Bädr Vogu - Wroth (2016)

Wroth is a record that really strikes a balance between its crusted and doomed aesthetics, imbuing them even further with some elements of death metal, Southern blues-injected grooves, and an occasional direct window into those angry hardcore fundamentals from which its sludge and crust components are derived. Oakland's Bädr Vogu bind this mass of styles into a unified whole in which each of them seem to complement the others, and then drown the entire experience in loads of existential and depressing samples from sources like True Detective character Rustin Cohle. The whole package is rather brutal and consistent in its disposition, comprised of lengthier tracks ranger about 7-11 minutes that pretty evenly distribute the influences I mentioned above.

And for the most part, I was on board here, because the sound of the whole thing is quite good, the rhythm guitars effectively cycling between doomed grooves and crushing chord barrages, given a little more depth by the occasional use of dour melodies, brief tremolo-picked departures and other 'musical' contributions that help recede the record from the shore-lines of boredom that a lot of its contemporaries often get their toes a little too wet in. Certainly there's a core here of the old NOLA Eyehategod sound, as well as Boston's Grief, albeit less nasty and hopeless, just replete with the crashing, loping, striding guitar riffs that themselves are often fixed with percussive changes that you don't quite expect. This helps the album retain some degree of freshness since it never strangles itself with ceaseless, dull repetition, even though a lot of the rhythm guitar riffs throughout the album are hardly memorable, and will draw your mind back to the many times you've heard similar within the sub-genres that it draws from. Vocals vary between the snarl typical of the style to a broader guttural, and both work although neither of them are bringing anything new to the buffet either.

My favorite piece on the album was surprisingly the shorter closer "Of Misanthropy and Malaise", with beautiful downtrodden acoustic guitars that repeat beneath a shroud of samples, spoken word and eerie violins to create an amazing, slowly cresting atmosphere as the fat bass lines erupt to drive it ever forward. It's a little bit of a left turn from the rest of the material, but offers such a bluesy and swampy vibe that it's irresistible and almost makes me wish they had included more segues of a similar nature, more immersion than their heavier tunes gifted me. However, I won't get too down on the rest of the record, because I think it will certainly hold an appeal to fans of sludge, Southern-fried doom and slower, driving crust or even slower death/doom. Loved the logo and the cover art to this one, which I think the guitarist designed, and the anarchic lyrics which attack everything from the average daily grind to substance abuse to the American Dream seem to mesh well with the selected samples and pounding certainty of the riffage.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (actions glisten like gory daggers)

https://badrvogu.bandcamp.com/

Atrament - Scum Sect (2018)

A lot of the bands performing in the crust/D-beat medium these days all carry a particularly Swedish tone to their guitars, often injecting a little dissonant post-hardcore personality, but sticking quite closely to that scene in terms of production values and how the flow of the riffs hit you over the head. Scum Sect was a little refreshing for me in how it handled this approach with a little more ugliness and vitriol. Sure, you're going to hear those punk rhythms that get traced right back to the Discharge lineage, fueling this procession of punishment; but these Californians wrap that up in an envelope of black and death metal aesthetics and even toss in some dissonant, Voivod-like riffing sequences which manage to keep the material atmospheric and interesting.

The backbone of D-beat riffs here also does a lot to trump your expectations...sure a number of the chord patterns will seem familiar at first, but they often veer into an unexpected note selection or get interspersed with tremolo picked death metal fills. It's still accessible and fulfilling enough for those who adhere to more typical acts in the style, but there's just enough gloom and obliqueness to offer a more sinister depth. The vocals are also a little beyond the pale, where normally you get the raving political hardcore barking, here is a rather sustained blackened death inflection which sounds like this shadow hovering over the instruments, with just a enough effects-driven finesse that it doesn't come across as dull or cheap. A broad guttural which often trails off into a bloodier rasp. The bass is a pretty thick, bombastic presence alongside the rhythm guitars which fattens them up rather than trying to stick its nose out elsewhere, and this works well enough here although it wouldn't kill them to drift off on their own for a few bars. The drums have the perky reliability usually associated with this style, nothing too complex but he'll toss a lot of timely, thundering fills to keep the pulse.

