Lifting Goal: Combined 1000 Pounds in July

In an effort to get back into blogging again, I think I'm moving somewhat away from reviews, and moving toward talking about music in the context of my life. To that end, I present Mortal Torment's album Cleaver Redemption.

Cleaver Redemption by Mortal Torment

It's ridiculous, brutal death metal. The kind of stuff music writers like to make fun of, because it's dumb. But it's also awesome.

Grime: Circle of Molesters (2015)

I’ve reviewed Grime before, and every time I hear them I just have a hard time imagining this disgusting band coming from a picturesque part of Italy.

Circle Of Molesters by Grime

They’re still awesome, but I think they’ve taken a bit of a stylistic turn. Before, more of a sludge metal band. Now I’d call them sludge/death. That is absolutely a good thing. No-nonsense, mid-paced or slow death

Horrendous: Anareta (2015)

So, last I checked, Horrendous was a fantastic death metal band with a style based in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean circa 1992. I had read about their last album and how far they progressed, but I never got around to checking it out. I should have, because this Anareta sounds like a completely different band.

The vocals are a blend of Chuck Schuldiner and Martin Van Drunen, which is to say,

Blasphemy: Fallen Angel of Doom (1990)

Say you run across some backwoods boys slitting the throat of an animal at just the right moment to create the proper bucking motion. You might get out of there alive, but only if you hand them a third-generation tape of Slayer's Hell Awaits. Those boys would go on to create something like Blasphemy.

Fallen Angel of Doom by Blasphemy

Fallen Angel of Doom is a perfect blend of mindless, bestial

Doomed: Wrath Monolith (2015)

We’re All DoomedNormally by this point in the year I’ve given out two or three perfect scores. This is the first for 2015.

WRATH MONOLITH by DOOMED

In metal, the riff is king. The German death/doom monolith Doomed have a fucking lock on riffs. Massive lurch-and-stumble rhythms all around here. And their sound is just perfect. I’m reminded of a mix of Evoken and Doom:VS, with a pinch of

Destruktor: Opprobrium (2015)

Opprobrium by DESTRUKTOR

One of the best parts of Ride the Lightning is that part in “Fight Fire With Fire,” where Hetfield warns, “Soon to fill our lungs the hot winds of death . . . .” Destruktor play a similar riff on “Eradication.”

That’s the level of speed and aggression these Australian black/death metal tyrants keep up for nearly an entire full-length album. It’s got a whole lot of

Coffins: Craving to Eternal Slumber (2015 EP)

Regular guest reviewer joanismylover is right: Coffins doesn't seem to do anything particularly special - it's just death metal. They aren't ground-breaking - others drop-tuned before they did. They aren't the most talented on the block - technical this is not. They are just heavy as fuck.And what else is there to say, really?

Nothing.

The Verdict: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Craving To Eternal

Perversor: Anticosmocrator (2015)

Perversor is a Chilean band who play bestial black metal. It’s brutal, ugly, and uncompromising. I must be a sucker for this kind of stuff, because it seems I never hear one that I don’t like—but then again, I mostly listen to the ones that come out on Hells Headbangers, and if any label knows their shit, it’s them.

*FREE* Compilation Vol. 8 by PERVERSOR

I couldn’t tell you what sets them

My Silent Wake: Damnatio Memoriae (2015)

I make a big deal about not caring what a band believes, professes, or puts into their lyrics. Nonetheless, I’m still pulling for Christian bands to make solid music, because sometimes I feel pretty lonely as a Christian in the metal world. To that end, I started watching My Silent Wake several years ago, but they fell off my radar for the past few releases.

Their latest effort, Damnatio

Psycroptic: Psycroptic (2015)

The last time I checked in with Kids These Days—and by that I mean, budding, young metalheads on the more well-traveled parts of the metal blogosphere—they were really into technical metal. That was a while ago, but it seemed like every other band MetalSucks was going on about was a technical death metal band. I went through a brief phase of this obsession myself in my late 20’s,* but then

Coffins: Perpetual Penance (Compilation 2015)

Regurgitated Guts, Japanese StyleReview by joanismylover, the third metal attorney.

