Sorry for being late with this post, still overwhelmed with work!
Last week, we had a few nice releases, so I've put together the ones I liked the most and found the most relevant. Big shout-out to Ch'ahom and Revel In Flesh!
Anthrax - Cursum Perficio
Ch'ahom - Anthropic Rites of Sublimation
Early Moods - Ready for the Grave
Game Over - When Darkness Falls
Miasmes - Violence, blasphème et pourriture
Mittags-Abgrund - Mittags-Abgrund
Revel in Flesh - Flesh for the Kult of Death
Runemagick - After Chaos: Nocturnal Vigil
The Well - ...and Flames Ran like Living Animals
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Shapes of Midnight
P.S.: There were more releases, but I only wanted to mention the ones I found the most relevant. Of course, I may have missed some...
The Czech Sněť is one of those bands that stays underground but has already developed a cult following around them, even though this is only their second release, following Mokvání v okovech, released in 2021.
The much-anticipated second LP from the band was released on 10 September by Me Saco Un Ojo Records, under the name V Bažinách Vědom, which means In the Swamps of Consciousness in English. It was released on CD, vinyl, and cassette.
It was no big surprise that, when the record started playing, a massive, visceral, and haunting Death Metal sound sucked my soul into a dimension full of morbidity. The stakes were high for this one, and it didn't fail for a second.
The vocals are in Czech, which makes the sound even more rotten, and they are really powerful. The guitars are amazing, drinking from the old-school Swedish Death Metal fountain and gurgling for our delight. The drumming is massive, and together with the bass, it pulls us down into some deep layer of hell. If everything was good on the first album, on this one, everything is exceptional and highly addictive. I've probably listened to it like 10 times in a row.
This new LP has everything I look for in a rotten Death Metal album: the rawness, the old-school influence, and the ability to show just how morbid Death Metal can be.
One strong contender for AOTY in the Death Metal category.
The first time I saw Cobrafuma live, I was so surprised, not only because I didn't know the band at the time, but also because they were the last band playing at the festival. I was totally tired, and they were like an injection of adrenaline straight into my body. It was memorable and it introduced me very well what the band is.
Droga Total is the successor to the homonymous debut album Cobrafuma, which was a full-throttle album with a lot of punk and thrash influences, drinking from the same fountain as the mighty Motörhead. It is one of my all-time favourite Portuguese albums. But what about Droga Total?
It was released on 21 August on vinyl via Lovers & Lollypops, and it compiles seven violent tracks. With all the lyrics in Portuguese, just like its predecessor, Droga Total has a rawer feeling than the previous work. The punk feeling was already present on the first album, but here it is more expressive, more D-Beat, and more sludgy. It's an aggressive and violent discharge of anger and guitar riffs that cannot leave anyone indifferent.
I think it could maybe benefit from better production, but in the end, the rawness is perfect, and it couldn't have been any other way. It's also so good that, like the previous one, it feels too short, but then you realize you're already looping the whole album again and again.
The charm of Cobrafuma is that they don't follow any formula or rules. Although heavily inspired by great references, the band is building their own path without any pressure or pretension.
The Spanish Death/Doom trio Bocc is back with their second full-length album (from a discography already packed with releases). Demolarium was released on 11 September on vinyl via Night Terrors Records, on CD via Hecatombe Records, and on cassette via Noxious Ruin. This new work features six tracks with a total running time of almost 43 minutes.
I'm a huge Bocc fan, with almost every release from them in my collection, so the stakes were high for this one. From the moment I started playing the album, I could easily feel that stenchy and repugnant dark smell that is so present in Bocc's personality. But this time, there's a sludgy aura that is more present than ever, with less Death Metal, like a slow and putrid wound that doesn't want to heal...
But this slow tempo creates the perfect environment before unleashing faster guitar riffs that punch your wound to death! During these rhythm changes, there's even a kind of stoner scent in the guitar riffs and drums. The composition of the tracks follows almost the same pattern throughout the album, with some nuances, of course. They start with a low tempo and, at some point, unleash their fury. The bass is still the dirtiest instrument in Bocc's sound, and it's delightful to sit back and catch all its details.
