Posts Tagged ‘Metal’

Watch: ‘Godvergeten’ by Growing Horns

Posted: 25 April 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Belgium’s harbingers of doom and despair, Growing Horns, have just unleashed a music video for ‘Godvergeten’, the latest single from their crushing debut album The Essence of Suffering, set to be released on May 3rd.

With riffs that crash like falling cathedral walls and vocals that echo like the wails of the damned, ‘Godvergeten’ is a sludge-soaked sermon of pure sonic punishment. Filmed in stark black and white, the video captures the primal energy and unfiltered bleakness that defines Growing Horns sound.

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Formed in 2015 in the shadow-cloaked depths of Kortrijk, Belgium, Growing Horns didn’t emerge as just another sludge band—they rose as a séance. A slow-burning, punishing invocation of pain, fury, and existential dread. Their sound isn’t forged—it’s exorcised.

Their 2019 debut EP, The Nobility of Pain, landed like a blow to the chest. A raw, unrelenting outpouring of emotion that critics called relentless and fans called home. It wasn’t just music—it was a wound. Pulsing. Festering. Unrepentantly real.

Now, the Belgian collective returns with The Essence of Suffering—an album that doesn’t simply gaze into the abyss, but sets up camp, builds an altar, and lights black candles in its honor. Heavier, darker, and more immersive than anything before, this new chapter digs even deeper into their signature sound: a harrowing fusion of sludge, doom, and stoner-infused despair.

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RuinsZu – Jazzisdead

Posted: 21 April 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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Subsound Records – 18th April 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

Twenty-eight years and fourteen albums into their career, Zu continue to confound, and to defy comfortable categorisation. Jazzisdead, their first release in six years, is their third live album. It’s most certainly not, however, a set comprising live renditions of greatest hits and fan favourites, and instead being a collaboration between Zu bassist Massimo Pupillo and saxophonist Luca T. Mai, with drummer Yoshida Tatsuya, founder of the Japanese band Ruins – and as such, the moniker follows in the vein of Zu93 (Zu with David Tibet of Current 93). The result, then, is a crazed hybrid of punk, sludge metal and jazz driven by some frenetic full-kit drumming.

‘Gravestone’ kicks it off with a thunderous riff and it’s a track that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Melvins album, while the frenzied ‘Speedball’ comes on like The Dead Kennedys but with some wild falsetto vocals and a blustering blast of sax. How is this even possible?

There are some more sedate passages, but they seemingly exist as tricks to convince you that they’re capable of delivering something more conventional: the introduction to ‘Asmodeo’ is gentle, atmospheric, and it’s almost soothing – but halfway through, it’s explodes in a riot of honks and parps, drums flying in all directions, and each composition slalems hither and thither: at times they’re tightly together, at others , the three instruments play across one another at wildly divergent angles, as if playing three completely different tunes – and yet somehow there’s a groove happening.

‘La Grande Madre Delle Bestie’ features some eye-popping machine-gun snare work before slithering to a swampy crawl, and the thing about Jazzisdead is that it’s simply impossible to second-guess what’s going to happen next. Repeat listens don’t render the work more familiar, but instead reveal entirely different albums. Elsewhere, ‘Hyderomastgroningen’ is a lumbering beast that brings a grungy swagger that brings hints of the Jesus Lizard. However, it’s perhaps Melt Banana who stand as the closes comparison to this in their crazed and irreverent approach to music-making, and this is nowhere more apparent than on ‘Memories Of Zworrisdeh’, the album’s longest track with a running time of five minutes, and which packs in an album’s worth of ideas into that time. ‘Muro Torto’ is another track of two halves, with long, groaning drones giving way to an almost ska-like bouncing thumpalong. Predictable, this is not.

There are several pieces which are but fragments, intersecting passages a minute or two in duration, and these only add to the experience of an album so packed with changes in tempo and key that it’s most discombobulating. It’s dizzying, jaw-dropping, impossible to keep up with, and the interplay between the players is remarkable. Ultimately, Jazzisdead makes for a hell of a listen – although you might need to lie down for a bit afterwards.