My father is retired U.S. Air Force. From 1982 to 1985 our family served along side him in Tampa, Florida, at MacDill AFB. I spent the beginning of my "formative years" in the bloody sewage where death metal was just being [re]born. My buddy at Booker T. Washington 7th Grade school was - he claimed - good

Goatloard: Demo '87 / Reh. '88 and Sodomize the Goat (1988)

Caprine Rectal CopulationIt's amazing just how many completely unknown bands have been lost to history, only to be exhumed by those dedicated to revealing these lost treasures. Of course, some of them should have stayed buried. Which one is Goatlord?

First, I've gotta say how much I enjoy the crudely-drawn album art for these two records. They look like they were sketched during third-period

Xibalba: Tierra y Libertad (2015)

I reviewed Xibalba’s last album a few years ago. Since then, they have gone from a hardcore sound almost completely into death metal, and it’s a glorious thing. Dan Seagrave’s art once again graces the cover, so you should have some idea of what to expect.

This is brutally heavy, and the guitars have this sort of scraping quality to them. The way most of it lumbers forward at a slower pace, then

Metal Briefs: Clearing the Docket

National Sunday Law: Festival of the Horned God (2012)
4 out of 5 stars

It's practically criminal how long I've been sitting on this one without a review, because it's actually pretty damn good. I have some trouble getting past that modern metal vocal style, but this is worth it. It's progressive and dark, with synths that bring to mind Mose Giganticus (the first track) or Opeth (the second).

Death Metal Briefs: Part 1000 or Whatever

Skelethal: Interstellar Knowledge of the Purple Entity (2014)
4.5 out of 5 stars

Skelethal is an extra-heavy, extra-doomy kind of Swe-death band. It's a very satisfying listen, and goes out on a high-energy, faster-paced tune. It definitely leaves me wanting more of this brand of death. I notice they're French. What the hell is going on in France now? How can France be home to the most vital

Cadaveric Fumes / Demonic Oath: Entwined in Sepulchral Darkness (2014)

French RevolutionLike pretty much everyone, I used to think France was a joke. Derisive comments about surrender usually come up when middle-Americans discuss the country. When I thought of French metal, I thought of power metal bands singing about fairies or whatever.

But the French actually have a long history of being total badasses, events from the first half of the Twentieth Century

Bloodbath: Grand Morbid Funeral (2014)

Grand?Well, it’s a funeral, that’s for sure.

A long, long time ago Bloodbath released one of the best slabs of Swe-death of all time. Resurrection Through Carnage had the best possible version of that storied sound, and channeled it through some of the catchiest tunes known to all metal history. Over the years they’ve stayed consistently good, without quite reaching that level again, with more

Execration: Morbid Dimensions (2014)

No ZombiesExecration is the act of condemning something, declaring it evil. But more importantly, it's an obscure word that sounds vaguely evil even if you didn't know that, and the cover art to the Norwegian band's Morbid Dimensions looks like something from an underground black metal band--the kind that has too much creativity to be contained in only the colors black and white. So we can figure

Exmortus: Slave to the Sword (2014)

Welcome to ChotchkiesI had joanismylover move his desk to the file room before writing this review.

Exmortus - We need to talk about your flair. I mean Exmortus, come on. You only have fifteen pieces of flair. Dragonforce, they have thirty seven pieces of flair. And a heck of lead guitarist. Yes we know that 15 pieces is the minimum. But people can get guitar leads anywhere. People listen

Death Metal Briefs: Clearing the Docket

Thrice DeadI've had some of these waiting for review for far too long, so let's get to it.

Concrete Icon: Perennial Anguish (2013)
3.5 out of 5 stars

Concrete Icon play lumbering death metal in the vein of Domination-era Morbid Angel. It's sort of like being slowly crushed by a steamroller from your legs on up to your skull, with some great halting rhythms and a big, burly sound.

Perennial