DEMONSLAUGHT 666 - Nekroslaughter Battlefield (2022)

 I don't know about wearing bullet belts, artillery shell belts are better suited when listening to this incendiary Chinese blackthrash/speed metal band Demonslaught 666.  Nekroslaughter Battlefield continues where 'Speed Alcoholic Evil' ended, spitting flesh shredding riffs that chop, chafe and worship at the altar of evil necromancy.

FALL OF THE IDOLS ~ Contradictory Notes (2022)

Classic Finnish doom wrought with emotion. Contradictory Notes is a fitful dream swaddled in nightmares, dark melodies tainted with sorrow. To these ears there is a My Dying Bride influence pulling the strings. This is Fall Of The Idol's first release in ten years and the four tracks on it were potentially earmarked for the bands 'Solemn Verses' album but tragedy struck the band which decided to go into prolonged hibernation but fear not, these songs have been honed and polished over the years so that Contradictory Notes can stand in its own lengthy shadow with its head held high. 

FOEHAMMER ~ Monumentum (2022)

 There are fifteen major laws of physics and I've just finished listening to an album that defies them all. 'Monumentum' is the new album from Foehammer and it's apocalyptic fusion of sludge and doom has created a new lifeform that should be encased in concrete and buried deep into the earth. Never has sixty minutes of music been so destructive, even the feedback rumbles into territory occupied only by the likes of Conan but what takes 'Monumentum' even further is that not only does this crush, the sludge moisture creates a sucking quagmire that'll just engulf you into its heaving mass.

GNÔLE ~ Walk On A Corrupted Soil (2022)

 

GNÔLE is a French sludge band that draws influence from the old school classics by Eyehategod, -16- and Grief. Their album Walk On Corrupted Soil is a brilliant example of how bands of this genre can avoid wallowing in a vat of murk like many of the modern sludge bands yet still sound just as heavy when riffs are allowed to breathe and are given an undercurrent of groove however warped and mutated.

DESECRATE THE FAITH ~ III

 Desecrate The Faith is a US death metal band coming across as a gorier Cannibal Corpse. John Hull's vocals sounds as if he's feasting on innards and chugging buckets of  blood while brutal riffs gouge bloody chunks with ruthless, congealed ferocity. What I love about this album is that Desecrate The Faith don't get completely submerged under the slop  and are just as happy dishing out punishment with relentless savagery.

CRONOS COMPULSION - Cursed And Decaying EP (2021)

Cronos Compulsion's EP  Cursed And Decaying sees the band at the second stage of decomposition (Bloat) where their noxious brand of doom/death necessitates a liberal dousing of Neutrolene to eliminate the stench of a coagulate of dissonant Carcass / Napalm Death riffs. 

SHROOMS CIRCLE ~ The Constant Descent (2022)

Strung out passages of warm, deep, occult psych doom like a seance in an opium den, with the tantric mantras of  Odile combining perfectly with some very heavy riffs underscored by eerie organ and mellotron weeping in the background.