Orobas - Arise In Impurity
black metal
Blackened death metal from Bangladesh, that's something you don't hear every day. Orobas was formed in 2015, heavily inspired by bands like Venom, Mayhem, Beherit and Behemoth. Their music follows a similar path, an eerie intro, followed by primitive and harsh black metal. Yet, it isn't all blast-beats and thrash metal inspired chaos. The songs are quite varied and show some seasoned musicians. There's enough brute power and energy to please every fan of old school metal, whether that is thrash, death or black. Old school, like in the days those tags didn't really exist yet. You just smashed the play button and started headbanging. This ep is a good way to relive that era and it contains some nice surprises!
Kurokuma - Advorsus
doom / sludge
The sludge scene is evolving, that's for sure. Take this UK-based combo Kurokuma and their newest ep for example. At first listen, you're engulfed in sludged-out riffs and a tar-thick pool of fuzz, distortion and brutal vocals. However, gradually the whole thing gets a psychedelic edge with hypnotic drones and soundscapes. Noise rock seems to be another thing these guys have been listening to, and there's even a djembe-driven passage. My advice, listen, listen again, and again because the true value of this ep slowly appears, mainly in the Conan meets (old) Sepultura song 'Dark Triad'. If you like intense and heavy, you'll want to marry this ep...
Düster Lust - Düster Lust
symphonic metal / progressive metal / death metal
I'm not very fond of this album, but that's mainly because I'm not a fan of soprano fronted symphonic metal. However, I do want to recommend this debut to people who are fans of this genre because it's got some refreshing elements, excellent use of electronics and mesmerizing guitar passages. It's a debut, one which contains a few potential fan favorites, including the hypnotic 'Kaleidoscope' and the haunting 'Social War'. Besides, the album teems with variation, surprising hooks and complex song structures. There is talent here, talent that quite possibly will climb the big stages at a metal festival near you...
Tomb Mold - The Bottomless Perdition
death metal
If you thought all Canadians are friendly, nice, well-behaved people, you should listen to this obscure tape. Brutal, aggressive and primitive death metal, accompagnied with deep, guttural growls and sharp guitar solos will blast you right out of any prejudice you can have against Canadians. If you're a fan of old school death metal, this definitely is your thing. I mean, it's a tape, it's brutal as fuck and it's guaranteed to drag you down into a cesspool of misanthropy, misery and terror, what else can you possibly want as a seasoned death metal adept, right?
Chugun - Virus
death metal
More fierce and gut ripping old school death metal which guarantees to slice your throat if you try to resist. Chugun is a female fronted death metal from Israel who make a shitload of noise with hyperspeed riffs, pounding drums and insanely sick vocals. The overall nature of this album is extremely violent, massively inspired by thrash metal acts like Slayer as well as death metal bands like Lamb Of God, Gojira or Morbid Angel. The whole thing is over after about half an hour but by then you'll be smashed to pieces anyway. Chugun is an intensely destructive force, one I hope will tour with this material soon. This has got to be a pulverizing live experience...
VRTRA - My Bones Hold a Stillness
doom / black metal
Unnamed musicians from somewhere in the USA, creating vast and layered blackened doom which will gnaw and grind on your very conscience, if you still have that. In three monolithic songs, VRTRA brings dissonance and chaos to a whole new level, a level where bands like Dragged Into Sunlight and Lord Mantis also seem to roam. One step further into the abyss and we'd be dealing with harsh, blackened noise, but there is still a decent slab of musicality to be found here. I have no idea who exactly is behind this project, but I'm quite sure that they are experienced musicians in the world of sludge, doom and black metal, ànd that wish to devour your soul...
Dysylumn - Conceptarium
death metal
It's death metal galore at this edition of "brieviews", continuing the path of utter destruction with French progressive death metal act Dysylumn. With elements from black, death and doom metal, this act comes up with some highly immersive pieces of music, progressive but not too complex and pretty much always perfectly suited to bang your head. The songs are well varied, melodic and paint an excellent musical scenery without harming the overall aggression and brutality that comes with this genre. This ep is the forerunner for something new, coming pretty soon. I for one am looking forward to that...
My Funeral - Harder Than This Life
thrash / death metal
Hailing from Finland, and completely stuck into the nineties come My Funeral and their 'Harder Than This Life' album. With this album, this quartet will fill the moshpits with crowdsurfers and stagedivers, causing an orgy of limbs and hair. Think Exodus, think Sodom, think Exploited, think Tankard, think Suicidal Tendencies. Or better yet, don't think at all, just mosh and thrash to awesome tunes like 'Future Violence' and 'And More Violence'. Did I already say that this was a pretty violent piece of work? Well, it is and you should own this if you're a true thrash metal. There I said it, now go ahead and buy this thing. Thrash metal hasn't been this edgy in years...
qip - On Ephemeral Substrates
industrial / death metal
What would happen if Suicide Commando (or Hocico or Combichrist for that matter) crawled into the studio with Nasum or Cannibal Corpse? Well, this album might provide you with an idea of how that would sound: bloody brilliant, that's how. This thing combines brutal death metal and grindcore with heaps of electronics, sequencers and a load of samples. The result is a mesmerizing journey of relentless brutality, a death metal version of Limbonic Art perhaps. Qip is a side project from Sirrah co-founder Maciej Pasinski, and I hope he'll get a band together and take this stuff on the road. This album is way too good to be ignored, so check it out, it's an extreme metal masterpiece...
She Beast - III
sludge
We'll end this edition of "brieviews" with a good slab of sleazy, faul and grimy sludge metal from Melbourne, Australia based trio She Beast (and a firm pair of butt cheeks for your visual delight). There's nothing fancy, pretty or complicated on this album. Instead, it's simply a gigantic steamroller, driving in through your ears and bursting out through your anus about twenty five minutes later. All you can do is undergo the whole thing, try to enjoy it and press the play button again. If you're into primitive but effective sludge doom, this surely is your thing. If not, there's still the oddly fascinating cover photo to look at. Me? I really need a smoke now...