Reviews

Review - Naat: Naat

Posted by

Naat is an Italian instrumental group that dabbles in the realms of post-metal, doom metal, and sludge. The act was forged in 2014 by founding members of Antea, Lilium, and Stone Smokers, all of which prolific bands within the northern tier of their home country. In the time to come, the group has honed their sound and recorded with Mattia Cominotto (Isaak, Infection Code), who also mixed and mastered the songs that would make up their debut self-titled album being distributed by a number of labels across the world including Goodfellas, Inverse, Ripple Music, and Argonauta Records (the label that supplied this digital copy for review). But is this new group one that is well worth keeping an eye on?
Read Article

Review - Grizzlyman: Grizzlyman (2016 Reissue)

Posted by

Sweden’s Grizzlyman is a three-piece progressive sludge act that features ex-12 Gauge Dead‘s Joel Ekman on bass and vocal duties, as well as ex-Athory Emic‘s Emanuel Enbäre on drums, rounded out by guitarist/vocalist Christopher Davis. The band came together in 2013, and about a year later issued their self-titled three song demo cassette through Ljudkassett! Records as a limited run of two hundred copies. Since then, the group remains active with the label, but has not issued anything new since. For 2016, Third I Rex picked up the Grizzlyman demo for further distribution through digital means, as well as a physical digipack once again in limited quantities. But was this something worth reissuing, or is it better left buried?
Read Article

Review - Construct of Lethe: The Grand Machination

Posted by

Construct of Lethe. Never heard of this Virginia based death metal act before? Well, you may know them from when they first came together in 2001 as Bethledeign, or under the name Xaoc when it changed in 2006 until 2010. Amongst the members, this group has a lengthy history going back about fifteen years at this point, though little in the line of studio offerings have been made available. The prior acts had a few smaller releases amongst them, and the current incarnation assembled a collection of demos for a “debut” compilation in 2014. The band also kicked this year off with their first official full-length album Corpsegod (which you can grab as a “name your price” digital download here). As we wrap up 2016, the trio present a brand new self-released six song EP titled The Grand Machination. But was this something that was rushed to market, or is it a suiting way for the group to close out one of their busiest years yet?
Read Article

Review - SwampCult: The Festival

Posted by

SwampCult is a two member black/doom metal group from The Netherlands mostly known in the underground for one thing: Their worship of writer H.P. Lovecraft and the mythos of the ancient ones. It didn’t take long after forming in 2013 for those in the know to become acquainted with their fascination thanks to a demo tape later that year, as well as the release of their limited run debut full-length An Idol Carved of Flesh in 2014 through Eastern Voice Production. Fast forward to 2016 and we’re approaching this holiday season with another bout of literary horror turned metal with their retelling of The Festival, yet another small-run recording through Transcending Obscurity Records. But is this the one to make the duo stand out among the many Lovecratian inspired acts, or is it better left at the shores of R’lyeh?
Read Article

Review - Meshuggah: The Violent Sleep of Reason

Posted by

Sweden’s Meshuggah is one of those groups that pretty much every fan of metal either has an opinion about, or at least knows the name of. From their technical groove and thrash metal roots to their extensive one song performances and recent aid in the cementing of the “djent” style, its hard to look past the group’s contributions since officially coming together in 1988 (not counting their earlier time as Calipash). With eight studio albums down, the five-piece present their latest offering titled The Violent Sleep of Reason which, at this point, is not being looked at too favorably from fans due to the promotional material that has been made available up to this point. But does this stand tall within the recent discography, or is it just something different?
Read Article

Review - Gigantic Death Worm by Vince Kramer (paperback)

Posted by

When it comes to bizarro fiction, it seems as though Eraserhead Press has been attempting to corner the market from the underground up. The indie powerhouse of a publisher has a fascination with taking on new authors in the field and giving them a chance to get their feet in the door and start making a name for themselves. It’s a commendable approach that has brought us the short book Gigantic Death Worm, the first publihed work by author Vince Kramer (Death Machines of Death). Given his coloring book posts on Tumblr, as well as his photography line of action figures having sex, there’s no denying this is probably going to be a pretty twisted tale of giant worms hell bent on destruction senseless slaughter. But is it something you’ll want to read, or is this debut offering just a flop?
Read Article