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DAVAAR – State of Feeling (EP)

Posted: 18 April 2025 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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11th April 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

It’s still early days for London alternative / progressive metal quartet DAVAAR, formed in the summer of 2024 and with just five shows behind them, but they’ve wasted no time in venturing beyond London in their quest to build a fan-base, or in committing a chunk of their repertoire to tape (so to speak) for the release of this, their debut EP.

Although State of Feeling features four tracks, the title track is an instrumental introduction which is barely a minute long. This is a practice within metal circles that’s become so common as to be predictable and formulaic. It seemed to rise to prominence with the explosion of metalcore’s popularity in the 2010s, and often seemed to be an attempt to cover all bases for the purpose of a wider audience, as if to say ‘listen, we can play, we can do atmospheric and moody and gentle as well as WAAAAUUUGHHHHHH!’. But in doing so, it would often undermine the power of the attacking rage parts.

In fairness, it’s a little different in context of this EP, in that as much as DAVAAR trade in big riffs, their sound is cinematic, melodic, expansive, with clean vocals all the way. And so it is that this opening cut is softly atmospheric, bordering on ambient. A distant beat echoes through the drifting sonic mist. ‘Impulse’ arrives, not on a tidal wave of slugging riffery, but a ripple of picked, reverby guitar, and it’s only after some carefully-crafted build-up does the distortion kick in and the first of the big riffs hits. Even then, everything stays balanced, and the melody remains the focal point, and it’s easy to observe the parallels in their sound with those of their influences and acts they suggest sharing common ground with, including Sleep Token, Tesseract, Leprous, and Deftones.

There’s a lot of attention to detail in the song structures and the overall composition, with high levels of technical adeptness on display. There’s also a lot of polish here, with the end result being that State of Feeling feels fully formed, and DAVAAR’s potential to attain a substantial following is clear.

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Listen: ‘Death Tax’ by Cash Bribe

Posted: 11 April 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Brooklyn bruisers Cash Bribe are back with their third EP, Demonomics, dropping June 13, 2025, via Futureless. This marks their first release on the label, and they’ve never sounded louder, sharper, or more furious.

Leading the charge is the blistering first single, ‘Death Tax,’ now streaming everywhere.

Listen now:

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Of the single vocalist Joe Dahlstrom: says, “’Death Tax’ comes from thinking about entropy and decay. Nature can be cruel, violent, and indifferent — the suffering seems pointless — but accepting and understanding the terms of our existence comes with a certain viriditas, an empowering vitality to approach it head-on.”

Guitarist Kirk McGirk adds, “This one made it into our live sets pretty quickly – people would respond to it pretty well, and we like when we do something that makes people move.”

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Hasswult – Sauerstoff

Posted: 8 April 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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Negative Gain Productions – 21st April 2025

James Wells

Sometimes, an album really slaps you round the face with its sheer force and brutal intensity. Boom! Sauerstoff, the latest from Hasswut is one of those albums. No two ways about it: this one is a real face-melter.

Technoindustrial acts in the vein of KMFDM are ten a penny, and while Europe has long been a hotbed for this kind of thing, it’s in the US that it really seems to have take off in the last decade, and something that was once predominantly the domain of the Wax Trax! label in the late 90s and early 90s is now ubiquitous. And that’s cool, but it’s no longer ‘edgy’ like it was, because it’s simply become so commonplace, an endless conveyor belt of bands with distorted vocals snarling over pumped-up techno and some gritty sampled-sounding guitars.

Then Hasswult come along and absolutely piss on the majority of their peers by taking it to the next level. It’s more metal, for a start, and less processed. And it’s brutal. Sure, there are beats you can go nuts to, but the abrasion is intense, and hits so hard you’ll see stars.

