We got lucky this summer, frens! July was barren enough of waste byproducts that we didn’t even have to open up the grate to our Filter to clean it out. Unfortunately, our respite was short-lived, as August was much more productive and, therefore, mucked up our chutes as per usual.
So, here you are, a selection of archaeological finds sourced from the steaming hot piles of refuse we extracted from our ever-protesting Filter! 440 Mhz Duplexer
People who know me well understand that I’m an incredibly food-motivated individual. Put a plate of free morsels in front of my salivating maw, and I’ll go wherever you want me. That’s the way it is. So, obviously, I was destined to discover Australia’s Pizza Death and their extra-punky, grindy thrash metal based around one of my favorite foods, the almighty pizza. The sheer amount of stupid in their second album Reign of the Anticrust is nothing short of awe-inspiring, but so too is the sheer quantity of fun. Wasting no time fulfilling your order for tasty, thrashy goodness, opener “Pepperabies” launches the album into high gear, and in high gear it revs until seventh topping “Avoid the Noid,” where thrash meets chunky heavy metal riffs and spicy solos. “Tsunami of Salami” picks things back up just in time for Reign’s punky grind to take over. From there, the record’s sample-heavy midsection stuffs as many meaty riffs into your gob. Of course, nothing tops the pristine SpongeBob SquarePants inspired “Second Drop,” which happens to be a surprisingly vital piece of metal piled high with noodly riffs and vicious energy. Pizza Death maintains that energy all the way until closer “Pizza Death Row” lines your stomach with crust, red sauce and moldy cheese one last time. There’s a ton of cool material on here, but at nearly thirty minutes of literal pizza thrash, you might find yourself struggling to finish the whole pie by yourself. That’s why I recommend sharing Reign of the Anticrust with all of your hungriest friends. The more the merrier!
Reign of the Anticrust by Pizza Death
Prolific Belgian multi-instrumentalist Déhà never fails to release at least one cool thing every year. And every year, it’s something different than the last release which caught my eye. This year, I’m drawn to Averses II, an atmospheric post-black metal record that is at once mournful, peaceful, and warm. There’s a beautiful balance between the desperate pain in Déhà’s vocals, gritty tremolos, and ascendant melodies. After the drifting but immersive opener, “Estival,” follow-ups “Regrets d’inconnu” and “Vers heir” drown me in fuzzy beauty, concocting bizarrely effective melodic lines, varied percussion and light pacing. This may be a metallic record, but it is one made for a meditative stroll across black-sand beaches on overcast days. There are many who would read that and dismiss the record as boring or monotonous outright. For me, it scratches just the right little section of my brain that keeps screaming that I need rest—the same desperate screams that I routinely neglect. Averses II showcases all the trappings of an atmospheric record while minimizing the genre’s shortcomings, thanks primarily to Déhà’s dynamic and flexible guitar work. Rarely settling on a single passage for inordinate runtimes, he pays careful attention to flow in these songs and makes sure that with each transition, a new path forward surfaces. By allowing his compositions to morph and evolve in this manner, each of Averses II’s admittedly lengthy tracks shrink, floating by in what feels like a blink of an eye (“Erosions”). For something to bring some kind of peace to a weary soul, you could do much, much worse than Averses II.
Averses II by Déhà
Canadian/American symphonic tech-death band Mortem Obscuram spawned only two years ago, but second full-length The Wretched Divinity evidences something significantly more professional and refined than I expect from such nascent acts. At the same time, the band boasts a youthful exuberance in their compositions which makes this tight record a joy to experience. Highlights “In the Absence of Light,” “Eons Away,” and “The Glass Kingdom” pull a great number of cues from similar bands like Inferi, Equipoise, Archspire, and Shadow of Intent, but the particulars of Mortem Obscuram’s orchestrations and metallic structures belies a budding personality that, once nourished, will one day stand alone. A stronger blackened streak makes itself known on “Awakening their Hopeless Eternal” which interweaves among neoclassical noodles and intricate drum fills that recall early Fleshgod Apocalypse. As the record develops, so do these details, growing in both presence and personality by the time awesome closer “The Glass Kingdom” brings things to a satisfying conclusion. A gorgeous and cinematic interlude “The Temporal Form” allows that evolution some extra definition as well, as it bisects the record into two distinct acts where Mortem Obscuram’s multitudinous layers express different but interconnected, tones. All in all, while not perfect and still somewhat generic, The Wretched Divinity is a boisterously fun and very promising slab of epic tech death.
