in a lot of songs, which show a real love for simple 80s and 90s hardcore with a message (I would guess that is due to Tim’s love for Belgian hardcore and bands like Earth Crisis). The rhythm section is trying to outperform each other in terms of speed and power. Stevie and Jolle are doing a great job to give the tracks a fuming bed of speed attacks and then add double-speed attacks to fuel the real mosh-pits. At the same time, Niels and Beuk are doing their best to show the other the fastest, angriest, most shredding, fear-inducing riffs to come out of Belgium for a long time. 

This record is as much Swedish Death as it is H8000 hardcore and if you are really angry at the current state of the world and want to find some musical outlet – pick up this record, spit out the lyrics, mosh to the riffs, throw your fists in the air and cleanse yourself of all the hatred for this place and what society is allowing to be done to it!


Thorsten

crust / punk

That first moment. The sound. The perfect pause. The deep look at the cover. First love.
There are some crackling noises, the fire whose deep red lines you might see on the cover. Then, after seven seconds, the first four seconds of cello; that structure of pause and cello and then the next part expands on that structure. By then, all objectivity is thrown overboard and the author of these lines is uncontrollably in love with “Black Line”, Respire’s third full-length. 

And then the intro “Blight” is over and “Tempest” is exactly that – a raging storm of hellish proportions. A bill showing where we are headed with us as a society and with this place: “we watch the world go up in flames / an uncaring race” - a motif that is repeated in the next track “Cicatrice”: “we’re all disease – destroy, destroyer”. Respire cannot hide their views on politics, society and social issues with “love as our only possible way out” as a clear idea and ideology. That shows in the structure of the band – an open collective which is open to unite people from different musical backgrounds and with different instruments. Those resemble crust-bands like Morrow or Anopheli who also feature a classical string instrument in their line-up. But Respire’s assembly of non-rock instruments doesn’t stop there – no it looks more like that of fellow-Canadians Godspeed You! Black Emperor with its Glockenspiel, vibraphone and with guest spots by trumpets and saxophones. 

All of that is also reflected in their attitude towards wide, opening moments that enable band and audience to catch breath. Take “Tempest” as an example: The song rages for a bit more than 70 seconds and then stops abruptly (we will come back to that later) and then only the horns and a but guitar picking can be heard for a moment before the drums set in again and the strings come to the front. It is the proverbial calm in the middle of the storm. The audience cannot forget that this is just a moment of calm (before “Cicatrice” rolls over us) because the dual singing parts, seemingly not just delivered by two voices but many more, remind us of that clearly. 

Apart from drummer Travis all band members add their voices to a multi-headed beast that sings in different intonations, different levels of volume, different spaces within the soundscape (some way back, some at the very front). The band knows each other’s strengths and are able to highlight all of it. They do so in amicable fashion, their timing is so precise it’s scary. The way the band is able to stop mid-riff and mid-beat is mesmerizing. It becomes clear that the band is so well in-tune with each other that their songs do not sound constructed at all, even though they surely are, because they must be as so many things are happening, it’s almost like a call-and-response opera. Of course this is a reflection of their hardcore roots and their approach to music and the fact that they shared the stage, the studio and the rehearsal room hundreds by now. 

It is hard to find parallels to other artists because they are open-minded to the max and that in a very positive way. They are as much Pijn as they are Demersal, as much Anopheli as they are Fall of Efrafa. They are punkers and post-rockers. They are crusty and celestial. In many ways pretty unique and thus highly enjoyable. 

Furthermore, one should notice the way they try to construct a kind of tension between records as “Black Line” features the final song “Catacombs Part II” which functions as a sequel to their last full-length “Denouement” which featured “Catacombs” in which the narrator is talking to someone (presumably his partner) about his oncoming “end” and the fact that he never wanted anyone to suffer from his addiction, he never wanted anyone to feel consequences from it. “Catacombs Part II” now shows the other side of the relationship with the addict’s partner saying that he can’t live without the deceased but that he has to and will: “all the light shines on for you / all the light shines on with you / all we hold like dust fades fast / (but love shines on in us)” - it will be hard and seemingly impossible but the love in himself will not go out for the deceased. 