I do like that they often break out into the tremolo picked sections, that instantly adds a lot more of a replay value to the usually chord-centered style, and I feel Atrament usually gets enough variation to cover what they're crafting into a typically 2-3 minute track. I also liked the use of a breakout mid paced thrash riff s in "War Seed", just these smaller little dynamics go a long way to keeping the album from getting too samey...and it does on occasion, don't get me wrong, but even then you'll have a few subtle highlights to help you map out one track from the next. Pitch black, driving, menacing stuff here, instantly standing out from the flock of bands that approach this more from the hardcore perspective, which is sometimes pretty damn awesome, but others too predictable. I don't know that Scum Sect is quite the peak for this band, there's plenty of direction to grow into, broadening their higher pitched picking and atmosphere, but it exceeded the baseline expectations.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://atrament.bandcamp.com/

Bombs of Hades - Atomic Temples (2014)

Bombs of Hades continue to eke out their own little corner of crusty, D-beat, Entombed worshiping heaven with their third full-length Atomic Temples. These guys have always had a bit more of an indie, punk/grind feeling to them which didn't always match up with their choice in cover aesthetics...in this case, the ghastly, enigmatic landscape present through the artwork doesn't really precipitate what you can expect from most of the tunes here. A few atmospheric, evil pieces drawn more directly from their Swedish death metal forebears, to be sure, but the rest is grooving, death rock & roll with loads of the expected drum beats and riff choices which don't deviate widely from the typical tropes of this niche.

You might indeed consider this the 'Wolverine Blues' of the Bombs' career, in that they seem to be risking a few more chances with the groovier, chunkier bluesy curvature of riffs like those found in "And Your Flesh Still Burns", which shuffle about with that irreverent swagger the foremost Swedes of the style explored a little TOO deeply on their mid and later 90s output. The guitar tone here is voluptuous, moist and nasty in tandem; kind of like my choice in significant others, only like with those, there is an occasional desire here to thwart my ears from what they're spitting into them, due to the nagging feeling that they're a bit redundant and I've heard it all before. But to these guys' credit, every time a track was about to lose me, then they'd almost balance it off with something more creepy and atmospheric. Example: "Palace of Decay", which opens with these morbid, fuzzy melodies that resonate over the boggy din of the cover. Unfortunately, even that tunes erupts into an all too standard riffing pattern which is just the same d-beat chord accompaniment with a few slightly deviate chord patterns that you've heard 6,000 in this modern wave of old school soundalikes...

Where the Bombs go into straight death/thrash metal picking, like in "Omens" which seems like Slayer or Possessed squeezed through a Stockholm filter, the music becomes more incinerating and exciting in turns and I almost wish they'd release a total fucking tyrant of a death metal record and stop fiddling around in the same Disfear/Discharge/Skitsystem territory that so many of these nowadays Entombed-core bands have trodden to death. Hell, with a little more emphasis on the riff patterns, these guys might even approach a level which could rival Bloodbath or Demonical or any of several other quality bands in a field of so much detritus, but Atomic Temples is only half firing at best, with L-G Petrov-like raving barks and guitar progressions that would only seem fresh to me if I hadn't already been listening to this shit for 24-25 years. There is promise here, that I do not doubt, and fans of Entrails, Feral, Entombed (Clandestine on), or the more rockin' Desultory and Vermin records might wanna take note of this. However, even though they achieve a nice momentum here in the 38 minutes they've allotted, and might seem 'cooler' than a lot of other bands doing the same thing (more attitude and street/cemetery cred), it's still the same thing, and I just didn't find enough to hold my interest for more than a few spins, besides maybe the sexy guitar tone.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://www.bombsofhades.com/

Bombs of Hades - Carnivores EP (2008)

