This Toilet Tuesday (8/9/16)
You pound your fists on the massive stone gate separating you from freedom. “It will do you no good! Your curse is yours to bear!” comes the impassive call from past the city’s barrier. Sobbing in defeat, you collapse to the ground. It came for you last night; what was once the gift of the gods has become a terrible hex. Once, your body would have began to glow silver and your hair turn a virgin white; instead, you are afflicted with a black jaundice. You should be living among immortals in a city of pristine white stone, but even the city seems to have died, its once immaculate walls oozing a pallid brown sludge. Now it serves as your prison, a small basket of food your only comfort. Despair fading to shock, you gather yourself to your feet and shuffle numbly into the city’s depths.
You realize before long that you are being watched. Peering from the shadows of alleys and broken doorways are the residents of the city, their mottled skin and wispy hair matching your own. Some stare hungrily at your basket; others seem to look past you, muttering softly under their breath. One of them begins to cackle madly. You turn to shout at him, but something moves in your peripheral vision. A group of four men had been following you quietly, but seeing you spot them, they begin to rush towards you. The one in front pulls out a knife as he nears you, its rusted blade a reflection of the decay around you. You step back, preparing for a fight, but your foot catches on the pockmarked road and you stumble. In one fluid motion, the lead man plants his knife in your chest, grabs your basket, and continues his flight down the street. At least my end has come quickly, you think as you fall to the ground sputtering. But it doesn’t come; there is no fade to black, no comforting light to greet you. White hot pain flares in your chest, your coughing spasms causing the blade to cut against you further. No, your mind is perfectly clear, and you come to the horrific realization that your heart hasn’t been beating since you awoke this morning. The comfort of death will never be yours; this is your eternity.
The curse comes for us all on This Toilet Tuesday.
Infectology – Innards of Misanthropic Embodiment (Gore House Productions) [Brutal Death Metal]
Listen to “Forced Unnatural Carnal Knowledge” 8/12/16
Injected Sufferage – Denial in the Grave Torment (Extreme Souls Production) [Brutal Death Metal]
Listen to “Revenge Rage” 8/8/16
Rob the jewelry story and tell ‘em, “Make me a grill,” because we’re getting ignorant with a double dose of slamz! First up is California’s Infectology with the track “Innards of Misanthropic Embodiment.” This is pretty much everything I love in brutal death metal: trash can snare, obnoxious ride bell, churning sewage maelstrom riffs, and endless blasts. The only thing that could make this track better is if the band had a poor grasp of the English language, which brings us to our next BDM band, Indonesia’s Injected Sufferage. Interestingly, “Revenge Rage” features a more subdued mix and restrained drum sound. The riffs are muted too, which makes something feel just slightly off, but I like the way the guitars sort of pull you one way or another before that oddly tone-deaf solo kicks off over the breakdown. This song has some interesting elements, but it doesn’t feel like the parts are all there. If you had to choose one, go with Infectology. FFO: Sanguinary Execution, Perverted Dexterity, Defeated Sanity (W.)
Mizmor – Yodh (Gilead Media) [Drone/Black/Doom]
Listen to “Woe Regains My Substance,” “Bask In The Lingering”
We have been spoiled rotten with solid death and doom albums in 2016, and Mizmor’s second full-length looks to continue that delightful trend with a hideously miasmic blend of the two genres into one smog-belching, carbon rich atmosphere of all-encompassing gloom. Opening track “Woe Regains My Substance” immediately kicks the heating of the Earth’s temperature into high gear with some fiery riffs sure to pry a new hole open in the ozone layer, but things get even more interesting when the band slows things down to really let the hazardous fumes spread and blot out the light. The band continues to deftly weave between serpentine riffs and heavy-lead drum pummeling on “Bask in the Lingering,” maintaining your attention with each new harrowing turn. If the solution to pollution is dilution, Mizmor is dumping all the toxic sludge in the river to drown out any hope for a cure. FFO: Yhdarl, Hypoxia, AEvangelist 8/12/16 (W.)