Love. Again. Well, there is nothing but love here for the Canadian collective. And if you listen to the opening “Black Line” you might fall in love as well. Very quickly. Love at first tune. 


Thorsten

crust / punk

“Crustpunk” or “Crustcore” - a genre that defines itself (just like early Black Metal) through a dirty, rotten lo-fi sound, lightning speed drumming, interchanging growling and screaming and often a similar aesthetic. Canadian outfit Ahna from Vancouver, British Columbia, fulfill all of these to the max. Their high octane crust has already been featured on 16 releases, however “Crimson Dawn” is only their second full-length and comes after a five-year period of no releases at all.

Ahna burst out on this record with 7 songs and 36 minutes which shows that they are definitely able to go “all the way” taking no hostages but leaving the ground strewn with the dead bodies of those who couldn’t keep up with their speed. The rhythm section oftentimes sounds like a shredding version of Motörhead on speed (if that was possible) playing shows for those folks who want to bang their heads not on the walls of a club but rather on the ceiling of a dark, lights-out SM-Studio as it should hurt like hell. Sometimes it sounds as if those Uzi-attacks on the guitar strings are even slower than the chugga-chugga-drum kills. This is simple, a clean attack to drown everyone in huge puddles of blood, mud, feces and is meant for all species. Everyone must die, total (deathly) democracy. 

This is also the strongest difference between black metal and crust punk – the political message. Crust punk is outspoken political and mostly on the political left. Amebix or Discharge led the way for this idea of a musically disgusting and politically charged version of punk in the 80s and since then the incorporation of black metal screaming has not done much to improve the delivery of the political contents. This is also the thing that is bothersome about this release, the lyrics are mostly non-intelligible.

Nevertheless, musically this is a more than solid release, as it combines all the components of modern crust and delivers all of it on a high level. A record that fans of the genre should hold dear to their hearts as one doesn’t know how long to wait for the next release – either only a few weeks or again a few years.


Thorsten

blackened crust

When listening to Serpent Eater the feeling of knowing which nightmares will follow might creep up on the listener. The band from Cologne, Germany, releases her second full-length album at the beginning of 2020 upon a world that might not be prepared for what their ears will be facing. 

Not that the world has never heard this mixture of Black Metal, Sludge and Crust; or the swirling guitars and the blastbeats overwhelmed by infernal shrieking and gut-breaking growls at the same time. The guitars deliver more than solid riffing and shredding, play with brilliant scales to shoot through the noise in order to deliver more chaos in this storm of abysmal-ness. The rhythm section is a steady source of deep-toned slow-grooving black currents in a river flowing in a cave deep beneath the surface. It is hard to imagine any metal fan not being blown away by the moody intro to “Ten Floors Down” and impressed by the musical precision afterwards.

There is something about Serpent Eater’s hurricane of sound and chaos. It is the notion of being pulled up by the hair on you arms and simultaneously being drawn by the ankles. It is as if there were two melodies in some songs, one winding upward with the guitar lines, a totally different one going downward with the bass lines. This ambiguity is most on display when the band takes a deep breath and allows for one of the small spaces for the listener to gather his senses without getting his head beaten on the wall. Even if there is only a short change of the guitar lines, for example in “Dead Spiritualist Remains Silent”: when the guitar calms down and the stormy blastbeats step back after roughly 85 seconds in and the song has more air to breathe. From there on, the song loses speed but picks up atmosphere simultaneously. The same goes for the ending of the last song “Dunkelziffer” with its ascent upwards towards a tiny pinch of hopeful morning light shining through the keyhole in the door at the end of the stairs leading from the peaceful outside down into a thunderous darkness.

Serpent Eater is surely not the first blackened sludge or blackened crust band, but the ones that will follow after them surely better give this record a listen as it definitely is state of the art for a genre that embraces those tiny bits of light you see when looking up from right beneath the eye of the hurricane.