Bombs of Hades is another band paying some obvious fan service to their Swedish forefathers, but there are subtle hints that they come from a more distinctly crust and hardcore background. They simply slather it in that raunchy-ass death metal distortion we recall from Entombed and Dismember, and thus a lot of the tremolo riff lines here do feel as if they could have been jerked off Left Hand Path, Clandestine or Indecent & Obscene. Hardly archons of originality, and truth be told I've grown exhausted by so many bands borrowing the old aural trope, which I've rambled on about many times before. But, despite this pervasive sense of having 'been there before one too many times', these guys are fairly exciting songwriters who keep the pacing steady and interject a lot of hellish energy into the simple chord progressions, while not shying away from the use of evil melodies and wailing, bluesy mini-leads that helped define Entombed and their peers as they transitioned into the death & roll of the mid-90s.

Basically, if you find yourself itching for more of that Clandestine/Wolverine Blues vibe or you've run out of Disfear records, Carnivores is a respectable scratch... Five tracks, bloody and willing, driven by a juicily distorted pair of rhythm guitars and crashy sounding drums with a lot of tsssshh tssssshhh cymbal to support the varied melodies and solos. Vocally they're a little more brutal than the average band in this field, backing up the central rasp with guttural barks spewing out cult horror. Structurally, the riffs here are nothing quite unexpected, but there's enough internal variation to fuel these 2-3 minute compositions, from the shit-kicking d-beat bridge of "Slaughter the Dead" to the funereal, cemetery swell opening "Necronomicus Kanth (The Hounds of Hell)" with a touch of synthesizer. I think my favorite track was the closer "Coffin" which is just pure old Swedish death metal ass-razing with some eerie trilling leads in the breakdown, but overall the songs are roughly even in quality, so you never find that anything really sticks out from the rest over the 14 minutes of content. But, then, sometimes that's not a good thing...

There are probably a thousand bands now playing with a similar sound, in Sweden, greater Europe, and even in the States. Bombs of Hades have at least been doing it for some time (formed in '02), even though this particular EP (a 2013 Re-issue from 2008) was where they really started to become productive. Carnivores does compare decently to a lot of the stuff coming out five years later, but truthfully they've got some better songs on their intermittent full-length records Chambers of Abominations and The Serpent's Redemption. But if you missed out on a chance to own the original 7" for this, or you just find yourself driven to collect all that walk the path of Entombed/Nihilist, Discharge, Repulsion and Carnage/Dismember, I can't think that you'd hear this Blood Harvest re-release and be disappointed. I got some brief enjoyment from the songs, yet I can't imagine any situation where I wouldn't just prefer the influences themselves. That said, the production is good and dirty, the DIY attitude is obvious, and there aren't any prevalent negatives apart from the sense of over familiarity and redundancy I experience when listening through this style of death metal.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://bombsofhades.com/

Blood Division - Necrordnance EP (2012)

It's getting to the point now where I expect nothing less than my ears to be flossed with barbwire-strewn savagery when hearing Singaporean extreme metal, so I took the opportunity to don a helmet and flak jacket when approaching Blood Division's new digital/Bandcamp EP release Necrordnance. This thing looks, smells, and feels like a grimier, crusted riff on the 90s output of Finland's Impaled Nazarene, with the guitars scathing through incendiary punk/D-beat progressions and then ramping up for more extreme territory with black metal chord textures and blast beats aplomb. I also detected hints of old Sodom and Hellhammer, plus maybe a bit of Discharge or Disfear. In other words, it's vicious nuclear terrain which will flay the skin from your body if you're not careful enough to wrap it all down and brave its ripping, caustic, irradiated winds.