The Wretched Divinity by Mortem Obscuram
2021’s Wretch, from one-man Canadian black metal project Anti-God Hand, caught my attention but seems to have made little impression elsewhere. Its hyper-stylized, partially-synthetic take on industrial black metal was, I admit, a bit of a rough listen, not least in the vocals, which were a deafening distorted shriek, drowning in feedback. For whatever reason though, it hooked me. Two years on and Vancouver’s Will Ballantyne is back with Blight Year, a much more personal record, dwelling on his direct experiences of our changing climate, while working in the scorching bush of British Columbia as it briefly became the hottest place on Earth. Capturing a much more organic, though no less pummeling, sound Ballantyne drafted in ex-Liturgy drummer Greg Fox, as well as Gorguts’ Colin Marston, who mixed and mastered the record, as well as contributing synths to opener, “Out of the Tunnels, Into the Heavens.” Channeling the intense, relentless fury of Calligram, infused with some of the synth beauty of Unreqvited, Blight Year is a frenetic record, that sprints through its 35 minutes and change with such wild abandon, that it’s hard not to be swept up by it. The likes of “Demon Sniper,” with its machine gun drum opening has more than a hint of death metal about it, despite the rapid-fire tremolos, while “The Horde at the End of Language” comes straight out of the melodic Ancient Mastery playbook. This is rasping black metal with a thrashy edge to it, that doesn’t out-stay its welcome and, for all its ferocity, canters along at such breakneck speed that it’s undeniably fun too.
Blight Year by Anti-God Hand
A little over two years ago, not long after The Relentless Kenstrosity resurrected this feature, I filtered a little self-released album called पुनर्जन्म भाग १ (Reincarnation Part 1) by Kushinagar, India’s Siddhattha Gotama (as, I believe—based on the Bandcamp url—गौतम बुद्ध translates). I described that album as an incredible blend of raw, lo-fi black metal fury, with lashings of drone, dollops of proggy melodicism and a marbling of Indian-tinged folk. I also noted that, given the album name and the song titles,1 I really hoped there would be a part two. Well, here it is. Still raw and dark as fuck, पुनर्जन्म भाग २ is everything that I hoped it would be. Tremolos and razor-wire rasps abound, buried in fuzzy raw production, which occasionally breaks, giving way to slightly fey, other-worldly Koldovstvo-esque melodies (back end of the second track), and off-kilter synth and percussion sections (around four minutes into the album closer). Another tight record, clocking in at just 36 minutes, this is murky, raw stuff but with a strangely delicate, yearning urge that lingers around the edges, only half heard. It would be easy to write off as something only Cherd would like but, if you give it your attention, time spent with this record will be time well spent.
Reincarnation Part 2 by Gautam Buddha
As I recently remarked to a certain cetaceous colleague of mine, I make up for my lack of interest in OSDM and ‘normal’ extreme metal with an obsession with dissonant blackened bullshit. Decoherence, with their uncanny industrialized black metal, are one favorite source of such weirdness. Order is just as terrifying as its predecessors, owing not only to its cacophonous, echoing nightmarishness but the continued theme of sidereal horror—the black void and utter hostility of space, the incomprehensibility of its scope and emptiness. While “Closed Timelike Curves” and “Degenerate Ground States” seem suffused with total hopelessness in their relentless airless dissonance, even the more spacious—because they contain the slightest of atmospheric melody—“With No Pre-Existing Direction” and “The Future Behind Them” drain and overwhelm. Overwhelm is really the operative word here, as for all of Decoherence’s output, to the extent that many may tune out entirely. Listening closely does pay off though, in my opinion, as Order’s chaos then shows itself to be, well, ordered. The patterns of the ringing, cyclical riffs and clanging synth-distorted percussion that arise in “An Unconfined System,” seem to recur onwards across the album, and “With No…” and “Quintessence Field” become near-hypnotic. Even the violent “Closed Timelike Curves” bends into shape with a repeating series of scales. Polarising for sure, but a must-listen if you share my love of the enigmatic extreme.
The second installment in the Disharmonium saga, coming not 18 months later, you more or less know what you’re going to get with Disharmonium -Nahab. By which I mean, you know you’re going to be in some way bamboozled, unsettled, and captivated by BAN’s trademark void-like hallucinogenic black metal. …Nahab carries the tale onwards from Undreamable Abysses and its companion Lovecraftian Echoes, coming out of the downward spiral of cosmic insanity and into a treacherous onward stretch. More atmospheric and brooding than its sister pieces, there are plenty of harrowing, backwards-sounding riffs and chanting (“Mental Paralysis,” “The Black Vortex”); terrifying, lurching, gargled vocals (“The Crowning Horror”); creeping, jarring chords (“The Endless Multitude,” “Queen of the Dead Dimension”); and unnervingly rustling near silences, broken by flurries of softly moaning, discordant notes (“The Endless Multitude,” “The Ultimate Void of Chaos”). The emergence of a true, minor melody emanating from the blackened chaos of “Nameless Rites” is almost a shock. “Almost,” because of how naturally it seems to arise. It is, nonetheless, a fragment of hospitable rock amidst a misty, inhospitable sea. Despite it all, …Nahab feels weirdly accessible—relatively speaking, of course. Or perhaps I’ve gone the way of many who witness Lovecraftian phenomena and am now totally insane. You be the judge.