It’s overtly European to my ears – if I didn’t know they were Spanish I’d think they were German, and not just on account of the lyrics being in German, which presents an unexpected, unusual, and interesting twist – and proper, full-on aggressive, a complete melding of aggrotech, technoindustrial, and industrial metal. Sure, the obligatory KMFDM nods are on display, and in the mix there’s a whole load of Rammstein, and Ministry circa Psalm 69. It’s hard, it’s heavy, and it’s seriously potent.

Click image to view video:

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Citizen Rat – Shut My Mouth

Posted: 1 April 2025 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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28th February 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

It seems that the world is devolving, and that stupidity is not only rewarded, but aspired to. It’s been a decline we’ve been witnessing for some time now, and seems to have really become popular currency at an accelerating pace since the advent of ‘reality’ TV. Jade Goody’s career was founded on her complete lack of knowledge of anything, paired with her superabundant willingness to spout her ignorance to the world with pride. The fact she was also an obnoxious racist seems to have been forgiven with her dying young after something of a media rehabilitation. Then we had to endure the moronic pronouncements of Joey Essex, who apparently believed that a turtle’s beak was made of wood, and while some laughed at him and some laughed with him, people lapped up the hilarity of his idiocy and in less than a decade, we ended up in a place where being a fuckwit was cool, and, more significantly, bankable. Because that’s what it all boils down to, ultimately. If you’re wealthy and famous, or infamous, who cares why or how, an if you can get rich and famous simply for being a fuckwit, you’re made. The tide of anti-intellectualism has soared to attain a truly unprecedented peak in the last couple of months, with the drivelling orange imbecile deciding that the way to improve education in the USA – already low-ranking globally – is to shut down the Department of Education and withdraw funding for libraries and anything that may actually enrich and educate the lives of citizens.

And yet, for all this, sometimes, you need music that’s kinda dumb, straightforward, catchy, energetic. This was always the appeal of punk, I suppose. It was rousing, got people pumped up, provided a focus and an outlet for anger and frustration, articulating those feelings in simple and relatable terms. Enter gritty Australian quartet Citizen Rat, who combine dirty punk in the vein of Anti-Nowhere League with a dash of metal rowdy rap and cite The Bronx, Turnstile, and Fugazi as reference points. Australia seems to be particularly good for producing energetic punky grungy acts, from DZ Deathrays to Mannequin Death Squad, and you can add Citizen Rat to the list now.

They describe ‘Shut My Mouth’ as ‘a gut-punching anthem about losing yourself in the struggle to please others, battling self-doubt, and fighting to be heard’, and its power lies in its simplicity and directness. And it’s not an exercise in self-pity, either – more a case of self-realisation, self-loathing, and a desire to do better: ‘I’m a piece of shit / I can’t shut my mouth / seems my life is heading south’, the front rat rants.

Stylistically, it compresses a surprising array into its full-throttle three minutes, going from The Beastie Boys to Motorhead, and packing some heavy-duty riffery, too. Its appeal is twofold: first, there’s a compelling sense of humanity here, the torture of self-flagellation over misspeaks and simply talking bollocks because anxiety or beer or brain disconnect, and second, it’s got a monster chorus and some strong hooks. Yes, it’s brash, it’s dumb, but it’s ballsy and it’s entertaining. And that’s a win.

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Feather Trade / Suspicious Liquid / Different State / Averno – The Fulford Arms, York, 6th March 2025

Posted: 7 March 2025 in Live
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Christopher Nosnibor

This is another of the outstanding ‘four bands for the price of a pint at the O2’ nights that’s become a consistent feature at The Fulford Arms in recent months, and the fact that previous outings have demonstrated that Feather Trade are worth easily double that on their own makes this an absolute must.

