2016

Review - Hyponic: 前行者 (Former Monk)

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If you have never heard of the Hong Kong, China based funeral doom metal group Hyponic before, don’t fret. You are not alone. You probably also didn’t know this mysterious group is currently celebrating their twentieth anniversary either. Surprisingly enough, this incredibly overlooked group formed back in 1996 and have been in existence ever since, though their studio output wouldn’t really reflect that (which is why many into the style have yet to know who they are). Their debut full-length Black Sun was released independently in 2001 (eventually getting the vinyl treatment through Psychedelic Lotus Order in August of 2011), then two singles in 2004, then the follow-up effort The Noise of Time in November of 2015. There were a few compilation appearances over the years as well, but the current three-piece finally break their roughly eleven year studio silence streak with the long overdue third album 前行者, which translates from Chinese to “Former Monk” according to Google’s translator [which I used for this review and may not be the proper English translation], and is being handled by Weird Truth Productions. So what lies in store for the listener after all these years, and is it any good?
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Bandcamp Quickie - Pulsating Cerebral Slime: Chop ! Hack ! Snap ! Crunch !

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Yes, it’s that time again. The point when I plunge into the depths of Bandcamp and hope I come back with something engaging. Instead of a top suggestions list, I opted to randomly choose from the releases of the past few days, and what caught my eye was Chop ! Hack ! Snap ! Crunch ! by the french goregrind outfit Pulsating Cerebral Slime. The black and white artwork with red font heralded an indie comic book look that immediately grabbed me into sampling what they bring to the table, which just happened to be an incredibly brief three song EP. So short, in fact, that reading this paragraph alone will probably take longer than to hear the entire release.
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Review - Carnage Inc.: Fury Incarnate

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Transcending Obscurity Distribution always has a knack for finding some of the best Indian and middle eastern talents, and doing what they can to pull them right to the forefront of the metal world. This is no exception for the recent signing of old-school thrashers Carnage Inc.. The four-piece act is issuing their debut five song EP Fury Incarnate today [August 1st, 2016] to the unsuspecting masses, riding off a steady storm of praise for their old-school ways. But does this particular act bring anything substantial to the table, or is it nothing but worship with a middle eastern accent?
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First - Opeth: Sorceress

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A few minutes ago a friend of mine pointed me in the direction of a new Opeth track streaming on Youtube, which happens to be the title track from the group’s forthcoming album Sorceress, or so it claims to be. Assuming this was from Nuclear Blast Records or a member of the group itself, I opted to check it out and write a piece up on it so the metal could be spread around properly. However, it turns out this was just a leak from a random user (or so it would appear given said user has only uploaded this video to that channel and it surprisingly has yet to be taken down) with a link to download said song. Due to that, I won’t be including the video and you guys can go find it for yourselves if it still exists. That said, this song was not quite what I was expecting.
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Review - Bulletsize: Pansar

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Bulletsize had originally formed in 2004 as Metal Wings, releasing two full-lengths and an EP in the little time that entity existed. Come 2006, the name was dropped to what we have today due to a change in musical direction. Gone were the days of heavy metal performances, replaced by a mixture of death metal and thrash that saw the band’s popularity grow even more. After a demo in 2008, their self-title dropped later that year through Talien Sin Records. Over the years there were two more full-lengths, an EP, as well as a line-up change that introduced guitarist Kjell Berg in 2009 and Tzaraath bassist David “Abaddon” Nexéus in 2013 to the mix alongside remaining founding drummer Niklas Gidlund (Harassed) and vocalist/guitarist Andreas Persson (Stormgoat, ex-Hellavator). Now the four-piece presents their latest album, Pansar, which was initially released by the band independently in May of 2016, but since has been picked up by Iron, Blood & Death Corporation for an August release of that same year. But is this really the metal assault one would hope for, or was it best left in the digital depths?
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