Disharmonium – Nahab by Blut Aus Nord
Oblivion Protocol is a great name for a band, and gives you a solid idea of what to expect when you dive into its debut concept album, The Fall of the Shires. Richard West of Threshold manages vocals and keyboards in this new progressive metal project, which he started essentially to write a follow-up story for Threshold’s Legends of the Shires (reviewed favorably by the mighty Steel Druhm here). Immediately it is clear why The Fall of the Shires is not a Threshold album though—Oblivion Protocol dials back significantly on the heavy metal factor to present an album that is much more cinematic in scope. It’s still prog metal—but more in the vein of Steven Wilson, Rush, and Pink Floyd. It works really well too—songs like “This Is Not a Test” lean fully into West’s vocal style—polished, smooth, and still catchy. When the band does lean into its heavier roots, as in “Forests In the Fallout,” it works just as well. The real strength of the album, however, is its cinematic scope, the symphonic element brought in by the always-present keyboards, that gives the album its sheen and glow. In an unusual twist, my favorite song of the bunch is the power ballad, “Storm Warning.” The gorgeous piano, quiet guitars, and smooth singing—even the more-audible drumming and bass carry a powerful, emotional tune that I often have playing in my head. It goes to show that at its core, Oblivion Protocol has something really strong driving it, and so I sincerely hope that this will not be a one-album project.
It will take you approximately 30 seconds into Guns for Hire to realize U.K.’s Tailgunner wish they were alive and releasing material in 1980 in the heat of the NWoBHM explosion. Their tried-and-true olde timey retro sound sits comfortably between Iron Maiden and Saxon with big, burly doses of manic machismo powering their stripped-down, unruly compositions. Not the slightest trace of modernity rears its fancy bepants face over the rollicking, rough-riding 48 minutes of Guns for Hire and that’s just fine by me. This would have blown me away in 1981-982, and it’s still plenty entertaining in 2023. Craig Carns wails and rages like a man with nary a whiff of classic vocal training, sounding like a drunken blend of Blaze Bayley and Brian Ross, and he’s a big part of the fun. Add exuberant and rowdy riffage from Zach Salvini and Patrick van der Völlering and you’re in for a good time. At their most frenetic, the band’s manic energy brings them into early Enforcer territory and that’s just fine too. The point is, this is a dumb, fun album that reeks of cheap beer and 80s bad taste. Lick it up.
Ageless Summoning are a U.K. death metal act with a big love of Steve Tucker-era Morbid Angel, and on their Corrupting the Entempled Plane debut they deliver a potent brew filled with ichor and awfulness. Think Morbid Angel at their most fatal formulas circa 1998 and you have a solid clue what to expect, though this is far from a mere Angel cover act. With talent in abundance and some first-rate guitar work from Greg Cowell (Abyssal) and Rory Strachan, there are a lot of massive, Elder God-friendly riffs that flay and peel your feeble mind. Though there’s nothing groundbreaking here, the band knows the slime they want to live in and they fling it wantonly. A track like “Epoch of Souls” is sure to get your attention and hold it with its ghastly gravitas, and it’s impossible to blast “Among the Worms” and not feel nostalgic for the quasi-salad days of Morbid Angel. If I have a major gripe, it’s the band’s propensity to creak along at a stout mid-pace too often while being too restrained with the high-speed assaults. Still, a very pleasant and gruesome death platter and a band to keep tabs on. And fans of loudly clanging, popping bass lines will love what Derek Wright is laying down.
5.0 - Iconic 4.5 - Excellent 4.0 - Great 3.5 - Very Good 3.0 - Good 2.5 - Mixed 2.0 - Disappointing 1.5 - Bad 1.0 - Embarrassing 0.5 - Unlistenable
First Order Bandpass Filter 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 American Metal Black Metal Black Sabbath Canadian Metal Death Metal Doom Metal English Metal Finnish Metal Folk Metal German Metal Heavy Metal Iron Maiden Italian Metal Melodic Death Metal Norwegian Metal Opeth Post-Metal Power Metal Progressive Metal Review Reviews Self Released Slayer Swedish Metal Technical Death Metal Thrash Metal