Hyponic – 前行者 (Weird Truth Productions) [Progressive Doom]
Stream
Speaking of solid death and doom albums, I’ve been thoroughly pulverised by the newest offering from Hyponic. Doom isn’t something that usually holds my tech-addled attention span for very long, so I don’t speak lightly when I say that this album had me entranced throughout. Their sound is incredibly expansive, making its lonely way across vast alien landscapes and exploring the ruins of their monolithic structures. Its dreary solitude is occasionally broken by a terrifying howl in the distance, though its source never gets too close. At once suspenseful and dramatic, this is a journey I won’t forget anytime soon. 8/10/16 (Spear)
Attick Demons – Let’s Raise Hell (Puresteel Records) [Heavy Metal]
Preview
Décembre Noir – Forsaken Earth (FDA-Rekotz) [Death/Doom]
Stream
Demoniac – Malleus Christianitatis (Misanthropia Discos) [Black Metal]
No, not the Dragonforce one
Demon Incarnate – Darvaza (FDA Rekotz/Soulfood Music) [Doom/Rock]
Listen to “Darvaza”
Devil to Pay – A Bend Through Space and Time (Ripple Music) [Heavy/Stoner Metal]
Listen to “Your Inner Lemmy”
Eleanor – Celestial Nocturne (Rubicon Music) [Gothic Metal]
Preview
Enchiridion – The Realm of Blackened Perdition (Independent) [Melodeath]
Listen to “Doomsday (For Our Sins),” “The Realm of Blackened Perdition”
Equilibrium – Armageddon (Nuclear Blast Records) [Folk Metal]
Listen to “Prey”
Gotym – B.O.F.A. (Harambe Records) [Lolbuttz]
Listen to “BOFA”
Hone Your Sense – Phonomena (Independent) [Melodeath]
Preview
Iron Attack! – Twilight Under World [Power Metal]
Preview
Lacrimas Profundere – Hope Is Here (Oblivion/SPV) [Gothic Metal]
Preview
Mean Messiah – Let Us Pray (Independent) [Industrial/Thrash]
Listen to “Let Us Pray”
Metal Allegiance – Fallen Heroes (collaboration- Nuclear Blast Records) [Covers, probably metal]
Morial – Reborn in Endless Hate/Your Belief in Ruins (Narbentage Produktionen) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Hail the Goats,” “Flowing Angelblood”
Orphalis – The Birth of Infinity (Amputated Vein Records) [Tech Death]
Listen to “Encased in a Higher Intellect,” “Reshaping the Omnipresence” “The Atavistic Tide”
The Overmind – The Anthropic Principle (Independent) [Tech Death/Deathcore]
Listen to “The Inquisitor”
Poppy Seed Grinder – Bleeding Civilization (Amputated Vein Records) [Brutal Death Metal]
Listen to “Variety X”
Precognitive Holocaust Annotations – Procreation of the Artificial Divinity (Permeated Records) [Brutal Death Metal]
Listen to “Reverse Effect”
The River Neva – The Voynich Manuscript (Independent) [Melodeath/Metalcore]
Listen to “Schrodinger’s Cat”
Slaughtbbath/Grave Desecrator – Musica de nuestra muerte (split- Hells Headbangers) [Black/Death Metal]
Listen to “SxSxSx” (GD)
Slug Shell – The Agony of Perseverance (Independent) [Death Metal]
Listen
Spirit Adrift – Chained to Oblivion (Prosthetic Records) [Actually Epic Doom]
Listen to “Psychic Tide,” “Form and Force”
Thy Art Is Murder/The Acacia Strain/Fit For An Autopsy – The Depression Sessions (split- Nuclear Blast Records) [Deathcore]
Listen to “They Will Know Another” (TAIM)
Vader – Iron Times (Nuclear Blast Records) [Death/Thrash]
Did we forget a new release? Is there a way we could improve this list? Let us know in the comments below!