Tonight’s outing for post-punk 80s jangle indie five-piece Averno is rough round the edges, with a slightly scronky bass sound, and they sound – and sure, I’m showing my age here – like bands sounded in the 80s and 90s before everything got ultra-polished. Something happened along the way, where nearly every pub band came to display the slickness of arena bands. Historically, even big bands might hit bum notes, sound a bit flat or ropey, and we embraced it because it was liv and it wasn’t expected to sound like the studio version. Averno do sound a shade ramshackle, but the sound improved and their confidence visibly grew as the set progressed, and the appeal here is that they sound… real. They don’t hit any bum notes, and they look and sound stronger this time around.

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Averno

Grunge power trio Different State bring keen melodies and dark undercurrents – there are hints of 8 Storey Window and Bivouac alongside the obvious Nirvana nods, and the riffs are proper chunky. I reckon the drummer thought he got away with dropped stick twizzle in the second song… but he certainly recovered it well. In terms of performance, sound quality, in fact, absolutely everything, although they may not give us anything we haven’t heard before (I had to check to see if I’d seen them before, and I haven’t, and was simply experiencing that deva-vu that reverberates with certain types of bands), they did turn in an outstanding performance that made it feel like we were in a substantially larger venue.

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Different State

And then came Suspicious Liquid, who proved to be the revelation of the night. THIS is a band. And what a band. Unprepared, I wasn’t the only one to stand, jaw ajar, marvelling at the all-round magnificence of this act. Ostensibly, they’re a hard rock act, but they’re so much more, and they do it all so well. The soaring vocals are simply breathtaking – at times verging on the operatic, but also gutsy, and they sit well with the instrumentation, which is dark, with gothic hints, hitting full-on witchy metal and at times bringing big, beefy, Sabbath-esque riffs. At times, I’m reined of The Pretty Reckless, but Suspicious Liquid are way better, and way more dynamic. The vocalist is a strong focal point visually, but it’s her phenomenal vocals which really captivate. Unusually, in context, the front row is predominantly female, and this speaks significantly about not only the band but the fact the venue feels like a safe space – and it’s a space to watch high drama delivered with real weight and a rare assurance. It’s an immensely powerful set, and it’s not a huge stretch to imagine Suspicious Liquid touring nationally or being signed to a label like New Heavy Sounds.

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Suspicious Liquid

Just as some say that everything is better with bacon, it’s a musical fact that everything sounds better with reverb – and when it’s loud. Feather Trade have great songs and great style, but fully appreciate the additional benefits of reverb. They’ve sounded great every time I’ve seen them: they’re simply a quality band, who have survived every single spanner thrown into their works to emerge triumphant. Perhaps were it not for the spanners, they’d be headlining the O2 instead of The Fulford Arms – by rights they should be, because they’re that good, and tonight, the sound and the feel is more like a Brudenell gig than The Fulford Arms. Put simply, Feather Trade sound immense. Dense, layered guitar defines the sound, propelled by sturdy drumming and a tight, throbbing bass. There are no weak elements.

‘Dead Boy’ is a raging celebration of cancer survival which absolutely melts in tsunami of noise, a full on squall akin to The Jesus and Mary Chain, and with motorik drum-pad beats, and a huge squalling mesh of treble-loaded, reverb-drenched, and everything at a hundred decibels is reminiscent of A Place to Bury Strangers.

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Feather Trade

‘Trump hate song’ (as they pitch it) ‘Lord Have Mercy’ is absolutely blistering, while in contrast, penultimate song ‘Hold’ is altogether poppier and ventures into anthemic territory. It’s no criticism when I say it reminds me of Simple Minds but way heavier. It is a brain-meltingly strong performance, yielding a colossal wall of sound, ear-shredding, treble-laden reverb on reverb. Volume is not substitute for skill, of course, but it can optimise the intensity of a strong performance – and this was a strong performance, the kind of experience that leaves you in a headspin, utterly blown away. These guys deserve to be as huge as they sound.