The whole thing's over and done in about 10 minutes flat, but the four tracks are all pretty varied in terms of individual length and substance. For example, "The Wait" is just a few seconds of distorted grunts and barks to set up "Hellhounds", a 4 minute thrasher which I would advise you not to listen to while driving, lest you hit the gas pedal without a second thought and ram yourself into a guardrail or pedestrian. The riffs aren't exactly complex in nature, but they sound so vivid and visceral as they wind through punk chords and thrashier palm mutes that you just can't suppress the belligerence it creates. The vocals here are a condensed, barbaric rasp which bears some similarity to Mika Luttinen at his basest, with a few nods to German beasts like Schmier, Angelripper and Mille, not to mention many in the black metal field they helped to inspire. The drums are as bright and bloody as the guitars, with loads of fills, blasts, double bass rolls to support the balance of guitar tempos, and the bass hops along dutifully through songs like "Morbid Requiem".

It's actually pretty well produced in terms of clarity, sharp enough to slice your brain up with a fat headache if you crank it too loud. Necrordnance is definitely not as primal or dingy sounding as the seminal works of many of its influences, and in fact I'd compare it more to an album like Sodom's punkier 90s records or the 21st century Impaled Nazarene releases in presentation. I didn't find the songs particularly spectacular in terms of memorable riff composition, and I'd like to hear more varied vocals in places, but on the whole I think this is pretty fun whether your poison is the currently popular blackened/speed/punk or other sickos on the Singaporean scene like Impiety or the grinders Wormrot. I'd prefer to hear the added variation and depth that would come with a full-length (again, this is really short), but it's not a bad little download if you love music that licks razor-blades and then drips the ensuing blood, spit and spite all over you.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.facebook.com/blooddivision

Bones - Bones (2011)

When Chicago's Usurper broke up a while back, it left a void out in the Midwest of crude and authentic US punishment. Not that I was a fan of all their albums, necessarily, but certainly their earlier efforts Diabolosis and Skeletal Season were formidable exports of brutal black and thrash metal that not many bands here were producing. Thankfully, the graveyard has been restocked with a fresh set of Bones, a band as primitive and simplistic as their name might imply, which rekindles the hostile hearts of Jon Necromancer, Carcass Chris and drummer Joe. Naturally, there are going to be comparisons made to the trio's alma mater, and the vocals and guitar tone are certainly redolent of the earlier Usurper records, but if anything, Bones is more bludgeoning and less subtle than even that formative incarnation.

The emphasis here is on neanderthal crushing death and thrash with a clear inspiration from the crustier side of punk rock. I've read many comparisons to Motörhead, but in truth this only manifests in a few of the more punk-fueled tracks like "March of the Dead", "Good Die Young" and "Lonely Death", in which you might also hear a hint of early Discharge. The majority of the record hits like a thrashing, belligerent weightstone, the crunch of the guitar and the massive and distorted bass competing in the mix alongside Jon's angry vocals. Some of the slower, thrashing pieces like "666" are engrossing enough to bang the head along to, but most do not focus so much around the riffs as they do sheer volume and raw force ("Bloodlust", "Bitch", "Slowburn"). They also incorporate a cover of Devastation's "Apocalyptic Warrior", thick and destructive as all hell breaking loose, with a messy but sincere lead bled across its bridge, which serves as a good fit for Bones, and a fitting tribute. Mind you, this is not the Texan Devastation band who released a few albums through Combat, but the Chicago underground group who had one self-released full-length in the 80s.

The key to Bones is that one must totally set aside any expectations for complexity, because the riffing is even more basic than most of Usurper's output. Like so many of the punk-influenced powerhouse thrash, black and death metal acts, the notation can often prove too predictable and creatively bankrupt to leave an impression, and while the wrath and energy of these veterans is never in question, that can sometimes be the case on this debut. There are very few moments here of surprise or hooks so memorable that they'd warrant profuse replays, and certain tracks are notably more catchy than others. That said, the fact that the trio is so ungodly loud and sincere goes a long way to compensate for any of the lagging tunes, and they never set out to write a record worthy of perspicacity, only pummeling fortitude. To that extent, Bones works, and it gives us something to look forward from these old, mighty hands.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/bonesofchicago

Ilsa - Tutti Il Colori del Buio (2010)

