Not since the days of Altar of Plagues has Cork unleashed anything as ferocious as Worn Out and with new EP Low in the chamber be prepared for an uncompromising slice of metallic hardcore. This is an adrenaline surge to awaken the deepest slumbers. This four track cannon blast takes no prisoners in its onslaught with vocalist Xander Coughlan barking and shrieking without barely taking a breath, his cadence bringing back some memories of those Hollow Crown Sam Carter days. First track ‘Deeper’ is a metallic stampede which rattles the senses with Every Time I Die on one hand and Converge on the other creating this almighty powerhouse combination. Although an assault on all the senses it harbours a great sense of melody within the guitars which ear worm their way into the vessel of each track and thanks to the crisp nature of the mixing by Joe Clayton (Pijn, Leeched) it creates distinct identity as the Every Time I Die influence helps the guitars bounce and ricochet from track to track.
In the Geezer Butler autobiography (Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath and Beyond) Geezer remarks if it wasn’t for Tony Tommi’s factory accident where he lost the tip of his finger that resulted in the genius idea to make a thimble that led to his adoption of a different style of playing and chords, (and if Geezer himself had learned to play bass at college), Black Sabbath may have sounded far more conventional. It’s a mighty profound contemplation as to where our music world would have become/be without the riffmeister’s factory accident?
There have been many Iommi guitar worshippers over the decades and those formative years well of inspiration just never dries up and keeps on giving. Twin brothers Ryan and Elliot Cole are members of the UK’s best kept secret sludgy conjurers Desert Storm. Keepers of some very fine under the radar riffage who deserve wider appeal. Finding themselves furloughed and bored in their shared home during the pandemic, they turned their quality listening time to the first six Black Sabbath albums, as well as Elephant Tree, The Sword, Torche, High On Fire, Power Trip, Karma to Burn, Godspeed Black Emperor, and Radiohead into active inspiration. Channeling those influences into writing and then recording once society resumed at Shonk/Warehouse Studios in Oxford for a side project under the name of Wall. Brick by Brick is their debut album.
A band seemingly as inescapable these days as the passage of time or rising food prices, thrown have nevertheless made a good attempt to justify their position in today’s streaming world. Found on every alt playlist known to mankind, the Swedish bruisers have found a way to, whether by hook or crook, reap the fruits of certain streaming platforms’ algorithms. They’ve also gained a pretty solid live reputation in their short time as a band and have managed to hold their own on stages with some of the biggest names in the game.
So whether you’ve heard the band just the once or are a fan, you know what awaits you on their debut, Excessive Guilt. 11 tracks of anger riddled, IQ lower than a Reform Party conference nu-metalcore. It’s the exact kind of music that tickles the parts of the brain associated with foraging for food or using stones to hunt mammoths and for that reason, it will always find an audience. They do mix things up with some electronic elements every now and then, but for the most part you end up with a band who shoots for a mix the fist swinging ignorance of Kublai Khan TX and the “I can fight the world” lyrics of The Ghost Inside, but misses on both fronts.
In 2021, whilst rock climbing the Gran Sasso d’Italia in the Apennine Mountains, Fleshgod Apocalypse frontman and mastermind Francesco Paoli suffered severe injuries after falling. Narrowly avoiding death, Paoli used this experience to light a fire within him to craft the band’s post-pandemic return. Despite already being known for their intricate orchestrations weaved betwixt technically impressive death metal musicianship; in true Fleshgod fashion, the band have creatively pushed the envelope into new grandiose territories with Opera.
Stirring to life with the beautiful introductory composition “Ode To Art (‘De Sepolcri)” [‘De Sepolcri translating to Of The Sepulchres, a burial chamber], with hidden subtleties in the swelling orchestral grandeur set the appropriate tone for the experience ahead. Opera bursts to life with the collective trilogy of singles released ahead of the album that flow effortlessly together. “I Can Never Die” makes for a powerful opening shot, a violent resurrection of self and death metal fury in the form of a call to arms, conceptually exploring immortality through art and being so close to death. The technical virtuosity of the band is on full display from the outset, the complex orchestrations supporting them stuffed with epic choir melodies, powerful vocal performances from both Paoli and Veronica Bordacchini taking a firmer performative stance in the project. “Pendulum” continues to ramp up the flair for the dramatic with massive stomping riffs and death metal chugging, interwoven with choppy technical timings and rhythmic chaos. “Bloodclock” allows a moment to breathe, returning to a harp motif regularly introduced at the start of the track, taking moments to have almost an intimate vocal performance with spoken word whispers that feel deranged and touches of panicked hyperventilating.
When you’ve been at something for 31 years it can be easy to settle into a groove. Whilst this is true for the new Nile album, they nonetheless manage to keep producing killer brutal death metal, albeit with very little new ground covered. From start to end The Underworld Awaits Us All is a quintessential Nile record. It’s got the choppy staccato riffing that’s become the calling card of Karl Sanders and co, the ultra-heavy drops, and the technical wizardry of George Kollias behind the drums.
There’s oodles of Middle Eastern inspired chords, and even one of those instrumental tracks that make it on to most of the albums past and present, in fact that’s so close to being blow for blow with the opening of “Dusk Falls Upon the Temple of the Serpent on the Mount of Sunrise,” that it will likely cause you to check the currently playing track. Of course none of this is to say it’s a bad record, it really isn’t and with Karl Sanders still firmly at the helm of the papyrus skiff, sailing down those long waters of the Nile it’d be remiss to say they could produce a ‘bad’ record.
Since arriving on the scene in 2012, Stand Atlantic have remained one of the premier pop-punk outfits of Australia. The four-piece, signed to Hopeless Records, have found themselves with a dedicated cult following, and a reputation for producing genre-pushing pop-punk bangers. Born from a desire to push themselves further into unknown sonic territories, WAS HERE acts as a testament to a band who desire to be creative and innovative. There is a pop-punk core than runs deep throughout much of the record, but how the band choose to decorate it is done in a myriad of different ways. For long-time fans of the band, there is plenty here that they will feel familiar with, now draped with a glittering, compelling new sonic facade, bringing in dance, metalcore, and even moments of lo-fi hip-hop.
However, it is when the band truly do away with any pretences of being a pop-punk band that they strike gold. ‘CRIMINAL’ is an exhilarating collision of dance rhythms and blistering metalcore fury as the band collude with fellow Australian stars, Polaris. ‘GIRL$’ pushes those dance and EDM inspirations even further, culminating in a thunderous empowerment anthem that is ferociously exciting to listen to. Unfortunately, sometimes the record is simply too sonically confusing. The amount of experimentation with their identity that the band engage with enables the album to avoid feeing stagnant, but their reluctance to settle on a cohesive musical style leads to the record feeing a little messy.
