It’s been just a little over a month since the last Oddles of Brutals; that has to be some sort of record. 2020 continues to be a banner year for all sorts of sonic brutality, so without further ado, let’s take a look at another batch of brutal, slamming and technical death metal marvels.
Continue reading “Oodles of Brutals XII: Brutal on Both Sides”
We’re just a little past the first quarter mark for 2020, but metal fans have already been treated to a deluge of quality brutal death metal; from the mind-bending technicality of Odious Mortem, to the crushing slams of Engutturalment Cephaloslamectomy, to the unmitigated violence of Unmerciful, it’s shaping up to be a hell of a year. But sitting at the top of this monolithic BDM heap is Spawn of Almighty Essence, the sophomore album from Ukrainian skull-smashers Schizogen.
Continue reading “Schizogen – Spawn of Almighty Essence (Willowtip Records, 2020)”
What happens when Earache Records signs a hardcore techno DJ based on the strengths of their remixes of Morbid Angel and Deicide tracks and then lets said DJ record a metal album? The answer is The Berzerker’s pulverizing self-titled debut recording, which turns twenty years old today and still stands as a pillar of wildly creative what-the-fuckery in the annals of extreme music.
Continue reading “20 Years of The Berzerker – s/t (Earache Records, 2020)”
What is Architectural Genocide? Is it when someone decides to round up a bunch of architects and off them en masse? Is it when a group of buildings becomes sentient and decides to wipe out another group of buildings for no apparent reason? I don’t have a fucking clue, but I do know that Houston, TX death metallers Architectural Genocide have a wicked good debut on their hands in the form of Cordyceptic Anthropomorph (whew, what a mouthful!) which was released back in mid-March by that ever-reliable bastion of brutality known as Comatose Music.
Continue reading “Architectural Genocide – Cordyceptic Anthropomorph (Comatose Music, 2020)”
Hard to believe its been almost eight months since the last one of these roundups, but 2020 is finally starting to cough up some quality brutal death metal and slam, so you know what that means…
Continue reading “Oodles of Brutals XI: Only Built 4 Brutal Riffs”
When you’re young and just starting to get into a specific style of music, you tend to start with the biggest, most well-known band in that style and work your way deeper and deeper underground from there. When I was first getting into death metal, one of the gateway bands of the genre was Cannibal Corpse. I mean, they were in Ace Ventura for fuck’s sake; but even before that they were one of the most easily accessible death metal bands there was for a kid growing up in the bowels of the Midwest, their gruesome album covers leering at me from the stacks at Musicland and Disc Jockey, beckoning me to sample their disgusting delights.
Sacramento’s bestial black/death masters Defecrator recently went on indefinite hiatus, but from their ashes an uglier, more barbaric entity has risen in the form of Abhorrency. The band just posted their debut demo on Bandcamp earlier this month and rest assured it’s some seriously gnarly black shit.
Continue reading “Abhorrency – Demo MMXX (self-released, 2020)”
Japan’s Gorevent are the undisputed heavyweight champions of minimalist slam. Over the course of a decade and a half, the band have successfully stripped the sub-subgenre of slamming brutal death metal down to its molten core; no technical flourishes, no guitar solos, no bullshit, just slam in its purest, grooviest form. Fate is a testament to Gorevent’s continued dedication to keeping things as boneheaded as possible, and there ain’t a damn thing wrong with it.
In terms of new releases, 2019 was pretty damn dire. But in spite of the rampant mediocrity, I did manage to find a small handful of releases that were truly outstanding and can more than hold their own against the best this dying decade has to offer. So without further ado and in no particular order, here are the five albums that stuck with me throughout the year…
Continue reading “Ceremonial Culling: THKD’s Top 5 Metal Albums of 2019”
Well friends, it’s been nearly eight months since the last Oodles of Brutals, which means we’re long overdue for another deep dive into the world of all things brutal and slamming. So without further ado…
Continue reading “Oodles of Brutals X: In Space, No One Can Hear You Slam”
Born of an unholy union between members of Killgasm and Gloriam Draconis, Sacramento black/death warlords Defecrator have been pillaging their way across the California metal underground since 2014. After nearly half a decade of existence, they have at last dropped the tactical nuke of an album that is Abortion of Humanity on the unsuspecting masses and make no mistake, this aggressive yet atmospheric slab of total annihilation was worth the wait and then some.