​Thorsten

hardcore / grindcore / crust

black metal

grunge / alternative metal / progressive rock

doom

alternative rock

death metal

punk rock

bandcamp

electronic

electronic / darkwave / EBM / Industrial

shoegaze

black metal

bandcamp

With three songs – Bǽl, Opaque and Mǽdland – Bǽl is a strong, lugubrious and poignantly aggressive EP, released by British black metal act Normakk. With a very somber, evasive, discreet and effective atmosphere, the songs are beautifully composed, and from the very beginning, denotes a pungent and starkly spontaneous originality. With a graciously sensible competence, able to display in a positively sincere fashion the most pervasive aspects of the genre, Bǽl is raw black metal done in a proverbially sophisticated and elegant scale. With strident and expansive, but sensibly reliant, and, to a certain degree, darkly sentimental guitar lines, the general musical groundwork of the band is thoroughly exhilarating, consistent and dense, and obliterates on the vicinities of its melancholic melodies the most elusive aspects of black metal. Undoubtedly, a work of irreprehensible grandeur, Bǽl is a marvelously fantastic and unique work of art. Normakk closely follows the traditional old school, with a very peculiar, creative and dense style, with premises that outstands its genuine and salutary virtuosities, shining away any possibilities of being classified as just another generic act of the genre.   

black metal / death metal

Altar Of The Dying is an EP released on July 30, by American blackened death metal group Throne, from Jackson, Michigan. Almost twenty-four minutes long, the work has seven relatively short and very concise tracks: Intro, Heresy Of The Highest Order, Not Of Shadow Nor Fog, Altar Of The Dying, Covenant Of Darkness, Where Angels Cower In Fear and Plagued Upon The Unholy. With an aggressive, dense and very rapid sound, their style can be described as methodical, rude and severely traditional, albeit a little predictable, although this does not affect their general performance. With a fiber and a level of brutality that makes their sound to be profoundly eviscerating, drastic and virulent – but also efficiently concentrated –, Altar Of The Dying is a very energetic, hostile and straightforward work. With highly consistent harmonies and incredibly lucid and somber guitar lines, the group certainly manages to deliver a powerful and pungent style of extreme metal, that is poignantly effusive and dark. Although there is nothing here that you haven’t heard several times before in similar albums of the genre, Throne is a competent, skilled and creative band, that proves their ardent and passionate compromise with extreme metal, on this exceedingly great and powerfully grotesque EP. 

doom

Ashes is an EP released on July 20, by Danish doom metal group Doomcult. Almost twenty three minutes long, the record has three tracks: Sulphur, Ashes and Black Fire. An excellent, pleasant, very delightful work, with way more poetic tendencies if compared to the traditional groups of the genre, Ashes has a melancholic and disturbing, but exceedingly ascendant, philosophic and serene atmosphere, that rises above the sensational and placid stability of its harmonious and dense sonorous configuration. While the first song, Sulphur, deserves to be highlighted, all three songs present an artistic level of security and a musical technique that stands as far superior to the average level. With a sensational style that makes them a powerfully potential reference for the genre in the underground scene, the consistency of the sound of Doomcult – as well as the audacious, but at the same discreet originality present in their music – showcases in the end an absolutely splendid final result. Certainly being one of the most genuine and spectacular releases that I’ve ever heard on the genre – being amazingly passionate and frivolous at the same time – Ashes, by Doomcult, is an exponentially marvelous experience on doom metal, highly recommended to everyone that is an enthusiast of the genre.   

black metal

bandcamp

A dark, rude, depressive and melancholic traditional black metal work, Drowning in Sorrow is an EP released in June by a Finnish musician, that presents himself by the alias of Sathanian. Almost twenty-four minutes long, the EP has five tracks: Depressing Dreams, Wanderer, Drowning In Sorrow, Despair and Kenkiintuijottaja. Despite being better described as traditional black metal, the EP has some discreet traits of DSBM, which is present in the predominantly slow, digressive and dispersive harmonies, that really stands for a surreal and profoundly melancholic mood. The cynic and sorrowful atmosphere of the work is genuinely beautiful, and has a formidable musical consistency, that is ostensibly framed by conspicuously sinister and funeral vocals, that sometimes emphasizes its presence more for its morbid, almost neutral sterile qualities, than for its grotesque nature. A promising, very interesting work, that is sidelined by its truly proverbial and eloquent understanding and execution of the genre, Drowning In Sorrow is an emotional, poetic and very somber work, that has everything to please enthusiasts of the genre.    