So, overall, Demolarium is a good record that may sound different to Bocc's more attentive fans. That doesn't mean it's bad at all; it means that Bocc have the guts to explore different approaches to their music.
So, this week I bring you a well-known album cover that, in my opinion, must be mentioned here, not only because this album is one of my all-time favourites, but also because the artwork perfectly reflects the name and themes of the whole album. Besides that, it's a great piece of artwork created by Wes Benscoter.
Wes Benscoter has created artwork for other well-known heavy metal bands such as Amorphis, Bloodbath, Black Sabbath, Hooded Menace, Hyperdontia, Hypocrisy, Sinister, Vader, etc.
Cool Cover Of The Week (CCOFTW) will be a weekly section dedicated to cool and interesting cover artwork. Nothing deep, no lengthy context, just a great cover and a little bit of information about it.
I've been "away" for a few days due to a peak in workload at my job, but even so, music does not stop in my office!
I'll keep this one pretty short (still in need of an SOS at work).
Pelegrin is a French trio, and The Curse Of Nephtar is their third and latest release, released on 4 September through Ripple Music. This record has been playing non-stop since Monday: high-quality Heavy Psych and Fuzzed-out stoner jams mixed with progressive ambient songwriting, Eastern melodies, Berber music, and flamenco influences.
As stated on their Bandcamp:
"The album depicts the tale of Nephtar, a powerful black orb that comes to life in the depths of the prehistoric ocean Tethys – which used to stand above the current Middle East. Ignored for eons, it eventually uses its manipulative powers to reach the surface and subdue all living things."
Such a great surprise and definitely worth many listens! A band to keep an eye on!
Necropolis is back for its third edition at The Underworld, Camden, on 19 and 20 March 2027. As they describe it themselves:
“London’s most evil underground death metal gathering returns for its third installment in March 2027.”
With tickets starting at around €75, the first announcements have already been made, featuring names like Dead Congregation, Concrete Winds, Grave Miasma, etc.
London is just around the corner, and the lineup presented so far is definitely inviting!
It’s very common to come across one-man projects in Black Metal, but when it comes to Death Metal, that’s not quite as common. So when Cemetery Reign showed up somewhere, caught my attention with an interesting cover and was also connected to Carbonized Records, I decided to give the release a chance.
Confined To Time is the debut album from the American one-man project Cemetery Reign. Released through Carbonized Records, as previously mentioned, the album came out on CD, vinyl and cassette on February 26th.
The artwork was actually what first caught my attention. I had never heard of the project before, so I went into this release with absolutely no expectations and sometimes that’s when you get the best surprises. Most of the record was conceived during the Covid-19 pandemic, and you can clearly feel that this was a project developed with a very particular distorted mind and vision.
Cemetery Reign immediately presents its identity: putrid, dirty, old-school Swedish Death Metal. The guitars draw heavily from the Swedish school, and the lesson has clearly been learned well, as the riffs sound incredibly solid and convincing. The vocals are raw and harsh, sitting exactly where they should in the mix.
Confined To Time doesn’t really sound like a one-man project. It feels much more like a solid full-band recording, which makes the result even more impressive. However, not everything is perfect. I’m almost convinced that the tracks were composed or recorded at different moments, because the tuning, mixing and even the sequencing can feel slightly strange from one track to another. It doesn’t compromise the album as a whole, but it does break the vibe in a few places. On the other hand, those changes can also make you pay closer attention to certain details.
In the end, Cemetery Reign has delivered a great old-school-inspired Death Metal record that sounds nasty, convincing and, most importantly, makes you want to hit replay again and again.
It also left me wishing this project could eventually become a full band, not only so these songs can be played live, but also so we can get more of this excellent old-school Death Metal in the future.
The debut album from the Portuguese crossover project Testemunhas de Jeová (Jehovah’s Witnesses in English) was released with this AWESOME and hilarious cover!
Cool Cover Of The Week (CCOFTW) is be a weekly section dedicated to cool and interesting cover artwork. Nothing deep, no lengthy context, just a great cover and a little bit of information about it.
