This Toilet Tuesday (3/5/24)
O Luciferian loo, O hellish head, siphon away the waste of our race. This week we’ve got bloody tighties, army ungulates, and Woe’s weird relative that rants at Thanksgiving. The Bowl is deep, and we must explore its depths. Will you go with me into the water?
Skull Incision – Grim (Independent) [Death / Sludge]
When I see a monochromatic album cover, replete with dripping skulls, dummy death is the first sound that comes to mind. Preview track “Diktat” instead opens with a buzzing wall of dissonance punctuated with extended range palm-mutes—an altogether more modern sound than expected. Jacob Lee employs a sludgy bellow that cuts through dire, droning melodeath riffs in the vein of Atræ Bilis, albeit with less focus on technicality.
The transition from abrasive grind to the chugging, triumphant conclusion is seamless; it wasn’t until I’d listened a few times that this emotional trajectory stood out. Such a stylistic shift within 3 minutes would normally take the shape of haphazard songwriting, but Lee’s hypnotic riffing style imbues the track with a dreamlike quality, leaving listeners unsure of how and when they entered this strange realm. -Roldy
Alterium – Of War and Flames (AFM Records) [Symphonic Power]
Apogean – Cyberstrictive (The Artisan Era) [Tech Death]
Arthouse Fatso – Sycophantic Seizures: A Double Feature (Horror Pain Gore Death Productions) [Deathgrind]
Backskin – Destiny of Steel and Blood (Horton Records) [Black]
Barren/Vomit Spell – Split (Horton Records) [Deathgrind / Crust Punk]
Before the Dawn – Archaic Flame (Napalm Records) [Melodeath]
Besotten/Funerelic – Abyssal Synodality (Independent) [Death]
Beyond the Hate – Darkest Times (Inverse Records) [Melodeath]
Cosmic Dread – The Incredible Flying Machine (Independent) [Prog Thrash / Instrumental]
Doodseskader – Year Two (Independent) [Experimental Sludge / Post-Metal]
Early Moods – A Sinners Past (RidingEasy Records) [Doom]
Ecclesia – Ecclesia Militans (Aural Music) [Doom / Heavy Metal]
Goat Major – Ritual (Ripple Music) [Stoner Doom]
Grey Skies Fallen – Molded by Broken Hands (Profound Lore Records) [Melodeath / Doom]
Holdlajtorja – Arcana et Tenebrae (Sun & Moon Records) [Prog Black]
Houwitser – Sentinel Beast (Independent) [Brutal Death]
Hydra – Into the Night (Piranha Music) [Doom]
Isenordal – Requiem for Eirênê (Prophecy Productions) [Symphonic Black / Doom / Neofolk]
Judas Priest – Invincible Shield (Sony Music) [NWoBHM]
Kelevra – Oneiric (Independent) [Death / Groove Metal]
Kings of Dark Desires – Battles Below (Independent) [Black]
Liv Moon – You Live in Me (Walküre Records) [Symphonic Power / Heavy Metal]
Meadows of Melancholy – From Being to Nothingness (Independent) [Black]
Midnight – Hellish Expectations (Metal Blade Records) [Blackthrash / Speed]
Misophonia – (De)Void of Peace (Sliptrick Records) [Symphonic Melodeath]
Mokoma – Myrsky (Sakara Records) [Sludge / Groove Metal]
Molten – Malicide (Transylvanian Recordings) [Deathrash]
Motherwood – A Fading Elegy (Independent) [Atmoblack]
Mutilated by Zombies – Scenes from the Afterlife (Redefining Darkness Records) [Tech Death]
Myrath – Karma (earMUSIC) [Prog Rock / Heavy Metal]
Nightgaunt/Trembling Void – Terrifying Vistas of Reality (Inferna Profundus Records) [Raw/Lo-Fi Black]
Notio – Worldview (Inverse Records) [Prog Metal]
Oppressive Descent – Sulfuric Wrath (Inferna Profundus Records) [Raw/Lo-Fi Black]
Pantheïst – Kings Must Die (Melancholic Realm Productions) [Funeral Doom]
Prolapsed – Expulsion of Innards (Vile Tapes Records) [Brutal Death]
Puteraeon – Quindecennial Horror (Emanzipation Productions) [Death]
Sahon – Blood Shall Be Paid (Brutal Records) [Deathrash]
Sirius – Fly High (Zillion Mode Production) [Power]
Skeletal Remains – Fragments of the Ageless (Century Media Records) [Death]
Slimelord – Chytridiomycosis Relinquished (20 Buck Spin) [Death]
Sonata Arctica – Clear Cold Beyond (Atomic Fire Records) [Power]
Speedkiller – Inferno (Helldprod Records) [Blackthrash / Speed]
Stargate – Escaping the Illusion (Steel Gallery Records) [Power / Heavy Metal]
Turbulence – Binary Dream (Frontiers Records) [Prog Metal]
Uncle Woe – Oblivion and Further Disaster (Owlripper Recordings) [Doom / Sludge]
Varkolak – Fading Lights and Blurry Visions (Frozen Woods Records) [Blackgaze]
Vicinity – VIII (Uprising! Records) [Prog Metal]
Кипелов – Весы судьбы (Moroz Records) [Heavy Metal]