Continue reading “Defecrator – Abortion of Humanity (Drakkar Productions, 2019)”
When I first saw the animated music video for “Blackened Call” I was not aware of Finnish artist J.P. Ahonen or his popular web comic Belzebubs. As such, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of a cartoon black metal band romping about the woods, “Call of the Wintermoon” style. I’m more than a bit ashamed to admit that my first thought was “Oh great, a corpse-painted version of Gorillaz,” yet there was something about the combination of quirky comic book visuals and frostbitten yet catchy and melodic black metal that made me want to see/hear more.
Continue reading “Belzebubs – Pantheon of the Nightside Gods (Century Media, 2019)”
On November 16th, 2016, the online metal tabloid known as Metalsucks published their “manifesto” in which they very publicly announced “We will not tolerate racism, misogyny or any form of bigotry or hate speech” (because apparently it took them ten years of running a website, not to mention a good chunk of their adult lives to figure out these things are shitty).
Slam is one of the most over-the-top subgenres of metal and they don’t come any more absurdly OTT than Taipei City, Taiwan’s Gorepot. The brainchild of ubiquitous slam god Larry Wang (Facelift Deformation, Fatuous Rump, Guttural Corpora Cavernosa, Maggot Colony, Umbilical Asphyxia, Coprocephalic, Fat Tub of Lard Records), Asian Stoned Effect is the band’s seventh album and it’s also one of the most ri-goddamn-diculous slamming death metal albums you’re ever going to hear.
Continue reading “Gorepot – Asian Stoned Effect (Brutal Mind, 2018)”
North of Hell has been a long time coming for Japanese goregrinders Butcher ABC. Formed in 1994 and leaving a bloody trail of demos, EPs and splits in their wake, it took the band over twenty years to finally release a full length. But was it worth the wait? Thankfully, it only takes a few listens to North of Hell to determine that the answer is a resounding “yes.”
Split releases can be difficult to review due to the competitive vibe they give off. Although it’s likely not the intention, it always feels like a battle between the bands involved. Indeed, Onset of Horrendosity is a slamming brutal death metal death match between two up-and-coming acts, Fetor and Crepitation, and both are young, hungry contenders. Which band will put the slam smackdown on the other and come out on top?
Continue reading “Fetor / Crepitation – Onset of Horrendosity (Deformeathing Production, 2019)”
From Hour of Penance to Devangelic and beyond, Italy is one of those countries that’s just ridiculously good at brutal death metal. Perhaps it has something to do with having the Vatican skulking around in their collective backyard, but whatever the case, the country shaped like a boot continues to kill it year in and year out.
In just under fifteen years, Niigata City, Japan’s Gorevent have become the country’s preeminent purveyors of slamming brutal death metal. Their mission to distill the subgenre down to its purest form continues on their fourth album, In the Face of… and the result is one of their finest releases to date.
Continue reading “Gorevent – In the Face of… (Abnormal Exaggeration Records, 2018)”
If there’s one thing Metal Twitter™®© is good for, it’s manufacturing non-controversies within the scene. The latest of these flare-ups occurred when Philly-based death metallers Pissgrave unveiled the cover art for their new album Posthumous Humiliation, set to be released March 1st via Profound Lore.
Continue reading “Luck of the Corpse: THKD’s top 5 albums featuring actual cadavers on their covers”
It’s been two long years since THKD featured any interviews; perhaps due to laziness on my own part, or perhaps because I hadn’t heard any new bands that intrigued me enough to seek them out for an interrogation. But from the moment I heard Ashes Shall Be Made of Them, the second album from Canadian death-dealers Ye Goat-Herd Gods, I knew that I wanted to dig deeper. Having struck up a correspondence with guitarist/songwriter Jeanie Keebler over the course of reviewing the album, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to pick her brain. She graciously agreed and in the process revealed to me a story that’s as much about staring death in the face and overcoming adversity as it about simply loving heavy metal. Read on as the mastermind behind Ye Goat opens up about the making of the album and beyond.
THKD 