LACRA ~ Denial (2023)

When you've been immersed in underground metal for a long time, there are certain areas of the globe that hold a special place above all others. For me, Finland rules the roost when it comes to old school doom/death, The UK revels in hateful, noisy sludge with Iron Monkey being ground zero, while  Italy dominates the occult, 70's style doom sound. Throw Chile in the equation for some of the heaviest sludge/doom around championed by bands such as Sangria, Bicefalo and Ocultum. Now you can add Lacra to that esteemed list. The EP  'Denial' clocks in at around 25 minutes of some of the heaviest music out there, with riffs that, if they were human, would be categorised as morbidly obese. There are no rules being broken here, throughout the EP the band never deviates from its path of total destructive inertia. Crushing is a word used way too often to describe the heaviest of songs but I can't think of  a better word to describe the overwhelming mass of sound grinding you into the dirt.

LUNG ~ Volume (2023)

I write this shrouded in a heady smog of stoner doom worship, eyes and throat burning on smouldering, weed drenched riffs. The sound is gloriously expansive but the sludge influence radiates an atmosphere of suffocating toxicity, thick and choking. Volume by lung is a glimpse into the mind of the  junkie's final 'trip' to inevitable burnout.

WARCRAB ~ The Howling Silence (2023)

The devastatingly heavy new album by Warcrab. An unstoppable mix of rampaging death metal fused with thick sludge creating a morass of lawless rage. There are seven intense tracks on The Howling Silence, thickset deathsludge riffs that require restraint in a straitjacket before they cause irreparable damage, mixed with dense weighty (im)pure sludge. 

The final track 'Howling Silence' clocks in at over ten minutes. Now I love long tracks providing it's reasonably varied but far too often I end up disappointed because most of them peter out halfway through in a mash up of ambient nonsense. Not this track. It starts off slowly but progresses into a monstrous example of how to mould various genres of extreme metal into a single fearsome entity.

For fans of: Bolt Thrower, Crowbar, Eyehategod, 71TonMan, The Dead 

ANOINTING THE SICK #189 ~ Stigmata Martyr

 𝑨𝒏𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒖𝒈𝒍𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎 𝒔𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒅𝒖𝒃𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍 𝑯𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑶𝒇 𝑯𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒓𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒊𝒍𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒊𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒆. 𝙎𝒉𝙤𝒘𝙥𝒊𝙚𝒄𝙚 𝙩𝒓𝙖𝒄𝙠 𝙞𝒔 𝒂 𝒑𝙧𝒐𝙜/𝙥𝒐𝙬𝒆𝙧 𝙢𝒆𝙩𝒂𝙡 𝙧𝒐𝙡𝒍𝙚𝒓𝙘𝒐𝙖𝒔𝙩𝒆𝙧 𝙧𝒊𝙙𝒆 𝒇𝙧𝒐𝙢 𝙀𝒏𝙩𝒆𝙧𝒊𝙣𝒈 𝑷𝙤𝒍𝙖𝒓𝙞𝒔

𝑩𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌 𝒂𝒓𝒆 ~

𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒅 𝑰𝒏 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌

𝑴𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆

𝑨𝒅𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒗𝒎

𝑲𝑯𝑵𝑽𝑴

𝑳𝒐𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓

𝑲𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒔𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒗

𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒎

𝑷𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒎 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏

𝑬𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑷𝒐𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒔

𝑯𝒊𝒈𝒉 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔𝒕                                            #4 Doom Charts (June)

𝑱𝒂𝒈 𝑷𝒂𝒏𝒛𝒆𝒓

𝑺𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆

𝑪𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒂𝒍

𝑴𝒂𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒉 𝑽𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒆

𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓

𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒂

𝑺𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒏

𝑴𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒉

𝑳𝒂𝒗𝒂 𝑰𝒏𝒗𝒐𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒓

𝑶𝒍𝒅 𝑫𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒚 𝑩𝒖𝒛𝒛𝒂𝒓𝒅

𝑮𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝑫𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒇𝒔 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒔

𝑳𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒖                                                     #9 Doom Charts (June

𝑾𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒃                                                      Name Your Price (Bandcamp)

𝑮𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒅

𝑺𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝑶𝒇 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒅

𝑻𝒐ke

 Download 'Stigmata Martyr'

ANOINTING THE SICK ~ Angels vs Demons

The armies of Heaven and Hell battle for humanity's soul using extreme metal as the ultimate weapon.

ELUSIVE GOD VS ELECTRIC LUCIFER

ARMOURED ANGEL VS DEMON CLEANER

DUSTED ANGEL VS DEMON EYE

INFESTED ANGEL VS KIEF DEMON

MORBID ANGEL VS WEED DEMON

WÖMIT ANGEL VS DEMON & ELEVEN CHILDREN

ANGEL CORPSE VS DEMON INCARNATE

ANGEL MORGUE VS DEMON LUNG

*DOWNLOAD HERE* 

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/anointingthesick/episodes/2023-09-29T10_35_20-07_00

CEASED SUNFIRE ~ The Divide (2023)

Mountainous riffs and a pummelling rhythm section combine to create a tectonic shifting of  Finnish stoner sludge. Any influence of weed however has been crushed by sheer brute force. There is a surprising amount of groove punctuated by some well executed lead guitar work on The Divide but it tip toes between slabs of swollen sludge.

JUST BEFORE DAWN ~ A War Too Far (2023)

A full frontal assault of Swedish death metal swathed from start to finish with incendiary riffs dripping phosphrous. With leanings toward Bolt Thrower, A War Too Far is an overwhelming assault on the senses, as merciless as it is brutal. The nine murderous tracks on offer combine into a death metallic war of attrition with no prisoners taken and corpses ground into the mud and dirt. A War Too Far  isn't uptempo, for all its ferocity, it doesn't revel in the glorification of bloodshed but instead sounds wearily accepting of the futility of it all, which makes this album sound grimmer and more realistic of the horrors of the subject matter.

Time to hoist the white flag of surrender before you're overwhelmed.