black metal / post black metal

bandcamp

An interesting EP with four tracks – Dramatic Truth, Winds Of The End Of Afternoon, Jonas and Alone – the music of Sabactâni can be described as a melancholic twilight forever lost in the everlasting vicinities of depressive and anxious thoughts. A marvelous post black metal group from Brazil, their originality is amazingly eviscerating, with a powerful and afflictive sonority, that energizes the genre at the core of its structure. With powerfully ascendant melodies, that revolves around aggrandizing, but at the same time dismissive and dispersive harmonies, the disillusion that is felt as the epicenter of their style is symbolic to the mood that better defines the genre, and takes a major layer of beauty and poetry in the virtually insane musical diagram of the band, that can be felt as simple and humane, at the same time. A wonderful EP that brilliantly aggregates major qualities to the genre, with a severely robust and consistent anatomy of abundant sonorous virtuosity, B.O.R.E.A.L, by Sabactâni, certainly can be classified as a vigorous and sensational state of the art work. 

black metal / crust punk

bandcamp

Fallen From The Hull is an Ep released by American black metal act Nailwalker, from Austin, Texas. Twenty-five minutes long, and with four sensationally fantastic tracks – Juvenile, Feeding The Devil, Without A Thread To Pull On and Meant For All Fours – Fallen From The Hull is a formidably majestic state of the art work, that brings on the crest of its tempestuous, direct and incinerating melodies all the aggressive devices truly inherent to the genre. With a sober, technically proficient and genuine veracity that is the main engine of their music, Nailwalker is a fantastic musical creation, that introduces into their music in a perfectly incisive and precise manner crust punk elements, as well as more melodic and melancholically somber sonorous tonalities. With beautifully poetic and thoroughly original guitar lines – that somewhere along the way, unveils an amazingly superb, lugubrious and dissonant solo – Fallen From The Hull is one of the most perfect, authentic and astoundingly beautiful experimental black metal pieces that I’ve ever heard. With furious, but lancinating and dramatic vocals as well, as soon as this EP is over, you want to hear it again! 

black metal

bandcamp

S/T is a two track EP released on August 17, by Canadian black metal act Mandragora, from Victoria, British Columbia. With two amazingly sinister songs – In Scarlet Embrace and Beyond The Lacheist Prisons – Mandragora performs old school traditional black metal, on a virtuous and dissonant style. With somber and aggressive tunes, and pervasively grasping cutting edge vocals, the sound of the duo is thoroughly groundbreaking and energetic, doomed to fall beneath the imperial demise of its own projected desolation. With a responsive aggressiveness, that is more melancholic and lugubrious than hostile or belligerent, the overall sound of Mandragora is quite provocative and inventive. Very reminiscent of the early Norwegian black metal scene, the style of the duo is profoundly proverbial, obscure and essentially imaginative, although they do present a formidable degree of originality, that makes their sound quite distinctive, but without losing the quintessential trademarks of the genre. An excellent work – as a matter of fact, a gracefully fantastic two track EP – on the course of its seventeen minutes, Mandragora definitely gives a sonorous lesson about what true old school black metal really is.  