I don't know what exactly it is that has Washington DC crust fuckers Ilsa so peeved, but this is clearly one of the most crushing, angry albums I've heard in recent months, as far as volume and unrelenting throughput. Tutti il Colori del Buio is the band's sophomore, and it stands for 'All the Colors of the Dark', named for a 1972 exploitation film (not an uncommon practice among the young grinders, even Trap Them shortened their name from a '79 flick). Ilsa write from a number of influences: you can hear the craven, nihilistic drudge of Eyehategod, the harried fuel of traditional hardcore, and quite a few traces of pure death and doom throughout, pumped from the primordial veins of Asphyx, Burning Witch, Entombed, etc.

The album's strong point is clearly in its production, because it sounds enormously grimy to the point that it can literally knock the listener on his/her ass. Impressively raw, fibrous guitars deliver a mix of sludge and Sunlight Studio tone that is perfectly adapted for the negativity this band exudes like a tangible plasma that you'll be peeling off your skin and out of your ears for days after hearing it. Simply disgusting, the kind of disgusting that will wake you straight out of your stupor and straight to suicidal detachment like Dopethrone or Take As Needed for Pain once did. Unfortunately, this and the tortured grasp of Orion's sour, monotonous vocals are about the only elements of the album I really took away from it. The actual guitar riffs all suffer from a derivative, familiar feel, with nary any interesting deviations or randomness applied, from the stock chugging of "Blood Rituals" to the d-beat drive of "Butcher's Castle". You can hear almost every transition from a mile away, and leaves too much up to the atmosphere...

...and as destructive as that atmosphere is, it is simply not enough to overcome the writing. Don't get me wrong, if you're looking for a mindless slog from Blood Duster to Electric Wizard, from Goastnake to Bolt Thrower, with no surprises in store, then Ilsa has your back. The sheer weight of this violation makes stuff like Isis, Mouth of the Architect, and Trap Them sound like a daycare clinic; yet the sense of drain, of exhaustion that one feels when emerging from this experience leaves little desire to return to it. Hey, I admire any band that names a song "Frostthrower", but I would love to hear them transition into something less obvious, perhaps a sequence or two that fuse a few subtleties into the monolithic, swelling outbreaks of wretched emotion. Clearly this band has the 'sound' to frighten the world and sent shudders down the spines of underground dwellers everywhere. Now they just need the songs.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/ilsadc

Wastelander - Wardrive (2008)

It would be almost impossible for someone of my tastes to not appreciate what this band is bringing to the table on their debut. This is a three piece featuring Xaphan (perhaps best known from Summon and Wind of the Black Mountains) on guitars, and Ian Pit Viper from Superchrist on the drums. The vocals and bass are provided by Matt War. What manifests here is a great play on traditional filthy punk and crust, all wrapped up in a blackened, thrash metal shell, and it's hella fun throughout the duration of its entire track list.

You could compare this to the classic three piece bands like Venom or even Motorhead, but what might be the closest would be a more punked out Celtic Frost. Does that sound sexy? Because it is on this album. A brief intro leads you the title track of the album, with some very simple, infectious riffing and a good plodding bass, moving at about D-Beat pace. The lyrics are very 'metal', and I dare say retro in the sense they would remind you of bands like Razor and Wehrmacht. But while this might turn me off from other modern bands, they are executed so lovingly and well that it's hard not to get caught up in them. The rest of the record is equally bad ass, I truly enjoyed "Days of Hell", "Mindsweeper", "Baptized in Ashes", and "Final Combat", but there is nothing really weak here, it all follows suit.

This is an exciting release for fans of old school thrash, heavier punk, and crust metal, and the proto-black metal icing on the cake makes it that much more delicious. Don't let the deceptively simplicity of this turn you off, it's very enjoyable to blast in your car or when you want to shove your nuclear boot up someone's ass. I personally can't wait for more! Kudos to you dos. Proof that Michigan can rock. Actually this album almost makes up for Kid Rock and Eminem.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/thewastelander