Back catalogue: Metal

Review: BMG reissue the second ever release by the pioneering Swiss extreme metal band Celtic Frost, originally released in 1985 as an EP. Emperor's Return often goes criminally undersung as a fleshing-out of black metal as a genre, with the bleak imagery surrounding it going on to cement the style as its own niche. Their first record to feature American drummer Reid Cruickshank (aka Reed St. Mark), the EP comprises five thrash-come-black metal rabble-rousers, ahead of their time for 1985.

Review: Ever consistent Canadian hardcore punk crew, Cancer Bats, are seemingly set to return with their follow up to 2018's 'The Spark That Moves', which marks their first offering following the departure of founding guitarist Scott Middleton.

With the frenetic thrashings of latest single, 'Lonely Bong', the group haven't sounded this vitriolic or pissed off in the better part of a decade.

From the thunderous title-track alone, it's evident 'Psychic Jailbreak' marks a smouldering return to form with low end grooves and Southern snarl imbued within its hardcore bindings. Cancer Bats have always sounded their best when resembling Every Time I Die getting into a beer-soaked bar brawl with Down, and this could be the fight that leads to a hospital visit.

Review: Following on from the blistering re-recorded versions of Sepultura's debut EP Bestial Devastation, and album Morbid Visions originally released in 1985/86, the rebranded Cavalera Conspiracy project boasting both brothers Max and Igor (now going by Cavalera), double down with a newly recorded re-release of their seminal 1987 sophomore effort Schizophrenia. Noted as the first work to begin embracing their more prominent thrash meets melodic death metal style, while eschewing the blackened Celtic Frost worship of their earlier material, this is the album where Sepultura first discovered their own true sonic identity removed from their bevvy of influences. Refined, feral and rebuilt from the ground up with a polish that provides clarity yet doesn't detract from the danker qualities of the original recordings, Cavalera continue their quest to reclaim their Sepultura output, seemingly one title at a time.

Review: With their 2022 debut LP God's Country, the herald of the true face and voice for modern middle-American malaise came in the form of noise-rock/sludge metal purveyors Chat Pile. Broadcasting from their muted home of Oklahoma City, their deformed sonic mutations pulled equally from The Jesus Lizard, Acid Bath and Korn, while vocalist Raygun Busch (that is his credited moniker) appalled and harrowed with his spoken-word nightmare poetics touching on everything from homelessness and the opioid crisis, to real-life recounts of botched robberies and first-person narratives from horror film characters such as the mother of Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th. Expanding their scope both conceptually and compositionally, Cool World takes aim at the entire planet with classism, the horrors of war and genocide, the very real potential for abuse stemming from toxic masculinity, capitalist lies and the nihility of existence all as topics of discussion, while still making time for backwoods journeys into serial killer's isolated farm homes. Musically continuing to pummel with industrial abrasion and hypnotic groove, sonically the band have begun to embrace their sludge-core tendencies while channelling nuanced elements of alternative metal and goth rock, offering new painstaking modes of vulnerability to drive home their despair-laden character studies. Mark our words, there isn't one single other metal/punk/alternative album in 2024 that slaps this hard while instilling such a cold feeling of visceral dread and fear for our ever-despondent cool world.

Review: .By its very nature, Tenkiller is a very different beast to Chat Pile's other releases. Recorded in the winter of 2020 to be the soundtrack to Tenkiller, an indie movie about the lives of ordinary people in small-town America, it sees the noise-rock/post-hardcore combo focus on mood and tone, rather than form and function. As a result, fuzzy and forthright cuts of the sort you'd expect come supplemented by dystopian, industrial-influenced soundscapes, lo-fi alt-country, guitar-laden mood pieces, low-slung and effects-laden creepiness, intense electronica and the kind of slow-burn ambient-not-ambient that was once the preserve of cult bands such as Labradford.

Review: Following on from the unprecedented success of their 2022 debut full-length God's Country, Oklahoma City sludge-metal meets noise-rock four-piece Chat Pile now expand their scope (which initially took their home to task for its homeless and opioid crises), to take aim at the world at large for all of its follies from oil-drilling, to the shoulder shrugs of war, deforestation and genocide. Imbuing their sludegcore heft with gothic grunge melodies while also increasing their heaving tonal bedlam to nauseating degrees, Cool World genuinely sounds like the soundtrack to our own self-designed end times, and what better clarion call to see us over the horizon than Chat Pile's signature industrial-tinged bombast led by frontman Raygun Busch's harrowing, howling spoken word sermons.

