The Mercury Impulse – Records of Human Behavior (Independent)
The debut by Wrekmeister Harmonies’s JR Robinson and Anatomy of Habit/BLOODYMINDED’s Mark Solotroff as the Mercury Impulse is a tormented yet irresistible take on noise, drone, experimental electronics, ambient, and all the sepulchral spaces in between by way of analog synths and electric guitars. The latter instruments are unrecognizable, of course, as Robinson and Solotroff extract an array of impossible effects from them, then process their meat into slowly pulsing, razing, grating, all-consuming soundscapes.
This is apocalyptic music of a nihilistic, suffocating atmosphere woven around an unyielding dynamic core, constantly pushing harsh textures in all directions, forcing them to collapse unto themselves. They re-emerge as even more jagged, abrasive shapes—dark metallic towers lacerating the skies and sirens plaguing the ground beneath. Guaranteed to be more torturous and sonically and psychologically punishing than any pure metal record you’ll hear this month. – Antonio Poscic
Missouri Executive Order 44 – Salt Sermon (Learning Curve)
Missouri Executive Order 44 bring in memories of the early days of screamo. Their debut record, Salt Sermon, is a rampage packed in 15 minutes, aiming for the same direct payoff that Chaos Is Me and This Is Medicine delivered a quarter century ago. The abrupt force is undeniable, reaching for a chaotic notion of catharsis through the crazed progression of “Wear Me Like a Mitt, Romney”. Even then, they can still outdo themselves, maniacally blasting away and increasing the pressure as they alternate between blastbeasts and modified D-beats in “I Would Kill Anyone For You”.
Still, Missouri Executive Order 44 cast a wider net. The chaotic hardcore progressions of “Let’s Jump a Cowboy Together!” and “Christian Pornography” bring to mind Cursed’s off-kilter machinations, especially in their sense of angst and brutality with the “The Built a Bass Pro Shop in Our Zion”. It then naturally allows the underlying noise rock notions of “The Unbuckling” and its rhythmic extensions in “Seven Is a Holy Number” to shine more brightly. It also lights the way for the apocalyptic sense that the industrial implementations of the title track bring in. So, in blazing fashion, it completes the glorious revival of early screamo glory. – Spyros Stasis
Oxygen Destroyer – Guardian of the Universe (Redefining Darkness)
Bombs whistling through the air as they fall on unsuspecting heads. Earth-shattering explosions. Pained screams. From the ashes, pumping death-thrash metal buzzes to life. While Oxygen Destroyer’s themes draw from the world of kaijū—the group’s name an allusion to a Godzilla-killing weapon—the sheer, relentless brutality of the US extreme metal group’s music feels painfully representative of our genocidal present.
Across nine ruthless tracks, the quartet draw from black, thrash, and death metal to concoct startlingly vicious and bombastic music, weaving groaning black metal riffs through a city in flames on “Eradicating the Symbiotic Hive Mind Entity From Beyond the Void” and unleashing minigun-like barrages of blast beats and high rev, seesawing riffs on the death metal juggernaut “Awaking the Malevolent Destroyer of the Heavens and Earth”. Harrowing stuff. – Antonio Poscic
Phenocryst – Cremation Pyre (Blood Harvest)
Phrenocryst’s obsession with volcanology became prominent with their aptly titled debut EP, Explosions. In that instance, the death metal of Phenocryst reverberated through the raw production, giving an overall impression that the Portuguese band subscribed to the type of black/death hailed by Grave Miasma and Lvcifyre. Still, beneath some of the rumble, a different beast lurked, its grand inclinations waking in moments like “Craters”. Phenocryst’s debut record, Cremation Pyre, flips this perception, moving this latent Bolt Thower-inspired theme to the forefront. The vigorous start of “Pinnacle of Death” and “Embers of an Ancient Fire” provides both the powerful melodic component and the graphic representation. It is death metal defined by momentum, which naturally feeds into the polemic nature of “Pyres of the Altar” and “Fogo Nas Entranhas”.
In this warlike theme, Phencryst naturally incorporate Incantation’s sluggish and patient take. The infernal components of “Volcanic Winter” feed into the grand, melodic presence. It also acts as a portal toward devastating pathways, as with the switches between mid-tempo stampede and annihilation in “Astonishing Devastation” and the furious drum performance of “Incandescent Debris”. Topping it off, Phenocryst descent to more elusive gateways with their guitar work. Not overtly psychedelic, but with a hint of something otherworldly, they imbue their compositions with a sense of mystery and menace. It makes Cremation Pyre an excellent starting point guided by the spirit of the past but, at times, lets its influences take over. Once they have figured out how to balance between the past and their identity, they will be a force to reckon with. I am confident that the moment will come soon. – Spyros Stasis
Pneuma Hagion – From Beyond (Everlasting Spew)
Clocking under 25 minutes? Check. William Blake artwork on the cover? Check. In the eternal balancing act between black/death, does death metal come out on top? Check, and we threw away the scale. The third Pneuma Hagion full-length, From Beyond, sees the Texas act follow the same formula. The mid-period influence of Morbid Angel drives this ceremony, the evilness of the guitar work seeping out in “The Temple Fires” and the Domination-level brutality does not ease up in “Aeon”. It is an inescapable structure, modernized for the times and embracing some additional components. The groove of Incantation steps in for “The Light of Long-Dead Stars ” and the Immolation malice adds unpredictability to “Lurking Beyond Time and Space”.