black metal

Dark Lore is an EP released on July 27 by American DSBM artist Moon Bog. Almost twenty three minutes long, the work has four tracks: Under Burning Leaves, Reawaken the Frost, Mount Sorrow and The Strain. A splendid, beautiful, philosophic and marvelously poetic musical work, with an abundant layer of sonorous melancholy, the general style of the artist is profound, graceful and exceedingly rough on the introspective universe of its expansive sensibilities. With genuinely patient and somber harmonies, that plays on the majesty of its precociously filtered and salutary guitar lines, the melodies are dramatically tense, but profoundly calm at the same time, as they extend to the transparent, but lugubrious oceans of its frivolous sensitivities the turbulent pandemonium of its restless state of mind. A passionate, cosmic, exhilarating work, whose pervasive sensibility plays a vital role at the cornerstone of its infuriating, but peaceful and placid sagacious artistry, the formidable level of creativity and excellence displayed by the artist on this work is simply extraordinary, and will certainly please all genuine DSBM enthusiasts that will be happy enough to listen and to enjoy this fantastic pearl of the genre. 

black metal

bandcamp

Self-Destruction is a wonderful EP released on July 25, by Russian DSBM artist Dystert Natt. Very concise, only ten minutes long, the work has four tracks: Ashes And Snow, Insomnia, Scars'14 and Sing To Me An Alcoholic Lullaby. The general style of this musician is DSBM on its most typical and traditional layer. Nevertheless, it is abundant in beauty, and has several qualities that stands out on the course of its sonorous brevity. The melancholy, the mordacity, the overall serenity and the discreet sadness that is overexposed at the most frivolous panel of its virtuous musical context is excessively evasive and lugubrious, but has a poetic beauty that easily disperses and dilacerates the macabre rudeness of its shadows. The guitar lines are ostensibly impeccable and whimsically elaborated, although they are plain and simple. Unadorned, direct and full of lethargic grievances, Self-Destruction – as predictable as it is –, has a consistent, dramatic and sincere layer of sonorous beauty and stylish purity, that certainly makes this wonderful EP a very pleasant experience to hear. 

black metal

bandcamp

With only two tracks – Vacuous and Obsequious Vermin –, Histamine Haven is the debut of an eponymous Canadian project, released on July 24. With a raw and traditional approach to the genre, the record is absolutely fascinating, has a consistent style and definitely has what it takes to please a large audience. With solid, but at the same time dissolute guitar lines, Histamine Haven has a ponderable and serene conjuncture of harmonies, that – despite brief passages of virulent aggressiveness – gracefully elevates the internal dynamic conflagrations of its expansive rhythms to a fateful standpoint, where the experimental colors of the sound extrapolate the venomous frontiers of its own unfathomable hostility. Unraveling a fantastic and versatile tone of primordial stature and creative audacities, the style of Histamine Haven has mordacious peculiarities, and a very original musical groundwork. The way the artist promotes the balance of the most violent and hazardous aspects of his music with the more serene and sensible components of his sonorous splendor denotes a vigorous and majestic ambivalence that is gracefully dilapidated almost to the level of perfection, and certainly will captivate the listeners, almost immediately.  

Wagner

ambient / experimental / noise

Krysalisound

doom / sludge metal

experimental / avant garde

drone / electronic / ambient

hardcore / crust / black metal

psychedelic rock / stoner rock

indie / alternative rock / psychedelic rock

dream pop / trip hop

dark ambient / neoclassical / dark jazz

krautrock / psychedelic rock

death metal / deathcore

rock

groove metal

Serge

ambient / drone

industrial / metal / drum & bass

classical

metal

grindcore / crust

ambient / techno

new wave / alternative rock

black metal

bandcamp

black metal

classical / post rock / jazz

facebook

drone doom

hard rock / metal

black metal / noise

dark jazz

Serge

doom / rock

sludge / doom 

shoegaze / dreampop

new wave

pop / rock

black metal

bandcamp

post rock

punk / crust

nu metal

drone / jazz

Serge

post rock

densely acquiescent serenity, majorly entangled in a human emotional diagram of omnipotent infinity, S/T is a simple, yet complete sonorous conflagration of a melodic universe, whose imponderability is virtually attached to the most restless deliberation of a wonderful and honest expressive moment in time.     

​Wagner

heavy jazz / grindcore

ambient / post rock

jazz / noise rock / experimental

bandcamp

heavy metal

crust / hardcore

progressive metal

hip hop / j-rap

electronic

black metal / metal / death metal

black metal

doom / post metal

death metal / thrash metal

folk metal

alternative metal