Review: With 2022's God's Country, Oklahoma City sludge metal/noise rock manglers Chat Pile took the underground music scene by the throat and dragged it through the twisted drug addled, decrepit, destitute annals of modern middle America. Returning two years on from their major glow up that saw them land on numerous end of year list that usually wouldn't touch their brand of hubris sonics with a ten foot pole, their sophomore endeavour Cool World trades the initial narrow view of the woes of their home country for the rotting globe at large, taking religion, politicians and narcissistic everyday people to task for their ignorance, malice and docile attitudes which are leading to a culmination of no more cool world for any of us. Expanding their sonic scope to draw on more melodious grunge and sultry goth-rock, while tapping outside production help this time around to make their heaving industrial-tinged noise-sludge bombast even more stomach churning, LP2 makes bad on all of Chat Pile's initial, unsettling promise, with a nauseating feeling that they'll be narrating our end times for as long as there are ears to listen.

Review: 2022 saw the unlikely glow up of the one of the most sonically unhinged and conceptually hideous newcomers of recent times - Chat Pile. Hailing from the muted middle-America of Oklahoma City, their debut LP God's Country found itself on many an out-of-place end of year list, with its harrowing concoction of sludge metal, noise-rock and spoken word diatribes based around everything from the opioid and housing crises to first-person recounts of revenge from Jason Voorhees's mother of Friday the 13th fame. In short, it was a caustic, horror-indebted debut about how utterly fucked the US is, and now with their platform and exposure majorly expanded, Chat Pile return to take the entire globe to task for its follies on the deformed, multi-headed behemoth bastard of a sophomore effort that is Cool World. Furthering their signature sludgecore down the mire of audible hubris, yet incorporating elements of swaggering grunge and sultry goth-rock, here the unassuming, deplorable four-piece make their indelible mark on the extreme music underground and make it abundantly clear that God's Country was only the beginning of their Babylonian death chants.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition***


With 2022's God's Country, Oklahoma City sludge metal/noise rock manglers Chat Pile took the underground music scene by the throat and dragged it through the twisted drug addled, decrepit, destitute annals of modern middle America. Returning two years on from their major glow up that saw them land on numerous end of year list that usually wouldn't touch their brand of hubris sonics with a ten foot pole, their sophomore endeavour Cool World trades the initial narrow view of the woes of their home country for the rotting globe at large, taking religion, politicians and narcissistic everyday people to task for their ignorance, malice and docile attitudes which are leading to a culmination of no more cool world for any of us. Expanding their sonic scope to draw on more melodious grunge and sultry goth-rock, while tapping outside production help this time around to make their heaving industrial-tinged noise-sludge bombast even more stomach churning, LP2 makes bad on all of Chat Pile's initial, unsettling promise, with a nauseating feeling that they'll be narrating our end times for as long as there are ears to listen.

Review: Following on from 2021's demented debut LP Decrepit Flesh Relic, Los Angeles based technical doom-death metal entity Civerous surpass, eclipse and utterly devour all of their initially exuded promise with the beastly sophomore effort Maze Envy. Signed to 20 Buck Spin, a major seal of approval for modern metal extremism, the album furthers the growing trend of underground hyper-dense, superbly virtuosic, progressive death metal that simultaneously pulls the brutal blast beats, inhuman guttural vocals and overwhelming speed the genre is known for, and imbues them with cavernous minimal doom dirges and aquatic flourishes of noodling prog rock, resulting in a hallucinogenic sonic tapestry equal parts shimmering and pummelling, oppressive and lush, with the looming sense of Lovecraftian cosmic horrors teetering at the shadows of the abyss.

Review: Clutch's cult and debut recording back in 1993 has never before been available on vinyl, but it is now thanks to Weathermaker Music who have pressed it up to a limited 180 gram sea glass blue vinyl and included a numbered and autographed insert. Transnational Speedway League is a great work from the band's Tim Sul and it comes with great artwork which has been redesigned by Dan Winters and Sult. The limited pressing is a must-own for fans that reminds of the band's very earliest sonic roots, raw riffs and guttural vocals that all make for an intense and arresting album still now all these years later.

