Undergrind Metal

Crawl – Necrotic Fear April 2019 – Anomalous Mind Records Crawl is a one-man project I stumbled upon in 2018, after the release of their split with Leviathan, opening with the irate At the Forge of Hate, which might have been the heaviest side on any Leviathan split ever. Necrotic Fear continues the tradition of whipping the listener in the face with bass strings, but for pacing's sake the album is broken up by sinister lulls like the alcoves on the cover, providing refuge from the wind tunnel that the other songs seem to imitate. Everything from the art to the drums is distorted, almost feeling like a more noise based project than a metal one, and we're in the territory of the non-riff, where feedback and drone are how hatred are expressed. Let's go with blackened sludge. The opener and closer are similar in that they both showcase a more subtly menacing approach, akin to dark ambient, but in different ways. Paralyzed, I Awaken... is a melancholic dirge, th

Kataplexia – The Rise of the Unknown January 2019 – Rotten Music Kataplexia is Finland's best Indonesian brutal death metal band. You read that right, Indonesian is now a valid qualifier for brutal death metal. For those unaware, I explored and wrote about the Southeast Asian brutal death metal scene two years ago, discovering a gigantic scene with an uncharacteristic public acceptance. One of the members of Jasad began a side-project, Kaluman, which is the definition of high-quality Southeast Asian brutal death metal. A couple seconds into Kataplexia's latest, I expected to see Rottervore or Extreme Souls as their label, as every element pointed towards Indonesian origins – the tone, production, vocals, riffs and even album art all felt like Ferli Suferli (Jasad, Kaluman) was behind the project, yet Helsinki is listed as their base of operations. Admittedly, there's only so much one can actually say about the music without endless comparisons. A modern

Obscuring Veil – Fleshvoid To Naught March 2019 – I, Voidhanger Records Mories, famous for having recorded half of the avant-garde/experimental black metal released since 1996, participates in his second release this year, Fleshvoid To Naught. Released by the folks who distributed Tchornobog and the Spectral Lore/Jute Gyte split, the album has a legacy to honour – while less abrasive than other similar acts, Obscuring Veil is more than the sum of its multinational parts. After a quick intro, Fleshvoid To Naught picks up and delivers some of the most dissonant black metal in recent memory. The drumming has the kind of micro-intensity you'd usually find in jazz, with fast but subtle cymbal sections and an overall tactful approach, mostly leaving blasts behind for a more technical and original style. There's something approachable and conventional about it, maybe the mix of relatively simple time signatures and recurring power chord strumming, which make for a

Triumvir Foul – Urine of Abomination February 2019 – Vrasubatlat/Invictus Productions Two years after the stellar Spiritual Bloodshed, Triumvir Foul are back with the Urine of Abomination EP, a noisy, chaotic, primitive record that's satisfyingly predictable and predictably satisfying. Sharing a member with Dagger Lust, for whom the best descriptor I could come up with would be noisened death metal, it comes as no surprise that every entry this EP writes in the book of death metal is surrounded by slabs of warm, almost comforting harsh noise sections. Reminiscent of Azarath, the vocals have a raw, primitive rasp, fitting the caveman aspect curated by similar cavernous death metal bands. Raw and primitive also describe every other aspect of the record – some leads are literal three-note tapping sections, and the rhythm section is filled with hammer blasts and other similar beats that I'd assume were first played during mammoth hunts. The songwriting is where

Hexenoise – II March 2019 – Unsigned After the excellent catastrophic sludge monolith that was Heavy Drugs Smashed Amps, Hexendrone began showing signs of veering straight off the cliff and free-fall into the jagged forest of noise, having recorded a split with B ol', a mysterious experimental act whose only proof of existence is their presence in said split. A sharp-eyed reader might notice Hexendrone not having the same name on this record. Indeed, the Russians may have wanted to clearly separate both sounds without creating an entirely new project, hence the Hexenoise and Hexendrone entities. Their approach to sludge always noisy and approximative, yet II displays remarkable forethought and composition given the genre. Acoustic drums accompany the slow, intangible Go Home!, giving it structure and giving me something to hold on to while my lungs and head are crushed. A vice made of guitar distortion and bass rumble, feeding into an ever-growing drone, constrict

Noctambulist – Atmospheres of Desolation January 2019 – Blood Harvest Records Atmospheres of Desolation is the most dense and opaque record I've listened to this year, bringing me back to my early exploration of dissonant black and death metal, where I learned to swim in the thick pools of quicksand distortion and breathe the noxious fumes of dissonance. Noctambulist have crafted a trying experience, as wading through the waist-high marsh they recorded requires full attention – from the hellish arpeggios burning my lungs to the muddy technical chuggs pulling at my legs from beneath, Atmospheres of Desolation does its best to test my sanity. Despite the obscure, swampy aesthetic they've cultivated like a jungle garden of poisonous plants, Noctambulist show technical prowess, but with enough restraint as to not become musical masturbation. Kick drums using start/stop patterns, guitar work that needs no leads to show off creativity or precision, and overall tight