Wednesday, November 8, 2023

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.

Friday, October 27, 2023

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.

Monday, October 23, 2023

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 


Wednesday, October 11, 2023

ANOINTING THE SICK #189 ~ Stigmata Martyr


 ๐‘จ๐’๐’๐’Š๐’๐’•๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐‘ป๐’‰๐’† ๐‘บ๐’Š๐’„๐’Œ ๐’“๐’†๐’‚๐’“๐’” ๐’Š๐’•๐’” ๐’–๐’ˆ๐’๐’š ๐’‰๐’†๐’‚๐’… ๐’๐’๐’„๐’† ๐’‚๐’ˆ๐’‚๐’Š๐’ ๐’•๐’ ๐’‘๐’†๐’“๐’‡๐’๐’“๐’Ž ๐’”๐’†๐’‘๐’•๐’Š๐’„ ๐’”๐’†๐’“๐’Ž๐’๐’๐’” ๐’‡๐’๐’“ ๐’š๐’๐’–๐’“ ๐’…๐’–๐’ƒ๐’Š๐’๐’–๐’” ๐’‘๐’๐’†๐’‚๐’”๐’–๐’“๐’†. ๐‘ป๐’‰๐’† ๐’‡๐’–๐’๐’ ๐‘ฏ๐’๐’–๐’”๐’† ๐‘ถ๐’‡ ๐‘ฏ๐’๐’“๐’“๐’๐’“๐’” ๐’Š๐’” ๐’๐’ ๐’…๐’Š๐’”๐’‘๐’๐’‚๐’š ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐‘ญ๐’Š๐’๐’•๐’‰ ๐‘ท๐’Š๐’• ๐’‰๐’‚๐’” ๐’ƒ๐’†๐’†๐’ ๐’”๐’•๐’“๐’Š๐’‘๐’‘๐’†๐’… ๐’ƒ๐’‚๐’“๐’†. ๐™Ž๐’‰๐™ค๐’˜๐™ฅ๐’Š๐™š๐’„๐™š ๐™ฉ๐’“๐™–๐’„๐™  ๐™ž๐’” ๐’‚ ๐’‘๐™ง๐’๐™œ/๐™ฅ๐’๐™ฌ๐’†๐™ง ๐™ข๐’†๐™ฉ๐’‚๐™ก ๐™ง๐’๐™ก๐’๐™š๐’“๐™˜๐’๐™–๐’”๐™ฉ๐’†๐™ง ๐™ง๐’Š๐™™๐’† ๐’‡๐™ง๐’๐™ข ๐™€๐’๐™ฉ๐’†๐™ง๐’Š๐™ฃ๐’ˆ ๐‘ท๐™ค๐’๐™–๐’“๐™ž๐’”

๐‘ฉ๐’‚๐’๐’…๐’” ๐’‡๐’†๐’‚๐’•๐’–๐’“๐’†๐’… ๐’•๐’‰๐’Š๐’” ๐’˜๐’†๐’†๐’Œ ๐’‚๐’“๐’† ~

๐‘ญ๐’๐’“๐’ˆ๐’†๐’… ๐‘ฐ๐’ ๐‘ฉ๐’๐’‚๐’„๐’Œ

๐‘ด๐’†๐’Ž๐’ƒ๐’“๐’‚๐’๐’„๐’†

๐‘จ๐’…๐’—๐’†๐’“๐’”๐’—๐’Ž

๐‘ฒ๐‘ฏ๐‘ต๐‘ฝ๐‘ด

๐‘ณ๐’๐’‚๐’•๐’‰๐’†๐’“

๐‘ฒ๐’“๐’Š๐’ˆ๐’”๐’ˆ๐’“๐’‚๐’—

๐‘ฏ๐’‚๐’“๐’‚๐’…๐’“๐’Š๐’Ž

๐‘ท๐’‰๐’‚๐’๐’•๐’๐’Ž ๐‘ช๐’๐’“๐’‘๐’๐’“๐’‚๐’•๐’Š๐’๐’

๐‘ฌ๐’๐’•๐’†๐’“๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐‘ท๐’๐’๐’‚๐’“๐’Š๐’”

๐‘ฏ๐’Š๐’ˆ๐’‰ ๐‘ท๐’“๐’Š๐’†๐’”๐’•                                            #4 Doom Charts (June)

๐‘ฑ๐’‚๐’ˆ ๐‘ท๐’‚๐’๐’›๐’†๐’“

๐‘บ๐’„๐’–๐’๐’‡๐’๐’“๐’ˆ๐’†

๐‘ช๐’“๐’‚๐’๐’Š๐’‚๐’

๐‘ด๐’‚๐’Ž๐’Ž๐’๐’•๐’‰ ๐‘ฝ๐’๐’๐’–๐’Ž๐’†

๐‘ซ๐’†๐’‚๐’•๐’‰๐’„๐’๐’๐’๐’†๐’„๐’•๐’๐’“

๐‘พ๐’‚๐’๐’‰๐’‚๐’๐’๐’‚

๐‘บ๐’˜๐’๐’“๐’

๐‘ด๐’‚๐’๐’†๐’—๐’Š๐’„๐’‰

๐‘ณ๐’‚๐’—๐’‚ ๐‘ฐ๐’๐’—๐’๐’„๐’‚๐’•๐’๐’“

๐‘ถ๐’๐’… ๐‘ซ๐’Š๐’“๐’•๐’š ๐‘ฉ๐’–๐’›๐’›๐’‚๐’“๐’…

๐‘ฎ๐’Š๐’‚๐’๐’•๐’” ๐‘ซ๐’˜๐’‚๐’“๐’‡๐’” ๐‘จ๐’๐’… ๐‘ฉ๐’๐’‚๐’„๐’Œ ๐‘ฏ๐’๐’๐’†๐’”

๐‘ณ๐’‚๐’Ž๐’‚๐’”๐’”๐’–                                                     #9 Doom Charts (June

๐‘พ๐’‚๐’“๐’„๐’“๐’‚๐’ƒ                                                      Name Your Price (Bandcamp)

๐‘ฎ๐’๐’“๐’“๐’Š๐’‡๐’Š๐’†๐’…

๐‘บ๐’–๐’๐’…๐’‚๐’š ๐‘ถ๐’‡ ๐‘ป๐’‰๐’† ๐‘ซ๐’†๐’‚๐’…

๐‘ป๐’ke

 Download 'Stigmata Martyr'


Friday, September 29, 2023

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

Wร–MIT 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.

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

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.