Review: The self-titled debut studio album by Jacksonville-based rock band Cold, originally released in 1998. Discovered by A&R man Fred Durst (from Limp Bizkit), Cold burst onto the scene with this potent blend of raw emotion, haunting melodies, and powerful instrumentation. Led by vocalist Scoot Ward, the band quickly garnered attention for their introspective lyrics and intense live performances. With a variegated nu-metal sound - the listener is only first thrust into an ostensibly incendiary sound with 'Go Away', both satisfyingly crisp and grungey in equal measure, before finding respite in the more temperate moments that pepper the record, as on 'Ugly' or 'Strip Her Down' - Cold recalls every influence between Alice In Chains and Type O Negative, and nestles a palpably unique sense of longing in the cracks between the otherwise more prescriptive pillars of the grunge style.

Review: Originally released in 2005 as the follow up to the more accessible, melodious alt rock endeavour that was 2000's America's Volume Dealer, the seventh full-length from Raleigh, North Carolina stoner/sludge legends Corrosion Of Conformity, boasting the epic title In The Arms Of God, would take a half decade of introspection and self-reappraisal to materialise. Rediscovering their incomparable knack for hefty trudging riffs that displace the Louisiana bayou blues to caverns of beer-soaked sludge, for many the album signalled a return to form with both critics and avid fans celebrating the band's more corrosive elements once again. The only project not to feature drummer Reed Mullin as this was during his sabbatical from the group, while most notably being the final work with primary songwriter and overall mastermind Pepper Keenan until his glorious return on 2018's No Cross No Crown.

Review: Self-described "putrid, drug-fueled gutter rock from the filthy streets of NYC", Couch Slut deal in ugliness, and boy is business a-boomin'! Meshing the most challenging facets of grindcore, hardcore punk, noise rock and black metal, the resulting cacophony is as unpleasant as it is impenetrable, yet the commanding presence of vocalist and primary songwriter Megan Osztrosits demands you suffer the audible torment while she details harrowing depictions of sexual violence, drug abuse and more singular inner-city horrors through subversive, vitriolic and grimly humoured phrases. Working with industrial hardcore manglers Uniform's Ben Greenberg (with previous production credits for Drab Majesty, Portrayal of Guilt, Metz), You Could Do It Tonight marks the fourth overall full-length from the group, and utterly refuses to dilute or smoothen their ethos of audibly healing through pain, or just pain for the fuck of it.

Review: Released in 2015, Hammer of the Witches marked a return to form for extreme metal and gothic horror favs Cradle of Filth with its intricate compositions and darkly poetic lyrics. Frontman Dani Filth's distinctive vocals drive the narrative as he explores the usual themes of witchcraft and persecution. The album features blistering guitar work, symphonic elements, and relentless drumming that together create a haunting and aggressive soundscape. Almost a decade on, Hammer of the Witches still stands as a powerful testament to Cradle of Filth's ability to evolve while staying true to their dark, theatrical roots.

Review: Creed's Human Clay 25th Anniversary reissue on grey smoked vinyl celebrates the 1999 album that catapulted the band to global stardom. With its anthemic lead single 'Higher,' which spent 57 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, and other rock staples like 'What If' and 'With Arms Wide Open,' this album defined the post-grunge era. Debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and selling over 20 million copies, Human Clay became a defining soundtrack of its time. The gatefold double LP reissue offers a nostalgic look back at Creed's monumental success, making it a coveted collector's item for fans of the rock scene of the late 90s and early 2000s.

Review: On their latest release, Crippled Black Phoenix takes their signature mix of atmospheric rock and melancholy to new heights. The band's blend of brooding, cinematic soundscapes and haunting melodies draws you in, but it's the emotional intensity that really grips. 'We Forgotten Who We Are' pulses with a raw energy, while 'Song for the Unloved' taps into a quiet despair that lingers long after the track fades. There's a sense of reinvention on this releaseifamiliar elements are reworked with fresh perspective, making it feel like both a reflection and a bold step forward for the band.

Review: Originally released in 2012, the self-titled seventh full-length from Canadian technical death metal legends Cryptopsy marked their second with vocalist Matt McGachy who replaced iconic OG frontman Lord Worm following his return for 2005's career height Once Was Not. In between these LPs was McGachy's introduction on 2008's much maligned The Unspoken King, which saw the band pivot to a more frenetic deathcore style vehemently rejected by their core fanbase. Gauging fan interaction, the apt decision to backpedal on this perceived creative misstep saw a return to their head-melting, dexterous form of hyper-complex, brutal tech-death, allowing the diehards to finally appreciate the versatility and tortured aggression of the new vocalist on a more sonically familiar outing, so much so that it felt only fitting for the project to bare a self-titled moniker. Regardless of vocalist preference, this is undeniably Cryptopsy in all of their nigh-impenetrable, horrific glory.