Much like its thematic influences, From Beyond is an entity in this reality but not of this world. The Lovecraftian mythos, coupled with gnostic notions, is mirrored in the unpredictability and versatility of the compositions. Like the great old ones, Pneuma Hagion’s tentacles are endless, and their movements are difficult to follow. They can produce moments of heavy, modern groove (“Resurrected Abominations”), but then they attack with the precision and rapidity of a modern-day Gatling gun (“All Worlds Enslaved”). This entanglement of modes crafts what is another dense and bulldozer of an album from Pneuma Hagion. – Spyros Stasis
Spectral Wound – Songs of Blood and Mire (Profound Lore)
Montréal’s Spectral Wound continue their strong run of albums that started back in 2015 with another superb serving of melodic black metal that is as musically flowing and deeply stirring as its themes are sardonically biting. The opening “Fevers and Suffering” is the most typical Spectral Wound song here, with riffs that blaze as if they were doused in gasoline and lit on fire, while an army of shrieks-cum-growls, grumbling bass lines, and frenetic drum patterns rushes through the infernal tornado. Dissection and Vreid come to mind while listening to cuts like these, but neither band ever sounded so unshackled and urgent.
Elsewhere, they toy with a newly discovered sense of groove on the deliciously named “Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal” and find a swaying, swinging swagger on the huge sounding “A Coin Upon the Tongue”. Around 40 minutes in length, Songs of Blood and Mire is paced just right: long enough not to leave any ideas underdeveloped and short enough to feel like an acute attack on the senses. – Antonio Poscic
Teeth – The Will of Hate (Translation Loss)
Leaving behind their debut record’s sludge components, Teeth produced one of the stellar works of 2010s dissonant death metal in Curse of Entropy. What was so different with Teeth is that they manage to distance themselves from the defining sound of Ulcerate by tapping into a chaotic style of playing without over-the-top nuances. Still deeply technical and complex, but somehow different. While their new record, The Will of Hate, still holds this position, it lacks some of the urgency that elevated Curse of Entropy.
Discordance still defines the proceedings, casting a long shadow over the opening track “Blight” and creating waves of disharmony in “Loathe”. Here they find some of the Deathspell Omega spirit, conjuring eerie notions in “Pray”, and contrasting these with a sweeter melodic tone in “Shiver”, “Apparition”, and especially “Devour”. The technical aptitude shines, with Teeth’s blunt perspective cutting through the atmospheric notions of dissonant death metal. In that sense, they appear quasi-straightforward in “Prison” or the traditional death metal-informed “Churn”, but it is all a facade.
The difference between the covers of Curse of Entropy and The Will of Hate can be viewed as a parallel to their musical differences. On one hand, there is the crazed demiurge, tearing itself apart and putting it back together. Contrarily, the amorphous predator of The Will of Hate spirals through infinite darkness, reveling in its vastness. The return of some post-metallic notions reminisce of Teeth’s sludge past (“Writhe”) but do not replace the immediacy and Curse of Entropy’s furious spirit. The Will of Hate follows a different trajectory, and while it is a solid piece of work, it feels like the Teeth’s final transformation is not yet complete. – Spyros Stasis
Vile Rites – Senescence (Carbonized)
Unlike the rest of the old-school death metal bands featured in this (and pretty much every other) edition of the column, who submerge themselves in proper sewer vibes and filthiest atmospheres possible while keeping things structurally simple, Santa Rosa’s Vile Rites play a significantly more intricate yet fluid take on the genre.
There are only six pieces on their debut Senescence. Still, each of them—minus the rainy ambiance intermezzo “Ephemeral Reverie of Eroded Dreams”—demonstrates a keen sense of fusing progressive tendencies with the grooving, enveloping doom-death aesthetics of bands like Novembers Doom or early-day Katatonia. Emerging from the massive, Morbid Angel-indebted riffs and ripping cosmic death metal rays of “Only Silence Follows”, they grow into the swirling progressions and dissonance of “Shiftless Wanderings”, then fade out with a slab of bluesy doom in the vein of YOB and meandering guitar solos on the gorgeous “Banished to Solitude (Adrift on the Infinite Waves)”. – Antonio Poscic
Vomitrot – Emetic Imprecations (Personal)
Vomitrot’s sophomore album, Emetic Imprecations, brings to the table some of the nastiest and viscerally most stimulating death (and doom) metal of the year. Similarly to the majority of vomit-themed groups—there are surprisingly many! Funeral Vomit, Witch Vomit, Vomit Remnants, et cetera, et cetera—the Swedish trio play a particularly gnarly take on old-school death metal but do so with ultimate gusto and unexpected twists and turns in their pummeling pieces.
From the dissonant brutality of opener “Envomited” and the black metal inflection of “Emtophilic Cro-Magnon” to the rising doom formations of “Gomorrahian Excrement” and the Autopsy evoking closer “Vomitous Execrations”, the band remain committed to their nauseating bit. Throughout, regardless of the exact mixture of death, black, and doom metal elements, they layer hellishly anguished growls on top of scuzzy, acid-dripping tremolos that could cut through monoliths and wobbly blast beats for, frankly, gorgeous effect. Arm yourself with antiemetics and dive in. – Antonio Poscic