Watch: ‘Tomorrow Lied The Devil’ by Noisepicker

Posted: 3 March 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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This is the third single from NOISEPICKER’s 2nd album "The Earth Will Swallow The Sun", released on 21st March 2025. Noisepicker’s Harry Armstrong about the video: "Just like our music, all our videos are homemade, organic and completely free from ‘AI’. We create 100% of our art and stand by all of its flaws. And we have the scars to prove it! This video was filmed in London at the historic ruins of the Crystal Palace, which burned to the ground in 1936. The ruins are surrounded by some of the smoothest concrete in England, and contain much of the skin I lost learning to skate as a child. This video combines our love of noise and skateboards. An idea that was originally written off as logistically impossible – Somehow mounting all our equipment onto skateboards and capturing it like a live performance? Madness. But the seed had been sown, and we just had to try. The result is ‘Tomorrow Lied The Devil’. The bruises that cover our limbs tell the truth. Skate and create."

With more than a quarter of a century of noise making history behind him, singer and guitarist Harry Armstrong returns, alongside drummer Kieran Murphy, as Noisepicker and release their second album on March 21st 2025 via Exile On Mainstream Records.

Also known as the current bass player in Orange Goblin, you may well have caught Armstrong on countless festival line ups, experimenting with sounds in bands such as the hard rock of Blind River, the thrash metal of End Of Level Boss, the piano-led jazz rock of The Earls Of Mars, getting his stoner fix in Hangnail and Firebird (alongside Bill Steer and Ludwig Witt), the instrumental soundscapes of The Winchester Club, the death metal of Decomposed, and that’s just to name a few. Murphy has been earning merits in Cold Comforts and several other bands such as being the drummer for Paige Kennedy.

On a permanent search to constantly try “something else”, Armstrong has taken to writing, recording and mixing this new record himself, just to see if he could. Recorded in a rehearsal room, and mixed in his kitchen, it is an approach to music with a DIY ethic fully embedded in it’s heart.

Do not expect neat, polished, note perfect, carefully constructed opuses in this environment. Noisepicker are loud, abrasive and in constant flux, influenced by their love of all things doom, punk and blues. Come stare aghast at it. The album is released on vinyl with the CD bundled, No seperate CD release.

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The Bastard Sons / This House We Built / Sleuth Gang / Straw Doll – The Crescent, York, 28 February 2025

Posted: 1 March 2025 in Live, Reviews
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Christopher Nosnibor

Just under 5 years ago, I arrived at this venue feeling a sense of nervousness, as if the world was on a precipice, as we greeted one another with elbow bumps and the car staff were polyethene gloves and aprons. Practically hours later, we went into lockdown. There are no elbow bumps or PPE tonight, but having seen shit go south in the Oval Office of The Whitehouse on a day which will likely go down as a pivotal moment in world history while eating my dinner before heading out, I arrive with the same kind of creeping panic. As is often the case, I’m here for a spot of escapism, one of the most essential benefits of live music, and whether or not anyone else whose down tonight is experiencing the same kind of existential; fear, I suspect many are here for the same thing.

The Bastard Sons – that’s the York band, not to be confused with Phil Campbell’s post-Motörhead band, formed in 2015 – have been away for a long time. After much build-up, they released their debut album, Smoke in 2015, to no small acclaim from the likes of Kerrang. And then… a few local gigs and… Having finally got around to presenting a new single, they’ve been persuaded to tread the boards once more, heading a four-act lineup with an early start.

On promptly at 7:45, just fifteen minutes after doors, Straw Doll may be Metallica, but they’re equally Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, serving up a grunge metal hybrid, with debut single ‘Confess’ being exemplary, while ‘Denial’ leans somewhat on ‘Nothing Else Matters’. Although perhaps a shade predictable at times, with some chunky riffs they delivered a tight and solid set, which was all the more impressive for being their first live outing.

