GODWATT ~ Vol III (2022)

Godwatt is often tagged under the stoner/doom label but this Italian band offers so much more. Whereas a lot of these type of bands from this area of the globe come ladled with lo fi fuzz, Godwatt riffs are lean, tight and bloodthirsty with  fuzz sandblasted away into a granier sound metastacizing into crunching heavy metal.

ANGELIC FORCES ~ Arise (2022)

Catchy yet brutally powerful heavy metal from the Netherlands. Most 'power metal' bands have their influences nestled somewhere in Judas Priest's discography and Angelic Forces' Arise, to these ears at least, points in particular to Priest's 'Jugulator' era. Riffs are mighty, the rhythm section pummels, vocals soar in all the right places as do the many awesome guitar solos.

Fist pumpin' headbangin' nirvana!

ATOMWINTER ~ Sakrileg (2023)

I've just finished listening to Sakrileg the new album by Germany's Atomwinter so bear with me, I just need to scrub myself down with bleach and a wire brush before I resume putting down my thoughts on the album.........!

Right, that's better! 

A bit of background on the band's catalogue so far. Their first album 'Atomic Death Metal' was released in 2012 and does exactly what the album title says playing straight ahead death metal of a particularly brutal kind. 'Iron Flesh' crawled into existence three years later keeping the brutality cranked to maximum pain thresholds but this time with a layer of crusty doom/death. 'Catacombs' followed in 2018 and was much the same but this time Atomwinter wanted to not only crush us but asphyxiate the last ounce of breath from our broken bodies with a thicker, poisonous mix.

Which leads me onto the new album Sakrileg.

It's the same crusty doom/death grisliness but this time it's all about the death metal riff. Brutality and filth still prevails but Sakrileg is the fastest album the band has yet written despite being weighed down with pustules and scabs.

This album will make even the leprous headbang.

ONHOU ~ Monument (2022)

Pitiless sludge that is as grey and bleak as the album cover suggests. I'm not a huge keyboards fan but I have to admit, the chilling synth on Monument is perfect. It adds a sense of creepy foreboding by lurking in the background, scratching away at hulking post - sludge riffs. Angry vocals sound like a priest at an exorcism, frantically challenging the entity to reveal itself and this particular entity is malevolent and powerful and monstrous.

Released 9/12/22

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.