CHARRED REMAINS #1
APOGEAN
INTO MADNESS
N/A, 2021 ★★★
Throughout Into Madness it's clear that Apogean are heavily inspired by The Faceless; you could probably convince people that these songs are Planetary Duality leftovers. While Apogean are less exhibitionist—smoothing out the jerky transitions and dialing down the Betcha Can't Play This wank—this is still proggy tech death, where solos straddle the line between taste and shred, and brooding Cynic-fusion respites are interrupted by blast beats and heavy staccato breakdowns. A solid debut EP that shows promise.
CHARNEL GROUNDS
HERMETIC WISDOM
N/A, 2021 ★★
Charnel Groundds released an EP earlier in the year called Molecular Entropy Examined in the Bowels of a Great One, a decent attempt at claustrophobic Artificial Brain death-teching. Their new EP Hermetic Wisdom is more of the same but with significantly worse production; it sounds like the guitar amps were mic'd from 5 feet away, tampering their aggressiveness. The vocals have gotten more gurgly and artificial sounding, as if they're using a voice changer. The resemblance to my stomach during a IBS flare up is uncanny. There's a shitty Youth of Today cover too.
STENCH COLLECTOR
EFFLUVIATORIUM DU JOUR
REDEFINING DARKNESS, 2021 ★★★★
First of all: Stench Collector is a sick name and the band definitely live up to it. Effluviatorium du jour is a collection of foul, sickening, repugnant death metal. It's packed with fun riffs the size of Kevin Smith's jorts, with great bass-heavy mixing. At times they sound like a dumbed down version of Tomb Mold; it's awesome.
SLIMELORD
MOSS CONTAMINATION
DRY COUGH RECORDS, 2021 ★★★½
There are a lot of death metal bands now who turn to mold, slime, swamps, etc. for thematic content. It's an interesting move away from the standard topics and exploring a sort of ecological horror; instead of being ripped apart by demons you're being submered in hideous goo and drowned. If I were a sociologist I would maybe say it reflects a growing anxiety about environmental degradation, but I'm pretty sure bands are into it because it's sick. Moss Contamination is a really solid EP of dank and cavernous death/doom. The band are a damp, ancient cave in which the vocalist Lord Disorder dwells and he just stumbled on a fresh hiker.
SEWER FIEND
ECHOES FROM THE CISTERN
DRY COUGH RECORDS, 2021 ★★★★
Like Slimelord, Sewer Fiend are purveyors of the fine craft of swampcore, but they're even better at it. Echoes from the Cistern is sludgier and packs more of a punch than Moss Contamination; it's mixed to perfection for this style of metal. A style that Sewer Fiend do better than most.
INFESTED
GROTESQUE REMAINS
N/A, 2021 ★★★½
I'm sure a lot of extreme metal fans are sick of Incantation worship, but Infested do it really well. The guitars are a bit brighter and more Dismember-y, leaving enough room for the bassist. And unlike a lot of "cavernous" death metal, Grotesque Remains isn't a boring, riffless, overreverberated dirge.
ETERNAL ROT / COFFINS
ETERNAL ROT / COFFINS
BEHIND THE MOUNTAIN, 2021 ★★½
Eternal Rot's sound absolutely crushes, but for some reason their guitarist is constantly and noticably ahead of the rest of the band and it ruins both of their songs for me. The b-side is typically solid Coffins: aggro punky dm balanced with lurching slow sections.