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Straw Doll

It seems hard to credit that I’ve witnessed acts who can be seen or claim to be channelling The Beastie Boys twice in a fortnight at rock gigs, but here we are, bracing ourselves for Sleuth Gang, York battle of the bands winners who promise ‘the harder edge of hip hop mashed with Beastie Boys, early punk, grime, and the experimental post-hardcore/electronicore of Enter Shikari.’ There’s a couple of bellends – one with a mullet – leaning all over the monitors and slopping their pints on the floor before they even start. Sure enough, they only seem to have about five fans, and said ‘fans’ are intent on barging one another so hard to see if they’ll stay up or career into the crowd outside the ‘pit’. The band keep calling the audience forward, but they end up stepping back to make room for their antics instead. The guitarist leaps off the stage, sinks half of mullet guy’s mate’s pint and then throws the rest of it over him. He wipes down his tracksuit top, smiling like he’s just been enunciated.

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Sleuth Gang

Their second song is a cover of The Prodigy’s ‘Omen’, and it’s the best song in the set by a mile. With their three MCs, it’s like watching Limp Bizkit fronted by a nu-metal version of the Village People… It takes a particular type of tosser to wear boot cut pleather jeans and a leather waistcoat, not to mention while chewing a toothpick. They spend half the set yelling for us to ‘Make some fucking noise’ ‘put your hands up’ and ‘let’s see your fucking energy’. Yeesh. My energy is at the bar.

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Sleuth Gang

This House We Built are older guys… The front man, who’s not especially tall, draws attention to the fact by having a little portable platform, a little like a low and unstylish occasional table, to the fore of his mic stand, and he rests a foot on it and sometimes stands on it to deliver widdy solos. He wants to see our fingers – horns, that is, not middle ones. It’s fairly standard hair rock, a bit Aerosmith, a bit Bon Jovi… the bassist reckons he’s in 80s ZZ Top. With his illuminated frets, metallic finish five-string bass and wraparound shades, he’s actually the coolest thing about the band.

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This House We Built

It’s been a long time since The Bastard Sons played – eight years, no less – and it’s apparent that they have been missed. Despite the time away, they’re finely honed as a live unit.

For the uninitiated, JJ’s vocals are perhaps the greatest obstacle in their rapid-cut screamo metalcore assault. Within the space of a single line, he’s gone from melodic to guttural via screaming. And he’s far too old to be showing so much boxer above beltline, surely. For the fans – and the venue, which is pretty packed, is massively into it – time has stood still, and that’s great, but the world itself has moved on.

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The Bastard Sons

“What the fuck is uuuuuup??” comes the shout from the stage. Well, you may well ask, Mr Bastard. The moshpit that broke out three songs in mostly appeared to consist of Sleuth Gang – hailed as ‘one of the best bands you’ll ever see’ by JJ – and their mates. The waistcoat guy’s now put on a tasselled leather jacket. There are fat middle aged blokes with shirts off, twirling them like helicopter blades over their heads, there’s play-wrestling, nosebleeds, and mums in PVC dresses losing their shit, and I almost forget the band and their woah-woah choruses. It’s rare to see quite such a conglomeration of cockends. But when all is said and done, for a band to come back after an eight-year absence and to grip a crowd so tightly and to attract such unbridled adulation, they have to have something, and there’s no questioning the fact that they bring the riffs and the energy – although there is a sense that while joshing about the (now slightly older) crowd being happy for the earlier, 10:45 finish, so are they, having run out of songs and energy after an hour. And that’s ok, especially as this looks like the start of an actual comeback.

Listen: ‘Devil’s Work’ by Psyclon Nine

Posted: 14 February 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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With the US cult act Psyclon Nine currently midway through a North American tour, ‘Devil’s Work’ is the second boundary breaking single to be lifted from their forthcoming new album. Possessing a similar brooding, menacing quality to its recent predecessor, ‘I Choose Violence’, both songs are included on And Then Oblivion, set for release on 21st March 2025 via Metropolis Records.

Melding elements of Industrial Rock, Metal, Deathcore, Ambient and Trap, band leader Nero Bellum has previously stated that his modus operandi is “to break as many genre limitations as possible, while staying true to the concepts and imagery that Psyclon Nine evokes.”

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